Author: Matthew Bedford

Russian experimental noise project SELEKHOV has released a new 3-track EP titled Hide Hands, carrying on with the big array of noise featured on the band’s prior works.

It kicks off with the title track, which is about as straightforward as the album gets – droning guitars, a consistent, driven beat, and some post-punk vocals echoing from behind it all.  “Interplace” begins quite minimally, but over its four minute course is delicately wrapped in noise.  Eventually it becomes this thick, intense swirling mass of layers – the sort of sound you get lost in.  While “interplace” is essentially a crescendo, built as it goes along, the final track on Hide Hands, “violence”, is a deconstruction.  Starting off with the same sort of intensity at the conclusion of “interplace”, this track is slowly unraveled until it’s hypnotic, spaced-out innards are revealed.  The track sort of grooves on from this point, with textures added and subtracted here and there.

A lot happens in the thirteen minutes on this EP, offering a lot of variety and some really good tunes.  Best listened to with headphones at high volume from start to finish, and it’s available for free on Bandcamp so there’s really no excuse not to check it out.

Brooklyn’s Curelight Wounds, the brainchild of Steve Schwadron, is getting set to release a third EP titled Silver Sand later this month.  The new 4-track release picks up right where 2013’s Clearest View left off, battering your ears with more of Schwadron’s uptempo blend of massive, swirling guitars and distantly echoing vocals.  The EP will be released on April 22nd, and the title track is currently available on Bandcamp.

Here’s a preview of the closing track “Empty Faith”.

Pretty close to the release of volume 4 and we had to change a few things up, but I am happy to announce the addition of Mexico’s Bleak Boys to the lineup.  This issue will, for a limited time, have NINE bands.  The inclusion of Sea Dweller will last for three months in compliance with copyright laws.  A big thanks to Bleak Boys for stepping up on such short notice.  You should buy their debut EP because it’s dynamite:  http://bleakboys.bandcamp.com/

In recent months there has been a lot of excitement about inaugural Berlin Psych Fest, set to take place on the weekend of April 18-19, but in the last day or so that excitement has turned into confusion.  The event was originally booked at Postbahnhof in the German capital, but that no longer seems to be the case.  The tone among fans and bands alike has varied from uncertainty to frustration to anger.  Artists have already begun to jump ship, with Dead Rabbits and The Wands among those who have announced they will no longer be participating.

The fest’s promoter has made a few statements via the event’s Facebook page.  The first was an attempt at some much sought clarification:

 

Soon after the following was posted:

I received a message also stating that a venue has been found and details will be announced in the coming week.

What appears to have people incensed about the whole thing, and understandably so, is the fact that a number of tickets have already been purchased, including by those outside Germany who had booked trips revolving around the festival.  It remains to be seen whether Berlin Psych Fest’s promoters can stop the bleeding before more bands drop off the bill, and if they can make amends with the fans and participants who have become increasingly skeptical recently.  We hope, for the sake of music and the fans for whom festivals ideally exist, that everything sorts itself out and everyone involved gets what they signed up for.

At the end of his piece in Muso Planet volume 3, Jairo alluded to a compilation he was working on with Lima’s Inclub Records that would feature some of Latin America’s most promising bands.  My initial read through the article shortly after it was submitted was the first I had heard about this project, and it has stayed pretty hush until the last few days when Jairo announced the upcoming release.

Planos Definitivos Secuencias Infinitas is the title of the compilation album that will be available for purchase on March 30th.  It has recently been posted on the Inclub Bandcamp page and is currently available for pre-order.  The physical release is limited to 250 copies, and will also be available for digital download.

The lineup speaks for itself, sporting a who’s who of Latin American shoegaze bands.

01-Puna – nula riviera (Peru)
02-Trementina – Grounded (Chile)
03-Everything Is Falling Apart – Friends (Mexico)
04-Duelectrum-Trembling Blue Stars V.6 (Brazil)
05-Adelaida – Espirales (Chile)
06-Mi andromeda – cinco veces mas (Chile)
07-Sexores-Titán (Ecuador)
08-The Sorry Shop – The Lesser Blessed (Brazil)
09-Un.Real – Somnifero (Puerto Rico)
10-Flores de Bach-Primavera (Chile)
11-Loomer – mammoth butterfly (Brazil)
12-Asalto al Parque Zoológico – Sonnen (Argentina)
13-Celofán- How Come (Mexico)

If their Facebook feed (the source of the above picture) is to be believed, Glaswegian fuzz merchants The Cherry Wave will be releasing their highly anticipated debut album this spring.  In 2013 the band released the 4-track Blush EP as well as a track on Under the Wildflowers volume 1, a compilation put out by their own DIY label, Lamppost Records.  They also were among the bands featured in the first issue of Muso Planet.  With only five songs released to date word of a full-length record is welcome news to those of us who have been longing for more of The Cherry Wave’s brash, relentless, and highly addictive brand of noise.

 

Another brilliant band from Chile, Fotogramas is the lo-fi indie duo of Valparaiso-based musicians Daniel Ciboulette and Cristian Pereira.  Fotogramas is getting ready to release its album Otoñal on the 15th of March.  In January they released the first single from the album, a textural dreampop track called “Algo”.  They also have a track featured on Jairo Manzur’s Latino America Shoegaze Mixtape (which is a must listen!).