Weekly Roundup: March 29th
Featuring The Bronx, Mannequin Pussy, Brockhampton, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
While She Sleeps – “Nervous”
As the bastard child of British metalcore, While She Sleeps have been diligently carving out a distinct sonic niche while higher-profile acts like Bring Me The Horizon and Architects stole the show. However, good things come to those who wait, and it appears the Sheffield quintet have finally made a huge leap forward in sound and scope. Watch the mesmerizing video for “Nervous” below:
Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm
Cosmic cli-fi black metal? Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, does it? Nevertheless, Mare Cognitum—the moniker of Jacob Buczarski’s “one-man-band” project—takes this theme and drives it home. Solar Paroxysm is intense, cerebral, atmospheric, and, at times, dizzyingly melodic—all the better for contrasting against Buczarski’s dread-inducing lyricism. So, if you want to feel (more) bummed about humanity’s future, do it with style. Stream the LP here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
The Bronx – “White Shadow”
L.A.’s finest The Bronx are back with another LP of rocking highway tunes and West Coast attitude. Keeping up with their well-established, near-decades-long numbering system, the new record is simply titled VI (out August 27th through Cooking Vinyl). Fans can expect plenty more howling refrains, quicksilver riffs, and punchy, punk rock rhythms. Listen to the album’s lead single, “White Shadow,” here.
Civilian Mind – Buried In Memories
Straight-edge musicality and the searing Sonoran deserts of Arizona might not sound like the perfect pairing at first, but I feel that one listen to Civilian Mind quickly puts any apprehension to rest. On Buried In Memories, the Mesa-based trio offer up three tracks of no-frills hardcore in the spirit of legendary acts like Go It Alone, Strife, and Have Heart. Stream the demo here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Mannequin Pussy – “Control”
I really enjoyed 2019’s Patience LP, but if I’m being perfectly honest, I started listening to Mannequin Pussy because that name just rocks. (Right?) With the release of their forthcoming Perfect EP (out May 21st through Epitaph Records), I’m hoping the Philly trio double down on the grungey power-chords, 90s rock rhythms, and righteous expressions of feminine anxiety and vulnerability. Listen to their new single “Control” here.
Fawning – Illusions of Control
This week’s random Bandcamp Bonanza comes in the form of Fawning, courtesy of Georgia’s Graveface Records & Curiosities label. On Illusions of Control, the goth-inspired dream-pop outfit move through a selection of serene ballads, post-punk soundscapes, and glittery moments of shoegaze heaven. If you like some sweetness with your darkness, then enquire within. Stream the LP here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Brockhampton – “BUZZCUT” Feat. Danny Brown
The self-proclaimed “best boy band since One Direction” are back! After 2019’s Ginger, and whatever the Technical Difficulties project was about, I really just want Brockhampton to get back on track and drop more high-energy bangers. And if “BUZZCUT” is anything to go off, then hope might actually be on the horizon with Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine (out April 9th through Question Everything/RCA). Hit up that audiovisual technicolour trip below:
Panopticon – ...And Again Into The Light
Supplanting the frost-bitten tundra of Scandinavia with the rolling hills and forests of the Minnesotan wilderness, Panopticon (aka “one-man-band” Austin Lunn) puts a distinctly Americana spin on the musical rigours of visceral black metal. New LP …And Again Into The Light promises to be Lunn’s darkest and bleakest effort yet, thrust from the void of 2020 into the beckoning brightness of a new year. Stream the album’s pre-release singles through Bandcamp here.
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon
I never listened to Board Up the House (2008), the acclaimed debut from Relapse Records alumni Genghis Tron. Now, I know (admittedly second-hand) that it’s a record full of towering riffs, pits of spazzy techno-grind, and warbling electronic beats. But for whatever reason, I just never found a reason to dive right in. And that’s fine. Plenty more dazzling metal opuses in the sea, you know.
And yet, here we are, thirteen years later, with the quartet following up their debut with something that couldn’t be any further removed from its predecessor. You see, one doesn’t simply listen to Dream Weapon, it has to move through you. “Pyrocene” is both electrifying and whimsical, like watching Dillinger rip a set while on ketamine. “Alone in the Heart of Light” modulates itself around a pulsing synth refrain and hypnotic vocal lines, while the sprawling “Ritual Circle” achieves lift-off roughly halfway through its ten-minute-plus runtime, with a spacey aesthetic that tilts languorously towards a musical event horizon.
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify
Listen to all these tracks on the TPD March playlist, updated each week.
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Links to some of my other published work across the Web. Take a look, share if you feel like it, and help a brother out.
This week I published my New Noise review of Life In Your Glass World, the new LP from post-grunge/alt-rock outfit Citizen. It’s easily my favourite record of theirs from the last few years, and it switches up their previously dour meanderings for bright, inviting, mid-00s indie worship. If you had The Killers, Bloc Party, or Interpol on heavy rotation a decade ago, then definitely give this record a go. Hit up the review here.
I’ve also collated all my previous monthly playlists into a monster “2021 VIBING” playlist on Spotify, for ease of listening convenience. We’re currently at 117 tracks and over eight hours of new music. So if that’s your jam, you can find that here.