Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (July 24th

by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our weekly recap of this week's new music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "Further Listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web. It's generally written in the early hours of the morning and semi-unedited... but full of love and heart. The list is in alphabetical order and we sincerely recommend checking out all the music we've included. There's a lot of great new music being released. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music.

*Disclaimer: We are making a conscious effort not to include any artist in our countdown on back-to-back weeks in order to diversify the feature, so be sure to check the "Further Listening" as well because it's often of top-notch quality too.

As Armand Hammer get increasingly popular, their music seems to skew forever stranger, and there’s something very refreshing about that. It’s safe to say that billy woods and ELUCID are among modern hip-hop’s most celebrated MCs, if not by commercial standards than certainly by artistic achievements. Perpetually pushing the envelope, the duo return with We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, due out September 29th via Fat Possum Records, and it seems they’re continuing to color ever further outside the lines. “Trauma Mic,” the record’s lead single, pairs Armand Hammer with frequent collaborators Pink Siifu and producer DJ Haram, the collective of visionaries offering something undeniably alien. The beat is probably closer to noise music than traditional hip-hop, and each verse is as abrasive in delivery, finding room for their words to land like a ton of bricks between the claustrophobic dread with an amorphous shape.

Over the past few years Cherry Cheeks, the clamorous punk band led by Kyle Harms, have released a handful of EPs in addition to their debut album, all while relocating from Orlando to Portland. The once solo project expanded to a band and they’ve spent time on the road touring with Research Reactor Corp and GEE TEE, an experience that band say informed much of their upcoming album, CCLPII. Due out on October 6th via Total Punk Records (Retail Simps, Pyrex, Lavender Flu), the home-recorded record expands on the band’s “egg punk” jitteriness and unwieldy energy with an added emphasis on “pop” hooks. “Hard Stancing” manages to pack an exhausting amount of vitality, the song charging with a crisp tempo that sizzles for its entire runtime. Condensed but focused, there’s a psychedelic sheen to the rattling pace, sharpened with piercing synths and garage punk riffs.

There’s a feeling upon listening to Holy Wave’s new record, Five of Cups, that it’s the album they’ve always been destined to make. While their earliest records paid homage to the furthest out reaches of dusty desert psych akin to their peers The Black Angels, they’ve spent the past decade evolving and expanding their palate into something more nuanced and refined. It’s been thrilling to hear in real time, and while the Austin quartet are still working within the psych-pop oeuvre, they’re painting with an entirely different set of brushes, their music over the past five years or so leaning closer to the space-age dream-pop end of the spectrum. Five of Cups is majestically crafted, disorienting but beautiful, dreamy yet intricate. “The Darkest Timeline” is one of the record’s stand-out moments, a collaboration with Mexico’s Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, whose Lorena Quintanilla handles lead vocals, her voice transfixed and mesmerizing in the clouds of atmospheric boogie and pulsating synth work.

Just in time for the WWE’s biggest event of the summer, Brooklyn quartet Jobber return with the massive and dynamic, “Summerslam,” their first new music since the release of their debut EP. With immediate nods to Helmet and Hum alike (others say Quicksand… take your pick), the band lean on a colossal bass riff and intricate yet brute drumming from the band’s core, Kate Meizner and Michael Falcone. There’s a resonant evil quality to the riffs, careening and impenetrably heavy, but Jobber balance the scales with Meizner’s sweet vocal melodies and dizzying construction, slinking into caterwauling grooves as quickly as head splitting sludge. It’s been a live staple since the band first wrote the song, and the recording, produced by Justin Pizzoferatto, sounds clean but nuanced, capturing the structure’s veering dynamics and their marriage of engaging hooks and visceral heaviness.

Following the release of “Sort Of” a few months back, Austin’s Neckbolt have announced their second album, Dream Dump, due out September 22nd via Born Yesterday Records (Landowner, Stuck). There seems to be little precedence for the sound that the sextet make, drawing their own vibrant brand of noise rock that eschews much of the genre’s singularities, instead focusing on a wide array of colorful psych rock and insistent kraut-punk that is uniquely artistic above anything else. They’re making music that’s heavy and deranged and they’ve having fun doing so, a fact that separates themselves from many of their would-be peers. Their latest single, “Fung Wah or Lucky Star” feels beamed in from another dimension, a dirge of other-planetary discordance, the steadily hypnotic rhythm providing backbone for guitars that seem to clang with abrasive patchwork, closer to a throng than anything resembling a typical “riff”. It’s weird music for weird people, just the way we love it.

