THRILL JOCKEY - Forced Exposure

$27.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 9/26/2025

LP version. Clear color vinyl. "Sam Prekop's work over the last 30 years, whether created primarily on his guitar or on his modular synth, is consistent in its powerful melodicism, delicate arrangements and subtle evolution. Prekop's singular blend of melody, impressionistic lyricism and quietly intricate rhythms are the core of the singular sound of The Sea and Cake. Since 2010's Old Punch Card, Prekop's exploration of modular synthesis and electronic atmospheres, has come into its own. Highly skilled at manipulating the sonic interplay, Prekop has established a style all his own, his pieces are complex expressing real movement. Harmonies bloom with granular detail and contrary to their machine sources are able to convey emotion. Open Close is an album that captures the flow and energy of a live performance through the lens of a deft craftsman, an equilibrium of intuitive composition and the excitement of possibility. The music of Sam Prekop is defined by his signature curiosity and his ability to mold and refine that curiosity into a wholly unique sound. His process in naming album Open Close mirrors his creative practice and the worlds he builds across the album: 'I like simple words that become complicated if you think of them more than a second or two, beyond face value. And Open Close could be: close as in 'close to you' or close as in 'close the door.' If it gives everything away too quickly, then I'm not interested.' Each movement across Open Close is replete with simple gestures that suggest new complexities with Prekop's careful arrangements. Open Close unearths new, soulfully human sounds from synthetic textures precisely juxtaposed, its subtle contrasts in texture and rhythm are a free-flowing celebration of sonics as stunning as they are ephemeral."

"Every track is awash in sumptuous, eminently hummable melodies; the album swells with a newfound sense of joy." --Pitchfork, Best New Music

"The best improvisation transforms music into a living thing." --NPR, Best Albums of 2022

$32.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 9/26/2025

Double LP version. Clear color vinyl. "Nobukazu Takemura's music is singular in its ability to create a musical sense of childlike wonder and curiosity, with gracefully executed yet complex compositions. His pieces embody an innocence and the intricacies of self-discovery that every human is faced with as their worlds become more complex. An acclaimed producer and composer, Takemura is known for his idiosyncratic music and video artistry as well as his prolific collaborations including those with Tortoise, Yo La Tengo, DJ Spooky, and Steve Reich. knot of meanings, Takemura's first proper album in a decade, finds the Japanese artist wrestling with the rise of technological influence on art and culture in the modern era, in tandem with his own relationship to religion, and where those struggles meet. Like the colorful, irregularly shaped glasses on the cover, the album is a mosaic of technicolor elements that come together to form a complete picture, a dense portrait of interconnected struggles and triumphs. Throughout the album, Takemura exudes an unpredictability that builds surprise from unlikely combinations of instruments, tonalities and harmonic motions that embody bewildering knots to untangle, held together with a youthful sense of wonder. 'I attended a Catholic kindergarten as a child and cherished those early years, which laid the foundations for my future. This is in part why I have always used the keyword 'child' in my work as an adult,' notes Takemura. knot of meanings culminates his use of that child's perspective, or as Takemura has used extensively, that 'Child's View' to explore deeper life philosophies to ecstatic ends. The meanings and mysteries contained within make for an enchanting excavation for those attuned to deep listening, a journey that rewards the kind of inquiring open-mindedness of the listener."

"Japanese composer Nobukazu Takemura, who turned in a brilliant set of electronica...At points the music turned radiant, glowing with major harmonies, the pulse of the music driving. The music makes you concentrate, it promotes ecstasy." --NY Times

"Takemura has an uncanny understanding of [a child's] perspective, and even more amazing, realizes how to turn it into music." --Pitchfork

$25.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 9/26/2025

LP version. "Sam Prekop's work over the last 30 years, whether created primarily on his guitar or on his modular synth, is consistent in its powerful melodicism, delicate arrangements and subtle evolution. Prekop's singular blend of melody, impressionistic lyricism and quietly intricate rhythms are the core of the singular sound of The Sea and Cake. Since 2010's Old Punch Card, Prekop's exploration of modular synthesis and electronic atmospheres, has come into its own. Highly skilled at manipulating the sonic interplay, Prekop has established a style all his own, his pieces are complex expressing real movement. Harmonies bloom with granular detail and contrary to their machine sources are able to convey emotion. Open Close is an album that captures the flow and energy of a live performance through the lens of a deft craftsman, an equilibrium of intuitive composition and the excitement of possibility. The music of Sam Prekop is defined by his signature curiosity and his ability to mold and refine that curiosity into a wholly unique sound. His process in naming album Open Close mirrors his creative practice and the worlds he builds across the album: 'I like simple words that become complicated if you think of them more than a second or two, beyond face value. And Open Close could be: close as in 'close to you' or close as in 'close the door.' If it gives everything away too quickly, then I'm not interested.' Each movement across Open Close is replete with simple gestures that suggest new complexities with Prekop's careful arrangements. Open Close unearths new, soulfully human sounds from synthetic textures precisely juxtaposed, its subtle contrasts in texture and rhythm are a free-flowing celebration of sonics as stunning as they are ephemeral."

"Every track is awash in sumptuous, eminently hummable melodies; the album swells with a newfound sense of joy." --Pitchfork, Best New Music

"The best improvisation transforms music into a living thing." --NPR, Best Albums of 2022

$14.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 9/26/2025

"Sam Prekop's work over the last 30 years, whether created primarily on his guitar or on his modular synth, is consistent in its powerful melodicism, delicate arrangements and subtle evolution. Prekop's singular blend of melody, impressionistic lyricism and quietly intricate rhythms are the core of the singular sound of The Sea and Cake. Since 2010's Old Punch Card, Prekop's exploration of modular synthesis and electronic atmospheres, has come into its own. Highly skilled at manipulating the sonic interplay, Prekop has established a style all his own, his pieces are complex expressing real movement. Harmonies bloom with granular detail and contrary to their machine sources are able to convey emotion. Open Close is an album that captures the flow and energy of a live performance through the lens of a deft craftsman, an equilibrium of intuitive composition and the excitement of possibility. The music of Sam Prekop is defined by his signature curiosity and his ability to mold and refine that curiosity into a wholly unique sound. His process in naming album Open Close mirrors his creative practice and the worlds he builds across the album: 'I like simple words that become complicated if you think of them more than a second or two, beyond face value. And Open Close could be: close as in 'close to you' or close as in 'close the door.' If it gives everything away too quickly, then I'm not interested.' Each movement across Open Close is replete with simple gestures that suggest new complexities with Prekop's careful arrangements. Open Close unearths new, soulfully human sounds from synthetic textures precisely juxtaposed, its subtle contrasts in texture and rhythm are a free-flowing celebration of sonics as stunning as they are ephemeral."

