New Selections — Maff, Jaye Jayle, Becky and the Birds, Yonatan Gat, MIEN, Carla Bozulich, Clebs, Weathered Statues

Here are some songs to consider.  Please enjoy. 

Maff: "Desfile" & "Hawaii"

(via Shameless Promotion / Bandcamp)

"Desfile" and "Hawaii" are both featured on Maff's newly released digital EP, Melaniña, which can be purchased at the band's Bandcamp site.

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Jaye Jayle: "Ode to Betsy"

(via Rarely Unable/Sargent House/YouTube)

From Rarely Unable: 

JAYE JAYLE ANNOUNCES NO TRAIL AND OTHER UNHOLY PATHS, NEW ALBUM OUT ON JUNE 29TH ON SARGENT HOUSE

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE SMOKEY, HYPNOTIC SONG "ODE TO BETSY"

Jaye Jayle, Evan Patterson’s Americana-noir project, has not only opened a new chapter for the Young Widows frontman—it’s blossomed into a universe all its own. The newest arc in the Jaye Jayle narrative has been revealed with the announcement of the band’s latest album No Trail And Other Unholy Paths, set for release June 29th via Sargent House. The album’s first single— the smoky, hypnotic track “Ode To Betsy”— is now streaming.

Beginning as a flurry of 7” singles housed in bare-bones dust jackets, Jaye Jayle has evolved into a captivating persona alterna for the Louisville-based singer-guitarist. Imbuing negative space with hallucinatory mantras, Patterson has embraced his strengths as a storyteller while trekking into thickets of unmarked sonic terrain. With his cohorts Todd Cook on bass, Neal Argabright on drums, and Corey Smith on auxiliary instrumentation, Jaye Jayle unfurls a tapestry of neo-folk economy, krautrock-esque repetition, skid row’s darkest blues, Midwestern indie rock’s nihilism, and Tangerine Dream’s analog oscillations.

Produced by Dean Hurley, David Lynch’s music supervisor of the last twelve years, No Trail And Other Unholy Paths has transcended the album format, elevating itself to a choose-your-own-adventure experience. Patterson notes that the album bears no specific beginning or ending—Side A and Side B are meant to be interchangeable. The album could open with the fluttering instrumental “No Trail,” or the slow burning synths of “As Soon As The Night,” even the spectral push-pull of “Marry Us,” featuring Emma Ruth Rundle’s spellbinding vocals. Regardless of track sequencing, No Trail And Other Unholy Paths is an album that drives its aural dimensions to the absolute threshold — and then some.

No Trail And Other Unholy Paths is available for preorder via Sargent House here.

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Becky and the Birds: "Concept Store"

(via Wilful Publicity/Soundcloud)

From Wilful Publicity:

After an avalanche of praise for her debut single ‘Holding On’ earlier this year, the highly acclaimed Swedish singer and producer Becky and the Birds has returned with her brand new single ‘Concept Store’.

Incorporating jazzy pianos and bass among classic hip hop beats, Becky and the Birds’ lush flighty vocals soar through the track alongside the samples she’s plucked straight from nature.

Regarding the new single Becky and the Birds says, “‘Concept Store’ is about when you find yourself obsessing over what the person you love is thinking. I guess you could say that it’s about some kind of paranoia, you’re stuck with the thought and the feeling that he or she is about to leave, and soon you’ll start over-analyzing shit.”

‘Concept Store’ is the second track to be taken from Becky and the Birds’ forthcoming debut EP, which will be released later this spring. Featuring a genre-spanning blend of lush electronics, with nods to trip-hop and ‘90s R&B the result is similar to the likes of SZA, Solange and even Ella Fitzgerald.

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Yonatan Gat: "Cue the Machines"

(via Tell All Your Friends PR/NPR/Joyful Noise Recordings/YouTube)

From Tell All Your Friends PR:

Yonatan Gat is a genre all to his own. His new opus, Universalists (out May 4th on Joyful Noise in US and Glitterbeat in Europe) sees the New York experimental composer honing his skills not only as guitarist and bandleader, but also as a producer. His sophomore LP sees Gat experimenting with splicing live-to-tape recordings of his genre-bending trio in ways that are as indebted to Kanye West as they are to electric era Miles Davis or Brazilian experimentalists Os Mutantes (with which Yonatan recently released a split 7-inch), pushing the envelope in ways that only a few can.

Album opener “Cue The Machines” starts with an Italo-Spanish choir – but the voices get manipulated, sampled and chopped into stuttering electronic rhythms underneath Gal Lazer’s merciless jazz-punk drums and Sergio Sayeg’s countermelodic bass. The second track, "Post-World", uses Gat's guitar to reframe a traditional work song from Mallorca into a mysterious, yearning ballad. Lead single “Cockfight” pays homage to Balinese music, and album centerpiece “Medicine” combines Gat’s sound with the Eastern Medicine Singers, a group of Algonquin Native American drummers. Along with Swans’ Thor Harris they create a pulsating, stream-of-consciousness trance.

