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There is just too much music on WKNC. This is especially true of electronic music. Luckily, I’m one of the people who are putting in the automated music queue for Afterhours, so I can tell you what I like to help you sort through it. Here are a few of those that are recent additions to the WKNC rotation.
GEL is a band that has recently emerged onto the hxc and punk scenes within the past couple years. They’ve released two EPs and now, their first album, “Only Constant”, back in March of this year. This newest release has a runtime of sixteen minutes and twenty-nine seconds. It features a unique blend of hardcore punk and metal.
The band is currently composed of Sami Kaiser (vocals), Anthony Webster (guitar), Bobko (bass), Madison Nave (guitar) and Zach Miller (drums). GEL’s previous EPs are “Shock Therapy” released in 2022 and “Violent Closure” released in 2021.
As for their sound, I would consider them to have one foot in a pool of molten, hardcore punk and the other foot sinking in the sludge of metal. They are able to get the edgy lyrics and lighter vocals from punk, while drawing up the guitar and deeper sounds from metal very well.
I have to say this track is by far my favorite from the album. It’s longer than the rest by at least a whole minute and features instrumentals that can induce some heart palpitations. The quick bursts from the guitar and drums jolt my head. It’s a great album closer and it feels like it has the most ties to metal in the album with coarse vocals.
Next on my list of likes from this album is “The Way Out”. It is short, but definitely not sweet. Fifty-three seconds of raw energy compelling me to headbang and mosh wherever I am. Also to note in this track are the lyrics:
“I’m tugging on the bone don’t want them to be known
Feelings come in quick – brace for your turn and hit
Still waters thickly sit, beneath the buoyant brink”
Lyrics from “The Way Out” by GEL
I love the consonance on the third line with ‘beneath the buoyant brink” and the extended use of water and pressure imagery. This lyricism is smart with tons of emotion and thought poured into it, so I love being able to appreciate the band’s ability to make it enthralling too.
This was not one of my favorite tracks. Unfortunately they can’t all be winners. Of course, it’s not bad, but it lacks the same appeal and attention grabbing that many of the other songs have on this release. “Fortified” blends into the background of this album being surrounded by “Honed Blade” and “Attainable”.
This is a great first full length release for GEL. I think they’ve got some unique flavors and sounds that will (hopefully) continue to grow in strength as they progress forward into their future.
I don’t really know who reads these posts, but be sure to form your own opinions based on your listening experience. Don’t take my silly perspective on this genre as credible or incredulous. All this is my view on how this music makes me feel. If you like this music, cool. If you hate this music, cool. Just try your best to take in what these artists and bands are putting forth for us, the consumers, to enjoy.
Though September is still ripe in its infancy, the fall equinox is visible — a beacon of hope for alternative kids everywhere, perhaps — just on the horizon.
Alternative music artists are already hard at work to set the backdrop for the upcoming fall season, and I am already hard at work cultivating the perfect autumnal playlists.
Here are three artists who elected to kick off the month of September with new releases.
Aeon Sable is one of many beloved bands I’ve neglected to address in my time as a WKNC content creator.
There’s no better time to ameliorate that condition than with a short analysis of one of their most recent works.
The fourth track on the band’s newest album, “Aenigma,” “From Witchcraft to Deviltry” has already become one of the band’s top songs on Spotify.
“From Witchcraft to Deviltry” oscillates between airs of plaintive lovesickness and frigid rage.
A riveting arrangement of contemporary gothic rock and metal, the song is icy until a swell of guitars and vocals introduces a smokier, enflamed energy to the track.
The song stands as a testament to Aeon Sable’s affinity for the esoteric and arcane, making it perfect listening material for fans of heavy music with colder energies.
Dark and sensual and tinged with autumnal gloom, this new release from darkwave group Ash Code is certain to mobilize the dancefloor at the next Goth Night.
Breathy vocals emerge like smoke from an ethereal arrangement of synths, eventually becoming an instrument all of their own.
Released as a single on the first day of September, “Tear You Down,” while not particularly striking on its own, may soon accompany other tracks as part of a longer EP or album.
Overall, it’s a solid atmospheric track.
Burgeoning darkwave artist Soft Vein’s newest single, “LEASH,” further demonstrates his talent for cultivating phantasmal auditory experiences.
A two-track release, the single consists of “LEASH” and “BLOODLETTING,” sneak peeks of Soft Vein’s upcoming album “PRESSED IN GLASS“
“LEASH” is a hazy, gray-tinged track that sounds diffused through fog. The synth arrangement and vocal style reminds me of Harsh Symmetry’s new wave influence (which makes sense, as the artists toured together) though with a doomier twist.
