The Fat Angel Sings

True to its title, A.O. Gerber’s “Meet Me at the Gloaming” invites the listener into a world between day and night. A space in which the binaries of light and dark are muddied, complicated, ultimately dissolved into insignificance. To inhabit such a place, Gerber shows us, is to confess new feelings and relinquish old shames. To move beyond ideas of good and bad in order to exist on your own terms, and heal from the years in which this was not the case. Because if anything emerges from the nuanced folk rock of the record, it is the sense that strict boundaries are counterproductive and often imaginary, fencing off the rich confluences in which life is truly lived.

On her new album, “Meet Me at the Gloaming”, Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, A.O. Gerber carefully grapples with the constraints she was taught as a child to reach for the flourishing that comes when we look past the black and white, and into the gray gauze of the in-between. “I was thinking about how damaging it can be to exist in that binary space of good and evil,” Gerber explains. “When we see everything in either/or’s, we lose the nuance and complexity that make life rich enough to be worth living.” By interlocking memory and imagination, Gerber crafts a gleaming future, where the light and the dark don’t just coexist––they create a new colour entirely.

“Meet Me at the Gloaming” is certainly an album that pierces grief head-on but it’s not without hope or certainty. Like curtains strong enough to block the view, but thin enough to let in the light, Gerber is reclaiming the meaning of goodness, where the harsh overwhelming brightness is dimmed to a beautiful, iridescent blue. During the gloaming we are between two spaces, two worlds, two selves and it’s here that we can fully embrace everything that we are. 

released October 14th, 2022

Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Meath have been yodeling together for upwards of fifteen years – in the backseat of a Prius while on their first cross-country tour, on back porches and backstages. It’s what led them to “Fruit”, their debut release as The A’s – a joyous ten-song collection spanning genre and decades, with interpretations of traditionals, lullabies, and an original song, it weaves between the weird and the wonderful.

“Why I’m Grieving,” originally recorded by the DeZurik Sisters, was the inspiration for the A’s existence. The A’s reach into the past to hold hands with the DeZurik Sisters, two farm girls from rural Minnesota who taught themselves to yodel amongst all their animals, in a continuing celebration of the tradition of folk eccentricity and whimsy.

The A’s played their first show together in 2013 after Sauser-Monnig first moved to North Carolina, where Meath had been living at the time, but it wasn’t until summer 2021 that they thought seriously about making “Fruit”. They decamped to Sylvan Esso’s Chapel Hill studio, Betty’s, for two weeks in the midst of a balmy and blooming Carolinian summer. They rehearsed during the day, deconstructing yodeling parts phonetically and staring absurdly into each other’s eyes as they practiced tongue twisting harmonies – and recorded in the nighttime, candles lit, a flickering glow against the windows framing the violet twilight outside.

Across the record, the A’s employ a bizarre-o ghost orchestra of strange noises that are percussive and melodic. The credits include nylon shorts, string (singular), hair, shoes, ice chunk, gravel, frog sample, and shoelace, among other unexpected makeshift instrumentation. The backing band is built out by a more traditional group of players: saxophone from Sam Gendel on “Copper Kettle,” backing vocals from Jenn Wasner (Flock of Dimes, Wye Oak) on “When I Die,” string arrangements from Gabriel Kahane on “He Needs Me,” and more.

Fruit is made up simply of songs the A’s love to sing – there are lullabies and love songs; “He Needs Me,” written by Harry Nilsson and first released by Shelley Duvall in the 1980 Popeye film; traditional ballads like “Swing and Turn Jubilee,” “Copper Kettle” and closer “Buckeye Jim,” a multiplying song about frogs and nature.

The sole original track to appear on the album is the penultimate “When I Die,” written by Meath. It contains both wishes and instructions for the celebration of her death, a low synth bubbling beneath Sauser-Monnig and Meath’s voices.

It’s a collection of ten seemingly incongruous songs, but with the throughline of Sauser-Monnig and Meath’s vocals and sense of humor working in tandem, they fit together into a cosmic yodeling-folk masterpiece. “Fruit “feels like blowing the dust off a precious artifact of decades past, but also winking and modern. Sauser-Monnig sums up their ethos on the project succinctly: “If it doesn’t make you cackle or cry, it doesn’t belong.”

released July 15th, 2022

Produced by Amelia Meath, Nick Sanborn and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig

Ghost of the Machine is a melodic progressive rock band from Yorkshire, England. Five former members of This Winter Machine joined forces with vocalist and flautist Charlie Bramald (Nova Cascade, ex-Harmony of Spheres).

