ACIDBAT – EMPTY VILE The vivid tones and rhythmic textures on this album are a testament to Seth Ogden’s mastery of incorporating modular and analog gear into his imaginative production. These acid techno tracks are crafted from live hardware, and there is a great sense of space and an almost tactile quality in the way Ogden places each element of a song. In these alien and liminal soundscapes exists an oddly comforting familiarity, as though in writing these songs Ogden has tapped into deep mind tranquil spaces on the other side of the hypnagogic curtain. Maybe it’s because the level of sonic detail is so rich even in its layers of minimalism that each track hits like an accumulation of soothing patterns in the end. ARLO AND THE FARM TOAD – KRY TOUGH: A KINKY TALE Art provocateur and curator Arlo White teams up with members BY TOM MURPHY of Manotaur (novelist Greg Hill and artist Maureen Hearty) with this curiously valid and well executed covers of songs by The Kinks. White has been in numerous underrated bands over the years and here he puts in a commanding and gritty vocal performance while Hill and Hearty do justice to interpreting the core of the music and its mix of vulnerability, elegance and working class angst. The Kinks stripped down to this trio format sound especially punk. CHERRY SPIT – DEMO This band includes former members of Endless, Nameless and QUITS and live, there is a fiery intensity to their psychedelic No Wave noise rock that can be wonderfully overwhelming. The collection of demos here is a lo-fi showcase promise of what you’ll see on stage. Cyclones of guitar hysteria, arch yet sometimes hypnotic vocals, moments of dream pop tranquility and swaths of post-screamo mathcore shoegaze. It’s like a musical Pollock painting but in the creating of the painting rather than the finished product — it has that kind of fever dream intensity. Art post-punk for discerning weirdos. MOURNING CLOAKS – PHANTOM POWER One imagines Kim Shively meditated on the types of sounds we come to ignore because they are part of our environment and turned No. 128
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