Ty Segall
Manipulator
[Drag City]
Cheeseburgers are great, 17 cheeseburgers less so. Ultimately this is the problem, if one could even deem it a ‘problem’, with psych-garage godhead Ty Segall’s latest. It’s not like Manipulator is bad, or even approaching bad, it’s just a bit much. Segall had the makings of a stellar album and follow up EP but by the end of this bloated doubler you start to feel like he’s repeating himself. It would seem great songs alone do not a great “album” make. – Danny Wilson
King Tuff
Black Moon Spell
[Sub Pop]
OK, granted this thing is pretty dumb but since when was that a cardinal sin? If you like you’re rock’n’roll delivered in sharp suits in the Iveagh Gardens while you run the risk of being shushed by someone’s dry-shite older sister, then this probably isn’t for you. If you like shit sleazy garage bands and longhairs opining on the virtues of getting stoned, ghouls, goblins, cemeteries and getting stoned with ghouls and goblins in cemeteries then look no further, buddy. – Danny Wilson
Hands Up Who Wants to Die
Vega in the Lyre
[Learning Curve]
The Dublin noise-rock juggernaut are back to wreck your buzz once again. The Beckett references are a good indicator of the band’s worldview; an absurdist, end-times take on modern living as a morass of decay and diseased urbanity. Produced with jagged intensity by John “Spud” Murphy, there’s an ugly, scraping clatter to most of the tunes here (in a good way), with the exception of the poignant, melancholic lull of Burnt Yesterday. – Ivan Deasy
Earth
Primitive and Deadly
[Southern Lord]
For a band so focused on the art of the riff as Earth, the decision to prominently feature vocals throughout a record proves a schismatic one. Mark Lanegan’s contributions are more a distraction than an enhancement, particularly on There is a Serpent Coming, where his soulful white guy routine reduces the song to a pastiche of southern gothic. Rabia Shaheen Qazi’s vocals work much better, but the instrumental songs are the strongest, where the emphasis is still firmly on volume and tone. –Ivan Deasy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdqTfputm_E
Goat
Commune
[Sub Pop]
The formula on Goat’s follow up to World Music remains mostly unchanged. The masked Swedish troupe create a hail of psychedelic fuzz with nods to pop music’s plundering of sounds from Middle Eastern and Indian traditional music. The lyrics are a hodgepodge of hippyism and vague spirituality but they’re delivered with such sustained fervour that their meaning is largely irrelevant. It’s as invigorating as ever, if a touch darker in tone than its predecessor. – Ivan Deasy
Pallbearer
Foundations of Burden
[Profound Lore]
The Arkansas doomsters return after their acclaimed debut Sorrow and Extinction with another set of sprawling mini-epics. It’s not as thematically cohesive as that album, with its obsessive fixation on death and mourning, but musically more varied and emotive (particularly Foundations). The record is a compelling document of the band’s transcendence of its influences (Candlemass, Cathedral) and continuing evolution into sonic territory all its own. – Ivan Deasy
Perfume Genius
Too Bright
[Matador]
Mike Hadreas’ previous record Put Your Back N 2 It won acclaim primarily on the strength of the emotional intensity of its lyrical tales but the arrangements were far too wishy-washy and undynamic for my taste. Lead single Queen immediately remedied that issue with crisp, pounding electric piano, and much of Too Bright is similarly imbued with dynamism PG lacked before, on Fool conjuring even the poppiest moments of Grizzly Bear. A distinctly more engaging and electrifying accompaniment to Hadreas’ feverish vignettes. – Ian Lamont
Soil Creep
True Enough
[Crash Symbols]
The second outing from Aidan Wall as Soil Creep is a refreshing departure from the recent releases on West Virginia weirdo label Crash Symbols. Wall juxtaposes caustic, four-to-the-floor club music with euphonious melodies and lo-fi guitar, not to mention some seriously choice samples. Tied together by the coherent production aesthetic, this is a rasping and coughing affair, sounds constantly fraying at the seams. The most delightful aspect however is how undoubtedly of a time and place the album is, without compromising the wider appeal. Bravo. – Yann Chalmers