"Every track is awash in sumptuous, eminently hummable melodies; the album swells with a newfound sense of joy." --Pitchfork, Best New Music

"The best improvisation transforms music into a living thing." --NPR, Best Albums of 2022

$14.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 9/26/2025

"Nobukazu Takemura's music is singular in its ability to create a musical sense of childlike wonder and curiosity, with gracefully executed yet complex compositions. His pieces embody an innocence and the intricacies of self-discovery that every human is faced with as their worlds become more complex. An acclaimed producer and composer, Takemura is known for his idiosyncratic music and video artistry as well as his prolific collaborations including those with Tortoise, Yo La Tengo, DJ Spooky, and Steve Reich. knot of meanings, Takemura's first proper album in a decade, finds the Japanese artist wrestling with the rise of technological influence on art and culture in the modern era, in tandem with his own relationship to religion, and where those struggles meet. Like the colorful, irregularly shaped glasses on the cover, the album is a mosaic of technicolor elements that come together to form a complete picture, a dense portrait of interconnected struggles and triumphs. Throughout the album, Takemura exudes an unpredictability that builds surprise from unlikely combinations of instruments, tonalities and harmonic motions that embody bewildering knots to untangle, held together with a youthful sense of wonder. 'I attended a Catholic kindergarten as a child and cherished those early years, which laid the foundations for my future. This is in part why I have always used the keyword 'child' in my work as an adult,' notes Takemura. knot of meanings culminates his use of that child's perspective, or as Takemura has used extensively, that 'Child's View' to explore deeper life philosophies to ecstatic ends. The meanings and mysteries contained within make for an enchanting excavation for those attuned to deep listening, a journey that rewards the kind of inquiring open-mindedness of the listener."

"Japanese composer Nobukazu Takemura, who turned in a brilliant set of electronica...At points the music turned radiant, glowing with major harmonies, the pulse of the music driving. The music makes you concentrate, it promotes ecstasy." --NY Times

"Takemura has an uncanny understanding of [a child's] perspective, and even more amazing, realizes how to turn it into music." --Pitchfork

$27.00 IN STOCK

Orange color vinyl version. "Manslaughter 777 are powerhouses of forward-thinking rhythmic music and production. The duo, composed of drummers/programmers Lee Buford (The Body, Sightless Pit, Dead Times, Everyone Asked About You) and Zac Jones (MSC, Nothing, Braveyoung), combine their prowess as percussionists and producers into beat-centric music that delights in turning unexpected sounds into razor sharp rhythms. Buford and Jones, along with engineer/producer Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets (The Body, Model Actriz, Liturgy), have collaborated for nearly two decades, consistently shattering genre boundaries and redefining the role of the studio in the process. God's World uses innovative sound sampling to create expansive sonics driven by complex rhythms. The resulting album's infectious grooves are both celebratory and irreverent. The duo deftly interweave their own playing into field recordings and synthesized drums. The taut pieces blur the boundaries between acoustic and electronic instruments, samples and performances. 'It's kind of strange to be making music like this using acoustic sounds,' Jones continues, 'but I think that adds a special element to it, sampling our own playing and being very meticulous about the sounds we get out of those.' 'Power in the Blood' turns a ping-ponging hip hop beat into a throbbing House thump. 'Silk Barricade's' dub-gone-jungle drop is met with an industrial breakdown where 'Pulling A Truck Up A Hill''s Afro-Latin groove leaves more room to breathe. Overblown 808s and steady tambourine speckle the slow-mo 'Child Of (featuring MSC)' and a sine-wave bass lilts across the live kit on 'Luv.' On God's World, kaleidoscopic revelations reveal a rhythmic approach unbound by expectations. Buford and Jones are willing to completely shift gears within one short piece or to allow individual percussive elements to subtly transform the landscape of the beat. Manslaughter 777 have their own unique cadence, built on a deep affection for beat music, but untethered by any adherence to one specific style or set of rules. The duo imbue their music with a sinewy pulse and sense of dynamic care that lends a humanity to their unyielding arrangements. God's World is an album whose electrifying turns and gripping compounds, in pursuit of lush, incendiary grooves, is a thrilling and joyous expressive delight."

"True electronic body music -- the detail and precision of the beats here is key, a real care and attention to the strafed snares and rippling breakbeaks that reward headphone immersion." --The Wire

"drum sounds are gloriously blown out, scorched, fried to bits, but you can tell: they're blown out, scorched, and fried to bits with love. The way this thing knocks, you just know the guy behind the boards was feeling it." --The Quietus

$29.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

"Originally released in 2010, The Body's All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To Blood is a watershed album that changed the landscape of heavy music. Buoyed by the eclectic cast of musicians, from the undeniably potent collaboration with The Assembly of Light Choir as led by now longtime The Body collaborator Chrissy Wolpert, to guest contributors that include members of Dead Times, Fang Island, Lichens (aka Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe), Human Beast, and many more. The album's singularly bleak, yet beautiful atmosphere not only set the tone for The Body's career in breaking the mold, but set a new standard for what extreme music could do. All The Waters rightfully broke The Body, the duo of Lee Buford and Chip King, out from the underground and was met with acclaim from across a wide spectrum. Pitchfork's Grayson Haver Currin said of the record: 'The rare album that feels truly dangerous. As it crushes and collides doom metal, harsh noise, industrial rock, and gospel singing into one mean mess, it seems to obey no rules but its own. The result is a singular, explosive masterpiece.' NPR's Lars Gotrich put it in his 2010 Top 10 list, calling it 'the most surreal doom-metal record of 2010' and The Quietus called it the year's 'best record on the fringes of metal.' Following the album's release and subsequent tours, which sometimes included the entire Assembly of Light Choir, The Body established themselves as a permanent fixture of forward-thinking artists and a reliably overwhelming force, both on record and in live settings. All The Waters also helped spark the duo's penchant for collaboration, which they then solidified across dozens of releases, from collaborations with Braveyoung to BIG|BRAVE, Thou, Full of Hell, Uniform, and beyond. The new reissue for All The Waters is packaged as a double LP, including a whole new Side D, which is composed of bonus material never before pressed to vinyl. First edition pressings of the double vinyl reissue will be a deluxe poster edition."

