Slumbering Sun (Temptress, Destroyer of Light, Monte Luna members) share single via Metal Sucks from forthcoming debut album

 

"Trippy, melodic doom metal. From the moment you hit play, 'Liminal Bridges' feels like a transitional track meant to guide you along a wispy, winding trail in a slightly foggy forest while on a quest." -- Metal Sucks

Austin band Slumbering Sun share the first single single from their forthcoming debut album today via Metal Sucks. Hear and share "Liminal Bridges" HERE. (Direct Bandcamp)

Slumbering Sun is a powerful new melodic doom entity formed by members of underground mainstays Destroyer of Light and Monte Luna. Their resulting sound explores broader melodies and sonics than their other bands, inspired as much by Celtic folk standards as by doom in the vein of Warning, even with hints of the classic 90s heft of Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. 

After the breakup of their previous band, James Clarke & Keegan Kjeldsen resolved to forget the pain of an album that would never be released by creating something new. They resolved to launch a new band, with an album Keegan composed between work on other projects. They began one afternoon at the rehearsal space during the warm spring of Austin, with a few songs strummed on a clean, electric guitar. James began to write melodies, the two of them finished the lyrical content, and the idea began to evolve.

The band was assembled with other friends in the Texas metal scene, who’ve known each other from years of shows together. Kelsey Wilson of Temptress joined as lead guitarist and sojourned back and forth from Dallas. Garth Condit and Penny Turner – both in other bands with James & Keegan respectively – formed the rhythm section. Slumbering Sun was born. On a blisteringly hot week in the summer of 2022, the group recorded The Ever-Living Fire, the culmination of months of rehearsing and revising. All veterans of the road, the band plans on touring in the coming year.

The Ever-Living Fire will be available on CD, cassette and digital on February 24th, 2023. Vinyl LP will follow by summer, due to pressing plant delays. Pre-orders are available HERE. 

Band members:

James Clarke (Vocals) – of Monte Luna

Keegan Kjeldsen (Guitar) – of Destroyer of Light

Kelsey Wilson (Guitar) – of Temptress

Garth Condit (Bass) – of Monte Luna, Scorpion Child

Penny Turner (Drums) – of Destroyer of Light

Artist: Slumbering Sun

Album: The Ever-Living Fire

Record Label: Self-released 

Release Date: February 24th, 2023

01. Morgenröte

02. Liminal Bridges

03. Love In a Fallen World

04. Dream Snake

05. The Ever-Living Fire

On The Web:

slumberingsun.bandcamp.com

instagram.com/slumbering_sun

FULU KOLEKTIV (members of Fulu Miziki, Electro from the Congo by "music from garbage" group) share Lualaba album

 

"Frenetic, highly collaborative eco-punks." -- Pitchfork

Democratic Republic of Congo "eco-friendly, Afro-futurist" electro-punk group Fulu Kolektiv share their debut album Lualaba today, available everywhere via Broken Clover Records. Hear and share Lualaba via Spotify HERE and Bandcamp HERE.

Fulu Kolektiv, is a sister initiative to the Fulu Miziki based in the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Kolektiv was cemented during the COVID pandemic. Fulu’s artists have always been used to working outdoor, but when the pandemic hit everyone, things changed. We found ourselves with very limited access to open spaces, so the whole collective decided to look for an alternative way of making music (ie: turning into computers) and have managed to put together this music being released on this album (Lualaba). This Kolektiv is not only formed with band members of Fulu Miziki, but it’s open to everyone who has healing music and values the environment. 

For most of us, this was just a ‘’waoouuu’ moment when we discovered this unlimited way of making music from a computer. Many of us never knew about this music software and the amount of sounds you can get out of it. We took this opportunity to bring you these sounds. We hope you enjoy and love them, and you’ll listen to them with a fresh ear and that you experience the same effect we had when we discovered them. 

This album is the debut of the Kolektiv. It transmits the deep imagination of our mind and has songs that are from very different inspirations. At the moment, this album has work from artists who are born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A country known for its large music composition & it’s church influences, most of these songs are built from such basic knowledge leant from our families. The music is specific and very particular to everyone, because their source of inspiration and their self-vision of music. 

