Thanks to the inexplicable popularity of my Submit Music page, I always have a digital backlog of albums, EPs, singles and videos awaiting my perusal. Here are the latest submissions that caught my ears and eyes. As usual, it’s a pretty eclectic lineup, with everything from powerhouse post-punks to eccentric indie-popsters and jazzy experimentalists in the mix. Something they have in common: Any one could easily be your new favourite artist. To that end, I’ve included Bandcamp links wherever possible so you can buy the music straight from the source. Tell ’em I sent ya. And if you’ve got something I need to hear, send it my way. If I think you’re half as good as you think you are, I just might include you next time.
Entropy
Liminal
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Some things you just can’t get rid of. They follow you around like a shadow, like it or not. Case in point: music. Hans Frese spent his prolonged adolescence in various emo and hardcore bands. Then, after entering so-called adulthood, all this stopped. No band anymore. Instead of that, a serious job and all that goes along with it. We all know what it’s like. But does saying good-bye to your passions, to music, really come this easily? Apparently not. After 10 years without a band, ideas for new songs suddenly started to flow out of nowhere. Riffs that had been floating around since Hans’ teenage years came together and merged into songs somewhere between Hüsker Dü, Nothing and Torche. Open guitars, big melodies, but also a certain heaviness — all this cobbled together on a laptop in a bedroom after work. So now, there were these songs. How to get them out into the world? Is it possible to find new bandmates beyond your 30s? Philipp Heidemann was the obvious choice as bass player — he planted the idea of starting a band like Entropy in Hans’ head when he gave him an old Swervedriver tape back in the day. Philipp brought in Jens Sawatzki, and finally, Benjamin Koevener came along, a drummer who mainly works in electronic music. Different people with very different backgrounds and tastes — but against all odds, it started working. The rest is history. Entropy started playing shows, decided to record at Mannheim’s RAMA Studios with Jens Siefert and piled guitar and vocal tracks on top of each other until their debut album Liminal was done. It includes songs about inner conflict, living in a physical body, illness and hope that draw their inspirations from a wide array of sources, ranging from writers like Philip K. Dick and Karl Ove Knausgard to personal experiences with anxiety and depression. In the end, it seems pretty obvious: You just can’t get rid of music that easily. And it’s exactly the urgency and drive that propels people towards their passions that is evident in Entropy’s music.”
The Sebastions
Here For Now
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Sebastions is a 28-year-old male from Virginia, United States. His debut EP Here For Now was recorded and mastered the entire album in the basement of a friend’s house with some other musicians. He is looking to play live soon.”
Evan Shay
New Normal
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “New Normal is the first full-length solo record from Montreal saxophonist and producer Evan Shay. Mostly composed and assembled during the intense months of the pandemic, the music journeys across many stylistic influences and the flurry of emotions that emerged throughout the turmoil. The driving forces of the record are the raw emotionality and uncertainty that follow a global catastrophe, and the fear and rage at witnessing the rise of fascism in the United States. The album is also heavily influenced by the 1971 movie Vanishing Point; in particular, how the film explores themes of existentialism, commentary on societal roles, and finding your own sense of personal freedom. Accompanying each track are animations that feature the iconic white 1970 Dodge Challenger that takes Kowalski, the enigmatic counterculture antihero, on his escape route from life in society. With this music, Evan Shay is shedding light on the same questions that the film was asking 50 years ago. Combining a nuanced blend of electronic music, hip-hop, ambient, and jazz, New Normal deviates from Shay’s 2018 release Internal Combustion — a gritty fusion of guitar and metal-influenced compositions developed by his band Lawful Citizen. In this debut as a solo artist, New Normal carries the same intensity, but employs a producer’s palette of sounds.”
Joseph Hein
After All The Laughter
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Joseph Hein hails from the Palouse in eastern Washington State. After All the Laughter was recorded live (mostly) in 2019 in Albion, WA, AKA Clark Farms AKA Grama Betty Studios, AKA Kapa Kapa Gramma.”
https://youtu.be/jw7DjQ-0ido
Birds of Nazca
Birds of Nazca
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “We are a French instrumental duo that formed in 2019. We like fuzz and heavy sound. Our music sits somewhere between stoner rock, heavy psych and doom. Or as we call it : Doom ’n’ roll. We released our first demo Kanagawa in 2019 and our self-titled debut album was recorded live the last summer at the Blue Anvil Sound studio in Orgöne, Djiin.”
The Battery Farm
Endless Unstoppable Pain 🙂
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Endless Unstoppable Pain 🙂 is the debut EP from Manchester gutter punks The Battery Farm. Featuring the acclaimed singles Maggot Line and Excellent Public Speaker, it is a four-track dive into the psyche and worldview of its creators; a record by four millennials attempting to come to terms with the terrifying uncertainty of the future they face, trying to make sense of the corruption, destruction and madness of this world and lashing out at the kleptocratic structures that have destroyed our planet and our souls. Endless Unstoppable Pain 🙂 was recorded at Red City Studios in Manchester. It was produced and engineered by David Radahd-Jones and mastered by Pete Maher.”
reijo
The Future
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “reijo are an alternative-rock band from Calgary that blend shimmering guitar tones, ambience, and delays with thoughtful, politically charged lyrics to create a wholly rock sound. They are an exciting four-piece that is on the brink of taking rock in a new direction, and are often compared to The Cure, Pink Floyd, Echo & The Bunneymen, early U2 and Chris Isaak. reijo’s first album When the World Starts Again was released in 2011, followed by Tomorrowland in 2015. The Future is their third album.”
The Gypsy Moths
Wollaston Theatre
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Gypsy Moths are a six-piece band of garage soul shakers from Boston, bringing a full-fledged party to the stage and keeping rooms across New England movin’ and groovin’ with floor fillers since 2014. Their latest EP Wollaston Theatre is getting airplay on stations across the US, UK, Canada, Spain, France, Japan, Germany, Scotland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Gibraltar, South Africa, Ireland, and Australia.”