"As the record continues, the beating just doesn't stop. The choral voices, returning here and there, are the only ray of hope: the Body's own singing amounts to weedy, apocalyptic howls, barely clearing the din of their processional stomps. It's an experience, this record, written in big riffs and celestial choirs and digital static." --The New York Times

$25.00 IN STOCK

"Manslaughter 777 are powerhouses of forward-thinking rhythmic music and production. The duo, composed of drummers/programmers Lee Buford (The Body, Sightless Pit, Dead Times, Everyone Asked About You) and Zac Jones (MSC, Nothing, Braveyoung), combine their prowess as percussionists and producers into beat-centric music that delights in turning unexpected sounds into razor sharp rhythms. Buford and Jones, along with engineer/producer Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets (The Body, Model Actriz, Liturgy), have collaborated for nearly two decades, consistently shattering genre boundaries and redefining the role of the studio in the process. God's World uses innovative sound sampling to create expansive sonics driven by complex rhythms. The resulting album's infectious grooves are both celebratory and irreverent. The duo deftly interweave their own playing into field recordings and synthesized drums. The taut pieces blur the boundaries between acoustic and electronic instruments, samples and performances. 'It's kind of strange to be making music like this using acoustic sounds,' Jones continues, 'but I think that adds a special element to it, sampling our own playing and being very meticulous about the sounds we get out of those.' 'Power in the Blood' turns a ping-ponging hip hop beat into a throbbing House thump. 'Silk Barricade's' dub-gone-jungle drop is met with an industrial breakdown where 'Pulling A Truck Up A Hill''s Afro-Latin groove leaves more room to breathe. Overblown 808s and steady tambourine speckle the slow-mo 'Child Of (featuring MSC)' and a sine-wave bass lilts across the live kit on 'Luv.' On God's World, kaleidoscopic revelations reveal a rhythmic approach unbound by expectations. Buford and Jones are willing to completely shift gears within one short piece or to allow individual percussive elements to subtly transform the landscape of the beat. Manslaughter 777 have their own unique cadence, built on a deep affection for beat music, but untethered by any adherence to one specific style or set of rules. The duo imbue their music with a sinewy pulse and sense of dynamic care that lends a humanity to their unyielding arrangements. God's World is an album whose electrifying turns and gripping compounds, in pursuit of lush, incendiary grooves, is a thrilling and joyous expressive delight."

"True electronic body music -- the detail and precision of the beats here is key, a real care and attention to the strafed snares and rippling breakbeaks that reward headphone immersion." --The Wire

"drum sounds are gloriously blown out, scorched, fried to bits, but you can tell: they're blown out, scorched, and fried to bits with love. The way this thing knocks, you just know the guy behind the boards was feeling it." --The Quietus

$32.00 IN STOCK

Clear vinyl version. "Originally released in 2010, The Body's All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To Blood is a watershed album that changed the landscape of heavy music. Buoyed by the eclectic cast of musicians, from the undeniably potent collaboration with The Assembly of Light Choir as led by now longtime The Body collaborator Chrissy Wolpert, to guest contributors that include members of Dead Times, Fang Island, Lichens (aka Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe), Human Beast, and many more. The album's singularly bleak, yet beautiful atmosphere not only set the tone for The Body's career in breaking the mold, but set a new standard for what extreme music could do. All The Waters rightfully broke The Body, the duo of Lee Buford and Chip King, out from the underground and was met with acclaim from across a wide spectrum. Pitchfork's Grayson Haver Currin said of the record: 'The rare album that feels truly dangerous. As it crushes and collides doom metal, harsh noise, industrial rock, and gospel singing into one mean mess, it seems to obey no rules but its own. The result is a singular, explosive masterpiece.' NPR's Lars Gotrich put it in his 2010 Top 10 list, calling it 'the most surreal doom-metal record of 2010' and The Quietus called it the year's 'best record on the fringes of metal.' Following the album's release and subsequent tours, which sometimes included the entire Assembly of Light Choir, The Body established themselves as a permanent fixture of forward-thinking artists and a reliably overwhelming force, both on record and in live settings. All The Waters also helped spark the duo's penchant for collaboration, which they then solidified across dozens of releases, from collaborations with Braveyoung to BIG|BRAVE, Thou, Full of Hell, Uniform, and beyond. The new reissue for All The Waters is packaged as a double LP, including a whole new Side D, which is composed of bonus material never before pressed to vinyl. First edition pressings of the double vinyl reissue will be a deluxe poster edition."

"As the record continues, the beating just doesn't stop. The choral voices, returning here and there, are the only ray of hope: the Body's own singing amounts to weedy, apocalyptic howls, barely clearing the din of their processional stomps. It's an experience, this record, written in big riffs and celestial choirs and digital static." --The New York Times

$27.00 IN STOCK

Lavender color vinyl version. 'Sally Anne Morgan is an artist and naturalist in the purest senses. Raised on old time and Appalachian folk traditions, Morgan's artistry embodies the rich life of the communities and natural world she surrounds herself with. Based in Alexander, NC on the edge of Appalachia and the Pisgah National Forest, Sally's blend of traditional technique and distinctly modern compositional approach are infused with the sounds of her garden, surrounding pastures, forests and mountains. 'I wanted to capture the feeling of walking outside and just encountering organic nature sounds, some with patterns, some with a randomness that also verges on its own kind of pattern,' notes Morgan. 'Old time fiddle music is the seed that grew into the part of my brain that makes music, and everything I do somehow seems to come back to that' she concludes. Abstraction in pursuit of free exploration of that which can't be put into words balancing with an intentional structure of song lies at the album's core. Guest synthesis Sean Dunlap (Field Patterns) and hurdy-gurdy player Brian 'Geologist' Weitz (Animal Collective) embellish pieces with droning thrums and sonic moss. The fiddles dance gracefully across the bedrock of banjo loops on 'Flowers of Sandihar.' The lush 'I Saw a Heron' speckles modal piano figures over a violin that sounds out from below, as if played at the bottom of a gorge. Slow guitar arpeggios on 'Eye is the First' are met with hiccupping banjo and otherworldly synth tones. Long time collaborator/mixer Joseph Dejarnette's bass gently underpins Morgan's reimagining of folk tune 'Callahan' into a more dramatic arc. Second Circle The Horizon is an album built on Morgan's singular artistic voice as an improviser and composer intertwined with deft intuition. Morgan's music highlights her bond with nature, and how its beauty and the beauty of artistic creation are interwoven. The album celebrates creation, revels in discovery, and marvels at the complex patterns, intersectional cycles and simple beauty of a creative life intertwined with the natural world."

