Today’s exercise features a well-adjusted young man looking for love. GIRLFRIEND URINE BEE DEMONSTRATION “God, do I wish I had a girlfriend.” Sammy hurled a leftover bucket of porridge over the claptrap wire fence that encircled his parents’ chickens, who, as soon as their stupefied demon eyes caught sight of the cresting brown wave, kicked up a rabble sure to wake the entire block. “You know what girls like?” honked Sammy’s father, pinching his nose against the stench of avian urine that pervaded the side yard, strewn with corn feed and grass clippings. “They like guys with jobs. Jobs other t ..read more

A new release from the DETOUR dance music collective. Oscar Celedon’s debut EP, Coming of Age, contains four tracks’ worth of intricate rhythms, thumping bass, and melodic layers that interact with subtlety and deftness. Closer “The DJ That Always Carries a USB,” which sounds like the name of an extremely specific superhero, stirs to life with a twitching pulse punctuated by hits of pots-n-pans percussion. A synth arpeggio fades in after a while, growing from muted to clear and laser-like. The nature of the arpeggio continues to change as the piece moves along–aqueous at one point, then drench ..read more

The death metal quintet’s new album, The dead space between the stars, explores the Blade Runner universe. At the end of Blade Runner, when Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty, an artificial human being known as a replicant, saves Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who’s spent the length of the movie trying to “retire” Batty, he flips the movie’s dynamic on its head. Replicants are viewed as dangerous criminals deserving of capture and disposal, but Batty, who knows this his own clock is ticking due to a premature aging disorder, demonstrates more compassion in his one act than any of the huma ..read more

A few words about a few local tracks that hit the spot this week ### Ancient History – Madcow A ticking, whirring little ditty that builds to a toybox marching band crescendo full of faded horns and rattling drums. More from Ancient History Follow on Instagram ### Anne Eliza – Devil Behind My Door Imagines addiction lurking like a malevolent and unwanted houseguest, then shuts the door on the bastard with the help of some forceful piano. More from Anne Eliza Follow on Instagram and Facebook Artwork by Erica Harney ### Death Gasp – What Have You Done? Coal-black and crusted over, this one thr ..read more

FTR Drama returns with the ominous “Rainfall.” The Devin Miles-produced instrumental on “Rainfall” sounds like the walkout music for a thirty-foot-tall boxer. Melodic tones swirl with the menace of thunderheads before a storm, and the bass thumps like footfalls hitting the ground with metric tons of weight behind them. FTR Drama takes full advantage of the atmosphere, tossing off bars that include basketball puns (“I recruit all the little shooters like a college scout” […] “I’m surrounded by some shooters like I’m Draymond”) and boasts that bump up against chilling memories (“I was trying to ..read more

go home//worms is a two-sided single released in advance of the album i eat truth. An image that stood out to me when I first heard “fall out//call out,” the spooky opener from 1000z of Beez’s 2019 album wands served, was that of Trash Isle, a place mentioned in the song that brought to mind a heap of old junk bristling with disembodied doll arms and decapitated teddy bear heads, part whimsical and part eerie. 1000z of Beez returns to Trash Isle on “whale fall #4 (go home)”–a hushed acoustic number blanketed by inviting tape hiss– waiting there for somebody who visits only in dreams. Gossamer ..read more

The latest single from a band whose music is both dreamy and crushing. Eyewash’s 2023 debut EP featured gauzy swirls and metallic chugs alike, and “Bound” finds the quintet pushing its sound even further in both directions. The track’s heavy parts hit like battering rams, as the guitars sink down into churning sludge and the vocals transition from melodic to yowled; “Do you want to feel the things I feel?” goes one anguished refrain. Later on, though, the storm quiets, the drums slow down, arpeggios arc like rainbows through a prism, and vocals drift soothingly through a reverb sea. A punishin ..read more

A few words about a few local tracks that hit the spot this week ### Luwidakid – Too Playa Luwi and guest Freddo Filial daydream over a Julio-produced instrumental that sounds like it could be playing in a Grand Theft Auto cabana. More from Luwidakid Follow on Instagram ### Calvin Stanley – Functional Amnesia A driving techno track that coalesces into being like a pulsing cloud of space dust forming a planet. Digital chirps and gut-churning drones abound. More from Calvin Stanley Follow on Instagram ### Hideous Tenant – Songs for Decomposition Otherworldly analog synth pieces, the type of st ..read more

Chains of Desire creates abrasive synth music that seems to disintegrate as it plays. Centralia is a town in Northeastern PA in which a coal fire burns permanently underground. Its buildings have been condemned, its ZIP code discontinued. Five people still live in Centralia despite extended eviction efforts by state and local government bodies. Stubbornness is one of humanity’s great motivators. “Centralia,” a mid-album track from Chains of Desire’s recently released Youth & Industry, is the kind of thing that these five remaining residents would throw on at a dance party held atop the smo ..read more

Frequent collaborators team up for the Two Guns EP. It’s fitting that a track named after a Swissvale corner bar would open with the sounds of muddled chatter and music strains warped as if filtered through a haze of heavy smoke. When the instrumental kicks in properly it’s with the sampled smolder of a lounge lizard saxophone complemented by hissing cymbals and a molasses slow drumbeat. BOSSY and JVGGY trade tells of illicit luxury, rapping about eighths snuck onto flights, shoes filled with island sand, and Aaliyah-soundtracked romance. The rhymes are succinct, relying on delivery, atmospher ..read more