“BLOODLETTING,” my favorite of the two tracks, captures the energy of Soft Vein’s March single “VIOLENTIA.”
While the song’s style also leans towards the new wave influences of the post-punk genre, the vocals take on a more romantic tone, which never fails to please the little bat-creature that lives in my temporal lobe.
Andrew Hozier-Byrne, better known as Hozier, first captivated the world in 2013 with the international success of his debut track, “Take Me to Church” – a powerful, mid-tempo soul song that addresses difficult socio-political realities of the time.
Since then, the Irish native has achieved musical acclaim with a slew of inter-genre chart-topping hits in rock, blues, folk, pop and dance.
With the release of a third album, “Unreal Unearth”, Hozier caps a decade of stellar lyricism and expert musicianship with a deeply introspective love letter to the humanity of humanity where he seamlessly shape-shifts between familiar genres and dives into a distinctly new soundscape: soft and ethereal.
ALBUM: “Memorrhage”
RELEASE YEAR: 2023
LABEL: Big Money Cybergrind
BEST TRACKS: “Memory Leak”, “Exit”, “Brain Wield”
FCC: Some tracks have explicit content.
The rage and passion in Memorrhage’s self-titled release still has its dirty, disastrous cybernetic probes stuck in my brain after listening to it three months ago. The Nü-Metal inspired sounds and highly electronic atmosphere the whole album exudes fits into a niche of metal music I never considered I needed for my ears.
Memorrhage is just a side project done by prolific metal artist Gary Brents. He has been (and still is) a part of Cara Neir, Gonemage, and has been part of multiple other bands over the years. Brents experimented with a multitude of music genres to achieve the sound of Brents’ “tribute to growing up with nu-metal in the 90s/00s” (As stated on Memorrhage’s Bandcamp bio).
But enough about that. Let’s dive into the album.
Each song on this album tells its own narrative. Each is in their own Sci-Fi cyber-hellscape. To start the album off, “Memory Leak” is telling us about a rogue videogame entity wreaking havoc in the digital world through a data leak. Bizarre, I know, but look (and listen of course) to these lyrics:
“It starts with a flicker and an itch
In my dreams and the corner of my eye
Then it’s all over my skin, it’s scalding
A million voices screaming
Lyrics taken from “Memory Leak” by MemorrhageAnd I can’t make them stop
I can see the circuits breaking
It lost its mind to technicolor
Dreams of cloaking schemes”
Memorrhage’s horrid beauty forces itself through your ears and makes you understand the emotion and artistry of pain coming from this odd perspective. The brutal sounds drew me into this track at first and then diving into the strange world building in the lyricism made me go slack-jawed and wide eyed in appreciation of the thought and love poured into “Memory Leak”.
And that doesn’t change throughout the whole album. Each song is filled with love and raw emotion that drives further from your expectations at every turn. In “Exit” the pitter-patter, then builds to explosive vocal screams is so good at exciting me for the ‘boom’ I experience at the beginning of the song every time. Any time I want to feel an explosive force of energy course its way under my skin and into my nerves, I flip on this track and start jittering just at the start.
So… track eight of this album brings us to a particularly heavy variety of instrument and technical diversity compared to the other tracks on this album. “Brain Wield” is listed as the track with the most guest appearances with a total of nine different artists playing a role in the creation of this track.
From Mr. Rager, a DJ makin’ brain ripping record scratches, to a slew of metal vocals coming from Brent’s connections in the industry, “Brain Wield” seems to be the most technically advanced track and I believe it pays off in a big way.
Memorrhage combines Nü-Metal, some glitch elements, and one of my favorite 90’s genres: turntablism. “Brain Wield” also has a few spoken narrative elements weaved in to help tell the story of this song too (you can read a synopsis of it on the Bandcamp page that is linked above).
All of these additions to this one track are wonderful tools to aid in storytelling and don’t inhibit listeners from obtaining the emotional wasteland this album continues to shove into our ears.
This isn’t to say the other tracks on this album are lame or don’t have the same pull the previous three do, but the magnetism of the aforementioned tracks are so great that I don’t have enough time and space to dive into what makes each song in this album so sickeningly pleasing to me.
I’ll instead give quick one-liner description for a few tracks:
“Reek” is just that: an offensive odor that doesn’t leave your nose but still leaves you addicted to it.
