Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) (Matador, 2018)

I've been vaguely aware of Car Seat Headrest for a while but always ignored them because I assumed they were some crappy indie rock band and indie rock is usually crappy. The impetus to check this out was actually Pitchfork's Best New Music review. Figured there might be more to the group than I was flippantly dismissing and I'm glad I did. This is a re-recorded version of CSH's (basically the nom de plume of Will Toledo) 2011 album only with a full band and it's an absolute gem, anchored by two huge tracks, "Beach Life-in-Death" and "Famous Prophets (Stars)". Toledo is a brilliant songwriter and a great lyricist. I have to go back and check out the original "bedroom lofi version" but I liked this one way more than I expected. Like the War on Drugs last year it's a refreshing rock album in a mostly shitty and dead rock genre, but even better. It reminds me a lot of Sonic Youth, but less sneer-y and more soul-baringly honest. I dunno. It clicked!

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Corrupted - Felicific Algorithim (Cold Spring, 2018)

For whatever it means, this is the beginning of Corrupted's "Hollow" series. Maybe the clue is in the music? Unlike Corrupted's traditional ultra-slowed down, Spanish-sung, Japanese doom metal this is instrumental harsh noise. Still filthy and angry and depressive but sans vox and also more or less sans metal. Both untitled sides are meant to be played at either speed. The result? Meh. I miss Corrupted's brand of doom, this relatively anonymous harsh noise is fine and all but if I'm listening to Corrupted...well I know what I want. Skippable.

Abstracter - Cinerous Incarnate (I, Voidhanger, 2018)

I was not aware of these guys, who formed in 2010 as a noise duo, and slowly evolved and added more members and turned into a kind of death/blackened doom metal project. They've got ties to other noise acts I don't know (Sutekh Hexen) and other industrial acts I don't know (Only Now). Quite a stew and the band pulls of something that sounds truly different. It's got a tentacle in each of the aforementioned genres but blends them really well. It's quite hard to pin them down in fact. Big, heavy riffs with a production level along the lines of a sludge/black metal record but sharp instrumentation and just a dirty atmosphere...ambient noise passages separate a couple tracks as a nice diversion...very cool

Grouper - Grid of Points (Kranky, 2018)

I've never really liked Grouper much, lots of other wogs go ga-ga over anything she puts out but it all leaves me cold. I wrote her off for a while, heard some hype for this new one, and I'm back to writing her off again. It's the same ghostly vocal samples/quasi religious/hymnal vibes..haunting and ethereal and...nothing that gets me all wound up. Pass.

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