Prewn’s Izzy Hagerup makes it inherently clear that what could be considered a perfect world for some is not a perfect world for others. The Northampton, MA based songwriter, set to release her debut album Through The Window, is taking greed and commodification to task with esoteric resolve. “Perfect World” is a tale about a billionaire who is content to watch the world burn in pursuit of insurmountable greed. He’s drinking baby’s blood… you know, thriving despite everyone else’s suffering. It’s a vivid reflection of the few that prosper while the many struggle, and Prewn’s intimate composition has a juxtaposing beauty to it all. With delicate acoustics and a threadbare rhythm, Hagerup’s voice sounds resonant, confident but wavering, picking apart melodies that flutter in the song’s dazzling composition. Prewn has a gift for unraveling progressions in their own time and “Perfect World” continuously develops with a refined patience and unmatched attention to detail.

There are some records that seem destined to be “hidden gems,” records that remind you how great music can be, without endless long-winded press campaigns and media hype. rocky, the duo of Xanthe Waite (Terry, Primo) and Raven Mahon (Grass Widow, Green Child) have made one of those records with their self-titled debut album. The pairing sounds amazing on paper and it sounds even better in actuality, very much the sum of its parts, in the best of ways. rocky is shimmering with minimalist post-punk grooves and rich harmonies, but there’s an unpredictable nature to it, the pair splintering songs to drift away from the path most commonly travelled. They opt for wonky guitar lines and ultra resonant synths, setting the framework for their sweet and comforting duel vocal approach. The songs are an instant salve but they’re not without their own complexities, it’s the subtle and profound moments of their arrangements that truly stun, from sputtering percussion to bent melodies. rocky feels like a new cult classic.

Sa-Roc is both undeniably hard and more intellectual than your average rapper, and it’s immediately apparent. She’s lived through a life that’s been anything but performative, with personal details and her ironclad flow in top form throughout her exceptional Rhymesayers debut, The Sharecropper’s Daughter, released back in 2020. A few years later and she’s getting ready to release its follow-up, but before that’s announced she’s given us “Talk To Me Nice,” a new single produced by frequent collaborator Sol Messiah (Da Backwudz, Dead Prez, Nappy Roots). Sa-Roc never wastes an opportunity to shine, and she’s buzzing over the elastic funk of the beat, staking her claim as the reigning Queen of hip-hop, hitting bars that both mythologize her lyricism through historical references, hard-wound punchlines, and lessons learned from a young age. There’s a knowledge to be heard in her verses, she’s chasing her dreams but also aware that she’s running circles around the mainstream, never one to dumb down or play to the competition.

While it’s been five years since Speedy Ortiz last released an album, it’s clear that the band aren’t showing any signs of rust on their upcoming fourth album, Rabbit Rabbit. With each single we’ve heard from the record (due out via Wax Nine), the band are offering something different, seemingly bursting with impatient ideas, ready to run free in whatever shape they might. That freedom and sense of unbound exploration is ever apparent in Sadie Dupuis and Andy Molholt’s guitar playing throughout each of the preview tracks, they’re still mining a greater pop sensibility, but they’re doing it with weirdness on their side. Latest single “Ghostwriter” is an undeniable banger, a song that stampedes with a primal and brilliantly disjointed drum beat and crushing riffs that only sweeten the song’s glued-in hooks. It’s that juxtaposition, galloping one minute and decimating the next, that really lead toward the radiant splendor of its chorus and the earnest nature of Dupuis’ lyrics that seem to cement it all together.

Comprised of familiar faces from Almond Joy, Fuckwolf, Rays, DIIV, and beyond, Spiral Dub’s self-titled debut album is a lively bunch of sugar-spun swarmers and high-octane garage punk, built on the strength of three guitars and plenty of psychedelic pop heft. They arrive fully formed, the songs are spiky but hooky, there’s an effortless cool and endlessly warbling distortion. The texture of the record feels in constant motion, the lush kaleidoscopic nature of it becoming the constant thread. There’s an amazing collective energy to “Rise and Shine,” the entire thing bursting with an unmatched exuberance. The sextet are amped upon entry, with layered vocals and mountainous melodies, it’s a song that could split the difference between blistering garage punk and Sesame Street anthems, a ramshackle moment of pure rock joy. There’s a sense of rawness at its core as the band dig into the melted popsicle stickiness of the buzzing riffs, but the sing-song harmonized vocals, shimmering in a permanent glow become an undeniable fixture.

