Adagio 830
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You might have previously chanced upon Artefact if you've got your ear to the ground of the fertile, exciting DIY punk circuit in the UK. Equally, they might be brand new to you, but there's no shame in that game. Release-wise, the four-piece have gone straight from a demo to a debut LP - a step-up that, Votive Offering', the long player in question, justifies in a half-hour blaze of elegant, alluring gothic punk grandeur. (Noel Gardner).Visit product page →
Artefact assembled in the Welsh capital, Cardiff, around late 2014 and debuted in early 2015 with a seven-song demo cassette. Featuring Hannah Saunders on vocals, Matthew Green on guitar, Jon Mohajer on bass and Danny Parsons on drums, members'musical CVs span indiepop (Joanna Gruesome), post-hardcore (Facel Vega), emo (Plaids), garage punk (Twisted) and slowcore (Mars To Stay).
This collective experience has certainly informed Artefact, in terms of how they operate and conduct themselves, but it should equally be seen as a clean break, and a chance to indulge their tastes for postpunk, goth, deathrock and the darker side of the tracks in general.
Saunders - the only one of the quartet to be playing in a band for the first time - is a great and mercurial presence at the microphone, ramping up the drama and emotion running through Votive Offering'. Her lyrics are suitably, poetically intriguing, heavy with alliteration and wordplay and spiked with literary and historical references. They meet their perfect match across these ten songs: rolling rhythms built from tom-heavy drums and punchy basslines, waves of ear-ringing chorus-pedal guitar, an ability to switch tempos from a brisk clip to a funereally slow march.
Votive Offering'is boosted by a recording (at North Wales'Foel Studios) which gives each sonic element the spotlight it deserves, while retaining Artefact's serrated edge, and mastering by prolific punk platter polisher, Daniel Husayn of North London Bomb Factory. The striking sleeve art comes from inside the mind of Scott Young, an American artist who has also fashioned covers for bands including Gag and Strutter. And it's being released by German punk label Adagio830 (Diät, Dark Blue, Ranx/Xerox, Rat Columns) as a result of label owner Robert Schulze stumbling on an Artefact live set while on tour, and falling in love.
Anyone whose tastes include foundation stones of goth such as Siouxsie & The Banshees or Bauhaus; The Mob, Part 1 and other names from the gloomier end of 1980s anarcho punk; or contemporary burners of the flame like Belgrado, Arctic Flowers or Anasazi - ¦ Artefact have made an album for you to fall in love with too. (noel gardener / the quietus)
Tracklisting:
1. Siren
2. The Morrigan
3. Deja Vu
4. Sacred/Sacrilege
5. War
6. Witching Hour
7. Styx
8. Libracide
9. Boudicca
10. Votive Offering -
The third album from Scottish post-hardcore trio Carson Wells, out 15 June 2018 via Barely Regal Records and Black Lake Records in the UK, as well as European labels Adagio830 and Discos Finu, in Berlin and Madrid respectively. It will be available on 12' vinyl and as a digital download. All artwork was created by Andy Hemming.Visit product page →
From their roots in mathy screamo, to their intricate and brooding sophomore LP, Tread A Northern Path, Carson Wells has evolved considerably during their near decade as a band. No Relic continues to push their music in new directions, as arguably their most surprising release to date. At 6-songs, certain authorities might consider it too short for the long-play'tag, yet, at thirty minutes it outruns their debut album, the nine track Wonderkid'.
The sprawling compositions on No Relic'stand as a testament to the expanded horizons of the trio's songwriting - switching effortlessly from blistering, scrappy sections that hark back to the band's early output, to expansive, hypnotic passages.credits
Tracklisting:
1. Art in Inconsequence
2. Native State
3. Pilot Light
4. Righteous Mess
5. Prez
6. Early Decay -
Dark Blue follow up their debut LP, Pure Reality'(Jade Tree), with Start Of The World'(/ADAGIO830/ 12XU) - a soundtrack of a decaying United States. Each song drips with the realities of atrocities happening all around us. John Sharkey III (Vocals, Guitar) pushes Dark Blue far beyond the post-punk meets oi sound they perfected on their earlier releases, and adds elements of brit-pop and shoegaze.Visit product page →
Recorded by Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, Nothing), Start Of The World'is a pop album that makes no apologies. Boot stomping opener 'Union of Buffoons,' sets the political tone for this album with an anthem for workers' rights. Sharkey's biting lyrics: "You can't fight this, you can't win - ¦screw you once, they'll screw you twice," is a reference to human expendability in the face of deregulation and the stagnancy of labor rights. "Never Wanted to Hurt You" is a pop song in the highest order with guts and an undeniable chorus that would make Noel Gallagher jealous even at his most jaded. The 50's doo-woop and surf rock sound of "Bombs on the Beach" initially feels like a left turn for the band, evoking a playful innocence against a sunny backdrop.