Taking the best elements from their critically acclaimed previous endeavours and pushing forward in a heavy and adventurous direction, Ghost Of The Machine has unleashed their debut album “Scissorgames” and is ready to bring a thrilling live show to a stage near you.

“Ghost Of The Machine have done this album just right. Great musicianship, songs and performances are all here, and this band definitely need to be on your Prog Rock Radar” – Ian Johnson Fireworks Magazine

“Yorkshire collective mines neo-prog gold” – Johnny Sharp Prog Magazine

“Many Prog fans will absolutely fall in love with the style and emotional content of ‘Scissorgames‘ which will very probably be rightfully regarded as one of the best debut progressive rock albums of 2022.” – Leo Trimming Progradar

Molly have shared their new song ‘Ballerina’. The band’s new album ‘Picturesque’ is incoming, and it finds the central song writing duo taking new risks. try the succinct, pop-edged new single ‘Ballerina’.

Shoegaze with a post-rock vantage point, ‘Ballerina’ is intended as a blast of melody, and it certainly lives up to its promise. A focussed, dynamic return, it started as a challenge to condense their complex, wide-open ideas into something sharper.

“We started off with a specific goal to create a proper Molly track with all the usual quirks and features, but keep it under the four-minute mark,” explains singer/guitarist Lars Andersson. “Spoiler: we didn’t succeed, but it’s close enough I guess.”

The lyrics are actually based on the old Hans Christian Andersen story The Steadfast Tin Soldier – which happens to be one of Lars’ favourite fairy-tales. He adds: “It’s a bittersweet story about a tin soldier’s love for a paper ballerina. Like all the best fairy-tales it ends tragically, just like the song.”

From Molly’s upcoming album “Picturesque” Out 13th of January on Sonic Cathedral

Since beginning as the solo project of Rick Maguire, Pile has evolved into something increasingly hard to define. Ostensibly a post-hardcore band, Pile’s incorporated elements of folk, country and pop, and with their latest album “All Fiction”, more atmospheric art-rock territory that veers into the avant garde. Lead single “Loops” is heavier in its back end than its riffs, Maguire’s riffs more abstract and ambient, but the end result is something that feels heavy as fuck. And it’s strange moments of magic like this that make Pile such a thrilling band to keep up with.

From the album, “”All Fiction,”” out February 17th, 2023, via Exploding in Sound Records

Coming 10th February: the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in years, “This Stupid World”. Times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else. In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. In their latest effort, the first full-length in five years, “This Stupid World” was created all by themselves. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new.

At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has become more direct. Available on standard black vinyl, CD and on limited blue vinyl.

Yo La Tengo have recorded some of the greatest albums in indie rock, as well as more recent atmospheric meditations on contemporary unrest. But when you get down to it, making great rock music is what they do best. “Fallout,” the lead single from their upcoming album “This Stupid World”, their 17th overall, is a prime example of that, balancing shoegazing layers of guitars with bittersweet melodies and a kind of warm density that’s become their signature.

Taken from the upcoming album ‘This Stupid World,’ out February 10th on Matador Records.

Debut album by secretive and enigmatic French band EggS. Their ranks recently swelled by the addition of Marguax and Camille from fellow Parisians En Atendant Ana, they race through a dozen tracks that could sit comfortably anywhere in the output of Sarah, Flying Nun, K or Postcard.

Like their influences The Television Personalities, they write chaotic yet beautiful songs that always sound on the brink of falling apart but somehow don’t. Born in Lockdown, and recorded deep in the Parisian suburbs across two rainy weekends in the Spring of 2022 , it glitches between jangly guitar and alto-sax quirkiness, while the boy/girl vocal interplay may appeal to fans of Martha or Eleventh Dream Day.

A joint release between UK label Prefect Records (run by Mark Dobson – ex Field Mice) and French label Howlin Banana. A collaboration formed out of necessity – given the pressing plant and import/export issues caused by the ongoing nightmare that is Brexit- this is a limited edition release.

released November 4th, 2022

Color Green are a cosmic rock ’n roll band comprised of Noah Kohll and Corey Madden. Their self-titled debut sees the duo blasting out of the gate at full strength. Equal parts fuzzy and twangy, the songs cull from many decades of the strange sounds of American music. Rambling rockers like “Ill Fitting Suit” and “Blizzed Out” are bookended by spacier numbers like “Bell of Silence” and “Verdolaga Dreams,” while others are a blissful hybrid (“Warbling Sky”). The common thread running through all of these songs is the unwavering devotion to the merits of classic songwriting. If Gram Parsons were alive today, he would be proud of these guys. The spirit of Gram with a healthy dash of Grateful Dead make a fine marriage with these cosmic country crusaders. And oh my I love that pedal steel guitar!.

