New Album Alert

PORRIDGE RADIO – British Indie Outfit Deliver Their Best LP (So Far) With ‘CLOUDS IN THE SKY THEY WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR ME’

Posted on by JL

24 October 2024

Band: PORRIDGE RADIO
Who: Much lauded indie outfit out of Brighton (UK),
led by emotive songstress Dana Margolin.

They just launched their 4th LP. titled CLOUDS IN THE SKY
THEY WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR ME.

Margolin: “A lot of this album is about a more frenetic and desperate kind of love.
It is about completely losing my sense of self in a relationship, and the deep residue
of insecurity and pain that lingered and clouded a new relationship. There was a lot
of love and confusion, all interspersed with exhaustion and pain. All the songs started
out as poems. I wanted to challenge myself. ”

Uncut Magazine: “Sitting somewhere between alt.rock, indie-pop and a singer-songwriter album, it’s a neat balancing act that feels personal and intimate yet also sonically ambitious.”

TUTV: Spearhead Dana Margolin (guitar/vocals/songwriter) opens her heart and soul
again on this new longplayer. Following a toxic relationship, she recovered, rediscovered her own self, and looks to the future with confidence. As in the previous 3 albums she’s
as expressive and emotive about her turbulent personal life, even more explicit.

Sonically we get the by now familiar song structure. Slow start, building up the fervency, and finishing with haunting outbursts. But this times all pieces/tracks fall more into place than before. The songs have more body, are more elaborated and display Margolin‘s growing composing skills. Yes, it’s PR’s best effort yet.

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COLD CAVE – New Rad Retro LP ‘PASSION DEPRESSION’ Offers Halloween Candy For All Darkwave Fans

Posted on by JL

19 October 2024

Act: COLD CAVE
Who: Otherworldly LA synth-Goth-wave project.
The brainchild of Wesley Eisold.

New album: PASSION DEPRESSION
Only their 3rd in a long career.


New album artwork

Eisold about the album in an interview with New Noise Magazine: “This band
has always been a learning process and transformative. This album is special to us
because it’s the first time a single body of work has been truly collaborative in that Amy,
and I made all music, lyrics, and vocals together. I’ve never done that before and have
never had any input on vocals or lyrics in my past. Passion Depression is about the
polarity of modern-dystopia.

It’s the struggle for love in the land of strife! How do we stay humane and caring amongst the onslaught of injustice and threat? think it’s a theme that’s here to stay. When I listened back to the album after finishing it, that’s exactly what it sounded like. The little cherubs in us want to be beautiful but the scenery of the garden is very hard to trust. And I don’t want to give in. Whether it be to laziness or sedation or crippling, exhaustive isolation. It’s always a love story with Cold Cave. This one is about holding on to it when the grip gets tough.”

TUTV: What your ears get are 8 dark-synth-wave strokes by numbers. Mind you,
tremendously infectious numbers. Both familiar and retro, both spellbinding and
hypnotic. But why change a magnetic success formula.

All titillating tunes are spot-on with the New Order-esque She Reigns Down, Blackberries
and Hourglass as poppy highlights. Overall, enough material for your upcoming Halloween party at your local graveyard. Passion Depression is about the eternal fight of despair vs hope. CC offers icy, black-and-white candy for all goth/darkwave fans out there, dancing around in their batcaves. Join them.

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CC: Linktree

VIOLET NOX Continue Their Space Odyssey On New Album ‘ HESPERIA’

Posted on by JL

15 October 2024


Impressive album artwork by Allison Tanenhaus

Band: VIOLET NOX
Who: Ambient trio
from Boston, MA.

New album: HESPERIA
Their 7th one.

Press info: Hesperia, contains 6 tracks where Dez DeCarlo (synthesis and effects) and Andrew Abrahamson (synthesis, samples and clocked machines) build rare and immersive experimental electronic backdrops behind the stirring vocals of Noell Dorsey (vocals and lyrics) to transport the listener into a fascinating retro-futuristic universe.

Esoteric lyrics about the timeless human condition blend seamlessly with thoughtful
and encompassing sound arrangements to complement Dorsey’s evocative delivery
with colorful emotional space and texture for the listener to explore.


Photo by Sasha Pedro

TUTV: Hesperia continues the ambient trip that started with previous album
Vortex And Voices. Otherworldly soundscapes transfer your mind and ears to
ghostly dimensions far away from our daily rat race. Electronic and atmospheric
slow-mo symphonies create a kind of enigmatic and surreal feel. And Noell Dorsey‘s spiritual vocals augment the transcendent experience. This record resonates like
a cinematic 2024: Space Odyssey. Put on your headphones and float along.

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THE LINDA LINDAS Repeat Their Debut LP On Their 2nd One ‘NO OBLIGATION’

Posted on by JL

13 October 2024


New album artwork

Two years ago THE LINDA LINDAS, the punk-pop teen team, Half Asian/Half Latin,
based in Los Angeles made a sensational start with their debut LP named Growing Up.
A fast-forward race about their generational experiences translated into 10 quick-tempered wallops.