We are all inspired by the traditional Congolese music heritage. Congolese churches are loud and electric with their own energy, and we wanted to transmit these traditional vibes by our new/modern ways of producing music. There is a mixture of diverse sounds, and there is an ancestorial sentiment to the album. The deep songs of exorcism nuance from El Mopepe brings this vibe to life. 

The Fulu Kolektiv is composed with a number of artists, including El Mopepe, Sekelembele, Deboul, Padou, Le Meilleur and Tsche tsche. This are just the artists who have worked on this debut album, but we plan to be bringing more and new artists to join the Kolektiv. Current Members of the band and future band members should have the environment message at their heart, as this is one of the criteria we care about and we have at our hearts as founders of the Kolektiv. 

We have chosen to call this album Lualaba, in acknowledgement of the longest Congolese river. Like the Lualaba, we want this music to bring you into the flow of waters, into the spirits of moving around and changing the speed, into the flow of life and it’s energy. Lualaba is so incredibly significant to the Congolese people. It’s a source of life and energy. it’s a source of food and travelers. It irrigates people and land and we want this music to play such a part into the life of our listeners. 

Lualaba is everything for us. This is our first work to be put out as a Kolektiv and we want everyone to feel what it represents with its various music style. 

Lualaba is available on LP and download on December 16th, 2022 via Broken Clover Records. Orders are available HERE. 

Artist: Fulu Kolektiv

Album: Lualaba

Record Label: Broken Clover Records

Release Date: December 16th, 2022

01. Anything

02. Linga Bango

03. Etuba

04. Pesa Liboma

05. Litchaka Tshaka

06. Reve Tequino

07. Nfuka

08. Zala Wana

09. Cogneur

10. Lualaba

11. Mugushu

12. Mwana Mama

On The Web:

brokencloverrecords.bandcamp.com

Dave Aju & The Invisible Art Trio share first track from Broken Clover Records album out in early 2023

 

Renowned electronic artist/producer Dave Aju & The Invisible Art Trio share the first single from their forthcoming album Glossolalia today. The album will be released in February '23 on Broken Clover Records. Hear and share "Aquamarine Dream (feat. The Rennix Sisters)" via Spill Magazine HERE and Bandcamp HERE.

Never one to pull inventive punches, Left Coast electronic music producer Dave Aju reassembled this notorious cast of characters for a remarkably fitting album package made during one of the most strange times our world has ever faced in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. While things were essentially shutdown, reopened, cycle-repeat worldwide, and every other species in mother nature’s kingdom temporarily rejoiced while humans remained still in their caves, Aju and The Invisible Art

Trio, his formidable if not-seen-in-a-minute musical team behind such underground anthems as “Be Like the Sun”, went to work in the final days of the glorious G-Son studios in Atwater Village L.A. to record this LP.

Indeed, the same four/five walls and vocal booth that saw the Beastie’s iconic Check Your Head and Hello Nasty come to life, became the birthplace of Glossolalia, Aju’s fifth studio album and appropriately impressive seven-song set. As always, a myriad of musical styles and influences are strung together and boldly combined here, to the degree that drawing comparisons or attempting genre references feels truly futile. There are, however, clear visceral expressions of political provocation, hope and anger, fear and joy laid over twisted yet dedicated grooves in a lockdown era where Aju’s imaginary collective dance floor feels in the temporary absence thereof and bizarro sixth-world unification strategy of recording every song’s lyrics in complete non-languages aka total gibberish, feels right at home. 

Even the vocal guests join in the literal chant here, granting us diverse spell-casting and sensual nonsensical lyrical lines over tech-funk mother lodes, before closing the otherworldly proceedings with a powerful grand finale tribute to the US of A’s proud boys-in-blue in the wake of George Floyd’s very public assassination. Equal parts timely anti-establishment and uplifting call-to-action, Glossolalia serves as a decidedly coarse yet crucial reminder of the possibilities in collaborative and devoted noise-making, booty-shaking, and alternative world-building during greater global disarray - beyond stylistic, nationalistic, and linguistic dividing lines. An overtly universal and unifying message liberating us from any fixed cultural identities and thus differences, to instead just focus on how the music delivers and we physically respond, together, as the foundation. Perhaps also an inspired response to the talking heads in every corner of the world’s media, spewing useless and politically-tainted mouth data at us amidst these turbulent times. As the apt album title implies, the ritualistic if not religious and ceremonial speaking in tongues leaves us with as many questions as answers, while we are enraptured in a complex yet nuanced sonic balancing act of unknown while strangely-familiar rhythmic bliss, which Dave Aju & The IAT wouldn’t have any other way.

