Disarm, "a story about medical emergencies, separation and reunification that happened to people close to me" is now streaming on Thrill Jockey, Bandcamp, and major streaming platforms.
Thalia Zedek will be touring Australia and the US starting soon! See all dates and tickets here:
[tour]
listen to Dissever & order a copy here
emptyset’s new album Dissever builds on their ongoing exploration into the histories of electronic sound and media across the 20th century, considering the intertwined evolution of cosmic rock, minimalism and electronic music, viewed through their prospective dreams and overlapping technological ambitions. The compositions across Dissever draw threads from these pioneering production methods emerging in parallel across the late 1960’s, considering the cross talk between these fields and their radical intentions to carve out the future from differing paths, traversing the mystical and modern, while incorporating elements of the transformative, hypnotic, expansive and transcendent to define new principles within sound.
"Emptyset are in a class by themselves when it comes to excavating brutality out of silence." - Pitchfork
"Elliptical and visceral." - The Wire
“[Emptyset] mold recorded sound into weaponry, sharpening the edges and wrapping them in muddied and bloodied armor.” - Treble
"A brutalist aesthetic that's been going around in British techno for a while now, but Emptyset stand out from that crowd due to the poetry in their reductionism" - Uncut (8/10)
listen to The Boat Outside Your Window & order a copy here
The Boat Outside Your Window by Thalia Zedek Band is out today. Thalia Zedek’s considerable body of work demonstrates a clarity of vision, a singular performance style, and an expansive range. Her ability to deliver raw emotions through her vivid stories of loss and hope, strife and triumph is unmatched. Zedek’s mastery of songwriting is on full display on The Boat Outside Your Window. Her unique musical voice remains potent and pointed. Cultivating her sound with purpose and an unflinching view of humanity, Zedek’s words and music are both invigorating, and capable of capturing the deep emotional complexities of life. The Boat Outside Your Window is Thalia Zedek reaching new heights, reinforcing her status as a peerless songwriter and voice.
"[Zedek's] delivery ranges from hushed to strident against a backdrop of freeform country blues that plunges and rises around her... a powerful, politically charged investigation of a chaotic time in America.” - MOJO
“[Zedek] has rediscovered the energy that defined her work with Uzi, Live Skull and Come, pouring imposing defiance into [her music].” - The Wire
“Her rough, keening alto carries the hardest of sentiments; her band storms and surges, billowing up under the verses and crashing in release at the choruses,” - Dusted Magazine
Matmos, the duo of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, have shared new single "Steel Tongues," taken from their upcoming album Metallic Life Review, out June 20th. The track's loping bassline is constructed from a metallic salad bowl, gently propelling the piece as layers of glockenspiel and steel tongue drum dance in sweet melodies atop before grinding towards a scraping conclusion.
[listen now & buy a copy of Metallic Life Review]
Matmos' Drew Daniel elaborates on the themes and construction of the piece:
"This song has a kind of buried allegory about capitalism inside it: the rhythm is partially made out of clinking a handful of American quarters, and some of the beat is made by sampling one of those “executive desk toys” called a “Newton’s cradle” that you used to see on the desks of people in the 1980s, the one with the swinging metal balls. But the last sound of the song is the distorted noise made by the gates of a cemetery. There is a buried (not to pun) mortality theme on this album, and this song has a kind of easy, gentle beat made out of money that leads the listener straight to the grave. So there is a dark humor behind the assemblage that might not be apparent to a casual listener but is a kind of inner joke for us, or an Easter egg."
Artist and naturalist Sally Anne Morgan has shared the pastoral new single "Eye is the First", taken from her new album Second Circle The Horizon, out on June 20th.
Named for the Ralph Waldo Emerson essay Circles, where the album also pulls it's name, specifically "The Eye is the First Circle, the horizon is the second."
The piece is a rustling journey through the pasture, with a lush blend of organic textural instruments freely moving in and out of focus, its repetitive guitar figures laying out rolling hills with chittering wildlife dotting the horizon and banjo shaped like rain and shadows.
