Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Day (September Edition)
I didn’t write a Viking’s Choice Guide to Bandcamp Day for August, though my wallet says otherwise. Let’s keep this short: on the first Friday of every month for the rest of 2020, Bandcamp waives its revenue fees, putting that money in the pockets of musicians and labels unable to tour, perform or promote during the pandemic. It is, the words of Bill & Ted, most excellent.
Every one of these guides has been presented in a different way, so let’s keep the fluidity moving! 28 albums, EPs or long songs — all released on or around Sept. 4 — divided into loud, soft, sad, weird categories… or perfectly paired with a glass of rosé.
As always, so much music will be missed, so follow along my personal Bandcamp collection for more! — Lars Gotrich
I like it loud
Dunwich, Tail-Tied Hearts (Caligari): Where the atmospheric fog of Agalloch, melodramatic Cradle-of-Filth-via-Phantom-of-the-Opera organ, The Birthday Party’s gothic western sprawl and progressive doom lurk in wintry shadows. The Russian trio’s debut doesn’t always cohere, but swirls with a frostbitten beauty when it does. While Margarita Dunwich can shriek like a grim fury, I wracked my brain before realizing that her clean vocals swoon oh-so-creepily like Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas — this is a good thing!
CCR Headcleaner, Street Riffs (self-released): Psychedelic hard-rock riff-raff from these acid-burned punks, featuring former members of Long Legged Woman (my boyz) and The Hospitals.
Cobra Spell, Love Venom (self-released): You can practically hear the spandex snap into place: unapologetically glammy and outrageously flamboyant heavy metal inspired by the ’80s Sunset Strip, featuring guitarists Sonia Anubis (ex-Burning Witches) and Sebastian “Spyder” Silva (Idle Hands). Don’t think too hard about it; just pass the hairspray and teasing comb.
Lawn, Johnny (Community / Muscle Beach): I’m a sucker for songwriting duos that do and don’t compliment each other. Here, sometimes you get a forest-frolicking jangle-pop song and others a fist-pumping post-punk shredder, but it all kinda makes sense as a mixtape you’d make to impress that cool kid you met at the gig.
Persekutor, Permanent Winter (Svart): What so many bands that worship Celtic Frost, Venom and Bathory tend to forget is just how ridiculously fun early black metal could be. Sure, it was pretty grim, too, but loaded with rock-and-roll debauchery. Romania’s Persekutor gets that fine line between silly and serious, and vocalist Vlad the Inhaler’s (lol what a name) got a croaker of a voice to match.
Moonkisser, Summer’s Fleeting Majesty (Head2Wall): Somebody film a fisheye lens skate video to “Crashing” already. These folks like Quicksand and Sense Field and I’m not mad about it.
Harry Pussy, Superstar (self-released): Fifteen 30-second songs of sputtered splatter-gunk from the archives. An absolutely deranged racket.
Fiona Gurney & Maxwell Patterson, The Holographic Medium (Absurd Trax / MOUHOI): Frenzied punk-noise that vibrates your body into an unknown consciousness, featuring the guitarist from math-rock duo Shake the Baby Til the Love Comes Out and the drummer who released a four-hour free-jazz/death-metal solo drums record.
Deafkids & Petbrick, Deafbrick (Rocket): Säo Paulo meets London in what ultimately encompasses the entirety of Shit and Shine’s album-to-album switch-ups from sludgy drone-doom to noise to electronic detritus to psych freakouts… but perhaps with an emphasis on hi-fi audio.
v/a, Shut It Down: Benefit for the Movement for Black Lives (self-released): Absolutely packed benefit comp of mostly unreleased material by Cloud Rat, Amygdala, Rebelmatic, Jesus Piece, Burn, Thou (Bad Religion cover), Xibalba, Chepang, Racetraitor and, well, a ton more metal/punk/hardcore bands who give a damn about Black lives.
I like to sip rosé
Bumper, Pop Songs 2020 (self-released): Michelle from Japanese Breakfast and Ryan from Crying have basically made the pop songs of my dreams. Bubbly, guitar-shreddy, silly and heartfelt, but with a real ear for rainbow-bright production.
PRIZM, All Night (FiXT Neon): Feels like it took way too long, but synthwave labels are finally releasing straight-up pop records. This Dallas duo hits all the right marks: Daft Punk disco here, Chvrches bombast there, HAIM power-hooks a-plenty and just a hint of the “Run Away With Me” sax. PRIZM is most definitely roséwave.
