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Systemic (LP)

Divide and Dissolve
Instrumental doom crashes and cracks to let in the light of a soprano saxophone! Read more

Lamella Pressed (LP)

Gi Gi
Following his essential cassette release, 'Sunchoke,' Gi Gi finally releases a vinyl slab. For fans of '90s ambient techno. Read more

Picture of Bunny Rabbitt (LP)

Arthur Russell
New compilation featuring outtakes from The World of Echo sessions. Ethereal, amorphous vocal and instrumental tracks. Every bit as magical as it's sister album. Read more

Our Town: Our Town: Jazz Fusion, Funky Pop & Bossa Gayo Tracks from Dong-A Records (LP)

Various Artists
A alternate subtitle could easily be "Korean City Pop." Many essential classics all in one place. Read more

I Inside The Old Year Dying (LP)

PJ Harvey
A sparse, neofolk affair sung largely in the Dorset dialect. Read more

My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross (LP)

Anohni and the Johnsons
A gorgeous and soul-tinged return. Read more

Mercy (LP)

John Cale
Dark electronics and apocalyptic musings from the Velvet Underground legend. A late era classic. Read more

Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities (LP)

James Holden
Ambient passages collide with dub techno, kosmische and skronk! Read more

On the Romance of Being (LP)

Desire Marea
Queer South African artist delivers a stunner with avant garde, electronic free jazz freakouts, and operatic wails served with a 13-piece band. Read more

Bones and All (BLU)

Luca Guadagnino
Bones and All is probably my favorite movie of all time dare I say it’s even better than the book. Everything added to script that wasn’t in the original story just added to the story and didn’t take away from the original plot. The acting and cinematography was amazing with the movie being full of beautiful views of middle America. The story is all about a girl discovering who she is and then how to cope with it. Sure it’s full of cannibals but at the core it’s a love story and a film about how you’re capable of being loved no matter how damaged you may be perceived. 10/10 would recommend (especially if you’re a sucker for a Timothée Chalamet movie) Read more

Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (LP)

Lana Del Rey
Lana really didn’t disappoint with this album it’s just as good as her other ones but takes more of a calmer mature approach than the others. This record is full of beautiful piano melodies and of course her emotion filled lyrics a great one I like to listen to is “Paris, Texas” for example but there’s also songs like you can really jam to like “Peppers” ft. Tommy Genesis. It’s a new era of Lana Del Rey and i’m looking forward to it. Read more

Factory (LP)

Cheree
The first time I heard a track from this album was when I saw the band live and the recorded version definitely met the high standards they left me with after their amazing performance. If you enjoy the industrial noise genre or just powerful female vocals and guitar distortion you should check them out! Read more

Memento Mori (CD)

Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode’s “Memento Mori” had a classic Depeche Mode sound to it. Great synths and catchy beats, it’s a good album to play on a car ride. Read more

Evenfall of the Apocalypse (LP)

Ascended Dead
About time! 6 years after their last proper full length, the boys come back into town with this absolute barnburner of a record. Nasty, chaotic old school death metal worship in the vein of Incantation, Morbid Angel, Immolation etc. with some tinges of blackened psychedelia thrown in for good measure. Read more

Non Serviam (LP)

Rotting Christ
I love this record. It's certainly got its flaws, be it awkward mixing choices, bad edits, a stiff-sounding drum machine (I don't care what the band says, that is a drum machine, not someone playing an electronic kit with real cymbals) but despite and, to an extent, because of said flaws, the finished product shines blazingly bright. The riffs are powerful, the guitar interplay is intriguing without being wanky, even the goofy 90's keys fit right in, giving it an atmosphere that is instantly distinct, and coming off almost like a lost continuation of Bathory's classic material. Read more

Again Shall Be/Alone Walkyng (LP)

Hades
Speaking of reissues that sound like continuations of Bathory's classic material...the first two Hades records are back in print thanks to Nuclear War Now! "Again Shall Be," packaged here with the "Alone Walkyng" demo, boasts the honor of being recorded at Grieghallen, where Mayhem's "De Mysteriis..." was recorded, but overall feels very much like a sonic and spiritual successor to Bathory's "Hammerheart." Steady and triumphant riffing are the order of the day here, so if you're trynna break your neck headbanging, look elsewhere. If however, you're looking for something a little moodier that maintains a fierce intensity, this is for you. Read more

Death Age (LP)

Kommand
More solid contemporary death metal from 20 Buck Spin! Kommand's second full length is a deliciously ignorant slab of old school death metal in the vein of Bolt Thrower with some touches of early Entombed, Grave, Dismember, etc. to keep it moving quickly. Nothing here is reinventing the wheel or trying too hard to impress you with novelty, and that's as it should be. In a world of Periphery's, be a Kommand. Read more

Of the Sign... (LP)

Spirit Possession
The gruesome twosome does it again! Probably the best black metal band in the US are back with another masterclass in spellbinding riff-fests that expertly weave together the past, present and future of the extended black metal multiverse. I know, I've spent the last four reviews praising bands for not trying to reinvent the wheel, but if you're gonna tack that course, this is the way to do it. By remaining steeped in the tradition of the old school, but pushing the boundaries in all the right ways (i.e. song structure, chord voicing, drum patterns) Spirit Possession manage to pull off something which is at once immediately recognizable as black metal, but has neither peer nor equal, neither sonically nor compositionally, within that sphere. Absolutely necessary listening. Read more

Heavenly Persona (LP)

Shizuka
A great lost album brought back by LA's Black Editions with some truly above and beyond packaging. Shizuka bridged a nonexistent gap between Les Rallizes Denudes' endless squall and the moodier sounds of English shoegaze and goth rock. It's a singular document (and their sole studio album) and not an easy listen, but immensely cathartic. Read more

Astral Traveling (LP)

Lonnie Liston Smith and the
Real Gone Music could stand to tout themselves a bit more. The Ohio reissue label has affordably and legally revived some of America's great lost spiritual jazz, with their massive Black Jazz reissue campaign of the past few years and this utterly necessary re-up of living legend Lonnie Liston Smith's debut album. Great job, y'all! Read more