The distinction of looking out beyond oneself and the cyclical nature of life’s patterns became central focuses of Morgan’s outlook and craft. In her own experience, circling back to her second pregnancy and to the ideas that started Cups (2021), coincided with her desire to meditate on circularity, to take in, create, and unleash something new imprinted with her voice as part of the chorus around her. The pieces themselves are true evocations of environmental atmosphere, replete with fleeting moments of joy, the buzzing din and repetitions of daily life, and spells of quiet solace.
Pre order Second Circle The Horizon on Lavender LP & receive it before it is widely available next month!
emptyset have shared the new single "Penumbra" taken from their upcoming album Dissever, out May 23rd. Coming just after their first US show in over 5 years at Long Play Festival in New York, the track evolves from a simple oscillation, the tones growing in volume and density as the piece progresses. "Penumbra" emanates with slow deliberate pulses that expand and contract, like slinking otherworldly coils of sparks that bristle outwards in syncopated rhythms.
Listen now & pre-order Dissever on limited blue vinyl!
[listen now]
[pre-order Metallic Life Review now]
Matmos, the duo of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, have shared the new track and video for "The Rust Belt," taken from their upcoming album Metallic Life Review, out June 20th. Animated and directed by artist Jack Colbert, the video is a celebration of the myriad eclectic materials used to make Metallic Life Review, animating pocket-sized metallic objects that Colbert sourced from metal detecting—from pull tabs to gold rings. Colbert describes the video: "The objects' unique eroded surfaces overlap through replacement animation, and the cyclical rhythm of the film mimics the normalization of discarding and replacing belongings."
On the track "The Rust Belt", Matmos' Drew Daniel elaborates:
"This song evolved over a year of editing in which we kept adding and taking away and playing solos on top and chopping and re-mixing. The intro is entirely manipulations of aluminum cans and then it gradually expands to include more and more sounds, including us playing some “drum solos” on all the pots and pans from our own kitchen. The central riff is made out of a steel bar that M.C. Schmidt played with his fist and fingers. The ending sounds are manipulations of a steel railing from an underpass in Switzerland. The kind of foghorn-like tone is made with a steel slide-whistle that we are heavily processing."
Thalia Zedek Band has shared the rollicking, country-infused new single "Circus", from new album The Boat Outside Your Window, out May 23rd. In keeping with Zedek's ability to plainly, yet powerfully speak truth to power and incisively critique oppressive forces. On the track, Zedek says: "This was actually written during the pandemic but is just as relevant today as we watch our nation as we have known it disappearing." Zedek will be touring throughout 2025 in support of The Boat Outside Your Window, including a special tour throughout Australia and New Zealand, throughout the US east coast and midwest, and more to be announced.
As our newsletter subscribers well know, we have a glorious new album by Sally Anne Morgan entitled Second Circle The Horizon coming out June 20th. Thanks to all your support, the deluxe version (comes with a Unique Bookmark printed by Sally) is nearly gone with only 4 remaining and…. the word is out we announced Second Circle the Horizonwidely this week! This phenomenal record immerses the listener into Morgan’s contemporary approach to traditional instruments, her pastoral pieces are heavily influenced by the nature that surrounds her home and studio.
[buy & listen to the first single]
Along with the album's announcement, Morgan has shared the serene first single "I Saw a Heron," which finds her fiddle skating atop gleaming drones and stately piano figures, harnessing the dynamic landscape and hum of life all around her in Appalachia. The album’s title, taken from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Circles, pulls directly from the line “The Eye is the First Circle, the horizon is the second.”
“The Film is one the best punk releases you will encounter this year.” - Sun-13
We are so excited to let you know that Sumac and Moor Mother's groundbreaking debut collab is available everywhere today. They blew minds at Roadburn! SUMAC is still on tour in Europe with Endon.
“Listening to BIG BRAVE is like standing between a Richard Serra installation: massive and imposing, but curved to let the light shine on the edges.” - NPR Music
Like SUMAC & Moor Mother, BIG BRAVE are not afraid to push boundaries and expectations. Their limited LP release OST (notice the film themes happening this month) is minimal, but that does not mean it is not powerful. If you are in Europe, BIG BRAVE are also on tour, catch them if you can!
Never hesitant to speak truth to power and a master of seamlessly intertwining the personal and the political, "Naming Names" works through the pains of confronting those who do wrong in our daily lives as much as it stands as an anthem for calling out oppressive forces in all forms.
