Out today: ECOLOGY: HOMESTONES

The self-titled album by Ecology: HomeStones is out today on Sleeping Giant Glossolalia.

Stream the tracks and buy the cassette, here: https://sleepinggiantglossolalia.bandcamp.com/album/ecology-homestones-s-t

Stream the "Mothername" music video, here: https://floodmagazine.com/150854/ecology-homestones-mothername-first-listen/

First surfacing online in 2020, Ecology: HomeStones is a mysterious audio-visual project, allegedly created by The FPPC, an organization whose sole known member is Philadelphia-based artist Dylan Pecora whose other credits include work for Merzbow and Saturday Night Live.

On the strength of a series of short, mesmerizing video clips, depicting an alternate world of pulsating flesh entities, strange fluids, and shadowy characters, set to a soundtrack of anthemic industrial-noise compositions, Ecology: HomeStones has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers across TikTok and Instagram.

Confounding, grotesque, and hilarious, Ecology: HomeStones' visuals suggest an elaborate order of arcane processes and corporeal obsessions, calling to mind the works of Matthew Barney and David Lynch, among others.

The tracks pulse and squelch gloriously – collages of bizarre voices, gentle tones, hypnotic rhythms, soaring melodies, and distorted mayhem, structured for maximum impact.

"Ecology: HomeStones is the type of project that’s entirely too difficult to summarize—and one which clearly knows that it’s too difficult to summarize, basking in the confusion their industrial brand of ambient noise and visceral, surreal imagery seems to conjure."
–Flood Magazine

"Ecology: HomeStones presents art which is not easy to pinpoint precisely, relying on surreal imagery and an ambient noise sound with an industrial edge. The visuals and the industrial / noise compositions come together to exude an unsettling tone, and reflect an overall experimental mindset."

–Destroy//Exist

"It’s weird. Like David Cronenberg, eXistnenZ weird, with a metal, drone, noise tinge."

–Metal Epidemic

"Adding to the lore, Ecology HomeStones claims to be created by The FPPC, an organization whose sole known member is Philadelphia-based sculptor and video director, Dylan Pecora. The project uses industrial sounds while combining grotesque concepts with cartoonish elements."

–Scene Point Blank

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2023/11/ecology-homestones.html

QUITS - "Bucolica"

QUITS: Decibel premieres "Bucolica" music video from Denver noise rock greats

Denver, Colorado crew Quits delivers post-hardcore passion and noise rock heft, dancing on a knife-edge between anxious twang and epic wallop. Desperate vocals bear a resemblance to the wails of Justin Pearson or Chris Thomson, while dueling guitars, distorted bass, and scrappy drumming push the intensity into the red. Decibel Magazine describes the sound as “jangly, no-fucks-given noise rock... the rumble of the bass, the scrape of those guitars and the angst of that Justin Pearson-esque shriek... full of The Birthday Party, Cop Shoot Cop and Drive Like Jehu bad vibes.”

Stream the new music video for the band’s track “Bucolica,” directed by Carolyn Funk, now via Decibel: https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2023/12/13/video-premiere-quits-bucolica/

The band sums up the video thusly: “’Bucolica’ starts off with a serene bucolic landscape. Life. It ends with chaotic darkness. Death.”

New album, Feeling It, is out now on Brooklyn label Sleeping Giant Glossolalia, whose growing catalog of curated gems includes releases by Oxbow & Peter Brötzmann, Nastie Band (feat. Roddy Bottum), Couch Slut, Multicult, and more. Buy it, here: https://sleepinggiantglossolalia.bandcamp.com/album/quits-feeling-it

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2023/09/quits-feeling-it.html

BRONSON ARM - "Patsy Ultima"

BRONSON ARM: baritone guitar-wielding duo drops "Patsy Ultima" music video and Top 10 Noise Rock list

The official music video for new Bronson Arm track “Patsy Ultima,” off the band’s upcoming self-titled album (out January 12th on Learning Curve Records), is streaming now.

Accompanying the exclusive premiere of the video today on Idioteq, is Bronson Arm vocalist/baritone guitar wielder Blake Bickel’s stellar list of his ten favorite noise rock albums of 2023.

Stream the video and enjoy the list, here: https://idioteq.com/top-10-noise-rock-albums-of-2023-by-bronson-arm/

Pre-order the album, here: https://learningcurverecords.bandcamp.com/album/s-t

Bronson Arm rocks with the type of edge-of-seat tension and cathartic hooks that those raised on steady diets of Fugazi, Sonic Youth, and The Jesus Lizard will delight in. Idioteq reports: “The Kalamazoo, Michigan based duo Bronson Arm, consisting of Blake Bickel on baritone guitar and Garrett Yates on drums, forges anthemic noise-punk songs that are a study in controlled chaos. Their self-titled debut album on Learning Curve Records, a label revered for championing the abrasive and the avant-garde, is a testament to their unique sound… Bickel’s heavy, haunting baritone guitar intertwines with Yates’ powerful drumming, creating a soundscape that is simultaneously minimalist and monumental.”