"The fiddler, banjo player, guitarist and singer Sally Anne Morgan is a member of Black Twig Pickers and, like that band, her music is steeped in the traditions of folk music. 'Awake,' with its drifting tremolo guitar and dextrous fingerpicking, is a call to wake up to the world around you." --NPR Music

"Sally Anne Morgan's music sounds as though it has crept out of the backwoods of her native North Carolina, her voice, banjo and fiddle thrumming with the wet heaviness of that region's stormy summers." --The Guardian, Folk Album of the Month

$14.50 IN STOCK

"Metallic Life Review is the sound of two people who have collected field recordings of metal objects from around the world for years of their lives together, collaging their magpie hoard into rhythmic patterns, sometimes writing melodies and basslines, but sometimes just letting sound be sound. Patient gathering yields to ADHD editing. Painstakingly made but blink and you'll miss it. Is it music or is it noise? It is without a doubt exceptionally beautiful music wrought from metal detritus. By employing the strong contrast between a harsh industrial clatter-fest and a sweeter melodic dimension that acts as a deliberate counterforce, Matmos created an album that is utterly delightful. A 'life review' is a phrase used to describe the psychological phenomena reported by people who have survived near death experiences: the sense captured in the phrase 'my life flashed before my eyes.' Metallic Life Review is a kind of compressed fast-forward of Matmos' career with a sonic parade of the metallic objects from their lives. The sounds on the album were captured over the entire length of the existence of Matmos as a band. Metallic Life Review features Susan Alcorn's pedal steel, Owen Gardner's glockenspiel, Thor Harris' drumming, Jason Willett's (Half Japanese) guitar, and Jeff Carey's aluminum cans, which were melted, molded into custom aluminum rods, and then bowed and struck. The most dramatic difference from any previous Matmos album is that side two was recorded 'live in the studio,' ala Throbbing Gristle's Heathen Earth. For the first time on recording, Matmos capture the evolving, shifting, slithering dynamic that happens when they play live and let patterns emerge out of chaos and then collapse and then re-form. Their playful blend of compositional brilliance and improvisational playfulness meld perfectly, truly capturing ecstatic moments in a way that can only happen live. Metallic Life Review is a love story transmuted into sound, the result of a life filled with curiosity and powered by boundless exploration. Matmos have again made something spellbinding, brilliant and emotionally resonant.

"The two men of Matmos are living rebukes to the idea that conceptual art is somehow scary and inaccessible. When they decide to make a track out of the sounds of a breast implant or a cow uterus, they're challenging themselves not just to use those noises, but to make them sound funky and fun." --Pitchfork

"Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt have been making music together for so long, and that their music has been so consistently good for so long really is remarkable." --The Quietus, album of the week

$27.00 NOT IN STOCK

LP version. Blue color vinyl. "Metallic Life Review is the sound of two people who have collected field recordings of metal objects from around the world for years of their lives together, collaging their magpie hoard into rhythmic patterns, sometimes writing melodies and basslines, but sometimes just letting sound be sound. Patient gathering yields to ADHD editing. Painstakingly made but blink and you'll miss it. Is it music or is it noise? It is without a doubt exceptionally beautiful music wrought from metal detritus. By employing the strong contrast between a harsh industrial clatter-fest and a sweeter melodic dimension that acts as a deliberate counterforce, Matmos created an album that is utterly delightful. A 'life review' is a phrase used to describe the psychological phenomena reported by people who have survived near death experiences: the sense captured in the phrase 'my life flashed before my eyes.' Metallic Life Review is a kind of compressed fast-forward of Matmos' career with a sonic parade of the metallic objects from their lives. The sounds on the album were captured over the entire length of the existence of Matmos as a band. Metallic Life Review features Susan Alcorn's pedal steel, Owen Gardner's glockenspiel, Thor Harris' drumming, Jason Willett's (Half Japanese) guitar, and Jeff Carey's aluminum cans, which were melted, molded into custom aluminum rods, and then bowed and struck. The most dramatic difference from any previous Matmos album is that side two was recorded 'live in the studio,' ala Throbbing Gristle's Heathen Earth. For the first time on recording, Matmos capture the evolving, shifting, slithering dynamic that happens when they play live and let patterns emerge out of chaos and then collapse and then re-form. Their playful blend of compositional brilliance and improvisational playfulness meld perfectly, truly capturing ecstatic moments in a way that can only happen live. Metallic Life Review is a love story transmuted into sound, the result of a life filled with curiosity and powered by boundless exploration. Matmos have again made something spellbinding, brilliant and emotionally resonant.

"The two men of Matmos are living rebukes to the idea that conceptual art is somehow scary and inaccessible. When they decide to make a track out of the sounds of a breast implant or a cow uterus, they're challenging themselves not just to use those noises, but to make them sound funky and fun." --Pitchfork

"Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt have been making music together for so long, and that their music has been so consistently good for so long really is remarkable." --The Quietus, album of the week

