NOVEMBER REWIND: GARGANJUA, PILE, SASSY 009 and FRAGILE SELF

Last of the monthly rewinds before we start mustering some words about 2019 music moments. What are the new tracks that have made big dents this past month? Try this little selection from Boston, Oslo … and Leicester.

Garganjua: The New Sun

Not heard this lot before and didn’t expect much after the very clean, very now melodic prog vocal opener … but that all changes when the very massive post-metal drop lands a minute later. Shit me, it’s huge. Like, Cult of Luna huge. And though there’s the same sense of CoL dynamics – waves and surges – throughout, The New Sun is more rockist with a shred of Old Man Gloom punched into its core. New album lands in January, check the lead-off track from these midlands heavyweights right here.

Pile: Firewood

Not noise but noise rock. You know the sort. Loose, lumbering, loud yet fragile and vulnerably off key at times. More lurch and stagger than groove and swing, every instrument packs a percussive clatter. A bruised, wounded beast of Boston that needs your TLC. Pile this way.

Sassy 009: Thrasher

No guitars in this paranoid rush of electro-pop from Norway, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t rock. Masked vocals usher in an early spook and after that, we’re swept along by jitter-hammer beats, iced synth rushes, dark storm landings and oddly euphoric uplifts.

Fragile Self: Bertha

Definitely less rock is this high energy strutter from Fragile Self. If you wondered what a remix of Frankie’s Relax might sound like if hammered out in the uncertain climes of 2019, this taut, neck-jerking funk of robotic vox and semi-sleaze beats from Bowie’s Blackstar designers might just be it. Coolly addictive.

And that’s it for November – short, yes, but we’ve got to make head/ear space for those 2019 biggies.

’til next time!

amplifier wordsmith: the monthly rewind