Portland Oregon’s SOFT KILL, ripped through 2016 with their first release on Profound Lore Records “Choke”, the follow up to 2015’s “Heresy” became the band’s most acclaimed LP to date and saw the band on a constant touring cycle in support of it through North America and Europe as demand for the band was on a constant upswing. SOFT KILL now return with the triumphant follow up full length “Savior” to be released by Profound Lore Records on (insert release date here), bringing their unique blend of gloom, laced with pop charm and flawless song writing that transcends the post punk genre.
The writing for “Savior” was sparked while returning from tour, frontman Tobias Grave’s wife began to bleed out in the van, at eight months pregnant they were in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road far from a medical facility. The band raced through the night landing at the emergency room of UC Davis Trauma Center in Sacramento where surgery was performed to save both the mother and unborn child. Although the surgery went well, baby Dominick’s lung collapsed on his second day of life causing him to flat line. Grave was forced to standby and watch as the doctors and nurses struggled to keep his newborn child alive with blood transfusions, breathing and feeding tubes. As days turned into weeks, stranded far from home, standing vigil, he purchased a guitar, borrowed a bass from a friend and began to write songs that eventually would become the core of “Savior”. Grave wrote songs about losing his son, his battle with drug addiction, the many tragedies that came along with that life, and the empty space suspended between mourning and celebration, life and death.
With “Savior”, recorded/mixed in Kingsize Sudios in Los Angeles and produced by Benjamin Greenberg (Uniform, The Men, Algiers) SOFT KILL have matured into a powerhouse, effortlessly combining genres, always with Grave’s powerful, raw emotional storytelling where we see a person come to grips with their own reflection as seen in the eyes of their dying son. From the pop perfection of ‘Trying Not to Die’ to the swelling and crushing guitars on ‘Hard Candy’ to the unrelenting dirge of ‘Bunny Room’, “Savior” is a creative tour de force. Drawing from a diverse musical palette, “Savior” is influenced by early U2, Gun Club, The Replacements and a requiem to Tom Petty.

7 is our 7th full-length record. At its release, we will have been a band for over 13 years. We have now written and released a total of 77 songs together.
Last year, we released an album of b-sides and rarities. It felt like a good step for us. It helped us clean the creative closet, put the past to bed, and start anew.
Throughout the process of recording 7, our goal was rebirth and rejuvenation. We wanted to rethink old methods and shed some self-imposed limitations. In the past, we often limited our writing to parts that we could perform live. On 7, we decided to follow whatever came naturally. As a result, there are some songs with no guitar, and some without keyboard. There are songs with layers and production that we could never recreate live, and that is exciting to us. Basically, we let our creative moods, instead of instrumentation, dictate the album’s feel.
In the past, the economics of recording have dictated that we write for a year, go to the studio, and record the entire record as quickly as possible. We have always hated this because by the time the recording happens, a certain excitement about older songs has often been lost. This time, we built a "home" studio, and began all of the songs there. Whenever we had a group of 3-4 songs that we were excited about, we would go to a “proper” recording studio and finish recording them there. This way, the amount of time between the original idea and the finished song was pretty short (of the album’s 11 songs, 8 were finished at Carriage House in Stamford, CT and 2 at Palmetto Studio in Los Angeles).
7 didn’t have a producer in the traditional sense. We much preferred this, as it felt like the ideas drove the creativity, not any one person’s process. James Barone, who became our live drummer in 2016, played on the entire record. His tastes and the trust we have in him really helped us keep rhythm at the center of a lot of these songs. We also worked with Sonic Boom (Peter Kember). Peter became a great force on this record, in the shedding of conventions and in helping to keep the songs alive, fresh and protected from the destructive forces of recording studio over-production/over-perfection.
The societal insanity of 2016-17 was also deeply influential, as it must be for most artists these days. Looking back, there is quite a bit of chaos happening in these songs, and a pervasive dark field that we had little control over. The discussions surrounding women’s issues were a constant source of inspiration and questioning. The energy, lyrics and moods of much of this record grew from ruminations on the roles, pressures and conditions that our society places on women, past and present. The twisted double edge of glamour, with its perils and perfect moments, was an endless source (see “L’Inconnue,” “Drunk in LA,” “Woo,” “Girl Of The Year,” “Last Ride”).
In a more general sense, we are interested by the human mind's (and nature’s) tendency to create forces equal and opposite to those present. Thematically, this record often deals with the beauty that arises in dealing with darkness; the empathy and love that grows from collective trauma; the place one reaches when they accept rather than deny (see “Dark Spring,” “Pay No Mind,” “Lemon Glow,” “Dive,” “Black Car,” “Lose Your Smile”).
The title, 7, itself is simply a number that represents our seventh record. We hoped its simplicity would encourage people to look inside. No title using words that we could find felt like an appropriate summation of the album.
The number 7 does represent some interesting connections in numerology. 1 and 7 have always shared a common look, so 7 feels like the perfect step in the sequence to act as a restart or “semi-first.” Most early religions also had a fascination with 7 as being the highest level of spirituality, as in "Seventh Heaven.” At our best creative moments, we felt we were channeling some kind of heavy truth, and we sincerely hope the listeners will feel that.
Much Love,
Beach House
releases May 11, 2018