$25.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "Metallic Life Review is the sound of two people who have collected field recordings of metal objects from around the world for years of their lives together, collaging their magpie hoard into rhythmic patterns, sometimes writing melodies and basslines, but sometimes just letting sound be sound. Patient gathering yields to ADHD editing. Painstakingly made but blink and you'll miss it. Is it music or is it noise? It is without a doubt exceptionally beautiful music wrought from metal detritus. By employing the strong contrast between a harsh industrial clatter-fest and a sweeter melodic dimension that acts as a deliberate counterforce, Matmos created an album that is utterly delightful. A 'life review' is a phrase used to describe the psychological phenomena reported by people who have survived near death experiences: the sense captured in the phrase 'my life flashed before my eyes.' Metallic Life Review is a kind of compressed fast-forward of Matmos' career with a sonic parade of the metallic objects from their lives. The sounds on the album were captured over the entire length of the existence of Matmos as a band. Metallic Life Review features Susan Alcorn's pedal steel, Owen Gardner's glockenspiel, Thor Harris' drumming, Jason Willett's (Half Japanese) guitar, and Jeff Carey's aluminum cans, which were melted, molded into custom aluminum rods, and then bowed and struck. The most dramatic difference from any previous Matmos album is that side two was recorded 'live in the studio,' ala Throbbing Gristle's Heathen Earth. For the first time on recording, Matmos capture the evolving, shifting, slithering dynamic that happens when they play live and let patterns emerge out of chaos and then collapse and then re-form. Their playful blend of compositional brilliance and improvisational playfulness meld perfectly, truly capturing ecstatic moments in a way that can only happen live. Metallic Life Review is a love story transmuted into sound, the result of a life filled with curiosity and powered by boundless exploration. Matmos have again made something spellbinding, brilliant and emotionally resonant.

"The two men of Matmos are living rebukes to the idea that conceptual art is somehow scary and inaccessible. When they decide to make a track out of the sounds of a breast implant or a cow uterus, they're challenging themselves not just to use those noises, but to make them sound funky and fun." --Pitchfork

"Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt have been making music together for so long, and that their music has been so consistently good for so long really is remarkable." --The Quietus, album of the week

$25.00 IN STOCK

'Sally Anne Morgan is an artist and naturalist in the purest senses. Raised on old time and Appalachian folk traditions, Morgan's artistry embodies the rich life of the communities and natural world she surrounds herself with. Based in Alexander, NC on the edge of Appalachia and the Pisgah National Forest, Sally's blend of traditional technique and distinctly modern compositional approach are infused with the sounds of her garden, surrounding pastures, forests and mountains. 'I wanted to capture the feeling of walking outside and just encountering organic nature sounds, some with patterns, some with a randomness that also verges on its own kind of pattern,' notes Morgan. 'Old time fiddle music is the seed that grew into the part of my brain that makes music, and everything I do somehow seems to come back to that' she concludes. Abstraction in pursuit of free exploration of that which can't be put into words balancing with an intentional structure of song lies at the album's core. Guest synthesis Sean Dunlap (Field Patterns) and hurdy-gurdy player Brian 'Geologist' Weitz (Animal Collective) embellish pieces with droning thrums and sonic moss. The fiddles dance gracefully across the bedrock of banjo loops on 'Flowers of Sandihar.' The lush 'I Saw a Heron' speckles modal piano figures over a violin that sounds out from below, as if played at the bottom of a gorge. Slow guitar arpeggios on 'Eye is the First' are met with hiccupping banjo and otherworldly synth tones. Long time collaborator/mixer Joseph Dejarnette's bass gently underpins Morgan's reimagining of folk tune 'Callahan' into a more dramatic arc. Second Circle The Horizon is an album built on Morgan's singular artistic voice as an improviser and composer intertwined with deft intuition. Morgan's music highlights her bond with nature, and how its beauty and the beauty of artistic creation are interwoven. The album celebrates creation, revels in discovery, and marvels at the complex patterns, intersectional cycles and simple beauty of a creative life intertwined with the natural world."

"The fiddler, banjo player, guitarist and singer Sally Anne Morgan is a member of Black Twig Pickers and, like that band, her music is steeped in the traditions of folk music. 'Awake,' with its drifting tremolo guitar and dextrous fingerpicking, is a call to wake up to the world around you." --NPR Music

"Sally Anne Morgan's music sounds as though it has crept out of the backwoods of her native North Carolina, her voice, banjo and fiddle thrumming with the wet heaviness of that region's stormy summers." --The Guardian, Folk Album of the Month

$14.50 IN STOCK

"Thalia Zedek's considerable body of work demonstrates a clarity of vision, a singular performance style, and an expansive range. Her ability to deliver raw emotions through her vivid stories of loss and hope, strife and triumph is unmatched. Zedek has long been a melodic songwriter in a series of heavy bands. That contrast, alongside her distinct blend of both direct and poetic lyrics, allows her to sing of the most difficult of life's moments in ways that are both elevating and devastating. Out and proud her entire career, Zedek never hesitates to speak truth to power. The Boat Outside Your Window finds Zedek contemplating absence and distance, with songs as spirited as they are profoundly moving. The band is guitarist and vocalist Zedek, bassist Winston Braman, and drummer Gavin McCarthy (Karate), now joined by newest member, pedal steel guitarist Karen Sarkisian. On The Boat Outside Your Window, Sarkisian's counter melodies and oblique augmentations created with non-traditional tools like an ebow, add an otherworldly quality to songs. The grit of Zedek's guitar and drive of Braman and McCarthy are met with synth-like swells and more harmonic density. The album features guests Nancy Asch (percussion) and Beth Heinberg (piano) whose subtle touches are added to 'Shoes' and 'Aliyah.' The record was recorded with Andy Hong, mixed by Seth Manchester, and mastered by Sarah Register. Throughout the album, Zedek deftly uncovers how external realities manifest in internal worlds. Zedek's mastery of songwriting is on full display on The Boat Outside Your Window. Her unique musical voice remains potent and pointed. Cultivating her sound with purpose and an unflinching view of humanity, Zedek's words and music are both invigorating, and capable of deep emotional complexities. The Boat Outside Your Window is Thalia Zedek reaching new heights, reinforcing her status as a peerless songwriter and voice.

