Shlohmo - "Emerge from Smoke"

Only a Shlohmo track can give you the sense of being stuck at the bottom of a deep well and then turn that well into a place of almost womb-like serenity.

The L.A. producer just premiered a single to be released March 17 via a collaboration between True Panther and his own WeDidIt collective. It's out now on iTunes, but you can also pre-order the 7-inch here, which includes the single's corresponding B-side, the promisingly titled "Ode 2 Tha Whip".

There's a lot to love on this track. "Emerge from Smoke" comes outfitted with a somber melody that lurches itself out in teetering synths and long, fuming bass tones that labor underneath to carry the song forward. As usual, Shlohmo demonstrates his awareness of how nuanced percussion can add entirely new dimensions to a track. All the syncopated plinking and hissing leads to a drum break punching in about half way through. Towards the end, the solitude is pierced by a gaggle of silvery, stricken guitars wailing up from the bottom of the well, and the percussion and synths come crashing back down on top of them in a final caterwaul.

The single arrives with the announcement of a spring 2015 tour, the dates of which you can check out here.

-Tom Fullmer

Big Blood - Unlikely Mothers

Psychedelic and prolific folk rock outfit Big Blood have recently released their second album this year, and you can stream it via the widget above. The title of this thing: Unlikely Mothers.

It's a double album that features a series of long, patient, and droning psych folk dirges that are both eerie and gorgeous. The album's cover art and concept directly reference the aunt and mother of frontwoman Colleen Kinsella, both of whom were nuns during Vatican II; however, Colleen's mother left to pursue other things--you know, like being a mother.

While some of the tracks--and this record, generally--feel unnecessarily long-winded, there's something twisted and alluring about the nine songs here.

Check a review for an older Big Blood album here.

ho99o9 - Mutant Freax EP & "Bone Collector"

It is now that I ask you to open your hearts to a group of hardened, mutant horrorcore freaks that go by the name ho99o9. They've got a new three-track EP out that indulges in everything from hardcore punk to nightmarish, lean-soaked cloud rap.

While ho99o9 are certainly onto something, a cacophony of contemporaries come to mind when listening to them: Odd Future, Flatbush Zombies, Death Grips, B L A C K I E. But there's always more room on the darker side of rap.

Stream the Mutant Freax EP above, and check out a music video for "Bone Collector" below:

Black Spirituals - "Radiant"

https://soundcloud.com/sige-1/black-spirituals-radiant With Of Deconstruction, Oakland free improvisation duo Black Spirituals has delivered one of the year's greatest potpourri albums. Bassist and electronics operator Zachary James Watkins and percussionist Marshall Trammell found each of the album's three substantial pieces on simple and vague grooves, exploring every bit of space they have to offer. Above, check out 20-minute opener "Radiant," which rides modulated bass riffs, flourishes of static noise, and skittering drum fills through countless phases. Its effortless fusion of such styles as noise rock, avant-garde metal, EAI, free-jazz, and freaking cumbia, makes this perhaps the most expressive rock project I've heard all year. Enjoy!

Of Deconstruction is out now via SIGE Records. Although this is only Black Spirituals' debut, they have apparently already garnered the attention of eminent electronic art musician and theorist Pauline Oliveros, who contributes a quote to the album's Bandcamp page. Way to go!

Horse Lords - Hidden Cities

Featuring quite peculiar synth work, funky bass and drum lines, alternative guitar melody loops and slick sax playing, the functional centre of Horse Lords’ sound rotates on a steady axis of African, Western and Eastern concepts, conveying musical ideas and cadences that are, quite frankly, perfect to read something to. However, no matter how quietly you listen to their new album, Hidden Cities, at some point or another, you’re going to look up and marvel. Containing a handful of longer pieces separated by either busy or relaxed interludes, Hidden Cities is certainly one of their best works to date and sends them further out of the depths of Baltimore and into the eerie misshapen land of prog rock.

- Fin Worrall

Kairon; IRSE! - Ujubasajuba

Finland's Kairon; IRSE! dropped their sophomore album here this past fall, and I'm incredibly happy this thing didn't end up slipping by me while we still have some time left in 2014.

The thick, blissful, and syrupy sounds of shoegaze are what you'll find all over this record. Obscured vocals hiding behind layer upon layer of blaring guitars, but the band also isn't afraid to embark upon a progressively building post-rock jam in the vain of Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra or Do Make Say Think. An unlikely fusion of genres that sounds really great in this instance.

Vladislav Delay - "Visa Medley"

https://soundcloud.com/vladislavdelay/visa-medley This week Finnish experimental electronica extraordinaire Sasu Ripatti (a.k.a. Vladislav Delay) dropped a new full-length album called Visa. On this new project, you will not find the rich dub influence of previous two LPs Vantaa and Kuopio; rather, Delay appears to be attempting a return to form...whatever that may be for him. Since the beginning, his work has in many novel ways challenged the conception of ambiance as a passive mode of music, and the five oft-sprawling pieces on Visa very much share this spirit. Delay's music demands attention - his compositions are angular, his rhythms complex, his progressions combustive. Consequently, he has managed to remain quite a bit more "engaging" than your typical ambient artist. Lay your ears on a medley of Visa's tracks above, or stream the whole thing below via Delay's Bandcamp. Enjoy!

IAYD - TBBR003

I Am Your Destruction is an Austin, TX-based electronic music project that's just released its first full-length, which I think it self-titled. TBBR003 is just the catalog number from Thebasebit Recordings, I'm pretty sure. Title aside, this is a pretty fun album. It combines the blood-pumping drops and builds of modern EDM with the bright and glitchy grime of 8-bit music.

With the exception of a few artists, I typically find chiptune music to be a little limited. I mean, you have a multitude of artists here agreeing to center their music around 8-bit sounds, some working exclusively within that sound set. However, with IAYD, that is very much not the case. These tracks simultaneously worship at the chiptune altar, and look to bend the rules set by predecessors. Enjoy!