Another stylistic shift for Auckland’s Joe Locke, ‘Sabbath Shirt’ is the first taste of P.H.F.’s upcoming record, Purest Hell.
The band—Max Keyes, Lena Farr-Morrissey, Daniel Byington, Kyle McCollum, Jordan Mang—pull no punches on the track, as Farr-Morrissey’s vocal swirls in the eye of Mang and McCollum’s heavy, groaning riffs. Busting out of its slowcore margins and ascending into brightened hues of gazing, augmented distortion, “Window Room” hams up the emotional collateral of previous single “Sinner” and swells into a knotty thesis on patience, capitalism and cultural pleasure. “How long until we revel in something new?” Farr-Morrissey sings. “Too late, too soon.” The instruments crush inward, and the meaning turns euphoric.
Emma Danner recently introduced her new self-titled album as Red Ribbon with the confidently moody lead single “Crying in My Car,” a late-night-drive tune taking a pensive look at romance in the rearview mirror. With Red Ribbon’s release still over a month out, she’s returning today with another new single that’s either a journey further down the road of heartbreak or one looking past it at the joyful partnerships of friends—and perhaps it’s this uncertainty as to how to approach this fork in the road that lends the track its simmering eeriness. “I wanted the raw emotions, the grief, and freshness of that time to be palpable in the recording,” Danner shares of “YSFP” (which stands for the track’s pained repetition “You’re so fucking pretty”), which was penned surrounding a breakup. “I wanted to hear it in the vocals.”
It’s only natural that the Pacific Northwest would become one of the largest suppliers of shoegaze bands amidst the genre’s recent revival, given that so much of the alt-rock scene which brought these sounds to America was born in and around Seattle. The latest band to help carry that torch is Spiral XP, who’ll be following up their series of recent EPs with a debut album titled I Wish I Was a Rat this October. The first single, “Luna,” is an apt follow-up to those releases as it balances errantly wailing riffs with hushed verses and awe-struck lyrics.
Following a decade-plus hiatus from releasing new music, enigmatic DIY titan Daniel Johann Lines surprise drops the expansive and reflective follow-up to the viral cult classic of his teen years, melanchole.
In a world where viral success can lead young artists to exploitative contracts and dead-ends, Lines has maintained complete control of his project and his presence. It’s anomalous, but if last chance to see has proven anything, it’s that this deliberate approach can lead to an extraordinary creation. It’s a sustainable practice in an era of disposable talent.
