Engine Kid, the 90’s post hardcore collective featuring Greg Anderson (Southern Lord label owner, also in Sunn O))), Goatsnake & Thorr’s Hammer) share the previously unreleased track “Angel Dust“ appearing on their special Record Store Day 6 x LP box set release Everything Left Inside.  

About this track Greg Anderson comments, “during the process of unearthing ‘Angel Wings’ master tapes, a previously unreleased/unheard track from the session was discovered.  Our recollections of this song were extremely foggy and the reason it was left off the full-length album remains a mystery! Vitality was injected into the track by wizard producer Brad Wood.”

Listen to (+ share) “Angel Dust” on Bandcamp.

The Everything Left Insidebox set includes other unreleased/unheard recordings as well as hard to find/sought after albums including the “Novocaine/Astronaut” 12”, Bear Catching Fish 2xLP, Angel Wings 2xLP and Split w/ Iceburn / Everything Left Inside 12” – all remastered and with an extensive 12-page booklet.  A black vinyl version of the box is set for RSD on June 12th (not available outside the US) with additional versions of the record for the rest of the world to arrive at a later date. Digital for the time being is available via Bandcamp. 

Watch the Everything Left Inside Unboxing video on YouTube.

Almost 30 years since the inception of Engine Kid, and the trio find themselves comprehending the enormity of their creation, honoring and celebrating the mountains they formed and the canyons they created.

Engine Kid was born in Seattle, WA in 1991.  The band’s original lineup consisted of guitarist/vocalist Greg Anderson (Southern Lord, Sunn O))), Thorr’s Hammer, Goatsnake), drummer Chris Vandebrooke & bassist Art Behrman.  The three had all been in hardcore/punk bands around town and all had a burning desire to create a sound that was unlike anything they had done in the past.   After just a few months of existence they quickly recorded and self-released the Novocaine 7”.  Circa 92’ a close friend and bassist Brian Kraft (Krafty) replaced Behrman, and at that moment the entire aesthetic and execution of sound became heavier, darker and extremely dynamic.  The power trio was picked up by local label C/Z records and set out upon recording the new music they were quickly creating. In 1993 the band had two releases on C/Z.  Their first offering was the Astronaut five song EP recorded by John Goodmanson.  The songs were primitive and exemplified the bands worship of Slint and their loud/quiet song dynamic  In the summer of 93’ the band drove all the way to Chicago to record with their hero Steve Albini in the basement of his house. They emerged with the eight song album they called: Bear Catching Fish.  Albini intuitively captured the band exactly as they were at that moment: RAW, VULNERABLE, & MAMMOTH.

Shortly after the albums’ release Jade Devittreplaced Vandebrooke on drums. This transition was extremely crucial in the “second phase” of the group. Devitt was an absolute beast and his power helped launch the band miles beyond where they had ever been before.  The sound of “The Kid” started to transform into a sound much more of their own.  The three dudes were hellbent on pushing the bounds of sonic exploration to its absolute fullest.  Suddenly there was an abundance of depth within the sounds they were creating. Eclectic influences of punk/hardcore (Black Flag, Die Kreuzen), Metal (Entombed, Carcass)  and even jazz (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis electric era) were in a full collision course with the already dynamically heavy foundation of the band.  The levee had broken and the resulting flood of sound completely saturated everything in its path.

Engine Kid toured relentlessly.  They were constantly on the road playing every nook and cranny they possibly could.  Any moment not spent on the road was instead spent focused on making their new material as potent as possible. Early in 94′ the band decided to pay homage to their mutual love of jazz/fusion and recorded three instrumental pieces that would become a split album with like minded powerhouse Iceburn. The Engine Kid/Iceburn album showcased each group’s love of jazz loosely framed by the intense enthusiasm of underground music.  The album was released by Revelation records in 1994.

During the summer of 94’ the band reconvened with producer John Goodmanson at Bad Animals & AVAST! studios to record the new material that was literally bleeding out of the reinvigorated trio.  These recorded songs were much more progressive, heavier, harder and more focused than past works.  They even tackledJohn Coltranes’ “OLE” adding saxophone and trumpet from their brothers in Silkworm.  In March of 1995 Revelation records released these recordings as the Angel Wings album.  Unfortunately “the Kid” flew too close to the sun and broke up very shortly after the album’s release.