Glossolalia will be available on LP and download on February 17th, 2023 via Broken Clover Records. Pre-orders are available HERE. 

Artist: Dave Aju & The Invisible Art Trio

Album: Glossolalia

Record Label: Broken Clover Records

Release Date: February 17th, 2023

01. Kilanala

02. Luxurio

03. Predica

04. Sdrow (feat. Ailuy)

05. Aquamarine Dream (feat. The Rennix Sisters)

06. Ponezu

07. Devas Esti La Loko

On The Web:

brokencloverrecords.bandcamp.com

linktr.ee/daveaju

instagram.com/daveaju

Holy Water (ex-Heat Dust) share debut single from forthcoming album via Metal Injection

Austin band Holy Water share the first single single today from their forthcoming self-titled debut album via Metal Injection. Hear and share "Waterest Him With Tears" HERE. (Direct Bandcamp)

Heavy music is experiencing a renaissance of innovation and creativity, while most of contemporary music genres have stagnated in recent years. 

Case in point: Holy Water, a powerful new step merging heavy doom guitars, stoic experimentalists like Caspar Brötzmann Massaker and Khanate mixed with early 80s proto-industrial sounds like Psychic TV and The Leather Nun, metalgaze melodies and hints of Wovenhand’s gothic folk. Yes, that’s a wide range of styles, but it shows just how deftly Holy Water, the nom-de-tune of vocalist/guitarist Jasper den Hartigh cuts its own sonic space. 

Jasper den Hartigh was previously a member of critically praised New Orleans post-punk band Heat Dust, which released a handful of recordings on The Flenser label and toured with Thou and The Body. 

Holy Water’s 11-song eponymous album was self-recorded in 2021, at home and at den Hartigh’s Austin rehearsal space. Help on drums came from Andrew Stevens, guitar from Neckbolt’s Ben Krause, and vocals from den Hartigh’s wife, Sarah Contey. 

“The album came after an extensive creativity exercise I did called Compost-Turn,” den Hartigh explains. “In which I put out 7 releases from friends and myself as physical bookmarks. When it came time to work on a self-titled solo project, this helped the songs appear rapidly. This album was my attempt at making a pop-record, while trusting my gut, using lessons learned over the course of my entire musical life. From being in punk bands, to playing slowcore, to ambient noise, and heavy metal. The songs all have references to Dutch fairy tales but also contain more personal writing.” 

Holy Water will be available on cassette and digital on February 3rd, 2023, LP to follow in summer. Cassette preorders via Primal Architecture, digital via Bandcamp and LP via Time Release.

Artist: Holy Water

Album: Holy Water

Record Label: Self-released / Primal Architecture (cass) / Time Release (LP)

Release Date: February 3rd, 2023

01. Burning Handle

02. Waterest Him With Tears

03. Break My Back

04. Sky-Flayer

05. With Hoarse Note

06. Persistent Dream

07. Water Rotted

08. Latter End More Than The Beginning

09. Sit Down, Restless

10. Struggle Into Life

11. There Was No Lock

On The Web:

jasperdenhartigh.com

instagram.com/jasperdh

US/THEM group 2022 Year In Review

Below is a quick roundup of all of the releases from 2022 that we've had the pleasure of promoting this year, for your Best of 2022 consideration. Please let me know if you need any additional information — and of course, if you plan to include some of them in your year-end picks, we’d love to know!

02/04 Omnibael Rain Soaks The Earth Where They Lie (Cruel Nature Recordings) STREAM

"They make a rather vicious noise reminiscent of early Godflesh, peak-era Ministry, Cop Shoot Cop and Unsane." -- Side-Line Magazine

02/18 Die! Die! Die! This Is Not An Island Anymore STREAM

Original lineup of groundbreaking New Zealand post-punk trio returns with furious new album.

