post punk

Record #814: An Autumn for Crippled Children – All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet (2020)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Last year, I said that An Autumn for Crippled Children’s Try Not to Destroy Everything You Love should have stolen them the title of “The Cure of Heavy Metal” from post metallurgists A Year of No Light. That album’s heavy use of moody synths, drum machines, and melodramatic grand pianos betrayed a great love for the Goth Rock legends that mixed surprisingly well with the blistering black metal guitars and shrieked vocals.

On last year’s All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet, AAFCC leaned even further into the goth, new wave, and post punk influence, making this sound almost like a Cure-worship album with added black metal elements, rather than the other way around. In either case, it certainly works.

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Record #813: East Ghost – If I Sleep (2014)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

One of the neat perks that comes from mingling around the DIY music scene is that sometimes, when you order something from friend’s label, they send you some freebies.

In this case, that would be when I wrote about Fashioner by In Parallel, my friend Bryan of Something Beautiful Records (and the podcast As the Story Grows), he asked if I had a copy of their debut, which he had put out, and offered to send me a copy. When that package came, it included this record from a band I had never heard of.

But believe me when I tell you: this is a true hidden gem.

Read more a yearofvinyl.com #eastghost #indierock #postpunk #postrock #vinyl

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Record #807: Binding Spell – English Basement (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Last year, I started writing for a music site called Tuned Up. While combing through submissions for review, every once in a while I’ll strike pure gold.

One of the heftier nuggets recently was English Basement, a piece of psych-rock tinged post-punk from Binding Spell. While this year has seen absolutely no shortage of albums written in and about quarantine (my own band is going to have our own coming out one of these days), bandleader Roger Poulin brings a uniquely personal perspective set to a soundtrack of wobbly basslines, dancy rhythms, and stabby guitars.

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Record #811: Cold Cave – Fate in Seven Lessons (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

Let’s get one thing straight. As a subgenre, modern dark wave’s chief aim is to bow at the altar of New Order. The scene’s aesthetics pay homage to the British new wave pioneers with unflinching fidelity.

Throughout their career, Cold Cave has always been one of the most devout pilgrims. But nowhere is that more clear than on Fate in Seven Lessons, an album that, from the sonic palette to the album art, is largely a celebration of New Order’s classic second album Power, Corruption, and Lies.

Don’t get me wrong though: this isn’t derivative schlock. While it’s clearly referential (and feels like it was intended to be), enough of Wesley Eisold’s own voice comes through for it to be a rich and rewarding disc.

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Record #795: Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want (2018)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It was almost impossible to escape the hype bestowed upon You Won’t Get What You Want. The ominous album art appeared everywhere, accompanied by choruses of friends telling me that I just had to listen to it, man, it’s incredible.

So I did. And I admit: I didn’t get it.

But in the time since, I’ve continued to see it lauded. A few friends list it in their all-time favorite records. A few publications named it one of the best of the decade. One friend in particular harassed me over its absence in any of my aesthetic collections on my 3×3 record display. And so I was bid, by peer pressure, FOMO, and a newfound appreciation for Nine Inch Nails and industrial music in general, to give it more time.

And, as often happens with challenging statements like this, one day it just clicked.

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Record #793: Deafheaven – Infinite Granite (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The backlash from “A Great Mass of Color” came so quickly, they might as well have been included in the press release. Black metal purists were quick to point to the undistorted guitars, lack of blast beats, and (gasp) clean vocals as proof that Deafheaven weren’t kvlt.

Subsequent singles rebutted the idea that it might be a one-off. And now that the album is out, we can see for ourselves that this softer palette weaves itself through the entire album. Even longtime fans have turned on them, saying this record sounds like an entirely different band. They’ve lost the plot. They’ve sold out.

And the whole time, I’ve said the same thing to them: besides the vocals, this is what Deafheaven has sounded like the whole time. 

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Record #760: The Cure – Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Perhaps there is no candidate for Pop Superstar more unlikely than The Cure’s Robert Smith. With his frizzy moptop, pale complexion, and full face of makeup, Smith was the face of the 1980s goth rock movement and its obsession with darkness—the kind of guy that Satanic Panic folks would point to to prove that society was in the icy grip of the Dark Lord.

While their output was nowhere near as evil as Christian Fundamentalists would have you believe, The Cure’s music did have a gothic darkness that would make religious parents plead for their childrens’ souls when they heard it through the bedroom door.

And yet, their seventh full-length, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, somehow broke the Billboard Top 40,  despite its extended instrumental passages, flirtations with Eastern folk music, and a massive runtime. Even for all its weirdness though, it managed to fit in some absolutely stunning pop hits.

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Record #744: Have a Nice Life – Deathconsciousness (2008)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

In the years since its release, I have often crossed paths with Deathconsciousness, the seminal debut record of goth/post-punk/shoegaze duo Have a Nice Life. At times, we’ve flirted. At others, I’ve tried to avoid eye contact. A few times, we sat down together and had a nearly incomprehensible conversation.

And yet, for all of its eldritch weirdness, there was something about this monolithic double album that has continued to call out to me. For a long time, the high prices of vinyl has kept me from exploring it any further, but when The Flenser announced another reissue (which came with a book!), I bought it almost out of impulse, unable to resist its alluring weirdness.

That impulse has paid off, as revisiting it again has proved it worthy of every ounce of its reputation.

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Record #679: The National – High Violet (2010)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Among the annals of indie rock, there are few bands like The National.

Despite the rich, almost folksy songwriting, the songs are accompanied by angular electric guitars and rushing drums rather than an earthy, acoustic-based sonic palette. Despite the kinetic energy of the band, singer Matt Berninger’s voice rarely strays from a rich baritone, avoiding the yelps and howls that most frontmen would employ when paired with a band of such energy.

High Violet, their fifth album (which celebrated its tenth anniversary this week!) was my entry point to the band, and what an entry point it is. Across the eleven tracks, it showcases everything that the National does better than anyone. Continue reading →

Record #678: Amesoeurs – Amesoeurs (2009)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For all the impact its had on the global metal landscape, the French blackgaze scene is dominated by a small handful of projects. Perhaps the two most important are Les Discrets and the incomparable Alcest. And in Amesoeurs (French for “soulmates”), Fursy Teyssier of Les Discrets joins forces with Neige of Alcest, Audrey Sylvain of Peste Noire (the female voice on Alcest’s debut), and Winterhalter, who would go on to be a member of both Les Discrets and Alcest.

Amesoeurs, the group’s only album, stretches the limits of black metal in a similar way that Alcest and Les Discrets do, but in this project, they meld its hellish fury with the dark moodiness post punk more than glistening joie de vivre of post rock or the somnambulant heaviness of shoegaze.

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