But the lyrics prove this is truly a Dark Blue song, tearing through any cheerfulness as jarring and abrupt as words can be to describe the reality of dropping missiles on a beach of unsuspecting Palestinian children. Sharkey's voice is heavy with the despair of survivor's guilt: 'Now I'm holding my baby's hand, as he lies bleeding to death in the sand." This is another pointed song full of sentiment as much as it is an impassioned call for accountability for the crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
While this album shows off new and varying degrees of Sharkey's vocal intensity, Andrew Mackie Nelson (Bass, Ceremony) and Michael Sneeriger (Drums, Strand of Oaks) shine, guiding the songs in ways other releases haven't shown before. Tracks such as "Be Gone Everyone" and "Western Front" underscore just how comfortable the band has gotten.
Start Of The World'is the kind of record that Dark Blue has always promised: a collection of smart, fully realized songs that tell stories. With the world falling apart around us, Dark Blue continues to give voice to neglected perspectives, many unnerving but all necessary to hear. We need a defiant record like this to remind us that just as there was start to all of this destruction, there can also be an end. - Sean Gray
Tracklisting:
1. Union Of Buffoons
2. Be Gone Everyone
3. I Never Wanted To Hurt You
4. Paralyzed By Fear
5. You Know Who
6. Bombs On The Beach
7. Tired Of The Poor
8. Western Front Academy -
Debut 12" by this post punk outfit from Portugal feat. Members of Adorno.Visit product page →
Papaya play noisey guitar driven indie punk. reminds me of Teenage Cool Kids, Drive Like Jehu etc.
Catchy and spastic at the same time. the 12" is ltd to 500 copies on papaya coloured vinyl w/ a screen printed B-Side w/ artwork by Braulio
Tracklisting:
1. The Eternal
2. Bxaxdx
3. Adventurous Minds
4. Chrome
5. Mountain
6. For The Sun
7. Chromatic
8. Burn -
RANK / XEROX return with a new record after 5 years after their debut LP on BLAST FIRST PETITE.Visit product page →
RANK XEROX are from San Francisco finally return with four songs of messy post-punk with hidden pop james and dark guitar scratchers and synth screamers. Distorting messy and catchy at the same time.
Tracklisting:
1. M.y.t.h.
2. Ingenue
3. Zero Hour
4. Deletation View -
Formed in 2010, Ruined Families is a hardcore punk band based in Athens, Greece.Visit product page →
Following two acclaimed LPs and a 7", their new release is called 'Education' and features 10 songs spanning just over 17 minutes.
Drawing elements from their previous work, 'Education' touches on 90s screamo, fast hardcore and post-punk.
Unavoidably marked by the lasting turbulence of the Greek condition, Ruined Families attempt to make the most out of a precarious present by putting frustration into words that speak the mind of contemporary youth.
Tracklisting:
1. The Future Of Electronic Music
2. Image Of An Image
3. Naked Life
4. Underground Resistance
5. Demolition
6. No Rothko
7. Use Your Hands
8. Wholecar
9. Meta-anthem
10. We Want Everything -
The Rememberables (members of Coke Bust, Walk the Plank, etc.), from Washington D.C., deliver a modern blend of grunge, power pop and fuzzy 90s alternative, reminiscent of Superchunk, Weezer, & Dinosaur Jr., on their infectious debut album.Visit product page →
Seven blistering tracks serve as a perfect accompaniment for your summer drive -- windows down, hair blowing, engine roaring fast down endless highways.
In other words - loud, refreshing and catchy as hell.
Tracklisting:
1. Miles
2. If You Should
3. The Stranger
4. Walk
5. Ready To Run
6. Toledo
7. She Said -
7 new tracks of great garage emo punk by the SMUDJAS from Milano, Italy. Catchy and beautiful.Visit product page →
The Smudjas are a punk band from the Italian city of Milan, and their sound is a giddy, melodic rush of hooks and feelings.
Next month, the band will release a new EP called What We Have Is Today, and the two songs they've shared, 'Different Lines' and 'Dance & Revolution' are both lo-fi bursts of catharsis.
Those two songs are some of the best pop-punk I've heard in recent memory, and you can hear them both below. (Stereogum)
Tracklisting:
1. Silvia
2. Different Lines
3. Many Things
4. Dance & Revolution
5. M
6. Slow
7. Till The End Of The Road
RIYL: Hanna Hirsch, Generacion Suicida, Sleater Kinney. -
Wet The Rope is a hardcore band consisting of members of Pitchfork, Amber Inn, Sinker, Exhale and many others.Visit product page →
It's members have been actively making music for almost 30 years. "The Sum of Our Scars" is their debut album, and while you can hear the influences of the members' previous bands, the anger of this LP may catch you by surprise.
This album deals with the consequences of sexual abuse and predatory behavior. It is meant as both a personal and a political statement.
12 tracks of intense emotional pissed political hardcore!!!
Tracklisting:
1. Ashes Of Stone
2. Paulk Effect
3. This Malignance
4. I'll Follow You All The Way To Your Fiery Grave
5. Swing From The Heart
6. Heavy Heart, Heavy Hands
7. A Landscape Abraded
8. It Ends Here
9. Feminism Is Not A Tool To Get You Laid, Motherfucker
10. Snake Oil Over Science