Everything Left Inside 6xLP box set (RSD release) includes: 

LORD 288.1 Engine Kid-“Novocaine/Astronaut” 12”

LORD 289 Engine Kid – Bear Catching Fish 2xLP

LORD 290 Engine Kid – Angel Wings 2xLP

LORD 288.2  Engine Kid – Split w/ Iceburn /Everything Left Inside 12”

Asclepius is the new album from the ever-evolving and adventurous collective Iceburn, who return with their first new material in twenty years, which Southern Lord will release on June 25th on LP and digital formats. 

Sample the track “Dahlia Rides the Firebird” in this teaser video on YouTube.

Much like the mythical ouroboros that appear in their music, Iceburn have come full circle, as Gentry Densley comments, “Iceburn had always been about progressing and pushing the boundaries, pushing the music ahead of ourselves so we had to work to catch up.  This new record comes from a place of rediscovery of who we are deep down, a place that with all it’s challenges and comforts, ultimately feels like home.” 

He continues, “In recent years Iceburn basically became four friends hanging out and working on music.  After all going in different directions for so many years we found ways to embrace our earliest influences and the foundations of our musical selves.  We basically cycled back to the way we made music in our heyday, our salad days, and it felt right once again.”

The rawness of Asclepius harks back to the days of their early records (such as Hephaestus), and fuses elements of metal, jazz, psychedelia, and rock with a seamless flow, monolithic riffs, swirling harmonies, and a groove that are the cornerstones of their sound.

Asclepius comprises two long-form tracks, “Healing The Ouroboros” and “Dahlia Rides the Firebird“, the latter is based on an old traditional Greek tune. With some members majoring in classics/philosophy, music/composition and studying ethnomusicology – classic mythology has always been a key reference point for the themes of their music. That the new record is named after the god of healing and medicine and arriving at this moment in time is coincidence, as the band comments, “It felt like we needed healing even before this pandemic hit.”

The line-up on Asclepius represents the core of Iceburn through the early formative years.  Iceburn, later the Iceburn Collective, initially existed from 1990 to 2001, later reuniting in 2007 with this current lineup again at the core.  The band’s initial output slowly evolved from hardcore and metal to free improvisation and noise,  The 10 year arc saw the band following their own path and becoming more and more obscure as they got deeper into unknown musical worlds.  By 2000 the cycle seemed complete and Iceburn did their final tour in Europe 2001.  In 2007 this early core crew reunited to play a local anniversary show focused on the earliest material. Every few years since they would get together for another ‘reunion’ until that word became more of a joke, it was clear the band was back, getting together every week, and working on new material. 

Iceburn Line Up:
Joseph ‘Chubba’ Smith – drums, founding member of Iceburn from 1990-’93 then 2007-present
James Holder – guitar, was also a founding member from ’90-’95 and ’07 to present
Cache Tolman – bass, ’91-97 off and on, and ’07 to present
Gentry Densley – guitar and vocals, 1990 to present

Asclepius was recorded and engineered by Andy Patterson (SubRosa, INVDRS, Insect Ark, and The Otolith) a collaborator also for Gentry’s other band’s Eagle Twin and Ascend. 

Pre-order Asclepius on BANDCAMP or via SOUTHERN LORD.

Asclepius track list:  
1) Healing The Ouroboros 
2) Dahlia Rides the Firebird

ICEBURN ON BANDCAMP | SOUTHERN LORD | SOUTHERN LORD EUROPE

Nadja reveal another track “Starres” from their forthcoming album Luminous Rot, which will be released on CD and Digital formats via Southern Lord on May 21, with the LP version arriving on August 13. Luminous Rot pre-orders are live today, and info can be found on the Southern Lord store and via Bandcamp.

About the track and video, Nadja comments: “‘Starres‘ is about both inner- and outerspace, a conflation of the internal neural-network of the human brain with the external cosmos, and how the act of observation might alter those, both from the viewpoint of the observer and the one observed. The video attempts to replicate something of that feeling of cognitive dissonance in the observer, taking a mundane image of houses and warping them, both through reflective filming and digital effects.”

Watch and share the official video for “Starres” on YouTube.

On Luminous Rot, Nadja have refined their signature sound which combines the atmospheric textures of shoegaze and ambient/electronic music with the heaviness, density, and volume of metal, noise, and industrial. The duo retain their overblown/ambient sound, and explore shorter and more tightly structured songs reflecting their interests not only in metal, but post-punk, cold-wave, shoegaze, and industrial.

