Matana Roberts returns with the fourth chapter of her extraordinary Coin Coin series - a project that has deservedly garnered the highest praise and widespread critical acclaim for it's fierce aesthetic originality and unflinching narrative power. The first three Coin Coin albums, issued from 2011-2015, charted diverse pathways of modern/avant composition - Roberts calls it "panoramic sound quilting" - and ranged sequentially from large band to sextet to solo, unified by Roberts' archival and often deeply personal research into legacies of the American slave trade and ancestries of American identity/experience. Roberts also emphasizes non-male subjects and thematises these other-gendered stories with a range of vocal and verbal techniques: singspeak, submerged glossolalic recitation, guttural cathartic howl, operatic voice, gentle lullaby, group chant, and the recuperation of various American folk traditionals and spirituals, whether surfacing in fragmentary fashion or as unabridged set-pieces. The root of this vocality comes from her dedication to the legacy of her main chosen instrument, the alto saxophone. On Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis, Roberts convened a new band, with New Yorkers Hannah Marcus (guitars, fiddle, accordion) and percussionist Ryan Sawyer (Thurston Moore, Nate Wooley, Cass McCombs) joined by Montréal bassist Nicolas Caloia (Ratchet Orchestra) and Montréal-Cairo composer/improviser Sam Shalabi (Land Of Kush, Dwarfs Of East Agouza) on guitar and oud, along with prolific trombonist Steve Swell and vibraphonist Ryan White as special guests. Memphis unspools as a continuous work of 21st century liberation music, oscillating between meditative incantatory explorations, raucous melodic themes, and unbridled free-improv suites, quoting archly and ecstatically from various folk traditions along the way. Led by Roberts' conduction and unique graphic score practice, her consummate saxophone and clarinet playing, and punctuated by her singing and speaking various texts generated from her own historical research and diaristic writings, Coin Coin Chapter Four is a glorious and spellbinding new installment in this projected twelve-part Gesamtkunstwerk. Says Roberts: "As an arts adventurer dealing w/ the medium of sound and it's many contradictions I am most interested in endurance, perseverance, migration, liberation, libation, improvisation and the many layers of cognitive dissonance therein as it relates to my birth country's history. I speak memory, I sing an American survival through horn, song, sadness, a sometimes gladness. I stand on the backs of many people, from so many different walks of life and difference, that never had a chance to express themselves as expressively as I have been given the privilege. In these sonic renderings, I celebrate the me, I celebrate the we, in all that it is now, and all that is yet to come or will be... Thanks for listening."

UNDER THE BANNER OF DEATH I AM ALIVE.
I DECLARE MY BEING IN THE LANGUAGE OF FIRE.
Vanum was formed in 2014 as the collaborative project of K. Morgan and M. Rekevics. Drawing from the old traditions of the genre, Vanum play elemental and majestic black metal with an unyielding force and passion, showcasing a sharply focused and dynamic sense of composition marked as much by somber patience as arrogant strength.
2019 will see the release of Ageless Fire on Profound Lore Records. Expanding upon the triumphant framework hinted at with 2017’s Burning Arrow EP, as well as the majestic fury of 2015’s Realm of Sacrifice, Vanum’s newest effort sees the band continuing to chart a path of steady ascendency and constant growth. While the the album’s overt Bathory-by-way-of-Hellas inspiration is of note, Ageless Fire is by no means a throwback album. The towering songs that make up the album emerged organically, and naturally reflect their heavy metal lineage as much as they also reveal the essential core of Vanum's own unique identity. This ability to interpolate influence and individual inspiration into a seamless and deeply resonant whole make "Ageless Fire" more than simply an exercise in emulation and further cements Vanum's place as a singular band, in reverence to the past while looking defiantly towards the future.
Additionally, Ageless Fire is the first to feature the band’s expanded lineup. In addition to M. Rekevics and K. Morgan, the band now includes long term live members E. Priesner and L. Sheppard. In this radiant and fully realized form, Vanum have crafted an album that builds on the muscular and triumphant nature of previous releases and expands upon it with a sense of mythic grandeur.