“Finesse” includes high pitched electronic bleeps and heart stopping pauses leaving my adrenaline coming to jolting starts and stops.
“Utility” has the classic Nü-Metal choruses mixed with hard record scratches and alluring space opera ballad content.
This whole album is a unique take on the Nü-Metal genre and I think it does a great job of improving and inventing new sounds within the genre that might’ve inhibited it from reaching greater renown in the past. The glitch-techno aspects of this album are huge draws to me as it feels like a ginormous Sci-Fi adventure in a gorier version of a “Blade Runner” type universe (but far more interesting, sorry Philip K. Dick).
Memorrhage’s opening album holds great promise to inspire old and new artists alike to return to old, worn-out genres of metal that could use some new sounds and approaches. I am excited to see where Gary Brents takes this project and to see the impact it might have on future sounds in metal.
Squid is a band with a well developed and unique sound. The group hails from the South London post-punk scene. Other bands in the scene include Black Midi and Black Country, New Road.
Instruments used in the project include guitar, saxophone, bass, drums and synthesizers. One change in this album compared to their previous work is an increased use of synthesizers in primary and background instrumentals.
I feel like this song is a bit unique in Squids lineup. The eerie intro heads the song off with retro sounding synths with drums, and then also with guitar. When bass, vocals, and a more distorted guitar come in, the song sounds more like classic Squid, but with the synths continuing in the background.
One interesting musical device used in the track would be the rhythmic relationship between the the guitar and drums. The drums play a straightforward beat in 4/4 while the guitar plays patterns that constantly shift and stress different beats. The combination of the patterns creates a push/pull feel.
This is a very unique track. It sounds like a funk band that was orchestrated by a horror movie soundtrack composer. The track constantly builds energy while gradually interchanging instrumental parts.
I feel that this album is more cohesive than Squid’s previous album, SGK. The tracks that were released as singles are quite good, but do not top the track “Narrator” off of SGK on their own in my opinion.
I’ll give this album an 8/10
Other recommended album tracks: “The Blades”, “Devils Den”, “Siphon Song”
-Daniel Turk
I was introduced to the new Frost Children album, “SPEED RUN” by a friend who said that the song “HI 5” seemed like something I would like. Within a few listens the song became a staple on many playlists of mine– the samples of Yoshi from “Super Smash Bros. Melee” made it an easy win in my book.
Pitchfork said in their review of the album that it came off as “creatively vacant,” and that wore away at the listening value of the LP. I’m here to agree on the vacancy described, but also to say that I felt that was the point of the album.
It’s similar to the 100 gecs or Black Dresses use a sense of silliness or airheadedness to add to the appeal of their already-chaotic music. Frost Children adopts this sort of ‘indie sleaze’ idea that is so popular among new and emerging music of 2023 into hyperpop, an ever-changing and growing genre without well-defined limits.
I’ll admit that there are songs on “SPEED RUN” that fall flat and lack much appeal. “ALL I GOT,” which was released as a single alongside “HI 5” and “FLATLINE,” isn’t a song I would write home about. It’s pretty simple and gets grating after a few listens due to its repetitiveness and simplicity.
“SICK TRIP,” heavily criticized in the aforementioned Pitchfork article, is actually one of my favorite songs off the album. It’s cheesy and kitschy in a way that indie sleaze should be. If 100 gecs is praised for songs like “Frog On the Floor” or “I Got My Tooth Removed,” then Frost Children can be praised for the ways they embrace cringe. The duo, siblings Angel and Lulu Prost, have actually spoken previously in an interview with Office Magazine about “embracing cringe.”
Although the album is not a 10/10, it’s fun to listen to and excites a lot of what I love about music and about hyperpop specifically.
Songs to Start With: “HI 5,” “FLATLINE,” “SICK TRIP”
— bel$
The first time I listened to redveil was earlier this year when JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown dropped their album, “SCARING THE HOES” this past March. When I first heard the track redveil was on, “Kingdom Hearts Key”, I thought it was Denzel Curry rapping given his past feature on Peggy’s “LP!”. I was really confused though when I went back through the album and found out it was an artist called redveil. Curious, I looked through their discography and found this great EP called “playing w/ fire”.
“playing w/ fire” is a hip hop EP that dropped this past April, from the young Maryland-born artist and producer, redveil. It showcases six tracks that are equally as unique in production as they are enjoyable to listen to.
