For their standout single, Never Going Home, the Welsh three-piece Hazard filtered psyched-up shoegaze-y post-punk through a grungy and intensely evocative lens, resulting in an emotionally tumultuous outpour of despondence. With vocals spilling into the middle ground between the haunting timbre of Placebo and the sharp confronting antagonism of Angels & Airwaves as the monochrome guitars carve a chill into the mind-bending production, Never Going Home unravels as a dark narrative that tears into the soul and triggers empathy as a dual-sided vignette of loneliness and displacement pours across the alchemic instrumentals.
If the reprise of “She’s never going home/I feel so alone” doesn’t hit hard, there’s probably not much hope for your soul.
There’s no better single to discover Hazard through; after ceaselessly evolving their sound since their 2019 dawning, their sound has culminated in an unflinchingly agonised attest to their ability to stir visceral emotion within their fans
Stream Never Going Home with the rest of Hazard’s sophomore LP, On a Dark Night in My Room via Spotify.
London-based Polish powerhouse Izzy and the Black Trees barbed the post-punk genre with socially progressive spikes in the standout single, Liberate, taken from their second album, Revolution Comes in Waves. It’s easily the best thing to happen to post-punk since Christian Death unleashed Only Theatre of Pain in ’82; at least this LP is provocative for all the right reasons!
Izzy Rekowska’s organically magnetic vocal lines come alive around the calls for a better future for women the world over as the tribally awakening drums add a commanding backbeat around the psych-tinged guitars that will be a hit with Poison Ivy and Glenn Branca fans.
It isn’t every day you encounter a band that is so alchemically more than the sum of all creative parts. Izzy and the Black Trees have exactly what it takes to take you on a scintillating ride that opens your mind to the possibility of a future where feminist records only serve to show us how far we have come – not how far we have to go.
Following the release of the sophomore LP, Izzy and the Black Trees will be hitting UK festival stages, including Sound City in Liverpool – you won’t want to miss it.
After branching out from being the gorilla glue of the Manchester music scene, Golden Believers Records International couldn’t have chosen a better inaugural outfit to advocate on our Brexit-blighted shores than the Mexican ‘psyspyinstrosurf’ originators, Secret Agent.
Their latest mostly instrumental EP, Moros En La Costa, is the kind of cinematically immersive feat of authenticity the average CD-buyer laments about not existing anymore. The conceptual album focuses on the espionage practices used from the cold war to the present day. While that sounds like a serotonin sucker, there’s nothing but escapist reverie here.
With no lyrics to get in the way in the majority of the tracks, you’re left with enough space to metaphysically make yourself the main protagonist in the Spy-Spaghetti Western while the warm shimmering psych surf rock elements amplify the chill of the colder post-punk tones that are always lingering to bring the overarching sense of trepidation.
If Twin Peaks’ Agent Cooper found himself across the border, I’m fairly certain the title single would be reflective of his sonic-inner monologue. The sense of intrepid espionage heightens with track two, Man in the Middle, which picks up the pace, a fair amount of sun-bleached spacey intrigue, and an almost Whovian sense of aural alchemy.
Loaded Gun, featuring vocals from Daniel Gutiérrez, is the surfy, psychy equivalent to Charles Bukowski’s infamous “love is a dog from hell” proclamation. With the hooky lyric “I need a loaded gun because I’m falling in love”, the riotous track finds a succinct way of alluding to the snake pits we throw ourselves into in the name of affection, and our proclivity to do it anyway because there is nothing like that particular poison.
Following Loaded Gun, Stasi Romeois the calm after the visceral storm. Kompromatserves as the final standoff, and Moros En La Costa (Reprise) is the final psychedelic farewell with synths so phantasmal that they will probably need an exorcism when they next get serviced.
Honestly, I scarcely had an autonomous thought in the entire duration of the EP. And these days, accolades don’t get much better than that.
The Narcissists claim to be the best thing to have come out of Australia’s Capital City’; based on their debut EP, Conflict, it is safe to say that many noise-rock fans would be inclined to agree.
The lead single, Alcohol, creates a jarring introduction to The Narcissists’ sound that is just as nefarious as their moniker. The extended prelude finds itself on the darker and dingier side of no-wave as the 3-piece weaves in elements of post-punk and psych-rock. While the remaining duration of the 7-minute single toys with your rhythmic pulses as you’re shunted through unpredictable progressions and left at the mercy of The Narcissists tumultuous furore.
Their debut EP was released on September 10th; you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.
‘The Rainbow Opus’ is the ground-breaking debut album from the up and coming, classically trained psych-rock artist and producer Chase Hagerman. Through each single, the Californian artist brings kaleidoscopic colour, yet, ‘Scarlet Crimson, Purple, and Blue’ is irrefutably the best introduction to Hagerman’s eccentric post-punk-tinged style.
Starting with a cutting and angular intro that wouldn’t be out of place on a Legendary Pink Dots single, the entrancing feat of psych-rock smoothly shifts into a sonic smorgasbord of avant-garde psych-pop, post-punk, 70s electronica. By mixing light accordant tones with harsh fuzzy synth notes, immersing yourself in Scarlet, Crimson, Purple, and Blue is as close as you will get to falling into a rabbit hole aurally.
The Rainbow Opus is now available to stream via Spotify.
If you feel like you’ve heard enough vapid party pop-rock ‘anthems’ to last a lifetime, delve into ZPEXTRE’s mindfully uplifting single ‘Hypnotized’ and embrace the kaleidoscopically colourful transcendent tones.
With Beach Boys-style harmonies, stylistic funky nods to the b 52s, the gritty edge of Fidlar and all of the experimentalism of the Legendary Pink Dots, the Californian artist succeeded in creating a high-vibe hit which doesn’t just scratch at the surface with mindlessly hedonistic lyrics.
ZPEXTRE is to alt-rock what Duncan Trussell is to podcasts. If you’ve never had your own Burning Man-style experience, Hypnotized may just leave you with fresh incentive to disconnect from artificial reality and reconnect in a way which doesn’t leave your synapses misfiring.
You can’t help but turn a smile when you experience Hypnotized unravelling. As serotonin is hard to find these days, you should probably make room for ZPEXTRE on your radar, sooner rather than later.
Post Punk and Psych Pop arcanely converge in 8udDha bl0od’s mesmerizingly transfixing single “N38UIA” which was released in February 2020.
If you could imagine what it would sound like if the Doors and Interpol collaborated on a record, you’ll get an idea of the indulgent tonal treat which awaits you if you hit play on N38UIA.
With the winding guitar progressions possessing the ability to disrupt your own rhythmic pulses, listening to N38UIA is pretty much a full-body experience.
It’s not often that you’ll get to hear a track which can evolve from harsh cutting tones to light accordance so seamlessly. And that’s just one of the reasons why N38UIA is worth investing 6 minutes of your time in.
You can check out 8udDha bl0od’s track N38UIA for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.