The riot grrllzz, who opened for The Rolling Stones a couple of months ago
at LA’s SoFi Stadium, just dropped their 2nd album, titled No Obligation.

NME: “It’s an exhilarating punk album with the intention of mobilising those who listen
to it. There’s rage, sadness, delight and bitterness within every sound and syllable, and
from within that cocktail of feelings is a charged devotion to creating change.”


Promo pic

TUTV: This 2nd LP sounds almost exactly the same as their debut. It’s again stuffed
with vivacious pop-punk tunes with singles All In My Head and Resolution/Revolution as unquestionable standouts. But the problem is that I hear way too much Blink-182 and Green Day resonance. As I’m not a fan of those bands, I’m not really impressed by this
TLL sequel.

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JOE GENI – American Singer-Songwriter Dreams Out Loud About His Beloved Long Island City On ‘CITIES UPON CITIES’

Posted on by JL

Notable longplayers

9 October 2024


Impressive album artwork

Artist: JOE GENI
Who: Passionate singer-songwriter
from New York, NY.

Album: CITIES BUILT UPON CITIES
His 3rd longplayer.

An 8-track offering that traces the transformation of Long Island City, the part of
Queens that Geni calls home. Situated across the East River from Manhattan with its stunning skyline views and now booming with skyscrapers, this place is haunted by its industrial past and friends who have moved on. These recordings explore themes of change, impermanence and loss amidst the city’s constant evolution.


Photo by Alice Teeple

Joe Geni: “I lived here in 2011, when it was a totally different city, flat and industrial and grey. One time I was walking along and I heard the rhythmic thump of a distant dance party, and then the sound was gone, and then it was back again. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from, and so I hunted all over the neighborhood trying to find it.

Finally I realized it was on the roof of practically the only tall building for half a mile in
any direction, and the reason it kept drifting in and out of earshot depended on where I was standing and whether or not I could hear it echoing off the brick walls and corrugated siding
of the smaller buildings all around it.

Nearly all of those buildings are gone now. So are most of my friends from that time. I’m back now. The city is changing. The people in it are changing. The environment around it is changing. The architecture is changing. Yesterday’s city has been buried under today’s which will soon be lost to tomorrow’s… cities built upon cities.”

TUTV: I really like the idea of Cities Built Upon Cities. An universal sign’ of the modern times. Just google old photos of your own town and see how it looks today. Geni seems to have it done in detail with his beloved Long Island City and wrote eight affecting songs about it.

Romantic reveries with real/surreal images of the past, present and future of LIC. Bittersweet, richly orchestrated, symphonies with his monumental voice – think of Perfume Genius, Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis and James Bay‘s bewitching vocality – taking them to sky-high heights, up there in the clouds, while floating over the city. This is the kind of record you listen best to with headphones on, dimmed lights and far away from our daily rat race. It’ll evoke mixed emotions about the place you love the most. Well, that’s what I experienced while listening.

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JOE GENI: Instagram – Spotify

XIU XIU – Noise Explorers Stun Again With New Album ’13” FRANK BELTRAME ITALIAN STILLETO WITH BISON HORN GRIPS’

Posted on by JL

Notable longplayers

28 September 2024

Californian art noise duo XIU XIU aren’t the lazy kind of artists.
In their 22-year-old career, they fabricated 13 LPs, with last year’s
primo Ignore Grief album as the most recent one.

Recently, the duo moved from L.A. to Berlin where
they experience a new stream of inspiration.


New album artwork

And here’s album number 14, titled, eh,… 13″ Frank Beltrame Italian
Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips is out now and playing for a while now
on my head’s stereo.

Press info: “Angela Seo and Jamie Stewart deliver some of the band’s most compelling and mesmerizing music to date. Mixed by John Congleton (Chelsea Wolfe, Swans, Lana Del Rey) this album is unlike anything the band has ever recorded previously and was motivated by the destruction of previous aesthetic notions, as well as the band’s recent move from Los Angeles to Berlin.”

The Quietus writes: “13”… is a superlative pop record, but still an endless cycle of extremes.
A shining, distorted, expertly constructed, open-ended record, that might be Xiu Xiu’s best.”

TUTV: This is their most intense, most emotional and most accessible album to date.
Well, not that it will sell millions of copies and be No 1 on the charts all over the world.

It’s still XX, always exploring different soundscapes, but here they come up with
less complex song structures, actually more (sort of) conventional alt ones. And?
Outstanding record dominated by layers of industrial synths and chilling melodies.

I hear Cure-esque echoes (Common Loon / Veneficum), eerie and ghostly vocality
à la the late great Scott Walker (Arp Omni / Sleep Bvld.) and trippy Cabaret Voltaire
dynamics. All together, these sonic ingredients lead to a fascinating XX opus.

The more spins, the more your ears
get around this new Xiu Xiu exploit.

