paralyzed and the world is spinning above, jets are flying overhead, there is an orange sunset breaking through the clouds; glistening on a lake of crystal-white, salty water

like smoke and clouds and swamps of dark, dark love and also a full moon; it shines on you as you die

a place to bury strangers is taking nyc by storm with their brand of nu-gaze

a place to bury strangers’ self-titled debut is a brilliant update of the pre-shoegaze wall-of-sound pioneered by the jesus and mary chain and my bloody valentine in the mid-80s. dubbed “nyc’s loudest band”, frontman oliver ackerman and his bandmates’ first lp offers up ten thunderously melodic homages to shoegaze and noise pop — from the pulverizing electronic drums and brain-melting guitars of “to fix the gash in your head” to the dreamy, anemic pulse that breathes life into “the falling sun“.

• ariel pink’s haunted graffiti - underground
the latest opus of lo-fi insanity from cult hero ariel pink is another strange, hallucinatory journey through a collage of twisting melodies, noisy interims and brilliant songwriting that combine together to form a surprisingly coherent, cohesive whole on par with the year’s best records.

• jackie-o motherfucker - valley of fire
psych-travelling, avant garde collective’s newest is a delicate, dreamy foray into the subversive underworld of free-jazz, meditative folk and extreme creep-outs — an intangible mess or intricate beauty and subdued weirdness.

• parts & labor - mapmaker
third proper full-length from new york insaniacs is a mountainous wall-of-sound that seamlessly melds delicious melodies with abrasive noise and tumultuous rhythms to produce an uncategorizable stampede of experimental rock (think sonic youth meets the stone roses in a psychotic ward).

a decent version of the brian jonestown massacre’s new masterpiece, my bloody underground, appears to have surfaced online a couple of weeks ago, (it is a bit different than the preview available from the band’s website this summer). and holy omfg is all i can say about this record. this is by far the saddest, most heartfelt, most disturbing collection of music i have heard from anton newcombe. and by that i don’t mean the typically sad music we have all come to expect from him. this is genuinely filled with an underlying, doomstricken hopelessness that manifests from his proverbial inner hanging gallows. i would honestly not be surprised if this is the last recording the band ever releases. and, in all sincerity, it would be a perfect swan song.

bjm’s first full-length in over four years, my bloody underground mixes the band’s distinguished blend of druggy, neo-psychedelia with an intensified sense of mood and atmosphere. most of the tracks found on this album are much less songs than they are strange, meandering collections of ambience: brain synapses, otherwordly anthems. “we are the niggers of the world” is a brilliantly sad piano piece, littered with mistakes and solecisms which only add to the album’s overtly haunting feeling of solitude. “dropping bombs on the whitehouse“, “yeah-yeah“, “golden frost” and “kicking jesus” bring typical bjm to mind, but these songs are more cruel than their predecessors — almost unsympathetic in a completely paradoxical way. (the songs themselves are rather quiet and most of the time even unobtrusive, yet the underlying tone still comes across as an enthusiastic fuck-you to anyone listening.)

an overwhelming shroud of insanity seems to blanket the remainder of the record: and that’s not a bad thing, as they perfectly complement their counterparts — hurling themselves in and out of existence with a blissful, narcissistic arrogance. these beautifully desperate clips infinitely magnify any feeling mankind has ever felt (the aforementioned “we are the niggers of the world“; the ethereal, mbv-inspired “ljosmyndir“; the hell-on-earth creepout of “automatic faggot for the people“; the despondent, aimless drifting of “dark wave driver / big drill car“).

my bloody underground is neurotic and restless and moody and brilliant. and the ultimate result is an experience that will enthrall and possibly terrify — a flawless coalescence of the band’s fifteen year back catalogue.