One thing you won’t be able to avoid on Bambara’s album Stray is death. It’s everywhere and inescapable, the key to the whole record. That though won’t be the first thing that strikes you about this, their fourth album to date. That will be its pulverising soundscape - by turns, vast, atmospheric, cool, broiling and at times – on stand out tracks like 'Sing Me To The Street' and 'Serafina' – simply overwhelming.
This NYC-via-Georgia trio (the Bateh brothers, Reid and Blaze, singer and drummer respectively, and bassist William Brookshire) have been evolving their midnight-black noise rock into something more subtle and expansive ever since the release of their 2013 debut 'Dreamviolence.' That process greatly accelerated with 2018’s 'Shadow On Everything,' their first on New York’s Wharf Cat label and a huge stride forward for the band both lyrically and sonically. Now, while the music itself is evocative and propulsive, a fever dream all of its own, the lyrical content pushes the record even further into its own darkly thrilling realm.

At first blush, the debut album by Kameron Bogges’s solo project An Isolated Mind sounds like a down-the-middle release for I, Voidhanger, the Italian label that has made perplexing, left-of-center heavy music its bread and butter. Listen closely, though, and I’m Losing Myself comes into focus. This is not music that is concerned with the cosmic or the metaphysic. It feels like music about one troubled person, reaching out desperately for help as they descend into unbeing. Bogges deconstructs the conventions of black metal to create a singular vision of a mind undoing itself. That is, until the last two songs, which are best left unspoiled, but have nothing to do with metal at all, and are as unsettling as anything I’ve heard in years.
Based in California, USA, AN ISOLATED MIND is the one-man experimental metal project of Kameron Bogges, who has given birth to a genuinely surprising and genre-defying album. Despite its deep roots into atmospheric post-metal, “I'm Losing Myself” embraces both death and doom metal as seen through the altering lenses of ambient music. The result is a psychedelic journey into a wounded psyche, a downwards spiral into feelings of melancholy, angst and depression.
“This album was written and recorded after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and spending a week in a psychiatric hospital,” Bogges reveals. “I spent the following year walking the fine line between psychotic delusion and spiritual epiphany, systematically doubting and reconstructing my psyche to accommodate my newfound reality.”
Music-wise, “I'm Losing Myself” is heavy as it is ethereal. It lives in a constant equilibrium between the sheer power of death and doom metal riffs filtrated through a post-metal sensibility and the delicate sounds of synthesizers, that add a hallucinated feel to the whole.
A limpid picture of the artist's mental condition, the debut of AN ISOLATED MIND recreates his painful inner struggles, and in Bogges' own words it's “a journal documenting the terrors and bliss of losing oneself to the mysteries beyond reason.”
Written, recorded, mixed, mastered, and painted by Kameron Bogges
Art direction and layout by Francesco Gemelli
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Back Lot Music will release a soundtrack album for the indie drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always. The album features the film’s original music composed by singer/songwriter Julia Holter (Bleed for This, Pure). The soundtrack will be released digitally tomorrow, March 13 and will be available to stream/download on Amazon. Never Rarely Sometimes Always is written and directed by Eliza Hittman (Beach Rats) and stars Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin, Ryan Eggold and Sharon Van Etten. The movie centers on two teenage girls in rural Pennsylvania who travel to New York City to seek out medical help after an unintended pregnancy. The drama premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and is being released in select theaters this weekend by Focus Features. Visit the official movie website for more information.

Chicago drummer and composer Jeremy Cunningham wrote The Weather Up There in response to the loss of his brother Andrew, who died in a home invasion robbery in 2008. Cunningham formed a 'drum choir' for these recordings, comprised of close mentors and colleagues Mike Reed, Makaya McCraven, and Mikel Patrick Avery. He also tapped regular collaborators Ben LaMar Gay, Jaimie Branch, Tomeka Reid, Dustin Laurenzi, Matt Ulery, and Josh Johnson.
Co-produced by Jeff Parker and Paul Bryan, and engineered by Paul Bryan and John McEntire, this new work confronts the tragedy of violence and examines the acute ripple effect on several people's lives through the lens of memory, response, and collage.