Thematically, the album explores ideas of ‘first contact’ and the difficulties of recognizing alien intelligence. This was in part inspired by reading such writers as Stanislaw Lem and Cixin Lui — in particular, theories on astro-physics, multi-dimensionality, and spatial geometry in “The Three Body Problem” — as well as Margaret Wertheim’s “A Field Guide To Hyperbolic Space,” about mathematician Daina Taimina’s work with crochet to illustrate hyperbolic space and geometry.  The album was recorded between their home studio, Broken Spine Studios, or Nadja’s live rehearsal studio, both in the district of Lichtenberg, Berlin.

Luminous Rot marks the first album mixed by someone else, who in this case was David Pajo. The band comment, “as big fans of Slint, we thought he might fore-front the more angular, post-punk elements of our music – the mix is quite different from our previous albums. But, as usual, we had James Plotkin (Khanate, OLD, etc) master the album as we trust his ears and aesthetic, as he’s mastered numerous records of ours.

Luminous Rot track list:
1. Intro
2. Luminous Rot
3. Cuts On Your Hands
4. Starres
5. Fruiting Bodies
6. Dark Inclusions

Additional bio:  
Nadja has released numerous albums on many different underground labels—Alien8 Recordings, Daymare Records, Robotic Empire, Hydrahead Records, Gizeh Records, and Important Records, to name a few—including their own imprint, Broken Spine Productions.

The duo has toured extensively around the world—including performances at such festivals as SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn, Donaufest, Le Guess Who, Incubate, and Unsound—and sharing stages with the likes of Earth, OM, Khanate, Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, and Godflesh.  

Originally from Toronto, Canada, for the last decade the duo has been based in Berlin, Germany.

BANDCAMP | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | NADJA WEBSITE

Nadja share special video footage recorded at The Black Lodge in Berlin, which originally premiered exclusively for Roadburn Redux last Friday – now available to view here. About this new material, Nadja comments: “Early in 2021, the Black Lodge and Salon Oblique invited us to participate in their series of filmed performances by Berlin artists. For this session, we chose to perform a new composition, Seemannsgarn, an extended, meditative piece we wrote about a liminal and tranquil green space/urban waterway in our quiet corner of Berlin, now in flux and with an uncertain future, threatened by gentrification and development.”

Watch Nadja’s “Seemannsgarn” performance on YouTube.

This standalone piece does not appear on their forthcoming album Luminous Rot, which shall be released on CD and DL formats via Southern Lord on May 21st, with the LP version arriving on August 13th. Pre-order information incoming soon.

On the new album, Nadja have refined their signature sound which combines the atmospheric textures of shoegaze and ambient/electronic music with the heaviness, density, and volume of metal, noise, and industrial. The duo retain their overblown/ambient sound, and explore shorter and more tightly structured songs reflecting their interests not only in metal, but post-punk, cold-wave, shoegaze, and industrial.

Thematically, the album explores ideas of ‘first contact’ and the difficulties of recognising alien intelligence. This was in part inspired by reading such writers as Stanislaw Lem and Cixin Lui — in particular, theories on astro-physics, multi-dimensionality, and spatial geometry in “The Three Body Problem” — as well as Margaret Wertheim’s “A Field Guide To Hyperbolic Space,” about mathematician Daina Taimina’s work with crochet to illustrate hyperbolic space and geometry.

The album was recorded between their home studio, Broken Spine Studios, or Nadja’s live rehearsal studio, both in the district of Lichtenberg, Berlin.

Luminous Rot marks the first album mixed by someone else, who in this case was David Pajo. The band comment, “as big fans of Slint, we thought he might fore-front the more angular, post-punk elements of our music – the mix is quite different from our previous albums. But, as usual, we had James Plotkin (Khanate, OLD, etc) master the album as we trust his ears and aesthetic, as he’s mastered numerous records of ours.”

Revisit the title track, “Luminous Rot”
(also streaming on Bandcamp, Apple and Spotify)

Luminous Rot, track list: 
1. Intro
2. Luminous Rot
3. Cuts On Your Hands
4. Starres
5. Fruiting Bodies
6. Dark Inclusions

Additional bio:  
Nadja has released numerous albums on many different underground labels—Alien8 Recordings, Daymare Records, Robotic Empire, Hydrahead Records, Gizeh Records, and Important Records, to name a few—including their own imprint, Broken Spine Productions.