Kali Malone’s sophomore LP “Cast of Mind” investigates the use of harmony as a force of psychological impact through the exclusive use of the Buchla 200 synthesizer in combination with acoustic woodwind and brass instruments.
The record begins as a cascade of battle calls from the wind instruments that shift ephemerally between triumphant and anguished howls upon each exhale. While the other pieces pull from the septimal harmonic framework of the title track, they extract a more confined palate to depict their sonic identities indicated by the song titles. “Bondage To Formula” weaves synthesis, trombone and bass clarinet in a delicate pattern, conjuring an ambiguous assimilation of the acoustic and synthetic. Dominated by columns of sawtooth waveforms, “Arched In Hysteria” unravels as a sharp and sober harmony perched on the border of violence, ringing in paranoia amongst a foundation of low beating oscillators. The record concludes in the rapture of “Empty The Belief”, swollen with undulating bassoon striving to intonate to the towering stability of machine-generated harmony.
Using justly tuned synthetic and acoustic instrumentation, Cast of Mind’s rich harmonic textures emit a distinct emotive hue serving to generate a static and captivating depth of focus.
Kali Malone (b. 1994, Colorado) is an American artist living and working in Stockholm, Sweden since 2012. Her solo works implement unique tuning systems in minimalist form for analog and digital synthesis often combined with acoustic instrumentation - such as pipe organ, string and wind instruments, lute and gong. Malone’s 2017 debut LP “Velocity of Sleep” was released on her own label XKatedral following tape releases put out by Ascetic House, Bleak Environment and Total Black. She is active in the groups Sorrowing Christ, Swap Babies and Upper Glossa with Caterina Barbieri. She has performed most notably at Berlin Atonal, Moogfest and Norberg Festival.

TT is the moniker of the solo project from Theresa Wayman of Warpaint, she's gearing up to release her debut solo album titled LoveLaws that takes on more electronic influences with entrancing sounds and has a moody, hazy atmosphere.
Wayman describes the record as “down tempo, pretty sexy, and a bit emotional.. I’m a romantic person in a world where a relationship is difficult. But I also needed to be on my own and not force having a relationship.”
Warpaint’s touring made it hard to stay on a consistent creative schedule, so she recorded at her home studio, on the road, in London, and in Warpaint’s Los Angeles rehearsal space. She’s a one-woman band on LoveLaws, playing bass, guitar, and synth. She also programmed the drum beats on most of the tracks.

Stuff Like That There is the fourteenth full-length album by American indie rock band Yo La Tengo, released in August 2015 by record label Matador.
On this album, the band revisits the original concept of their 1990 album Fakebook with a mix of cover songs, "covers" of Yo La Tengo songs and brand new originals.

