Missed but
not Forgotten
Helen Money
Atomic
Thrill Jockey
Chicago based cellist Helen Money approaches her new album Atomic from a position of separation, in an attempt to understand how individual parts fuse together to make a whole. By taking her evocative, darkly moving compositions, and stripping them back to their architectural bones, she reveals what the Roman Humanist Lucretius referred to as the atomic “swerve,” an account of the apparent existence of free will in the universe and the necessary indeterminacy of all things at their most fundamental level. By revealing the “strings” of each chord, Helen Money exposes the essential free-wheeling nature of existence with a performance that takes shape according to a living will, bucking constraints of automata determinism and demonstrating the fact that nothing is known until it is seen and nothing is certain until it happens, and that what is can never be the final sum total of what will be. Atomic points to the reality that we are all burning balls of light suspended in a stream of constant becoming, intertwined in a process that strives towards beauty, even in moments of loss and gripping despair.
Mako Sica & Hamid Drake
Balancing Tear
Astral Spirits / Feeding Tube
Balancing Tear is the second album featuring a collaboration between Chicago's "free-rock" trio Mako Sica, comprising of Przemysław Drążek (guitar and trumpet), Chaetan Newell (percussion and keys), and Brent Fuscaldo (vocals and whatever else they need), and the legendary jazz drummer, Hamid Drake. Their first collaboration, 2018's double LP, Ronda, was lauded as a fulfilling synthesis of the respective musicians' particular styles. Balancing Tear is significantly more manageable in size, at only four tracks, you can comfortably listen to it in a single sitting. And let me assure you, this is an album that you'll want to absorb in its uncut, uninhibited flow. The first three tracks complement each other as siblings often do, each with their own unique abilities, quirks, and traits, and each with an uncanny resemblance to each other, despite these differences. "Trapeze" opens the album with a spectacular display of musical suspension, keeping your attention with gravity-defying grooves, airy brassy tones, and form-shifting spiritual jazz flourishes, that dive and breach through waves of plucking strings and pools of simmering, splashing cymbals. A deeply set, alkaline guitar riff leads the listener through the tense inaugural measures of "The Unknown" where they are met by lamentful horns and warning string rebukes, a valley of shadows and borderless forms, with only the all too human wail of Fuscaldo vocals to light the path through this thicket of the absurd. The third track "Enchanted City" weaves through pillars of towering, Arabic inflected drone guitars, parched chants, rippling mirage-like trumpeting and saturated basslines, a setting where a soul can learn to command a sense of inner peace amongst the high-dry dunes and futile pleats of its circuitous trajectory. The final track is partially a live rendition of "Trapeze" recorded at Constellation by Cooper Crain, showcasing the band's ability to navigate sonic spaces as they emerge through collaboration and how fluidly they can expand upon their base compositions, feeding off the energy of spectators to give birth to something with a will of its own, that lives and dies in an instance of creative fervor. If you are looking for a manageable album for a deep listening session this summer, then throw a copy of Balancing Tear on your turntable.
L.T.F.Rehabilitation ProcessChicago Research
Chicago Research is an artist collective founded by one Blake Karlson, and exists as a collaboration between several musicians, designers and writers, all with the goal of promoting the windy city's post-punk, dance, and electronic scenes. Since forming in 2018, the label has kept up a prodigious production schedule, releasing several albums a month, with some releases by the same artist dropping no more than thirty days apart. L.T.F. comes to us out of this flood creativity running off of Chicago Research's assembly line, and Rehabilitation Process is one of several superb releases they have dropped this year. Not to be confused with the German producer of the same name, L.T.F. performs a particularly industrial variant of acid house music that is borne as much of the Midwest corridor's history of manufacturing as it is the sonic innovations melded together in the basements of the homes of working men and women who slaved away in those factories. What's wonderful about these tracks is how fresh they sound, as if acid house were still open, virgin terrain, never before traversed by a living breathing DJ or surveyed via sequencer. Tracks like "First Evening" jog at a brisk clip to a fanning drum machine's chirp, refreshed every so often by gusty mistings of cool foggy feedback. Elsewhere lean baselines glide through gushing techno horizons that flood the ears with warm waves of electronic emotion. A more sinister side of the night emerges on tracks like "Garrote Vil" and "F.W.," balancing out the more unrestricted, carefree portions of the album with an icy processed glare. Whatever your mood, L.T.F. on Rehabilitation Process wants to be the soundtrack for the dank, drippy journey your mind is pulling you through once the sun sets below the city's skyline.
