Where were we, knee deep in art shows and curation and over in Crystal Palace and still no time for Organgrinding and listening to new music, we’re kind of back now though and never mind nothing, on with the music and what we said last time or last week or last year, you’ve read all this already, never mind the damn editorial, never mind the biscuits or the dogfish, just jump down past this editorial, who needs an editorial? Jump past and let the actual music do the actual walking and the actual talking. Exact same thing again, another five (or so) slices of musical things that have passed our way recently and however you like to slice it and of course it was the price of apples and here comes the intro, Don’t be flippant she said, how could it ever be flippant?
Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Do we need to do the editorial bit again? Is there another way? A better way? A cure for pulling flying rabbits out of the clouds? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? Was there ever a reason? What do reasons make? Five more? Snake oil? Everything must go and same as last time (and the time before that) five, and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading. When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter why we started this damn thing and like we asked last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? We do really try to listen to everything that comes in, we do it so you don’t have to, we are very (very) very very picky about what we actually post on these fractured pages or about what gets played on the radio or indeed what we hang in a gallery. Cut to the chase, never mind the editorial, there’s loads of music further down the page, well five or so pieces of music that have come our way in the last few days and cut cut slash and cut it, who needs an editorial or words or worms in general? What’s Wordsworth? Just facts and links and sounds then. Here you go, play the music, grab your five, eat your greens, go eat some art, go eat some fresh music and don’t forget whatever it was we said last time…
Here we go again, same as last time, in no particular order, starting isomewhere out there in Leeds this time
1: Drahla – now this is rather tastty, Grief In Phantasia by Drahla off their second album angeltape out April 5th, 2024 on Captured Tracks. The Leeds band’s first album Useless Coordinates, released back in the carefree days of 2019, was rather good, the bits we’ve heard so far of this new one hint at quite a few steps forward… More via Bandcamp
2; Pili Coït say “here’s a new extract from our latest rehearsal sessions with the Exocrines.” Filmé en Janvier 2024 à La Baie des Singes. (Cournon d’Auvergne), wh oknows what the always rewarding (and regularlyfeatured) French outfit are doing now?
3: HAAL have just shared a new single “Platform 1, 18:19” and announced details of debut EP “Back To Shilmarine” Out 10th May via Babka Records. Here’s the band’s Linktree and links to more and dow nthere underneath the music you can find more detailsand a Bandcamp…
“Today, four-piece Bristol outfit HAAL return with the announcement of a new EP titled “Back To Shilmarine”, which is due out 10th May. To mark the news, the band have also shared a crushing new single titled “Platform 1, 18:19”.
Combining elements of post-rock, trip-hop, and industrial music, HAAL have quickly become cult favourites in the UK live scene. Their psychotropic blend of samples, DIY pedals, and monolithic instrumentation, has seen the band play and tour alongside the likes of Kyoto Kyoto, Cowboyy, Deliluh, Treeboy & Arc, Ditz, Gurriers, and Pet Shimmers, as well as appearing festivals such as ArcTanGent and more.
Coming on the heels of their recent singles “Janus” and “Judy” (and subsequent remixes by Water From Your Eyes and Crimewave), the new EP “Back To Shilmarine” arrives as a blistering snapshot of the band’s protean dynamism. The band celebrate their late-90s / early-00s influences in a caustic yet melodic blend of tracks that nod as much to the output of labels such as Dischord, Touch and Go, and Nothing Records, as they do their contemporaries in the UK scene such as SCALER, Famous, deathcrash, and LICE. The EP sees them bring all these touchstones together to create a unique and uninhibited maelstrom of sound that spans everything from intricate math-inflected guitar lines and pensive vocals to propulsive drumming, totemic riffing, and warped synths.
Arguably some of HAAL’s heaviest material to date, “Platform 1, 18:19” offers the first look into this new material melding motorik rhythms and hypnotic riffs with sudden explosions of noise and power. However, as ever with HAAL, there is more than meets the eye – the track also features samples completely abstracted from their sources, for instance, the drone that begins the song is taken from a video of frontman Alfie Hay and his friends beating Bop It”
There you have it, the hype from the PR people or te record label or whoever sent it in, a slice of the actual msuic, you don’t need any more from us other than a link or two, you know we wouldn’t have parked this here if we did;nt think it worth your time and ears .
4: Occult Hardware have something new, as with Steinsdooter lastr time, we were led to Occult Hardware via that beautiful encounter with With the Naked Grace Missionaries a couple of weeks ago – ORGAN THING: The Naked Grace Missionaries at Helgi’s, Hackney, East London. Curiosity never really killed the cat, it just took her to a higher plane…
5: Malini Sridharan – Brooklyn-based composer and multi-instrumentalist, Malini Sridharan. Malini’s third album, Tombeaux has just been announced. The album is on here right now, it is a delight, an experimental delight, an orchestrally rich, imaginative and lyrical song cycle featuring a large ensemble cast of sitar, vibraphone, woodwinds, horns, strings, and piano and features production from the esteemed Julia Holter. The whole this is a glorious delight, laces with beautiful medieval influences, here’s a first taste, more very soon…
Here’s some more Drahla from that new album due out next month…
and while we’re here one of the finest of Cockney Rebel pieces, R.I.P Steve Harley..
THE ORGAN 