Known for her work in Vastum, Ionophore, Cardinal Wyrm, Hammers Of Misfortune, Fyrhtu, and much more, Leila Abdul-Rauf presents her haunting third solo album, Diminution.
The follow-up to Leila Abdul-Rauf's 2015 highly acclaimed Insomnia album, Diminution sees the Bay Area-based, multi-instrumentalist take a more stripped-down approach to her uniquely haunting and shadowy soundscapes. While retaining a firm grasp on the feeling of urban loneliness and early morning solitude, Diminution's tracks are generally longer than previous works and feel more spacious and open, where sparse melodies and gentle textural flow meet ethereal choral vocals, distant trumpet, delicate guitar, and luminous, yet melancholy drones and warm tonal drift.
All songs on Diminution were composed, performed, and produced by Leila Abdul-Rauf, mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha Mastering Lab, and the album is completed with stunning artwork by Matthew Jaffe and layout by Kristoffer Oustad and James Livingston. Diminution is another spellbinding work from Leila for those seeking solace in quiet and introspective music residing just on edge of consciousness.

Scientist manufacture elements of sludge, doom, prog and black metal into something organic and original. The outcome is equal parts brutal and transcendental Following up on their previous full-length (which amidst other acclaim was included on a Metal Injection Top 10 Albums of 2015 list), Scientist are releasing their third album, Barbelith. According to the band, the new work is a concept album about "the search for life's meaning through the use of psychedelics and the occult, only to discover that you haven't even been born yet" and is "heavily influenced by the concepts revolving around Grant Morrison's comic book series the invisibles".
Cvlt legion
Album Review - Scientist - "Barbelith"
Filth covered guitars speed along as they twist their riffs up into a wonderfully strange mess, holding on to just enough disgusting crud. It’s the sort of thing that fits in with Mastodon’s first album “Remission”, an album that could’ve had an entire scene built around it, although you won’t find any direct influences from that album on “Barbelith”. With the high energy continually being delivered, there’s few slower passages with intense noisy introspection that allow for breaks from the... more
credits
released April 13, 2018
recorded by pete grossman at bricktop studio in chicago IL
mixed by sanford parker
mastered bt alan douches
produced by scientist
artwork by kuba sokolski
2018.
band pic by john mourlas
sludgelord records 2018
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scientist is:
eric plonka - guitar,vox
justin cape - drums
patrick auclair - guitar,vox
mathew milligan - bass
barry kotarba - vocals

!K7 are pleased to announce Forest Swords as the next curator of the ever essential DJ-Kicks series.
Following acclaimed albums on Ninja Tune and Tri Angle, soundtrack and installation work, and remixes of the likes of Bjork, Matthew Barnes aka Forest Swords has curated a 27-track compilation that draws a line between past inspirations and his current peers.
"My favourite nights when I was younger, there wasn't really a focus on etiquette; sticking to genres, perfect transitions – it was all pretty DIY, like having someone cook up their personal mixtape in front of you, just to share music between people"; says Barnes.
"John Peel's eclectic radio show made a huge impact on me growing up, so that kind of personal, instinctive approach to selecting tracks always felt more exciting than something that was sterile and seamless. I wanted to carry some of that spirit into this compilation".
Like much of his own output, Forest Swords’ DJ-Kicks dances around pristine electronics to embrace more organic textures: 80s post punk (Anna Domino, Dead Can Dance), classic 90s British electronica (Orbital, Mira Calix, Disjecta), and smokey digi-dub (Rhythm & Sound), all rub up alongside some of the most forward-facing producers working today (Demdike Stare, Laurel Halo) and avant garde explorers (David Toop, Kara-Lis Coverdale).
The compilation shifts through rhythms and emotions: from pop icon Neneh Cherry's primal thudding to the zombified throb of exclusive Forest Swords track 'Crow', via Deena Abdelwaheed's clattering deconstructions and the outdoor mountain singing of Ánde Somby.
Drawing threads between decades, borders and genres, DJ-Kicks is a collection of tracks that feels as restlessly curious, and crucial, as Barnes' own work.
credits
released May 18, 2018
2018, !K7 Music