ADULKT LIFE “Future Cops” | BE YOUR OWN PET “Big Trouble” | BLACK THOUGHT & EL MICHELS AFFAIR “Hollow Way (Live)“ | BLUE DOLPHIN “Ida” | CUTTERS “Depresso Rant No.69 (Live)” | DJ MUGGS “Jokers Wild” (feat. CeeLo Green) | ELUVIUM “Clockwork Fables” | EXTENSIVE SLAUGHTER “Life Is A Cold Hell” | FACET “L.B.D.” | FATBOI SHARIF & STEEL TIPPED DOVE “Phantasm” | FLAT WORMS “Suburban Swans” | FLY ANAKIN “Blain Pitch” | GOLD DIME “Wasted Wanted” | GRASS JAW “Things You Can’t Take Back“ | HEADCHEESE “I Wanna Be Special (Forces)” | HOTLINE TNT “Protocol” | INCANTATION “Homunculus (Spirit Made Flesh) IX” | IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS “Free Love” | JALEN NGONDA “That’s All I Wanted From You” | MARY JANE DUNPHE “Always Gonna Be The Same” | MCKINLEY DIXON “Dedicated to Tar Feather (Kitchen Table Session)” | OPEN CITY “Return Your Stolen Property Is Theft” | OSEES “Stunner” | PATIO “Sixpence” | RUTH GARBUS “Mono No Aware” | SCREENSAVER “The Guilt” | SHOVE “Power (Live)” | SINAI VESSEL “Tangled” | STINGRAY “Subterranean” | SUBSONIC EYE “Yearning” | TALKING KIND “Trouble” (feat. Radiator Hospital & The Goodbye Party) | VAGABON “If I Loved You”

A GIANT DOG “A Daydream” | ACTIVITY “I Saw His Eyes” | APOLLO BROWN & PLANET ASIA “Wide Awake” | BRONTEZ PURNELL “Stay Monkey” (Julie Ruin cover) | CANDY CLAWS “Distortion Spear” | CARLOS TRULY “Much 2 Much” | CONSENSUS MADNESS “Madness“ + “Behind” | CORKER “Edge of Teeth” | ††† (CROSSES) “Invisible Hand” | DJ PREMIER “Runway” (feat. Westside Gunn & Rome Streetz) | FELICIA DOUGLASS “Honey Crystals” | FRED CRACKLIN “Head Meet Concrete” | GAADGE “Candy-Colored” | HAND HABITS “Live on KEXP” | HELVETIA “The Beach At The Edge Of The World” LP | HOOVERIII “The Tall Grass” | IVY 2 “Domino” | JOELL ORTIZ & L’ORANGE “Holy Ghost” (feat. CyHi) | KING TUFF “Symphony of a Man” | LAVORO “The Heat” | MEYHEM LAUREN, DJ MUGGS, & MADLIB “Big Money” | MONDE UFO “Drive Up Drive Thru Solitude“ | MUMS “100 Kilos” | ONYON “Alien Alien” | PENNY “The Bubblegum Tape” EP | THE PRIZE “First Sight” | QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE “Negative Space” | RATBOYS “Crossed That Line” | RETAIL SIMPS “Easy Street“ | RID OF ME “Rid of Me” | RYAN DAVIS & THE ROADHOUSE BAND “Free From The Guillotine” | SARAH MORRISON “Gray Apples” | SHEER MAG “All Lined Up” | SPARKLE DIVISION “Foxy” | SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE “Tapeworm” + “Natural Devotion 2” | STEPMOTHER “Do You Believe” | TRAINDODGE “The New Low”

Tagged: Armand Hammer, Pink Siifu, DJ Haram, Speedy Ortiz, Jobber, Prewn, Sa-Roc, Sol Messiah, Spiral Dub, Cherry Cheeks, Holy Wave, Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, Neckbolt, Rocky, Adulkt Life, Be Your Own Pet, Black Thought, El Michels Affair, Blue Dolphin, Cutters, Shove, DJ Muggs, Cee-lo, Eluvium, Extensive Slaughter, Sparkle Division, Facet, Fatboi Sharif, Steel Tipped Dove, Meyhem Lauren, Madlib, Flat Worms, Fly Anakin, Gold Dime, Grass Jaw, Headcheese, Hotline TNT, Incantation, Irreversible Entanglements, Jalen Ngonda, Mary Jane Dunphe, McKinley Dixon, Open City, Osees, Patio, Ruth Garbus, Screensaver, Sinai Vessel, Stingray, Subsonic Eye, Talking Kind, Radiator Hospital, The Goodbye Party, Vagabon, A Giant Dog, Activity, Apollo Brown & Planet Asia, Brontez Purnell, Candy Claws, Carlos Hernandez, Carlos Truly, Consensus Madness, DJ Premier, Westside Gunn, Rome Streetz, Corker, Crosses, Felicia Douglass, Fred Cracklin, Gaadge, Helvetia, Hand Habits, Hooveriii, Ivy 2, Joell Ortiz, L'Orange, CyHi, King Tuff, Lavoro, Monde UFO, Mums, Onyon, Penny, Phil Spector's Gun, The Prize, Queens of the Stone Age, Ratboys, Retail Simps, Rid of Me, Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, Sarah Morrison, Sheer Mag, Spirit of the Beehive, Stepmother, Traindodge