It’s Friday, which means that it’s nearly the weekend, and also that it’s time to look back at the best new music we’ve heard over the last few days. This week there’s the return of Laurel Halo, which has gotten us very excited indeed about her upcoming new record. There’s also renascent Australian post punk noiseniks Primitive Calculators, the U.S. Girls video we premiered earlier this week, Mark Kozelek reflecting on the days of the Night Stalker, the pleasantly ungoogleable Perfect Pussy, another taste of the new Tim Hecker record, and more. Click through and get listening!
Laurel Halo — “Ainnome”
It’s unclear whether the title is a bastardization of “Anomie,” but there’s definitely something pensive and perhaps a little melancholy about this seven-minute epic. It progresses through several ideas — you could even call them “movements,” perhaps — before drifting away into a single quiet tone and dissolving into slowly decaying echoes. It’s from Halo’s album Chance of Rain, which is out in late October, and promises to be very good indeed.
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Primitive Calculators — “Dead”
Once you’re over the experience of listening to this track, which is basically like someone taking to your skull with a hammer drill, it’s worth reading up on this Australian band’s backstory — they were Melbourne post-punk pioneers, originally forming in the late 1970s. They reformed for Nick Cave’s ATP in the mid-2000s, and now, 35 years after they first played together, they’ve got a new album. Its title? The World Is Fucked. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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U.S. Girls — “Overtime”
A most excellent track indeed, and it comes with the above video, which we premiered earlier this week! Huzzah.
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Sun Kil Moon — “Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes”
A reflection on passing time and mortality, based around the decline of Richard Ramirez from feared serial killer to slowly dying cancer patient. The subject matter sounds morbid, but there’s something curiously uplifting about it, a reminder that every day left to us is ultimately what we make of it.
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Tim Hecker — “Black Refraction”
Well, this is beautiful. The video for this new track from the ever-excellent Tim Hecker is all blurry, submerged imagery, and it’s a perfect fit for a track that feels like drifting through a hall of someone else’s memories.
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Clams Casino — “Crystals”
From the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack, and a pretty banging track, perhaps moreso than we’re used to hearing from a producer known for his murky instrumentals. Perfect for cruising the night in a stolen car. Not that we’d ever advise such a thing.
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Charli XCX — “SuperLove”
Well, it’s better than the Icona Pop album.
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Perfect Pussy — “I”
The sound of this Syracuse-based punk whirlwind is something of an acquired taste, kinda like being suspended by the ears in a wind tunnel while the girl from Ponytail screams in your face at very high volume. It’s… bracing, if nothing else. This is from their demo tape, which is an actual tape and can be purchased from their Bandcamp.
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Dâm-Funk — “Warm Sentiments”
In a slow week, you can always count on LA neo-funk overlord Dâm-Funk to come through with the goods — and so it transpires this week, with the release of this free track via his ever-prolific Soundcloud. It sounds like its name, a pleasantly seductive slow jam that’d be just perfect for a night on the beach (if the summer hadn’t gone already.)
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The Ancients — “Hey Now”
And finally, indie pop par excellence from Australian band The Ancients, who are signed to consistently excellent Melbourne label Chapter Music. If you want some understatedly catchy guitar music to soundtrack your weekend, look no further!