The duo has toured extensively around the world—including performances at such festivals as SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn, Donaufest, Le Guess Who, Incubate, and Unsound—and sharing stages with the likes of Earth, OM, Khanate, Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, and Godflesh.    

Originally from Toronto, Canada, for the last decade the duo has been based in Berlin, Germany.

Record Store Day Release Available June 12, 2021 With Additional Format Arriving Later From Southern Lord.

Engine Kid, the post hardcore collective featuring Greg Anderson (Southern Lord label owner, also in Sunn O))), Goatsnake & Thorr’s Hammer) announce a special Record Store Day 6 x LP box set release Everything Left Inside, featuring the Novocaine/Astronaut 12 inch, Bear Catching Fish 2xLP, Angel Wings 2xLP and Split w/ Iceburn / Everything Left Inside 12 inch.  A black vinyl version of the box is set for RSD on June 12th (not available outside of the U.S.) with additional versions of the record for the rest of the world to arrive at a later date. Digital for the time being is available via Bandcamp. 

Watch (+ share) the Everything Left Inside trailer on YouTube.

Almost 30 years since the inception of Engine Kid and the trio find themselves comprehending the enormity of their creation, honouring and celebrating the mountains they formed and the canyons they created.  

Engine Kid was born in Seattle, WA 1991.  The band’s original lineup consisted of guitarist/vocalist Greg Anderson (Southern Lord, Sunn O))), Thorr’s Hammer, Goatsnake), drummer Chris Vandebrooke & bassist Art Behrman.  The three had all been in hardcore/punk bands around town and all had a burning desire to create a sound that was unlike anything they had done in the past.   After just a few months of existence they quickly recorded and self-released the Novocaine 7”.  Circa 92’ a close friend and bassist Brian Kraft (Krafty) replaced Behrman, and at that moment the entire aesthetic and execution of sound became heavier, darker and extremely dynamic.  The power trio was picked up by local label C/Z records and set out upon recording the new music they were quickly creating. In 1993 the band had two releases on C/Z; their first offering was the Astronaut five song EP recorded by John Goodmanson.  The songs were primitive and exemplified the bands worship of Slint and their loud/quiet song dynamic  In the summer of 93’ the band drove all the way to Chicago to record with their hero Steve Albini in the basement of his house. They emerged with the eight song album they called: Bear Catching Fish.  Albini intuitively captured the band exactly as they were at that moment: raw, vulnerable and mammoth.

Shortly after the albums’ release Jade Devitt replaced Vandebrooke on drums. This transition was extremely crucial in the “second phase” of the group. Devitt was an absolute beast and his power helped launch the band miles beyond where they had ever been before.  The sound of “The Kid” started to transform into a sound much more of their own.  The three dudes were hellbent on pushing the bounds of sonic exploration to its absolute fullest.  Suddenly there was an abundance of depth within the sounds they were creating. Eclectic influences of punk/hardcore (Black Flag, Die Kreuzen), Metal (Entombed, Carcass)  and even jazz (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis electric era) were in a full collision course with the already dynamically heavy foundation of the band.  The levee had broken and the resulting flood of sound completely saturated everything in its path.

Engine Kid toured relentlessly.  They were constantly on the road playing every nook and cranny they possibly could.  Any moment not spent on the road was instead spent focused on making their new material as potent as possible. Early in 94′ the band decided to pay homage to their mutual love of jazz/fusion and recorded three instrumental pieces that would become a split album with like minded powerhouse Iceburn. The Engine Kid/Iceburn album showcased each group’s love of jazz loosely framed by the intense enthusiasm of underground music.  The album was released by Revelation records in 1994.

During the summer of 94’ the band reconvened with producer John Goodmanson at Bad Animals & AVAST! studios to record the new material that was literally bleeding out of the reinvigorated trio.  These recorded songs were much more progressive, heavier, harder and more focused than past works.  They even tackled John Coltranes’ “OLE” adding saxophone and trumpet from their brothers in Silkworm.  In March of 1995, Revelation records released these recordings as the Angel Wings album.  Unfortunately “the Kid” flew too close to the sun and broke up very shortly after the album’s release.