Along with the album and single, Zedek has announced a tour throughout the US this Spring and Summer, as well as special tour throughout Australia and New Zealand with more dates to be announced.
Matmos, the duo composed of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, have announced their new album Metallic Life Review, out June 20th, 2025 and made entirely with sounds from metallic objects. Along with the album announcement, the duo have shared the first single "Changing States", a twinkling constellation of pangs and glitchy rhythmic jubilee. The piece features and is dedicated to the late pedal steel player Susan Alcorn.
“We have the sounds of plucking the metallic gates around a tomb recorded in an underground crypt, the sound of cemetery gates, and the death of Susan Alcorn and the death of David Lynch occurred as we completed the album,” notes Daniel. “We had already mixed the music with Susan before she passed, and we dedicate “Changing States” to her. David Lynch’s way of being an American artist was inspiring to us and we dedicated “The Chrome Reflects Our Image” to him.”
emptyset have shared the throbbing, swirling new single "Antumbra" taken from their upcoming album Dissever, out May 23rd.
The track evokes pioneering production methods emerging in parallel across the late 1960’s, incorporating elements of the transformative, hypnotic, expansive and transcendent. Informed by those tandem evolutions in sound from the past, emptyset brings those elements together in a truly futuristic sound, replete with swirling, dynamic fluxes that swell into enveloping barrages of distorted sonic bliss.
SUMAC and Moor Mother have shared the new piece "Scene 4", taken from their upcoming work The Film, to be released on April 25th.
The piece features singer Sovie layering harmonies between SUMAC's taut thuds and Moor Mother's dynamic incantations, electronics bristling beneath the procession. Restraint and outburst build tension as the ensemble's deft performance inspires close listening, giving each wallop and swell that much more impact.
Manchester’s Gnod and New York’s White Hills stand as titans of Psychedelic & Space Rock. Together they bend the very notions of what rock can do, seemingly suspending our sense of time. Their alchemical chemistry and a fateful session at the Dropout Studio in Camberwell gave rise to the legendary, ongoing series of records under the moniker Drop Out. The records became an influential and sprawling series of extended pieces that remain touchstones of contemporary psychedelia. Having been called “absolutely essential,” “best I have heard – ever,” “A masterpiece,” the Drop Out series finally gets its definitive edition.
Drop Out III is a wholly new iteration of Gnod & White Hills’ collaboration, the “director’s cut,” if you will. Drop Out III is replete with sounds recorded in the “Drop Out era” that have never been heard before. The double LP features a cornucopia of expanded versions of essential songs complete with new arrangements, mixes, and instrumentation.
more eaze and claire rousay’s collaborations are effortlessly joyful, their music evoking the warmth and respect they have for each other. Their bond goes back to their youthful hometown of San Antonio, Texas where they played in country outfits and noise rock bands respectively, and each pushed their music to extend beyond the traditions and conventions of genre. more eaze (the moniker of violinist/multi-instrumentalist mari maurice) and rousay have spent the past decade pushing boundaries, standing together at the vanguard of genre-shattering music that thrills and surprises with its vulnerability and creativity. no floor weds their prowess as sound designers and masterful skills as composers with their skills as acoustic instrumentalists. Eschewing the auto-tune inflected pop-psychedelia and found sounds of their previous collaborations, no floor is collage music as pastoral melancholia, a lush tour into their own version of Americana.
SUMAC and Moor Mother shared the new piece "Hard Truth", taken from their upcoming work The Film, to be released on April 25th. The piece highlights how inscrutably bold their collaboration is, invoking a haunting vocal melody atop burbling electronics and a density of distorted pulses, the throb accentuated by tactile scrapes. As a mere hint to what is contained within the album's labyrinthian scope, the piece is brimming with the subtle, yet boundless creativity that the ensemble explores across the album.
[listen]
Ahead of the release of their new collaborative album no floor, more eaze & claire rousay have shared the ecstatic new single "lowcountry". Named for a bar in San Antonio where more eaze (mari maurice) and rousay spent much of their formative years, the track exudes an adventurous sense of wonder through dynamic swells and haywire electronics that parallel the uncertainties and spontaneities of youth.