Blake Bickel of Bronson Arm says this about the new album: "While it’s not a themed album, the roles of dominance and submission continue to appear. Navigating anxieties surrounding both. I'm not talking strictly about sexual relations between two people… More about social constructs, capitalism, community, and general roles played in group dynamics."

Bronson Arm was mixed by Robert Cheek (Deftones, Band of Horses, Tera Melos) and mastered by Bronson Arm's own Blake Bickel. The album's first five tracks were originally released in 2021 as the Tosser EP; the remaining tracks are brand new and unreleased.

Though Bronson Arm's minimalist, baritone-driven noise-punk marks the band as an outlier, and its home base of Kalamazoo sets it off the beaten path, Bickel and Yates are, in fact, entrenched in the underground and actively contributing to it. As a mastering engineer, Bickel has put his stamp on recordings by the likes of Soft Kill and Drab Majesty. As the founder of Kalamazoo's DIY venue The Run Off, Yates has hosted recent shows by Child Bite, Kal Marks, and Frail Body. As a band, the two have wowed crowds across the Midwest, including at 2022's Caterwaul Festival, the definitive annual "noisy rock" festival co-founded by Learning Curve Records boss Rainer Fronz.

Photo by Jacob Ludecker

ECOLOGY: HOMESTONES - "Mothername"

ECOLOGY: HOMESTONES: industrial-noise enigma reveals surreal "Mothername" music video; self-titled album drops Friday on Sleeping Giant Glossolalia (Oxbow, Peter Brötzmann) 

With its self-titled album set to be released on Friday, December 15th, Ecology: HomeStones has revealed the official music video for its track, "Mothername."

Stream the new video, here: https://floodmagazine.com/150854/ecology-homestones-mothername-first-listen/

Pre-order the album via Sleeping Giant Glossolalia, here: https://sleepinggiantglossolalia.bandcamp.com/album/ecology-homestones-s-t

Flood reports: "Ecology: HomeStones is the type of project that’s entirely too difficult to summarize—and one which clearly knows that it’s too difficult to summarize, basking in the confusion their industrial brand of ambient noise and visceral, surreal imagery seems to conjure... The tension-building 'Mothername' comes to life with a two-and-a-half minute clip syncing the soundtrack’s glitched-out horrors with scenes of what looks like a 17th century village being infiltrated by an undebatably unwelcome presence..."

First surfacing online in 2020, Ecology: HomeStones is a mysterious audio-visual project, allegedly created by The FPPC, an organization whose sole known member is Philadelphia-based multimedia artist Dylan Pecora.

On the strength of a series of short, mesmerizing video clips, depicting an alternate world of pulsating flesh entities, strange fluids, and shadowy characters, set to a soundtrack of caustic noise, Ecology: HomeStones has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers across social media.

Confounding, grotesque, and hilarious, Ecology: HomeStones' visuals suggests an elaborate order of arcane processes and corporeal obsessions, calling to mind the works of Matthew Barney and David Lynch, among others. (Those familiar with Pecora's work will see the artist’s fingerprints all over this; their credits include helping create props and puppets for Saturday Night Live and Mystery Science Theater 3000, and birthing wonderfully surreal music videos for artists such as Merzbow.)

As evidenced by "Mothername" and the other tracks on the new self-titled album, Ecology: HomeStones' audio carries megatons of ominous weight on its own. The tracks pulse and squelch gloriously – collages of bizarre voices, gentle tones, hypnotic rhythms, soaring melodies, and distorted mayhem, structured for maximum impact. A perplexing work that is also quite enjoyable, Ecology: HomeStones' self-titled album will delight those already in tune with this project, but also stands alone, out of context, as a compelling slab of anthemic, industrial-strength noise.

Based in Brooklyn, Sleeping Giant Glossolalia's formidable catalog of heavy, avant sounds includes releases by Oxbow & Peter Brötzmann, Mick Barr, Ava Mendoza, Arelseum (feat. Colin Marston), Nastie Band (feat. Roddy Bottum), Shit and Shine, Couch Slut, and more.

https://tiktok.com/@ecologyhomestones
https://instagram.com/ecologyhomestones/
https://ecologyhomestones.bandcamp.com/
https://ecologyhomestones.com/

Out today: SHADOW AGE - Ours

Shadow Age's new EP, Ours, is out today on Play Alone Records. The EP includes the "Ours" single and several remixes. It is the Richmond, Virginia band's first new music since going on hiatus, more than 5 years ago.