Everything Left Inside 6xLP box set (RSD release) includes: 
LORD 288.1 Engine Kid-“Novocaine/Astronaut” 12”
LORD 289 Engine Kid-Bear Catching Fish 2xLP
LORD 290 Engine Kid-Angel Wings 2xLP
LORD 288.2  Engine Kid-Split w/ Iceburn /Everything Left Inside 12”

Look for the co-release on June 12th (RSD) from Southern Lord & DVL Recordings. Non-RSD versions to arrive later.

Neon Christ, the cult hardcore luminaries featuring William DuVall (BL’AST!, Comes With The Fall, Alice In Chains), Jimmy Demer (Gardens of.., Accidents), Danny Lankford (Gardens of.., GoDevils, Accidents) and Randy DuTeau (Gardens of),announce a co-release between Southern Lord and DVL Recordings for Record Store Day (June 12th), reissuing a deluxe edition of their 1984 sessions. Digital format will also be available via Bandcamp only, and non-Record Store formats will follow at a later date via Southern Lord. 

To remaster the original tapes using an all-analog process, William DuVall made multiple trips to Nashville to one of the few remaining studios (Welcome To 1979) maintaining the vintage technology to play and process the audio – his account of this is documented below. Side one of 1984 features the original Neon Christ 7″ EP, and side two contains the four songs of the Labor Day session, all on heavyweight vinyl at 45 RPM for maximum fidelity. The package includes a full-colour gatefold sleeve and a 12-page oral history booklet featuring dozens of never-before-seen photographs. 

Watch (+ share) the Neon Christ – 1984 teaser video on YouTube

About the remastering process, William DuVall reveals:

“The studio I went to in Nashville to remaster the audio is called Welcome To 1979, aptly named because it’s like entering a time warp in the best possible way. It’s becoming increasingly rare and miraculous to find a facility anywhere in the world that can do all-analogue audio mastering for vinyl LPs. What’s additionally amazing (for all my fellow audio nerds out there) is that Welcome To 1979 also does lacquer plating right there on-site. I know of no other place in America that does recording, mixing, mastering, lacquer cutting, and lacquer plating all under one roof. As if that’s not enough, they also manufacture and refurbish tape machines. Pretty incredible.

Remastering the 1984 Neon Christ recordings has been very enlightening and fulfilling. I hadn’t listened to that music in a studio atmosphere since back when it was originally recorded. It was nice hanging out with those kids again. I was sixteen writing those songs. Neon Christ is quintessential youth music from a tumultuous time, both in our own lives and in the world at large. It documents the birth of a new music and culture that would influence everything that came afterward. We loved being a part of that emerging scene. We’re even more proud now of the contributions we and so many of our friends made. The energy and emotions we captured remain timeless.

I had planned to do a proper Neon Christ reissue through my label, DVL Recordings, this year. It must have been the right time because, as soon as I’d made up my mind to do it, Greg from Southern Lord reached out about doing exactly the same thing. I suggested we join forces. I admire what the Southern Lord label has achieved. Suffice it to say, all of us in Neon Christ are extremely honoured that there’s any interest at all in what we did so many years ago.”

About Neon Christ:

Neon Christ formed in the fall of 1983 with William DuVall on guitar, Jimmy Demer on drums, Danny Lankford on bass, and Randy DuTeau on vocals. They made their debut in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 1984. That March, they recorded their eponymous debut 10-song EP. Released in June ’84, the EP’s songs exemplify the band’s signature musical diversity, from DRI-style thrashers like “Parental Suppression” to the atmospheric improv of “After.” A short east coast tour followed. On Labor Day 1984, the band recorded four tracks in the home studio of Nick Jameson, of Foghat fame. A few months later, “Ashes to Ashes” was included on the International Peace/War compilation released by MDC’s R Radical Records, bringing the band worldwide exposure.

Neon Christ shared the stage with legends of 80s hardcore including the Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, and Corrosion of Conformity. In 1985, the band added Shawn Devine on second guitar, as their sound and songs became slower, heavier, and more melodic. DuVall wrote an album’s worth of songs in 1985, but only “Savior (Drawn In)” was ever recorded in what would be the band’s final studio session on December 26, 1985 (the master tapes were lost). Returning to the four-piece original lineup, the band played a handful of Atlanta shows and then took a break in March of 1986. A few months later, William moved to Santa Cruz, CA, to join BL’AST!, and Jimmy, Danny, and Randy formed Gardens of…William later founded jazz/punk/world improvisers No Walls. In 1999, he would form Comes With The Fall and move the band to Los Angeles, where he struck up a friendship and musical collaboration with Jerry Cantrell. William joined Alice in Chains as vocalist and guitarist in 2006. On February 2, 2008, Neon Christ reunited to headline the Ratlanta Punkfest 2.