The EP starts off with “stuck” which not only feels like a great intro given its build up with the track’s layering, but it also feels like redveil wants to show off their production skills before we enter the EP. The track adds onto itself constantly for the first minute until it later becomes this grandiose sound. A singer is going off in the background, the bass from earlier in the song is still providing a solid foundation, and now the brass parts, that were originally playing in the lower register, are now playing in the upper register with a confident sound.
As we’re at the peak of this rollercoaster, it immediately cuts all sounds except the organ and a message from redveil’s uncle plays. A message that inspired redveil to name the EP “playing w/ fire”
“Just wanna say, I’m so proud of you man. They don’t know that playing with redveil is playing with fire.”
“stuck” – redveil
After this message, we then move on to the rest of the EP that focuses more on the hip hop aspect of redveil’s music.
If it isn’t obvious from that spiel, “stuck” is one of my favorite tracks off the EP. However it’s competing with another track I love called “captain”. Unlike the intro, this track gets straight into its melody which makes me jump around while I’m listening. redveil’s style in this “playing w/ fire” just feels so fun to listen to. Although each track is unique, each of them hit that same feeling of ‘I love this so much’ followed by unintentional head jamming or something of the sort.
Because the EP is fifteen minutes long, and because all of the tracks are pretty good, I would simply recommend listening to it in its entirety without shuffle. redveil did a great job at meshing these tracks together so none of the transitions between them feel disjointed.
As someone who has never listened to redveil prior, I found this EP to be a great introduction to dive further into his discography with his albums like “learn 2 swim” or “Niagara”. I loved what I heard off of this EP, and am really looking forward to any of redveil’s future projects.
This EP is great listen if you’re a fan of the genre or simply just looking for some good music to pass the time.
Pittsburgh based band feeble little horse released “Girl with Fish” on June 6 2023, it has since became one of my favorite albums of the year.
On feeble little horse’s Bandcamp page for their May 2021 release “modern tourism”, the band was comprised of just their two guitarists (a lineup lacking their current main vocalist and bassist, Lydia Slocum). I found it pretty interesting to look at this album and see the band in its primordial state.
With time and the addition of new members, the group’s sound has since developed to fall in a middle ground between noise pop and shoegaze.
This track is a fantastic example of just how well feeble little horse does dynamics within their songs. About half way through the song, all the instruments and vocals completely pause as if they were taking a breath- listening to it feels like looking down over the edge of a cliff. Next, you are knocked off the cliff and are meet with a wall of sound ornamented by a brief eerie and unfamiliar sounding guitar solo. The part then leads into the second verse of the song.
A combination of opposing qualities: a strong driving power is maintained in the song while soft, pleasing melodies are carried throughout. Of course feeble little horse is not the first band to make a song with both of these attributes, but they bring their own sound to these songs in a way that I can’t help but love.
It’s hard to not list all the songs off this album in this because it is just so consistent, but below are a few I would recommend.
This has been the third album the band has released in a two year span and I feel they have continuing to improve with each album. I am super excited to see what this group puts out in the future.
Overall I would give this album a 8.5/10
-Daniel
Water From Your Eyes is a duo made up of Rachel Brown and Nate Amos. In late May 2023, the duo released an album worth writing home about– it’s a unique mix of art pop and rock. It’s the sort of album your somewhat-elitist music friend would like.
The album, “Everyone’s Crushed,” begins with a song titled “Structure,” paying homage to Water From Your Eyes’s 2021 album “Structure.” The opening of the album is slow, almost cryptic, but still inviting– at the very least, intriguing.
The album feels a little bleak– it’s got catchy songs, high-tempo beats, interesting vocals with thoughtful lyrics, but it still leaves the listener with a feeling of melancholy, though not overwhelming. The musical choices made within the album are also pretty unique, and although the music doesn’t sound alien in any respect, it does maintain an “out of this world” sound.
The aforementioned bleakness of the album is the result of the artists’ perspective, which is focused on the struggles and discomfort of the pandemic and what’s come since then.
The album’s title reflects this. “Everyone’s Crushed.” It’s something you’d normally hear at a funeral, or upon hearing tragic news. In the case of this album, Water From Your Eyes seems to be attempting to relay the idea that everyone is struggling, it’s the nature of right now.
The album ends with a song called “Buy My Product,” which seems to be a kitschy kick at capitalism and corporations that spew adverts implying that a product or material good could bring you peace from the ugliness the rest of the album expresses.
The album is vulnerable in a way that’s not overt or cliched, and it makes for a good listen for those interested in new and different pop.
— bel$