Over the previous decade, Gat became known as one of the world's top performers as founder and guitarist of Monotonix, hailed by SPIN as "the most exciting live band in rock’n’roll," with concerts that quite literally destroyed the border between performer and audience, and were controversial enough to get them banned from playing their home country.

Gat then relocated to New York City. He began recording and performing as a bandleader, and in 2014 released the Iberian Passage EP, a debut that maintained his signature raw energy while switching the focus away from the shock-performance style of Monotonix to a more ritualistic, improvised, shamanic musical exploration. 2015 brought the genre-bending full-length Director. Composed mostly of live improvisations by his trio and field recordings made by Gat, the record was a mind-melting exploration through many different styles of music, from Brazilian psych and Afrobeat to free jazz, surf, and 20th century avant-garde.

Three years in the making, Universalists is a conceptual and crafted snapshot of an artist evolving and experimenting, broadening his musical palette to incorporate vocals, vibraphones, horns, strings and samples, all the while remaining loyal to his live ferocity. Every recording of Gat's band in Universalists was performed (many completely improvised) live, each in a different studio, before they were meticulously edited, rearranged, reframed and reinvented by Gat.

A truly global work set to be released in the hostile political climate of 2018, the album is inevitably charged with a sense of confrontational urgency. But while it is indeed a provocative work, it goes beyond exploring the distress of our time. Universalists goes on to emphasize not the distinction between genres, and by extension cultures, but the complex similarities.

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MIEN: "Odyssey"

(via Force Field PR/Clash Mag/Rocket Recordings/YouTube)

From Force Field PR:

The debut album from MIEN (pronounced "Mean") was released on Friday April 6th, 2018. MIEN is comprised of The Black Angel’s Alex Maas, The Horror’s Tom Furse, Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir and The Earlies’ John-Mark Lapham. Today the band shares the official music video for "Odyssey" via Clash Mag…

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Carla Bozulich (w/ The Night Porter): "Sha Sha"
(via Rarely Unable/Constellation Records/Soundcloud)

From Rarely Unable:

The second track of Carla Bozulich's new album Quieter, "Sha Sha" is a joint effort from the brilliant quartet The Night Porter. Consisting of Carla along with Ches Smith (drums, vibes), Jessica Catron (cello), and Shahzad Ismaily (bass), The Night Porter – which falls between Scarnella and Evangelista in Carla's extensive musical timeline – crafted gorgeously melodic earworms and "Sha Sha" is a fine example of their musical chemistry. Carla describes the group as being "thick as thieves" and one listen to this elegantly spacious yet tightly-crafted track leaves no doubt that this collaboration really is something special. Listen to "Sha Sha" on Spotify, Apple Music and Soundcloud

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Clebs: "I'm Here"

(via Terrorbird Media/JASS/Soundcloud)

From Terrorbird Media:

I’m Here is the debut release from Clebs, the preternatural duo of Swiss vocalist Emilie Weibel and Atlanta-bred producer/drummer Jason Nazary. Elements of the contemporary found in Nazary’s production, embellished by Weibel’s unique polyrhythmic phrasing, filter through the lens of the non-human, forming Clebs’ uncanny & often spiritual musical vocabulary.

While the track "Homemade Bread" gives a sneak-peek into the more experimental, Laurie Anderson-esque elements to their music, the title track "I'm Here" goes more off-kilter club, with beats an addictive chorus to boot. I'm Here is set for a May 25th release date on Brooklyn imprint JASS.

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Weathered Statues: "Betrayal"

(via Us-Them Group/PopMatters/Svart Records/Soundcloud)

From Us/Them Group:

Denver heavy post-punk quartet Weathered Statues premiere a new track from their forthcoming Svart Records debut today via PopMatters.

Darkness and light: They strike an unsettling balance on Borderlands, the debut full-length by Weathered Statues, due May 11 from Svart Records.

Across the album's ten songs, the Denver four-piece walks a shadowy liminal zone. On one side is darkwave, deathrock, and vintage postpunk; on the other is synthpop, shoegaze, and classic new wave. Vast hooks mesh with harsh riffs. Ghostly melodies mingle with industrial synths. The band draws on their formative years immersed in the music of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Killing Joke, Xmal Deutschland, Echo and the Bunnymen, Christian Death, and The Cure. At the same time, Borderlands resonates alongside the work of contemporary groups like Wax Idols, Soft Kill, Preoccupations, and Merchandise.

The members of Weathered Statues — singer/keyboardist Jennie Mather, guitarist/keyboardist Jason Heller, bassist Bryan Flanagan, and drummer Andrew Warner — are all veterans of the underground music scene. Jason played in The Blue Ontario with members of Christie Front Drive. Jennie and Jason played in Hyacinth with members of Minsk and Lake of Violet. Jennie, Jason, and Andrew played in Cloak of Organs with members of Planes Mistaken for Stars and Wovenhand. And Andrew also serves as the current drummer of Slim Cessna's Auto Club.

Sincerely,

Letters From A Tapehead