Lotus Thief
It’s not often when picturing San Francisco that your brain offers up a score to said picturing that encapsulates in its vast realms the low down depths of doom rock, the ambitious highs of space rock, the intricate details of progressive metal, the atmospheric spaciousness that comes from a little triple twist of ambient, goth, and black metal.
Then again, maybe it does, I’ve never been to San Francisco apart from through the words and photos of my parents’ somethingth anniversary trip there. They didn’t paint quite the scene fitting such a soundtrack, but San Franciscan duo Lotus Thief – Bezaelith and Otrebor -offer up that epic score with their debut album Rervm. It’s big, it’s bad, it’s here to take universal control, and damn your soul, but it’ll sound awesome doing so.
Amen Dunes
Having done the rounds for a few years in underground circles, Amen Dumes’ blossoming sound truly came to flourish fruitfully this year with the release of newest album Love. Having previously clambered away among the roots of raw and lo-fi folk with a penchant for offshooting into layers of static noise, garage rock, and drone, Love found itself cracking out of the soil and standing tall to flower.
There’s a sparseness to the newer sounds of New York’s Amen Dunes that allows emotional elements fill out the spaces around the almost post-folk instrumentation that runs through with heartfelt singer songwriting, but is emphasised and embraced by those noisier and dronier aspects instead of being occasionally shaken by their outbursts. It creates a more immersive whole, and draws a sound kind of like Sharon Van Etten writing for Neutral Milk Hotel.
Nite Fields
Australia’s Nite Fields have been making a name for themselves down under in the merry old land of Oz, but word that they need to be heard is spreading further afield. Excellent timing given the release of ‘You I Never Knew’ the first single, and taster, of their debut album Depersonalisation – due for release in February of next year.
The four piece draw on a wide array of classic influences and timeless sounds of post-punk, shoegaze, indie, and pop to create a distinctive sound that spreads them comfortably into many different fields. Most notably in their songs you can pick up trace outlines of bands like The Church, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure, Beach Fossils, The Psychedelic Furs, Diiv, and a touch of Joy Division.
Tessera Skies
As if by a shed load of hallucinogens/divine intervention/the apocalypse/other, the skies of North East England were cast tessera in design. What a beautiful, and perhaps terrifying, event that would be. However, Tessera Skies (the band not aforedescribed biblical event) air considerably into the realm of beauty instead of terror – not even so much as dipping their toes there.
The trio of tessera individuals (I like to picture them as actually being such) hail from Newcastle upon Tyne and have already developed themselves a quite stunning and fully formed sound that brings into their musical mosaic the influences of Fleet Foxes, Sigur Ros, Wild Beasts, and The Antlers. Serene atmosphere blur into beautiful melodies, both vocally and musically. Essentially, bloody lovely.
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