This co-release between ORG Music and Aquarium Drunkard will be unleashed upon the world on 22/7/2022, available on LP, CD, and digitally. Color Green succeeds in mixing equal parts celestial and celebratory — an eight track collection of riffing grooves, satisfying harmonies, and skillful micro-jamming.

Vocals: Noah Kohll, Corey Madden, Ben Cook,
Madelyn Strutz, James Matthew VII
Guitars: Noah Kohll and Corey Madden
Bass: Trevor Tallakson, Noah Kohll and Corey Madden Drums: Dave Ozinga and Noah Kohll
Keyboards: Jonny Kosmo, Gracie Jackson, Noah Kohll and Corey Madden
Saxophone: Gravy Flores
Banjo: Madelyn Strutz
Pedal Steel: Tim Ramsey

Released July 22nd, 2022

Straddling the European continent, The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness are Andrew Taylor, who resides in Edinburgh, and Gonzalo Marcos, who calls Madrid home. Adapting their name from the famously neurotic New Jersey group The Feelies—who used to categorically refuse to play in New York City—the Boys are comparatively chill. “You say that you miss me, but you know I don’t mind,” goes the opening track from their 2021 debut “Songs From Another Life“. There’s hardly an ounce of melancholy in their zestful, crisp compositions—a welcome break from despondency. These boys next door are onto better things (as far as I can see). 

 One of the best albums of February 2021. “From vocal harmonies and retro synth frills to an always-accessible blend of acoustic and electric guitars, The Boys paint from a familiar power-pop palette, but create something uniquely beautiful—not even these times of loss and isolation can take that away from us”

Télérama (France): “Songs from Another Life” est avant tout un album « feel good », telle la bande-son mélancolique d’une fin d’été ensoleillée. Par les temps qui courent, on en a besoin” (★★★/4)

Janglepophub (South Africa): “the most perfect voice in jangle/power-pop at present (sorry Teenage Fanclub fans!). Once again, a genuinely stunning album…as if there was ever any doubt it would be!!?”

El Periódico (Spain): “lo suyo tiene que ver con el pop sublime de los Byrds, Teenage Fanclub, Pernice Brothers y otros maestros del acorde brillante, la melodía memorable y las voces celestiales” (★★★★/5)

Raven Sings The Blues (USA): “The Boys are wrapping their heartache in a cavalcade of hooks that are rather hard to ignore as they flip through an alternate history radio station where Superdrag’s second LP got the praise it deserved, Teenage Fanclub topped everyone’s list over Nirvana in ’91 and Matthew Sweet kept on writing songs for Choo Choo Train rather than split solo. It’s a world where emotional honesty never quite went out of style and perfect pop simply meant that the chords got bigger and brighter”

Allmusic (USA): “12-string, retro-flavored power pop”

Powerpopaholic (USA): “Highly Recommended and a contender for my top 10 in 2021 list” (9/10)

Post-Trash (USA): “A brand new international pop overthrow is afoot and The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness are at the vanguard” 

Released February 5th, 2021

Alex Izenberg released 2022’s “I’m Not Here“, which is the third full-length album from Izenberg. A collection of beguiling love songs, tender heartache, despair and confusion, “I’m Not Here” lays Alex bare, heart on his sleeve, and serves as a peek into the mind of one of LA’s most enigmatic songwriters. 

Like his debut, 2016’s homespun “Harlequin”, and its ambitious 2020 follow-up “Caravan Château”, Alex Izenberg’s new album “I’m Not Here” inhabits the shaggy, world-weary mode of artists like Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Randy Newman, and Lou Reed. 

With the help of producer Greg Hartunian, and swelling string and woodwind arrangements courtesy of Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth, Alex manages a paradoxical and visionary trick: he disappears completely while simultaneously revealing more of himself than ever before. 

Alex Izenberg has released two new covers, Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” and Fleet Foxes’ “I’m Not My Season” digitally. While both originals complement Izenberg’s 1970s style, he completely transforms these songs into his own, adding his classic eccentric twist. 

released May 20th, 2022

2022, Domino Recording Co Ltd