"Ms.Zedek's songs (are)... more hard-nosed, delivered... in a raspy voice that backed by the band's folk-rock, sounded surprisingly like Bob Dylan's." --New York Times

"she has rediscovered the energy that defined her work with Uzi, Live Skull, and Come, pouring imposing defiance into ten rocking cuts." --The Wire

"This is someone getting better at something they were already incredible at." --The Quietus

"her voice sounding like a cross between Nico and Patti Smith? musically she spans pedal-steel-laden country rock, punk menace and string-driven Velvets drones." -- Uncut

$14.50 LOW STOCK LEVEL

"Emptyset, James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas, explore both spatial and physical properties of sound; specifically the perceptible boundaries between it and noise. They have produced installations for Tate Britain and the Architecture Foundation in London. Emptyset's new album Dissever continues their exploration of the histories of 20th century electronic sound and media. Dissever delves into the intertwined evolution of cosmic rock, minimalism and electronic music, viewed through their prospective dreams and overlapping technological ambitions. Premiered at Tate Modern as a live performance, Dissever was part of the exhibition Electric Dreams, a large-scale survey of the global history of art and technology. The resulting album is astoundingly sublime, rich with sonics that are as thrilling and immediate as they are singular and dense with complexity. The compositions across Dissever draw threads from pioneering production methods emerging in parallel across the late 1960s, considering the cross talk between these fields and their radical intentions to carve out the future from differing paths, traversing the mystical and modern, while incorporating elements of the transformative, hypnotic, expansive and transcendent to define new principles within sound. The arrangements, performed live and captured in single takes, emerged across a series of sessions at long term collaborator Mat Sampson's recording studio in Bristol. This process revisited early hardware, spatial and multitrack recording techniques to create a dynamic body of material that could look back to these foundational musical forms and converge them through the lens of a reimagined timeline, cultivating a transmission from 1969 to the present and a sensory bridge to the past."

"Emptyset are in a class by themselves when it comes to excavating brutality out of silence." --Pitchfork

$25.00 IN STOCK

LP version."Emptyset, James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas, explore both spatial and physical properties of sound; specifically the perceptible boundaries between it and noise. They have produced installations for Tate Britain and the Architecture Foundation in London. Emptyset's new album Dissever continues their exploration of the histories of 20th century electronic sound and media. Dissever delves into the intertwined evolution of cosmic rock, minimalism and electronic music, viewed through their prospective dreams and overlapping technological ambitions. Premiered at Tate Modern as a live performance, Dissever was part of the exhibition Electric Dreams, a large-scale survey of the global history of art and technology. The resulting album is astoundingly sublime, rich with sonics that are as thrilling and immediate as they are singular and dense with complexity. The compositions across Dissever draw threads from pioneering production methods emerging in parallel across the late 1960s, considering the cross talk between these fields and their radical intentions to carve out the future from differing paths, traversing the mystical and modern, while incorporating elements of the transformative, hypnotic, expansive and transcendent to define new principles within sound. The arrangements, performed live and captured in single takes, emerged across a series of sessions at long term collaborator Mat Sampson's recording studio in Bristol. This process revisited early hardware, spatial and multitrack recording techniques to create a dynamic body of material that could look back to these foundational musical forms and converge them through the lens of a reimagined timeline, cultivating a transmission from 1969 to the present and a sensory bridge to the past."

"Emptyset are in a class by themselves when it comes to excavating brutality out of silence." --Pitchfork

$27.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Blue color vinyl. "Emptyset, James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas, explore both spatial and physical properties of sound; specifically the perceptible boundaries between it and noise. They have produced installations for Tate Britain and the Architecture Foundation in London. Emptyset's new album Dissever continues their exploration of the histories of 20th century electronic sound and media. Dissever delves into the intertwined evolution of cosmic rock, minimalism and electronic music, viewed through their prospective dreams and overlapping technological ambitions. Premiered at Tate Modern as a live performance, Dissever was part of the exhibition Electric Dreams, a large-scale survey of the global history of art and technology. The resulting album is astoundingly sublime, rich with sonics that are as thrilling and immediate as they are singular and dense with complexity. The compositions across Dissever draw threads from pioneering production methods emerging in parallel across the late 1960s, considering the cross talk between these fields and their radical intentions to carve out the future from differing paths, traversing the mystical and modern, while incorporating elements of the transformative, hypnotic, expansive and transcendent to define new principles within sound. The arrangements, performed live and captured in single takes, emerged across a series of sessions at long term collaborator Mat Sampson's recording studio in Bristol. This process revisited early hardware, spatial and multitrack recording techniques to create a dynamic body of material that could look back to these foundational musical forms and converge them through the lens of a reimagined timeline, cultivating a transmission from 1969 to the present and a sensory bridge to the past."

"Emptyset are in a class by themselves when it comes to excavating brutality out of silence." --Pitchfork

$27.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Clear vinyl. "Thalia Zedek's considerable body of work demonstrates a clarity of vision, a singular performance style, and an expansive range. Her ability to deliver raw emotions through her vivid stories of loss and hope, strife and triumph is unmatched. Zedek has long been a melodic songwriter in a series of heavy bands. That contrast, alongside her distinct blend of both direct and poetic lyrics, allows her to sing of the most difficult of life's moments in ways that are both elevating and devastating. Out and proud her entire career, Zedek never hesitates to speak truth to power. The Boat Outside Your Window finds Zedek contemplating absence and distance, with songs as spirited as they are profoundly moving. The band is guitarist and vocalist Zedek, bassist Winston Braman, and drummer Gavin McCarthy (Karate), now joined by newest member, pedal steel guitarist Karen Sarkisian. On The Boat Outside Your Window, Sarkisian's counter melodies and oblique augmentations created with non-traditional tools like an ebow, add an otherworldly quality to songs. The grit of Zedek's guitar and drive of Braman and McCarthy are met with synth-like swells and more harmonic density. The album features guests Nancy Asch (percussion) and Beth Heinberg (piano) whose subtle touches are added to 'Shoes' and 'Aliyah.' The record was recorded with Andy Hong, mixed by Seth Manchester, and mastered by Sarah Register. Throughout the album, Zedek deftly uncovers how external realities manifest in internal worlds. Zedek's mastery of songwriting is on full display on The Boat Outside Your Window. Her unique musical voice remains potent and pointed. Cultivating her sound with purpose and an unflinching view of humanity, Zedek's words and music are both invigorating, and capable of deep emotional complexities. The Boat Outside Your Window is Thalia Zedek reaching new heights, reinforcing her status as a peerless songwriter and voice.