To this day, the band members maintain a close friendship, as well as a desire to honour the legacy of the group. So when longtime fan Greg Anderson of Southern Lord contacted them about reissuing a deluxe edition of Neon Christ’s 1984 sessions, 1984 quickly came to life. 

NEON CHRIST 1984 TRACK LISTING:
1. Parental Suppression
2. The Draft Song
3. Winding
4. Bad Influence
5. Neon Christ
6. We Mean Business
7. Yoof
8. It’s Mine
9. Doom
10. After
11. The Knife That Cuts So Deep
12. Ashes To Ashes
13. Blind Patriot
14. The Death They’ll Give You

NEON CHRIST ON SOUTHERN LORD | FACEBOOK

Nadja return with a new album Luminous Rot, incoming on CD and DL formats via Southern Lord on May 21 with the LP version arriving on August 13.  Nadja is a duo of multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker and bassist Leah Buckareff—active since 2005—and making music which can be described as ambient doom, dreamsludge, or metalgaze. Nadja’s signature sound combines the atmospheric textures of shoegaze and ambient/electronic music with the heaviness, density, and volume of metal, noise, and industrial.

For their  new album, Luminous Rot, the duo retain their overblown/ambient sound, and explore shorter and more tightly structured songs reflecting their interests not only in metal, but post-punk, cold-wave, shoegaze, and industrial.

Watch (+ share) the visualizer for the title track ‘Luminous Rot’ on YouTube. (Also available on Bandcamp + Spotify.)

Thematically, Luminous Rot explores ideas of ‘first contact’ and the difficulties of recognising alien intelligence. This was in part inspired by reading such writers as Stanislaw Lem and Cixin Lui — in particular, theories on astro-physics, multi-dimensionality, and spatial geometry in “The Three Body Problem” — as well as Margaret Wertheim’s “A Field Guide To Hyperbolic Space,” about mathematician Daina Taimina’s work with crochet to illustrate hyperbolic space and geometry.

The album was recorded between their home studio, Broken Spine Studios, or Nadja’s live rehearsal studio, both in the district of Lichtenberg, Berlin.  Luminous Rot marks the first album mixed by someone else, who in this case was David Pajo. The band comment, “as big fans of Slint, we thought he might fore-front the more angular, post-punk elements of our music – the mix is quite different from our previous albums. But, as usual, we had James Plotkin (Khanate, OLD, etc) master the album as we trust his ears and aesthetic, as he’s mastered numerous records of ours.”

Luminous Rot, Track List:
1. Intro
2. Luminous Rot
3. Cuts On Your Hands
4. Starres
5. Fruiting Bodies
6. Dark Inclusions

“You don’t so much throw on a Nadja album as dunk your head in one; the smoggy haze of fuzz and scuzz that permeates the Berlin-based doom-gaze duo’s albums is so relentless and all-consuming that, after a while, it starts to feel as comforting and commonplace as oxygen…” – Pitchfork

Additional bio:  
Nadja has released numerous albums on many different underground labels—Alien8 Recordings, Daymare Records, Robotic Empire, Hydrahead Records, Gizeh Records, and Important Records, to name a few—including their own imprint, Broken Spine Productions.  

The duo has toured extensively around the world—including performances at such festivals as SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn, Donaufest, Le Guess Who, Incubate, and Unsound—and sharing stages with the likes of Earth, OM, Khanate, Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, and Godflesh.

Originally from Toronto, Canada, for the last decade the duo has been based in Berlin, Germany.

Artist (image by by Janina Gallert)

Incoming on CD + digital formats April 23rd, with vinyl release to follow on July 9th, from Southern Lord. Watch the music video for VITAL’s first single “Half Breed” now.  

Minimalism and instinct, structure/freedom and meticulous timing form the cornerstones of BIG | BRAVE‘s precise, rhythmical sound.  On their new album VITAL (available on CD/digital formats April 23rd and vinyl on July 9th via Southern Lord), the recording features the core trio Robin Wattie, Mathieu Ball and Tasy Hudson, for their most collaborative record they’ve made so far. The band comments, “having cut our teeth in very different musical backgrounds respectively, our intuitions vary, which has an interesting effect on our individual approaches and ears.”  Lyrically, VITAL explores the weight of race and gender, endurance and navigating other people’s behaviors, observation and protest. The band further commented “this album involves what it means navigating the outside world in a racialized body and what it does to the psyche as a whole while exploring individual worth within this reality.”