"I went to that bar a lot by myself, but I’ve been there a lot with mari too," notes rousay. "At one point I was living somewhere that was close by. This was in a more unhinged time for me and was like 'mari, did you want to come over and rage?'" maurice adds: "There’s a throughline of the track 'limelight, illegally' to this, where some of the bartenders who worked at Limelight moved to lowcountry. This is the most unhinged track in a way. When we decided this one was lowcountry claire was adding a lot and pushing it I decided, 'ok, I’m going to push it even more too.'"
no floor presents an introspective reflection of the emotional turmoil of youth, while equally celebrating a camaraderie forged through those shared experience, one that has since blossomed into a close friendship and fruitful series of collaborations. Eschewing the auto-tune inflected pop-psychedelia and found sounds of their previous collaborations, no floor is collage music as pastoral melancholia, a lush tour into their own version of Americana.
BIG|BRAVE have announced their atmospheric new album OST, out April 25th. Along with the album's announcement, the group have shared first single "innominate Nº ii," a sustained, soft-play piece that brings the ensemble's exploration into minimalism and textural composition into stunning focus. Subtle motifs land with considered motion, with delicate trickles of Wurlitzer, a bare, vulnerable voice, and earthy clangs speckling a light haze.
OST was fully written and recorded in the studio. The band was free to enter the live room and record a take with whatever instrument was at hand. The record features Wattie, Ball, drummer/percussionist Tasy Hudson, engineer/producer Seth Manchester and MJ Guider's Melissa Guion.
Leading up to and around the album's release, BIG|BRAVE will be touring throughout Europe and the UK, including sets at FIAS Festival, Roadburn Festival, and a special "sonic faceoff set" with The Bug in London.
"You are unlikely to hear a more arresting and unique album this winter than Ghost / Spirit." - The Quietus
Just ahead of the release of their new album Ghost/Spirit, due out February 21st, singular guitarist Jules Reidy has shared the entrancing new single “Ghost”. Written in a haze of half-dream, half-wakefulness, the track showcases how Reidy interweaves otherworldly sounds with intoxicating melody. Cascading arpeggios ripple atop tight chordal drones with glitching swells and sinewy guitar interjections. Reidy says of the piece:
"I made this very late at night, following a night terror. I kept having these hallucinations in the form of a black silhouette that would run at me and I'd wake up screaming and sweating. So the lyrics intentionally sound like they were written by someone who was half asleep." Of the track's title in relation to the album and its overall focus on loss and love, Reidy notes: "The title Ghost/Spirit describes this haunting omnipresence that we experience through loving a being who is not there."
Reidy’s breathtaking recordings and magnetic performances offer a truly futuristic, singular vision of guitar music. Reidy will be performing throughout the US, UK, and EU this spring, including record release shows in Berlin at Silent Green and London at Cafe Oto, as well as a set at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville.
Following the announcement of their extensive European and UK tour this Spring, including their debut collaborative performance at Roadburn Festival, Gnod & White Hills have shared two new singles from their Drop Out series, "Nothing NEU! Under the Sun" and "Spaced Man". The deluxe, definitive version of their acclaimed Drop Out series, Drop Out III, is out Mar. 21st.
"Nothing NEU! Under the Sky" brims with the potency of the collaboration's live energy, transmuting motorik rhythm and plasmic instrumental layers into a blissful trance. "Spaced Man" showcases the ensemble's more sinewy grooves, with a cascade of voices rising and falling in huge dynamic swells.
Drop Out became an influential and sprawling series of extended pieces that remain touchstones of contemporary psychedelia. Having been called “absolutely essential,” “best I have heard – ever,” “A masterpiece,” the Drop Out series finally gets its definitive edition. Drop Out III stands as a wholly new iteration of Gnod & White Hills’ initial collaboration. Reaching well beyond a mere reissue, Drop Out III is replete with sounds recorded in what the bands term the “Drop Out era” that have never been heard before. Drop Out III’s new elements make clear the unified ethos of both bands. The expanded versions of these timeless pieces epitomize the sense of possibility brimming throughout the album. That an album over 15 years out from its inception could continue to grow well past its roots is a testament to Gnod & White Hills’ ability as artists and collaborators.