Jimmyjack Toth, One Eleven Heavy Presents: When The Tune Changes...So Does The Dance (self-released): Wooden Wand’s James Toth shares demos for what would’ve been (or still could be) One Eleven Heavy’s third album, its recording delayed due to, well, look at the world around you. OEH is where James goes deep into Deadhead territory with Dan Brown, Hans Chew and Nick Mitchell Maiato, so it’s fun to hear these songs in their pre-jam genesis.
v/a, Good Music to Avert the Collapse of American Democracy (Good Music): I’m sure there’s plenty to love here, but y’all had me at this Broadcast cover by Hayley Williams.
[No preview available at press time!]
I like it soft
Phew, Vertigo KO (Disciples): Hiromi Moritani was a new name to me a few years back, when Voice Hardcore and Light Sleep made the rounds among my noise-loving f(r)iends, but she’s been around for several decades in the Japanese punk and experimental scenes. This album stitches together some unused tracks from those sessions, resulting in a quieter, but no less sparse presentation of her miraculous sound world. Oh, and she turns The Raincoats’ “The Void” into a clipped Sun Ra synth jam!
William Tyler, New Vanitas (Merge): Ghostly guitar emanations from distant radio stations. The 40-minute suuuure-it’s-an-EP hangs together in tethered orbs like Daniel Lanois’ ambient work.
Charlatan, Avenoir (The Jewel Garden): Brad Rose (The North Sea, Altar Eagle, Digitalis Recordings RIP) is back after a long spell away from the drone-a-verse. On the third album reclaiming the Charlatan moniker in just two months, Rose pauses on soft tones, warps and wobbles tranquil synth melodies, and takes a fuzz bath in pastel waterfalls.
Whettman Chelmets / qualchan., Theme∞Variations (Strategic Tape Reserve): Twin Peaks-y court music on the A-side, flying yoga mat cruisin’ on the flip.
Bruno Bavota, Apartment Songs - Volume Two (1631): Whispered piano musings and a cozy room tone. Pass the tea.
I like it weird
Godcaster, Long Haired Locusts (Ramp Local): Magma, but make it an oblong prog-rock gospel rave-up. Haven’t heard this kind of raw, sprawling indie-prog freakout since the mid-2000s — think Make A Rising, Mt. Gigantic, Need New Body and Icy Demons — but Godcaster funks up the weird a bit.
Afrikan Sciences, Presents: Zano Bathroom’s Universe From A Different Hip Hop (self-released): Still wrapping my head around Eric Douglas Porter’s Afrofuturist hip-hop experimentalism as Afrikan Sciences. So let this Sun Ra-divined collab with Eric Ludgood Jr. (aka Zano Bathroom) act as an entryway to their spaceways. I’m looking for Herman / I’m speaking Bluntly.
The Master Musicians of Jajouka, led by Bachir Attar, JAJOUKA BARAKA (self-released): Multi-reedist gonzo trance punk Arrington de Dionyso presents and guests on this benefit for these working Moroccan musicians who haven’t been able to play during this pandemic. Transfixing, ancient music. As the opening track suggests: open your mind and make your brain big.
Kate Carr, Splinters (self-released): Kate manipulates field recordings just enough to obscure the source, but still situates your being in her space; your ears are the conduit, the rest follows.
I like it sad
Lomelda, Hannah (Double Double Whammy): Sweet songs that sound like desperately needed and graciously given hugs.
Soren Gauger & Alex Roth, Between Land and Sea (self-released): Maybe silence does exist; maybe it only comes in between. A meditative, mournful 23 minutes of cinematic drone. The sound is sourced entirely from conversations with folks about their experiences during quarantine, sighs and airplanes overhead stretched beyond recognition.
Sprain, As Lost Through Collision (The Flenser): There’s a song on this album called “Slant,” which is suspiciously close to Slint. The nose? Perhaps a bit too on it. But hey, Sprain’s also got a thing for Unwound, just to round out the ’90s indie rock with some noisy tension.
Balms, Behind Bars // Sword (self-released): Two outtakes from last year’s dreamy bummer-pop album Mirror. “Behind Bars,” especially, reminds me of Absinthe Blind’s hugely underrated Rings, where heft and melody drift into sheets of sound.
Bill Callahan, Gold Record (Drag City): Not that you need another white dude in his mid-30s to tell you about Bill Callahan, but damn, Bill Callahan, y’all. Domesticity looks good on him, even as he muses (via characters) on the stuff that doesn’t quite work. He spins the same devastatingly plainspoken songs he always has, but with a bit more light and perspective.