Our first glimpse of the album arrives today in the form of a video for the track “Half Breed“, consisting of a single shot of a single performative action that can be read as the representation of the damage an external force can have on someone or something without ever having to bear any responsibility and consequence.  BIG | BRAVE adds, “The action of shoveling dirt onto the person, also acts a way to discredit, shame and discriminate the individual. With the victim (on screen), being painfully covered with dirt by the perpetrator (off screen), all we have to witness is the damage done and left behind. We are aware of what is happening, what has happened, but the source is kept anonymous and can easily be missed and overlooked.”

Watch (+ share) BIG | BRAVE’s music video for “Half Breed” on YouTube

(Also available on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify.)

On VITAL, BIG | BRAVE once again made the trek down to Rhode Island to record with Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets. They remark “we fully trust his instinct as an engineer and his creative output, getting to experiment with textures, concepts, layers, and with pretty much every single recorded sound,  the process of making records with Seth is an absolute journey in sonic exploration”.

VITAL, track list:
1. ABATING THE INCARNATION OF MATTER 
2. HALF BREED
3. WITED. STILL AND ALL… 
4. OF THIS ILK 
5. VITAL

BIG | BRAVE – BIOGRAPHY:  

With the initial seeds planted in 2012, with no other goal than simply experimenting with the instruments in their possession, Robin Wattie and Mathieu Ball started writing subtle ambient/minimalistic folk songs together. When long time friend Louis Alexandre Beauregard joined on drums, the goal still remained to play as tranquil as possible. After an incident where Wattie’s acoustic guitar broke, and having borrowed a friend’s electric as a replacement, larger amps that Ball had in storage from previous bands started to get incorporated to the outfit.  Now with amplitude as a compositional tool, BIG | BRAVE never lost interest in the power of minimalism and fragility. It became clear that loud volume would become just as effective as the lowest possible ones and the juxtaposition of both would become something BIG | BRAVE still uses as their main M.O. to this day.

After self-releasing Feral Verdure in 2014, the band had the opportunity to open for Thee Silver Mt Zion in Montreal QC. After which, Efrim Manuel Menuck found something meaningful in the members and the band and invited them to open on future shows with Mt Zion and with Godspeed! You Black Emperor.

In 2015, the band entered the studio with Menuck and recorded Au De La. With no home for the record, they decided to take a chance in writing to Southern Lord. As luck would have it, Greg Anderson happened upon their email among hundreds and responded. Since then, the band has had a home with Southern Lord Records. (Along with Au De La, Southern Lord has released Ardor in 2017, A Gaze Among Them in 2019 and VITAL in 2021).

After Beauregard’s departure in 2018, the band traveled down to Rhode Island with Loel Campbell on drums to make a first record with Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets. After the album’s release, with Campbell unable to tour, Tasy Hudson joined the ranks and the band spent most of the year touring their 2019 album A Gaze Among Them.

In 2020, the core trio of Ball, Wattie and Hudson once again made the trek down to Machines with Magnets to record their fifth LP VITAL.  

Since their inception, the band has had many honours and privileges of touring a number of times in North America and Europe with bands such as Sunn O))), MY DISCO, The Body, Thou, Primitive Man and Thee Silver Mt Zion.

Pomona, California’s XIBALBA will close out the year with a FREE virtual concert experience this Sunday, December 20th, celebrating the release of their mammoth fourth LP, Años En Infierno.

For the past thirteen years, XIBALBA has been dedicated to carving a sound which combines unadulterated aggression booming out of the vocals, an ultra-heavy low-end frequency, colossal death metal riffs, brutal hardcore breakdowns, and a trademark groove now synonymous with the group. Showing no mercy, and keeping their cultural message intact, Años En Infierno’s eight songs culminate into XIBALBA’s most brutalizing material to date. The album is currently showing up on best-of 2020 lists internationally.

Años En Infierno was produced by Arthur Rizk (Cro-Mags Power Trip, Inquisition) and completed with artwork by longtime collaborator Dan Seagrave (Dismember, Entombed, Suffocation).