There's nothing really 'big' about this release, from its length to its sound, and I kind of like it that way - it's as though Noveller has set her ambitions on smaller bits of the arctic circle rather than the entire thing for each piece here. You travel a lot with this album, from the desolate patches of arctic tundra to the beyond-words magnificence and warmth of the northern lights, but it's gradual, and the overall effect is almost like you barely move at all. She takes her time getting around, and there's something to be admired in that, even if the entirety of the album is a tad short. I'll hope to invest a lot more time in this one once winter comes back around.

songs by shannon. arrangements by shannon and elijah, borin, ben, and david
on this album, the lineup is:
shannon - guitar, vocals
borin - guitar
ben - bass
elijah - drums, backup vocals
guest appearances by david and jason, playing keys on most songs and drums on "interlude" respectively
recorded at the atomic garden by jack shirley in september 2017. album art by connie sgarbossa. original photo taken by nyx. this album is dedicated to tyler, henry, jacob, and all of my other friends who will never hear it.

Neko Case’s ‘Hell-On,’ an indelible collection of colorful, enigmatic storytelling that features some of her most daring, through-composed arrangements to date, is available now.
Produced by Neko Case, ‘Hell-On’ is simultaneously her most accessible and most challenging album, in a rich and varied career that’s offered plenty of both. ‘Hell-On’ is rife with withering self-critique, muted reflection, anthemic affirmation and Neko’s unique poetic sensibility. Neko enlisted Bjorn Yttling of (Peter Bjorn & John) to co-produce 6 tracks with her in Stockholm, Sweden where she mixed the 12 track album with Lasse Martin.
‘Hell-On’ features performances by Beth Ditto, Mark Lanegan, k.d. Lang, AC Newman, Eric Bachmann, Kelly Hogan, Doug Gillard, Laura Veirs, Joey Burns and many more.

Music by John Adams
Libretto by Alice Goodman
First performance at the Houston Grand Opera, October 22, 1987
Original stage production by Peter Sellars with choreography by Mark Morris
Chou En-lai: baritone
Richard Nixon: baritone
Henry Kissinger: bass
Nancy T’ang (first secretary to Mao): mezzo soprano
Second secretary to Mao: alto
Third secretary to Mao: contralto
Mao Tse-tung: tenor
Pat Nixon: lyric soprano
Chiang Ch’ing (Madame Mao Tse-tung): coloratura soprano
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Nixon in China (1985-87) is an opera with music by the American composer John Adams and a libretto by Alice Goodman, about the visit of Richard Nixon to China in 1972, where he met with Mao Zedong and other Chinese officials.
The work was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Houston Grand Opera and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It premiered at the Houston Grand Opera, October 22, 1987 in a production by Peter Sellars with choreography by Mark Morris.
The opera is composed of three acts. The first details the anticipation and arrival of the Nixon cortege and the first meeting and evening in China. The second act shifts focus to Pat Nixon, as she makes tours of rural China, including an encounter at a pig farm. The second scene includes a performance of a Communist propaganda play, in which first Pat Nixon, then her husband and then Jiang Qing, intercede in the performance. The last act chronicles the last night in China, in which the characters dance a foxtrot, their thoughts wandering to their own pasts.
The opera takes an interesting perspective on the historical meeting by focusing on the personalities and personal histories of the six key players, Nixon and his wife Pat, Jiang Qing and Chairman Mao, and the two close advisors to the two parties, Henry Kissinger and Zhou Enlai.
Musically, the opera perhaps owes more influence to 1940s big band dance music than any Asian styles, and John Adams adapted the foxtrot theme from the last act into a concert piece entitled "The Chairman Dances". The libretto, however, was written completely in rhymed, metered couplets, reminiscent of poetic and theatrical styles native to China.

Deep Listening by Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster & Panaiotis

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