02/25 Firebreather Dwell In The Fog (RidingEasy Records) STREAM

“Hands down their best work to date…Brace yourselves for a mind-bending experience, and don’t be surprised if you see Dwell in the Fog in the top albums of the year.” – Doom Charts

03/04 Karma Vulture Death By Comfort STREAM

"Stacks up the riffs... If you're dying for something like Monster Magnet or old Queens of The Stone Age, then you're going to dig Karma Vulture." -- Metal Injection

03/04 Thirsty Curses To The Ends of the Earth STREAM

"A refined take on the band’s punk-pop sound that showcases its most sophisticated hooks to date." -- Big Takeover

03/18 Wrack Repulsive Gravity STREAM

“Spinning, crushing death metal.” – Metal Injection

04/20 V/A Brown Acid: The Fourteenth Trip (RidingEasy Records) STREAM

Popular compilation series of long-lost and unreleased 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles.

05/06 N8NOFACE Homicide (Blackhouse Records) STREAM

“The futuristic and post-apocalyptic sound he’s refined over the last decade sonically encapsulates our increasingly dystopian present. N8 bolsters walls of buzzing, ominous synths with blistering drums he’s sampled from old punk records, chopping them for minimal parts and maximum dirt.” -- SPIN Magazine

06/03 “It Came From Aquarius Records” documentary TRAILER

Incredible documentary about beloved and influential SF record store featuring Matt Groening (The Simpsons), Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips), John Darnielle (Mountain Goats), Ty Segall and many more. 

07/01 Light Creates Shadow ghosts pass through, running from the body STREAM

Powerful, dramatic and intelligent post-metal produced by Matt Bayles (Mastodon).

07/27 My Heart, An Inverted Flame “The Blood of The Heartless (feat. Banshee)” (tUMULt) STREAM

Glorious marriage of slow synth-doom duo MHAIF with trap metal Tik Tok star Banshee. 

08/08 The Living Pins “Chateau” / “On Yeah” single STREAM

Austin indie-glam-pop duo, featuring Carrie of Sixteen Deluxe, already a local Austin radio hit. 

08/12 Dreckig Digital Exposure (Broken Clover Records) STREAM

Latin dance rhythms filtered through Krautrock grooves and electro pop sounds. 

08/26 Pineid Blue Doom (Sympatry Records) STREAM

Members of Zappa Band, Dethklok, Dr. John produced by Toshi Kasai (Melvins)

08/26 Culpepper Superreactor STREAM

Clever, poetic Britpop laced rock with psychedelic grooves and insightful lyrics.

09/02 The Schizophonics Hoof It (Pig Baby Records) STREAM

Spotify for Artists calls them "the wildest band in America!"

09/06 High Heavens “Life Is a Loan Shark” / “100 Bullets” STREAM

Ex-members of I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, New Wet Kojak, Edsel, Glorium, and Crime In Choir

09/16 Pink Frost Until The Summer Comes (Under Road Records) STREAM

Glorious return of Chicago alt-punks merging heavy punk with 90s alternative hooks.

09/16 Torpedo Orpheo Nebula (Broken Clover Records) STREAM

Swiss proto-punk trio evoking early Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, The Xx.

09/23 Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol Doom Wop STREAM

The biggest album of the year. Revolver Magazine: "Epically catchy... Imagine the ear-wormy fuzz-rock riffage of Dinosaur Jr. if it was played on an eight-string guitar with super heavy low-end."

09/23 Jochen Arbeit Tiere Macht Töne (Dymaxion Groove) STREAM

Einstürzende Neubauten guitarist's beautiful solo album on homemade instruments.

09/23 Carlton Melton Microwavelengths (Broken Clover Records) STREAM

"A game of two halves. May be their most interesting record yet... Arguably their most compelling and original work yet." -- The Quietus

10/28 WHIMZ PM226 (Literal Gold Records) STREAM

Blackwater Holylight singer/bassist Allison "Sunny" Faris & Night Heron's Cam Spies.

11/04 N8NOFACE Bound To Let You Down (The Remixes) (Eyeball Records) STREAM

Eight songs from L.A. synth-punk anomaly's 2021 breakout album, remixed by Eyedress, ADULT., Peanut Butter Wolf and more. 

12/02 blackwinterwells protector (Eyeball Records) STREAM

Helix Tears Collective musician and producer offers an ethereally nuanced collection of tracks crafted with symphonic songwriting in mind. 