"Ms.Zedek's songs (are)... more hard-nosed, delivered... in a raspy voice that backed by the band's folk-rock, sounded surprisingly like Bob Dylan's." --New York Times

"she has rediscovered the energy that defined her work with Uzi, Live Skull, and Come, pouring imposing defiance into ten rocking cuts." --The Wire

"This is someone getting better at something they were already incredible at." --The Quietus

"her voice sounding like a cross between Nico and Patti Smith? musically she spans pedal-steel-laden country rock, punk menace and string-driven Velvets drones." -- Uncut

$25.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

LP version. "Thalia Zedek's considerable body of work demonstrates a clarity of vision, a singular performance style, and an expansive range. Her ability to deliver raw emotions through her vivid stories of loss and hope, strife and triumph is unmatched. Zedek has long been a melodic songwriter in a series of heavy bands. That contrast, alongside her distinct blend of both direct and poetic lyrics, allows her to sing of the most difficult of life's moments in ways that are both elevating and devastating. Out and proud her entire career, Zedek never hesitates to speak truth to power. The Boat Outside Your Window finds Zedek contemplating absence and distance, with songs as spirited as they are profoundly moving. The band is guitarist and vocalist Zedek, bassist Winston Braman, and drummer Gavin McCarthy (Karate), now joined by newest member, pedal steel guitarist Karen Sarkisian. On The Boat Outside Your Window, Sarkisian's counter melodies and oblique augmentations created with non-traditional tools like an ebow, add an otherworldly quality to songs. The grit of Zedek's guitar and drive of Braman and McCarthy are met with synth-like swells and more harmonic density. The album features guests Nancy Asch (percussion) and Beth Heinberg (piano) whose subtle touches are added to 'Shoes' and 'Aliyah.' The record was recorded with Andy Hong, mixed by Seth Manchester, and mastered by Sarah Register. Throughout the album, Zedek deftly uncovers how external realities manifest in internal worlds. Zedek's mastery of songwriting is on full display on The Boat Outside Your Window. Her unique musical voice remains potent and pointed. Cultivating her sound with purpose and an unflinching view of humanity, Zedek's words and music are both invigorating, and capable of deep emotional complexities. The Boat Outside Your Window is Thalia Zedek reaching new heights, reinforcing her status as a peerless songwriter and voice.

"Ms.Zedek's songs (are)... more hard-nosed, delivered... in a raspy voice that backed by the band's folk-rock, sounded surprisingly like Bob Dylan's." --New York Times

"she has rediscovered the energy that defined her work with Uzi, Live Skull, and Come, pouring imposing defiance into ten rocking cuts." --The Wire

"This is someone getting better at something they were already incredible at." --The Quietus

"her voice sounding like a cross between Nico and Patti Smith? musically she spans pedal-steel-laden country rock, punk menace and string-driven Velvets drones." -- Uncut

$25.00 IN STOCK

"BIG|BRAVE's preternatural instincts and depth of skill as musicians are on full display on their most naked and austere record to date, OST. The trio entered the studio with broader concepts and themes in mind, but no preconceived music. The overarching concept was to make a film score for a film that had yet to be created, to use minimal instrumentation, or more specifically not their standard band instruments, and to improvise within these parameters. 'Although this record could stand on its own, we envisioned it being paired with moving images, which introduced a fresh and exciting way of working,' notes guitarist Mathieu Ball. In addition to forgoing their usual instrumentation, they notably built their own. Ball created a stringed instrument using piano strings simply called 'The Instrument.' This instrument ended up becoming a central figure to the OST's sound. Guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie adds: 'The strings Mathieu used for his instrument came from a discarded piano thatch that had been laying around in the hallway of my tattoo studio for ages.' The instrument's presence is felt throughout the record as a conductive element amplifying the album's earthly, grounded nature. OST was fully written and recorded in the studio. The band was free to enter the live room and record a take with whatever instrument was at hand. Once they had a good foundation for a song, Ball, Wattie, drummer Tasy Hudson and even engineer/producer Seth Manchester would each build on it, layering takes, from instrumental improvisations to abstract vocals, until they felt it was a completed piece. Wattie's voice seamlessly blends with the instrumental flourishes made from 'The Instrument,' a Wurlitzer, prepared piano, synths and a very limited amount of electric guitar. Additionally, there is a sprinkling of flute by Melissa Guion (MJ Guider). The performances of each player are tactile and ardent, even at their most subtle and effected. Following OST's completion, BIG|BRAVE contacted director/ visual artist Stacy Lee to visually score the record. Director Lee and BIG|BRAVE, having previously collaborated, had established an artistic understanding which allowed BIG|BRAVE to give Lee no instruction, no limitations: the creative process synthesized across film and music. Select screenings with live performances are in the works."

"one of the most punishing and prolific bands in the contemporary avant-metal landscape" --Pitchfork

$14.50 IN STOCK

"What happens when you combine SUMAC, a band that uses the volume, distortion, and guitar-centric approach of metal to make music that has the malleability of jazz and textural exploration of noise with Moor Mother, a poet and sound artist that has deconstructed hip hop to a point where it's less about rhyme and rhythm (though obviously both are present in her work) and more about oratorical cadence and power? The Film is an album that takes attributes of both artists' work and finds common ground in shifting musical patterns, and expressive force. The record is a musical thumbing of their noses at the more traditional approaches of their respective fields, an innovative, powerhouse of an album. The Film's moniker speaks to the fact that it is conceived and delivered as a complete album, a full story or narrative. Moor Mother puts it best: 'The idea is to create a moment outside of the convention. This is a work of art. Thinking about the work as a film, instead of an album or a collection of songs. This task is impossible in an industry that wants to force everything into a box of consumption. You won't understand or get the full picture until the artwork is completed. This work is developing and is requesting more agency within the creative process.' The Film does have clear themes running throughout -- again Moor Mother expounds: 'the themes are universal in nature -- land -- displacement -- the climate -- human rights and freedoms -- war and peace -- the idea of running away from the many violent forces and horrific systems of man and empire.' Heavy, holy, hypnotizing -- beyond existence, beyond the fettered constraints of normality, past the false notions of the indoctrinated disguised as the organic, planets form; the detritus of cosmic stuff merges into galaxies, into something that can sound like it's populated by suns. The Film is just such a work, a nebulitic collaboration between SUMAC and Moor Mother. The Film was recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle with Scott Evans. The album includes appearances by guest vocalists Kyle Kidd, Sovie, and Candice Hoyes."