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XX: Instagram

THE WAEVE – Partners Graham Coxon And Rose Dougall Deliver A Richly Orchestrated And Varied 2nd LP With ‘CITY LIGHTS’

Posted on by JL

24 September 2024

Blur‘s guitarist Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall
launched their sophomore album, titled CITY LIGHTS.

Order info here.

Press info:”A year on from their acclaimed eponymous debut album, The WAEVE is back with City Lights, a collection of 10 songs that illustrate the evolution of their collaborative musicianship and sees the band’s sound solidified into something bolder, more expansive and self-assured. Written by the pair, and produced once again by James Ford (Fontaines D.C and Arctic Monkeys) the album features Graham and Rose on vocals, as well as keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, drums and saxophone.

MOJO (monthly UK magazine): “A yin-yang parity asserts itself with the wistful, jazzy,
Rose-sung Simple Days, electro-pop You Saw and epic, wicca-ish Druantia. Elsewhere,
there’s arty chamber pop, demented swing-jazz and the epic Surf’s Up-echoing closer
Sunrise: middle-aged bliss has rarely sounded so weirdly magical.”

TUTV: Partners in love, partners in parenthood, partners in music. With this 2nd LP
Coxon and Dougall offer an even more varied one than their notable debut. They rock out (City Lights, You Saw, Moth To The Flame, Broken Boys, Simple Days) and slow down (I Belong To, lullaby for their little daughter Song For Eliza May, Girl Of The Endless Night) with three constants.

Arrestive tunes, rich instrumental orchestrations and emotional, alternating and duet vocals. You hear a happy and dynamic couple delivering a high-songwriting-quality record. Embrace it with your ears, heart and soul, it’ll feel good.

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Live Boxset “BOB DYLAN AND THE BAND – THE 1974 LIVE RECORDINGS” Featuring 431 Tracks Is Out Now

Posted on by JL

22 September 2024

The earlier announced huge Bob Dylan deluxe box set BOB DYLAN AND THE BAND – 1974 LIVE RECORDINGS is out now. It celebrates the 50th anniversary of his return to touring that year, after a hiatus due to a motorcycle incident.

The special set features no less than 27 discs with 431 live tracks of which 417
are previously unreleased and 16 newly mixed recordings. More info here.

Stream 20-song sampler.


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Bob Dylan Website

THURSTON MOORE In A Psychedelic Trance On New Solo LP ‘FLOW CRITICAL LUCIDITY’

Posted on by JL

21 September 2024


New album artwork

Former Sonic Youth hero THURSTON MOORE (aged 66 now) has a productive post
Sonic Youth output. He just launched his 5th solo album in 7 years. It’s titled Flow
Critical Lucidity.

Press info: The songs include lyrical references to their environments and inspired by nature, lucid dreaming, modern dance and Isadora Duncan… Flow Critical Lucidity comes from a lyric in the single ‘Sans Limites’ and the album sleeve cover art features Jamie Nares’ ‘Samurai Walkman’ — a helmet befitted with tuning forks.”

TUTV: Moore operates in a sort of trance here, with Eastern psych vibes here and there
Seven ruminative, guitar-dominating jams, with dreamy vocals, causing a soothing and calming experience somewhere up there in an imaginary space. A phantasmic, spiritual and at times hypnotizing record for lazy winter nights.


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TM: Linktree

CONOR OBERST And BRIGHT EYES On An Emotional Roller Coaster With New Album ‘FIVE DICE, ALL THREES’

Posted on by JL

20 September 2024


Press photo by Nik Freitas

Nebraska‘s pop/rock trio BRIGHT EYES formed by singer-songwriter Conor Oberst
back in 1995 have their 11th LP, titled FIVE DICE, ALL THREES out today.

Press info: “Five Dice, All Threes is a record of uncommon intensity and tenderness, communal exorcism and personal excavation. Oberst has always sung in a voice that conveys a sense of life-or-death gravity. At times throughout Five Dice, All Threes, you may feel worried for him; other times, he may seem like the only one with the clarity to get us out of this mess. In his songwriting lies a promise that our loneliest thoughts and feelings can take on grander shapes when passed between friends, blasted through speakers, or shouted among crowds. As per usual, the music comes loaded with subtext that invites deep listening—the signature touch of a band who has always honored the album as its own exalted work of art. The record doesn’t just sound like classic Bright Eyes. It sounds like their future, too.”


Album artwork

Uncut (UK magazine): “Five Dice, All Threes sounds like they’ve caught up with themselves: even if Bright Eyes are struggling to scrape together optimism about the future, there is every reason why their fans should.”

TUTV: It’s Bright Eyes by numbers, but I like their romantic, heart-rending, mixed
emotions numbers. Oberst voice still is the magnetizing instrument up front and his
moods swing again from left to right and back, but, unfortunately, breaks the rhythm,
pace and effectiveness of the record too many times. An emotional roller coaster it is
with high and low moments.

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BE: Linktree