“My grandma always heard me singing at home, and she said, ‘I’m gonna put your ass in the youth choir,’” remembers Durand Jones. “I was reluctant. But one day the organist could hear me in the choir, and said ‘boy I’m gonna give you a song.’ So I sang the song… the whole church just flipped out. People were running and jumping and afterwards they were giving me money and stuff. Man it was really cool. That’s when the realization came that maybe I could make something of this.”
In the fall of 2012, Durand Jones left his small-town in Louisiana for the foothills of Indiana. Alto saxophone in tow he enrolled in the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. “Being a singer was never part of the plan,” Jones admits. But soon enough he found his way in front of a rowdy rock-n-roll band belting out a rambunctious rendition of “Dock Of The Bay,” to a basement full of drunken undergrads. That rowdy band unfolded into The Indications—comprised of Aaron Frazer (drums), Blake Rhein (guitar), Kyle Houpt (bass) and Justin Hubler (organ).
Inspired by a handful of dusty and obscure 45s bearing names like The Ethics, Brothers of Soul and The Icemen, The Indications set out to make a record steeped in heavy drums, blown-out vocals, and deep grooves. Gathered around a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder and a case of Miller High-Life, the group spent their Sunday evenings recording into the early hours of the morning.
Durand Jones & The Indications' self-titled debut album was the result. With comparisons from Charles Bradley and Lee Fields to Al Green, the only thing that separates this band from those greats is their youth. Having now taken their raucous live show all across the US, the band have galvanized a following that are ready to take them to the next level.
credits
released March 16, 2018

Creating their own experience of sonic space waves, Tan Cologne feels like diving into a secret pool, where Mazzy Star and CAN surf together on silky waves of sand dunes. Their debut album explores the dynamics of floating, through dreamy double vocals, swirling guitars, and rhythmic woven textures. ”Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico is like a new genre of southwestern gothic, Cocteau Twins meeting Wall of Voodoo” – Backseat Mafia.

Brock Van Wey, aka bvdub, is undoubtedly among the greatest and most prolific artists in the world, whose music directly affects the heart, soul, and human mind. His soundscapes spread in the air as if they were delicate and slow movements of the northern lights, or the wind that blows on the flowers of the trees in spring. There is something divine in bvdub's music, and Glacial Movements is more than honored to welcome another great work for the world, Ten Times the World Lied, his fifth album on the Roman label, as he nears forty overall. Ten songs impossible to describe in words, but which will breach the heart of all those who lose themselves in this sonic wonder. Completely devoid of vocals for the first time ever, Brock spins but layers upon layers of divine clouds, gradually darkening, gradually closing in - expertly mastered by the artist himself, culminating in arguably the best album he has composed for Glacial Movements to date.
Alessandro Tedeschi – label founder of Glacial Movements

AI-16: Bioluminescence by Shorelights, released 14 October 2019
1. Side A
2. Side B
Written and produced by Shorelights (Rod Modell & Walter Wasacz) Executed produced by Ario Farahani. Artwork by Theo Ellsworth.

2LP limited to 500 copies on clear/black-smoke vinyl housed in gatefold cover
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All songs written by REZN:
Phil Cangelosi: Bass + Vocals
Patrick Dunn: Percussion + Sitar
Rob McWilliams: Guitar + Vocals
Spencer Ouellette: Modular Synthesis
Alex Schulze: The Creature
Art by Allyson Medeiros
Recorded at Electro-Phonic Sound, Oak Park, IL
Mixed by Patrick Dunn, Tim Foley, and Mike McKew
Mastered by Dennis Pleckham at Comatose Studios, Bradley, IL

"Summer" is a nature-themed hypnagogic synth masterwork from ambient composer Jacob Newman. Hypnotic rhythms compliment beautiful organic synth textures and atmospheric field recordings that evoke memories of a fading summer. The album’s long-form tracks are perfectly suited to meditation, relaxation and reflection. Jacob Newman‘s sound design is detailed as it is deliberate - don’t miss out on this one.