"like self-perpetuating obstacle courses in hell. Ricocheting between formidable doom and barbed improvisation, Sumac sound preternaturally belligerent." --Pitchfork, 8.4 Best New Music

"her music sustains a constant, complementary tension between the hushed, folkloric mantras and defiant Afrofuturist litanies she shares, her sound drawing freely from noise, jazz, blues and beats while respecting the practice of each mode." --The Guardian

$32.00 IN STOCK

Double LP version. Pink color vinyl. "What happens when you combine SUMAC, a band that uses the volume, distortion, and guitar-centric approach of metal to make music that has the malleability of jazz and textural exploration of noise with Moor Mother, a poet and sound artist that has deconstructed hip hop to a point where it's less about rhyme and rhythm (though obviously both are present in her work) and more about oratorical cadence and power? The Film is an album that takes attributes of both artists' work and finds common ground in shifting musical patterns, and expressive force. The record is a musical thumbing of their noses at the more traditional approaches of their respective fields, an innovative, powerhouse of an album. The Film's moniker speaks to the fact that it is conceived and delivered as a complete album, a full story or narrative. Moor Mother puts it best: 'The idea is to create a moment outside of the convention. This is a work of art. Thinking about the work as a film, instead of an album or a collection of songs. This task is impossible in an industry that wants to force everything into a box of consumption. You won't understand or get the full picture until the artwork is completed. This work is developing and is requesting more agency within the creative process.' The Film does have clear themes running throughout -- again Moor Mother expounds: 'the themes are universal in nature -- land -- displacement -- the climate -- human rights and freedoms -- war and peace -- the idea of running away from the many violent forces and horrific systems of man and empire.' Heavy, holy, hypnotizing -- beyond existence, beyond the fettered constraints of normality, past the false notions of the indoctrinated disguised as the organic, planets form; the detritus of cosmic stuff merges into galaxies, into something that can sound like it's populated by suns. The Film is just such a work, a nebulitic collaboration between SUMAC and Moor Mother. The Film was recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle with Scott Evans. The album includes appearances by guest vocalists Kyle Kidd, Sovie, and Candice Hoyes."

"like self-perpetuating obstacle courses in hell. Ricocheting between formidable doom and barbed improvisation, Sumac sound preternaturally belligerent." --Pitchfork, 8.4 Best New Music

"her music sustains a constant, complementary tension between the hushed, folkloric mantras and defiant Afrofuturist litanies she shares, her sound drawing freely from noise, jazz, blues and beats while respecting the practice of each mode." --The Guardian

$29.00 IN STOCK

Double LP version. "What happens when you combine SUMAC, a band that uses the volume, distortion, and guitar-centric approach of metal to make music that has the malleability of jazz and textural exploration of noise with Moor Mother, a poet and sound artist that has deconstructed hip hop to a point where it's less about rhyme and rhythm (though obviously both are present in her work) and more about oratorical cadence and power? The Film is an album that takes attributes of both artists' work and finds common ground in shifting musical patterns, and expressive force. The record is a musical thumbing of their noses at the more traditional approaches of their respective fields, an innovative, powerhouse of an album. The Film's moniker speaks to the fact that it is conceived and delivered as a complete album, a full story or narrative. Moor Mother puts it best: 'The idea is to create a moment outside of the convention. This is a work of art. Thinking about the work as a film, instead of an album or a collection of songs. This task is impossible in an industry that wants to force everything into a box of consumption. You won't understand or get the full picture until the artwork is completed. This work is developing and is requesting more agency within the creative process.' The Film does have clear themes running throughout -- again Moor Mother expounds: 'the themes are universal in nature -- land -- displacement -- the climate -- human rights and freedoms -- war and peace -- the idea of running away from the many violent forces and horrific systems of man and empire.' Heavy, holy, hypnotizing -- beyond existence, beyond the fettered constraints of normality, past the false notions of the indoctrinated disguised as the organic, planets form; the detritus of cosmic stuff merges into galaxies, into something that can sound like it's populated by suns. The Film is just such a work, a nebulitic collaboration between SUMAC and Moor Mother. The Film was recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle with Scott Evans. The album includes appearances by guest vocalists Kyle Kidd, Sovie, and Candice Hoyes."

"like self-perpetuating obstacle courses in hell. Ricocheting between formidable doom and barbed improvisation, Sumac sound preternaturally belligerent." --Pitchfork, 8.4 Best New Music

"her music sustains a constant, complementary tension between the hushed, folkloric mantras and defiant Afrofuturist litanies she shares, her sound drawing freely from noise, jazz, blues and beats while respecting the practice of each mode." --The Guardian

$27.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

Clear color vinyl version. "BIG|BRAVE's preternatural instincts and depth of skill as musicians are on full display on their most naked and austere record to date, OST. The trio entered the studio with broader concepts and themes in mind, but no preconceived music. The overarching concept was to make a film score for a film that had yet to be created, to use minimal instrumentation, or more specifically not their standard band instruments, and to improvise within these parameters. 'Although this record could stand on its own, we envisioned it being paired with moving images, which introduced a fresh and exciting way of working,' notes guitarist Mathieu Ball. In addition to forgoing their usual instrumentation, they notably built their own. Ball created a stringed instrument using piano strings simply called 'The Instrument.' This instrument ended up becoming a central figure to the OST's sound. Guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie adds: 'The strings Mathieu used for his instrument came from a discarded piano thatch that had been laying around in the hallway of my tattoo studio for ages.' The instrument's presence is felt throughout the record as a conductive element amplifying the album's earthly, grounded nature. OST was fully written and recorded in the studio. The band was free to enter the live room and record a take with whatever instrument was at hand. Once they had a good foundation for a song, Ball, Wattie, drummer Tasy Hudson and even engineer/producer Seth Manchester would each build on it, layering takes, from instrumental improvisations to abstract vocals, until they felt it was a completed piece. Wattie's voice seamlessly blends with the instrumental flourishes made from 'The Instrument,' a Wurlitzer, prepared piano, synths and a very limited amount of electric guitar. Additionally, there is a sprinkling of flute by Melissa Guion (MJ Guider). The performances of each player are tactile and ardent, even at their most subtle and effected. Following OST's completion, BIG|BRAVE contacted director/ visual artist Stacy Lee to visually score the record. Director Lee and BIG|BRAVE, having previously collaborated, had established an artistic understanding which allowed BIG|BRAVE to give Lee no instruction, no limitations: the creative process synthesized across film and music. Select screenings with live performances are in the works."

"one of the most punishing and prolific bands in the contemporary avant-metal landscape" --Pitchfork