the Hÿss
Extraterrestrial
the Hÿss
Are you ready for some X-Files themed stoner rock? You better be, because the truth is out there, and the truth about Chicago's the Hÿss is that they are going to rock your body into a puddle of primordial goo with superheated guitar distortion, kinetic Kyuss-esque grooves, and a bad, backwater, crooked-toothed Supersucker smile. Extraterrestrial is the band's latest EP, four tales of extraordinary happenings that will leave agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, scratching their heads, filing reports, and trying not to spend the rest of their waking lives pondering what they've seen in a simmering panic. "Extraterrestrial" has a bayou parting, foggy groove and a punky, upper-cutting chorus, with gang vocals that are as forceful as the g-force of a UFO exiting the Earth's atmosphere. The shambling "Disco Frankenstein" tells the story of a misshapen party animal who can't find anyone to get down with him, a lonesome tale told with bludgeoning low-end bass, woozy bluesy grooves, and groaning lovelorn melodies. The real standouts in my opinion though, are the haunted head-fog foray of "In Shadows" with its blitzing High on Fire meets Fu Manchu tumble and peel, and the hungry, hairy stalk of "Wolf Spider" with its take on mean, melodic doom metal. The Hÿss are quickly making a name for themselves amongst the windy city's many sci-fi and horror obsessed stoner outfits, and easily hold their own when compared to Cloud Cruiser or Sacred Monster. Will they ascend to the top of this howling heap? I guess we'll have to wait for their debut full-length to find out.
Jeff Rosenstock
No Dream
Polyvinyl
My mid to late 20s, as many of you can relate, came with their fair share of suckage. From being overworked and underpaid at several shitty entry level jobs to renting an overpriced and undersized studio, my first 5 years out of college had their challenges. Back in high school and through the beginning of college, I listened to copious amounts of pop-punk and emo like Blink-182, New Found Glory, Saves The Day, and Taking Back Sunday to help cope during the tough times. However, as I got deeper into my 20s, it became increasingly difficult to relate to the primarily adolescent themes of these bands and I was left craving something that was *slightly* more mature. On a recommendation from Anthony Fantano, I gave Jeff Rosenstock's sophomore solo album, We Cool, a spin and it was just what I needed at the time.
At 29, lyrics like “When your friends are buying starter homes with their accomplishments/Drinking at a house show can feel childish and embarrassing” from “Get Old Forever” were highly relatable. Other tracks from this album that hit me in the feels include “You, in Weird Cities” about missing friends who have scattered across the country, and “Nausea” describing Rosenstock’s battle with depression that drives him to shut out his family so he can avoid the discomfort of discussing his future. Rosenstock went on to release his breakout album, Worry, in 2016 and POST in 2018. In addition to continuing his themes of twenty and thirtysomething angst, Rosenstock also delved into politics commenting on the excesses of capitalism and police brutality amongst many other progressive causes.
Rosenstock’s latest release, No Dream, dropped in May with no advance warning or promotion. Being the socially conscious dude he is, 10% of this album’s proceeds will be donated to Food Not Bombs, a nonprofit that provides free vegetarian and vegan meals to those in need. Rosenstock makes a few tweaks to his brand of pop punk and power pop.Opener “No Time”, along with the following tracks, “Nikes (Alt),” and “Old Crap”, have a bratty ‘90s skate punk feel that is reminiscent of bands like NOFX and his Bomb the Music Industry! past. “Leave it in the Sun”, “The Beauty of Breathing”, and “Monday at the Beach” mix some subtle surf influences with Rosenstock’s typical pop punk sound bringing to mind King of the Beach era Wavves. From a purely sonic standpoint, the most remarkable tracks on No Dream are the title track and “Honeymoon Ashtray”. The former starts off as a hazy dream pop track that ultimately transitions to melodic hardcore while the latter is a jangle pop tune reminiscent of The Cure.
Lyrically, No Dream covers a lot of familiar territory and is a strong blend of personal and politically-charged lyrics. The title track addresses the most vile actions of the current administration such as family separations at the border and the persistence of school shootings due to Congress being owned by the NRA. The most interesting track is “***BNB” which tells the story of a mother secretly renting out her daughter’s place as an AirBNB that Rosenstock stayed at while on tour. The more personal tracks on this album are a little less pessimistic than typical Rosenstock fare and find him better able to cope with all of the struggles that life throws at him. Part of this can be attributed to his marriage and he is no longer facing life alone. Closer “Ohio Tpke” finds him better able to make peace with his imperfect messy life and looking forward to driving home to his wife after a tour.
No Dream is an excellent addition to Rosenstock’s discography which finds him maturing both sonically and lyrically. I personally cannot wait for his next album which will most likely drop unannounced at some point in 2022. Despite being childish and embarrassing, my 34 year old ass cannot wait to be able to drink beer at a house show again. Malt liquor and live music may not make you young, but it can make you feel alive.
-Eric Wiersema