Presented by SOS Booking, XIBALBA’s Años En Infierno record release party will be streamed on Twitch, with opening live sets from Dumah and Born For Burning.

Tune in this Sunday, December 20th at 4pm PST to see XIBALBA’s Años En Infierno record release at THIS LOCATION.

Años En Infierno is out now on CD, LP and digital platforms via the Southern Lord Bandcamp HERE, the label webshop in the US HERE and Europe webshop HERE. Find shirt packages at Closed Casket Activities HERE.

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See ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF’s “Dolore di Orsini” HERE.

Following the release of her acclaimed new album, All Thoughts Fly, through Southern Lord in September, Swedish composer ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF presents an immersive new video for the track “Dolore di Orsini.” The new visual accompaniment to the song sees an exclusive premiere through Revolver Magazine today. 

All Thoughts Fly sees ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF in solo instrumental mode, the entire record consisting of just one instrument – the pipe organ – representing absolute liberation of the imagination. Recorded with mobile equipment from Svenska Grammofonstudion in Örgryte New Church, in Gothenburg January 2020, All Thoughts Fly was produced and mixed by ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFFand Filip Leyman, who both handled the organ sound design. The album was mastered by Hans Olsson at Svenska Grammofonstudion and completed with photography by Gianluca Grasselli and layout/design by Tina Damgaard.

Upon its release in September, All Thoughts Fly entered the Billboard Classical Crossover Chart at #5 and the Classical Sales Chart at #1. 

The breathtaking new video for “Dolore di Orsini” was directed by Ludvig Holtenäs and Gustaf Holtenäs, with animation effects by Mathias Söderberg.

ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF writes, “‘Dolore di Orsini’ is a song about profound sadness and finding freedom in grief. It’s inspired by the idea that Pier Orsini, a wealthy patron of arts, created the garden Sacro Bosco as a way to cope with grief and loss after losing his wife, Giulia Farnese. I look at the park as a symbol for love where love is an incitement for chaos and harmony. The video depicts Mr. Orsini burying his wife, the passing of time in nature, and sculptures taking shape and being set up by the help of a spirit. A movement forwards whilst looking backwards.”

Revolver writes with the video’s premiere, “ANNA VON HAUSWOLFF‘s music isn’t metal per se, but there’s good reason why she’s signed to headbanger stronghold Southern Lord and has played in support of such heavy hitters as Sunn O))), Swans, and Refused. The Swedish composer’s latest album, September’s All Thoughts Fly, finds her reinventing the pipe organ into an instrument of vast, haunting drone. Among its highlights is the doomy and melancholic ‘Dolore di Orsini.'”

Immerse yourself in ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF’s “Dolore di Orsini” video first at Revolver Magazine RIGHT HERE.

All Thoughts Fly is out now through Southern Lord on LP, CD, and digital via the US webshop HERE, the European shop HERE, Bandcamp HERE, and through all digital service providers.

Also see the previously released video for the “Sacro Bosco” single HERE. 

All Thoughts Fly radiates a melancholic beauty and is distinguished by fluid transitions of contrasting elements; calmness and drama, harmony, and dissonance, much like Sacro Bosco (“Sacred Grove”), the place that inspires the music. Sacro Bosco is a garden, based in the center of Italy, containing grotesque mythological sculptures and buildings overgrown with vegetation, situated in a wooded valley beneath the castle of Orsini. Created during the 16th Century, Sacro Bosco was commissioned by Pier Francesco Orsini, some say to try and cope with his grief following the death of his wife Guilia Farnese, others speculate the purpose was to create art.

The organ on All Thoughts Fly is situated in Gothenburg and is a Swedish replica of the Arp Schnitger organ in Germany. It is the largest organ tuned in Quarter-comma meantone temperament in the world. With its four manuals, one pedal and fifty-four stops, it was built as part of a ten-year research project reconstructing 17th Century North German organ building craft. The tuning temperament is an important detail to note here, as it deeply affects the sound and tuning, and thus radically changed the process of creating this album. ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF speaks of a pleasant surprise during recording, the organ’s ability to create beautiful “pitching” notes through its stops and air supply system. The organ was recorded with two room mics for atmosphere and two pairs of close mics placed inside the organ to capture nuances and detail for further organ sound processing by Filip Leyman in his studio.

For review copies of All Thoughts Fly and coverage of ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF in North America contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and in Europe contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

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