Cellist Lori Goldston (Nirvana, Earth) & trumpeter Greg Kelley share first track from Broken Clover Records album out in January 2023

 

Renowned cellist Lori Goldston and experimental trumpeter Greg Kelley share the title track to their forthcoming album All Points Leaning In today. The album will be released in January '23 on Broken Clover Records. Hear and share "All Points Leaning In" via New Noise Magazine HERE and Bandcamp HERE.

All Points Leaning In was created after a couple of years of Greg Kelley and Lori Goldston performing together often throughout the Pacific Northwest, as a duo and in various ensembles, usually in artist-run spaces and occasionally scoring silent films. Most often they play completely improvised; occasionally their work is loosely structured or composed. Both are classically trained, and known for exploring deeply textured, expansive sounds on the outer edges of their instruments, drawn to pushing past the point of stability into less controllable threshold states. 

 

The album was recorded at the home studio of producer Steve Fisk, who contributes a legendarily fine, bold ear and originality. It was tracked live, through amplifiers and effects pedals, without overdubs or looping. The sound is visceral and airy, droning and densely layered, ecstatic and precise. 

Bio: Lori Goldston

Classically trained and rigorously de-trained, possessor of a restless, semi-feral spirit, Lori Goldston is a cellist, composer, improvisor, producer, writer and teacher from Seattle. Her voice as a cellist, amplified or acoustic, is full, textured, committed and original. A relentless inquirer, her work drifts freely across borders that separate genre, discipline, time and geography.

Current and former collaborators and/or bosses include Earth, Nirvana, Mirah, Jessika Kenney, Ilan Volkov, Eyvind Kang, Stuart Dempster, David Byrne, Terry Riley, Jherek Bischoff, Malcom Goldstein, Steve Von Till, Lonnie Holley, Cat Power, Ellen Fullman, Maya Dunietz, Mik Quantius, Embryo, O Paon, Tara Jane O’Neil, Natacha Atlas, Broken Water, Ed Pias, Christian Rizzo and Sophie Laly, Threnody Ensemble, Cynthia Hopkins, 33 Fainting Spells, Vanessa Renwick, Mark Mitchell, Lynn Shelton, and many more.

Her work has been commissioned by and/or performed at the Kennedy Center, Sydney Festival, Cineteca Nacional de México, Tectonics Festival, Frye Art Museum, Time Based Art Festival (TBA), WNYC, The New Foundation, Paris Fashion Week, Northwest Film Forum, On the Boards, Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle Jewish Film Festival, Bumbershoot, Crossing Border Festival, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Joe’s Pub, the Stone, University of Chicago, and venues large and small throughout North America, Mexico, Australia, and Europe.

Bio: Greg Kelley

Greg Kelley began studying the trumpet at age 10. He attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, where in addition to studying the Conservatory curriculum, he immersed himself in a deep study of avant-garde and experimental music, eventually coming to the conclusion that his musical focus fell outside of the academic sphere. After his studies, Kelley moved back to his native Massachusetts, quickly situated himself into the local avant-garde circles and soon commenced a period of intense travel and collaboration, bringing him throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Argentina & Mexico. In 2020, he relocated back to the greater Boston area after spending 6 years in Seattle.

He has appeared on over 100 recordings as a member of Nmperign (with Bhob Rainey), Heathen Shame (with Wayne Rogers & Kate Village of Major Stars), Cold Bleak Heat (with Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano & Matt Heyner) and Hound Dog Taylor's Hand (with Jeffery Taylor, John Seman & Mark Ostrowski) and has collaborated with Jandek, Keiji Haino, Donald Miller (Borbetomagus), Lori Goldston, Anthony Braxton, Kevin Drumm, Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros, Joe McPhee and Lionel Marchetti, among others. In addition to playing the trumpet, Kelley has also recorded music using electronics and musique concrete elements,

All Points Leaning In will be available on LP and download on January 16th, 2023 via Broken Clover Records. Pre-orders are available HERE. 

Artist: Secret Lori Goldston & Greg Kelley

Album: All Points Leaning In

Record Label: Broken Clover Records

Release Date: January 16th, 2023

01. Toward Clarity

02. All Points Leaning In

03. You're In Good Company

04. Seeing Stars

On The Web:

lorigoldston.com

brokencloverrecords.bandcamp.com

instagram.com/legoldston