Buy the EP (digital and cassette), here: https://playalonerecords.com/products/shadow-age-ours-cassette-ep

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2023/10/shadow-age-ours.html

"An addictive, emotive sonic trip of a song that I keep hitting replay on. I don’t know whether I want to hold myself and sway in pure melancholy, or jump up and dance in pure liberation, but this song has me wanting to do both.”
–CVLT Nation

"Richmond, Virginia post punk band Shadow Age is back after a substantial break with their new track, Ours, marking their first release since 2018. Accompanying the song is an impeccably crafted video, shot and directed by Cat McCarthy. Prior to their hiatus, the band had already made an impact with one album and two EPs, sharing stages with notable acts such as The Chameleons and Modern English."
–Destroy//Exist

"A pleasant slice of impassioned darkwave from Virginia’s Shadow Age... The best thing about the track is the way it slowly blossoms on its first chorus – the first minute or so is reserved, with tasteful guitars and solid rhythm programming, but when Aaron Tyree uncorks his lovely voice to its full capacity, it doesn’t go back in the bottle for the remainder of the lush tune."
–I Die: You Die

"Melancholy and emotive... Deep and dark, provoking a great deal of introspection and stillness in the listener’s mind."
–Metal Epidemic

"Richmond, Virginia post-punk act Shadow Age are back."
–New Noise

"Emerging from a five-year hiatus with renewed energy and a fresh perspective, Richmond, Virginia’s post-punk outfit Shadow Age returns... 'Ours' is an emotional anthem that features Tyree’s powerful vocals, set against a danceable drumbeat and complemented by reverb-drenched guitars and keys. The song serves as a dreamlike tribute to resilience in the face of heartbreak, and is sure to move anyone who listens."
–Post-Punk

"The reunited Virginia post-punks make up for lost with their darkly powerful single."

–Tinnitist

Out today: OLDEST SEA - A Birdsong, A Ghost

A Birdsong, A Ghost, the new album by Oldest Sea, is out today on Darkest Records.

Buy the album, here: https://oldestsea1.bandcamp.com/album/a-birdsong-a-ghost

More info: https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2023/10/oldest-sea-birdsong-ghost.html

"Oldest Sea cite a variety of inspirations, the obvious picks like Shape of Despair and Mournful Congregation plus more eclectic selections like Roy Orbison, Björk and soundtrack composers like John Carpenter. The last one is particularly notable because there is a cinematic current that runs through ‘A Birdsong.’ It’s immediately apparent on first song ‘Sacred Destruction,’ which opens with sparse, expansive chords and Samantha Marandola’s shimmering vocals. The album picks up speed throughout its nearly 40-minute runtime before concluding with similarly crashing chords and angelic singing."
–Decibel

"Like Neurosis rewriting Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks soundtrack... 'A Birdsong, A Ghost' is a very dark album, both musically and thematically, and one that, although not easy to listen to, should absolutely be taken in one full sitting, like a course of medicine to purge your soul. Despite its individual parts being horribly bleak in places, there is something cleansing and cathartic in experiencing the full astonishing horror of it all."

–Distorted Sound

"A combination of experimental soundscapes and heavy doom metal... 'A Birdsong, A Ghost' grows more impactful with each listen, a unique and experimental sonic journey."

–Heavy Music HQ

"A husband-and-wife duo from rural New Jersey, Oldest Sea have a penchant for dark beauty in a way that touches upon folk music and isn’t afraid to reveal itself to funeral doom fanatics. Their slow and powerful music features plenty of dark turns, so it is no wonder that they have shared the same stage with Bell Witch, Mizmor and others of said ilk."
–Invisible Oranges

"Doom and the words 'beautiful,' 'angelic,' 'euphoric,' generally don’t go together but in the more than capable hands of husband and wife duo Oldest Sea, those terms take on a life of their own on their latest full length 'A Birdsong, A Ghost'... It’s doom with a pulse, a heart, and a unique life all its own."
–Nine Circles

"It’s a wholly transportive experience of contrasts and complements, a union of the ethereal and the staggeringly heavy. The spell it casts is heart-breaking and chilling, but in the music it feels like the bedrock of the earth is heaving and fracturing too."
–No Clean Singing

"Grueling riffs, fragile-but-maybe-rage-shaking vocal melodies, a resonant expression and a heft that goes beyond tone to the overarching atmosphere."
–The Obelisk

"Album of the Week... Thundering, achingly slow."

–Tinnitist