New releases last four weeks: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: 'The Sevens' by A Place To Bury Strangers unveils previously unreleased tracks from the band's acclaimed album See Through You. Renowned for their visceral post-punk and shoegaze sounds, the group delivers a sonic revelation across this white 7", which is one of a series of four. Each one invites you to delve into their universe and explore raw and personal tracks that capture life's most emotive essence. 'Chasing Colors/I Can Never Be As Great As You Are' is the second release that A Place To Bury Strangers founder Oliver Ackermann has said reflects on returning to their roots and embracing the unique format of standalone tracks, thereby offering a glimpse into a unique moment in time.

Review: The latest offering from serial collaborator and cross-genre tastemaker Stephen O'Malley's Ideologic Organ imprint is a tender filigree bureau of acid folk sketches from Tokyo's Ai Aiso. Across seven tracks, she patiently meanders through broken and phased chord progressions, her simultaneously pure and wavering vocal lines forming elegant arcs over sparse beds of instrumentation and washes of room tone. Some tracks are bookended by applause, and it is this ostensibly 'indoorsy' atmosphere which lends the mini LP a great deal of charm; the delicate atmospherics seem to issue from an intimate and isolated space. Indeed, Bandcamp user Everyvillianislemons317 describes it as "The perfect album for a lonely night in the city." We're more than inclined to agree.

Review: Leeds-based duo Hawthonn express their inspiration from Coil in their artist name (a tribute to the late Jhonn Balance) and it doesn't take long listening to their music to hear that indelible mark on their sound. Earth Mirror marks Layla and Phil Legard's second album for the Ba Da Bing! label out of NYC after 2018's Red Goddess (Of This Men Shall Know Nothing). Weaving a compelling mixture of low, murmuring industrial tones and pastoral folk with an occult twist, the duo move through enveloping, atmospheric spaces. At times Layla Legard's voice cuts through the mist, and elsewhere we reside in instrumental pastures, but the mood remains haunting and evocative from start to finish, not to mention masterfully rendered.

Review: Few bands have sidestepped expectations as cannily as Mount Kimbie. Initially a duo but now expanded into a quartet, the British band has previously excelled in mixing, matching and fusing a wide range of experimental and left of centre electronic music influences. On The Sunset Violet, their first full-length as a quartet, they've shifted sonically once more, leaning into their indie-rock influences on a set recorded in California. The latter aspect - and the impact of being surrounded by sunshine and desert - is reflected in the warmth and haziness of the sound, which draws on the layered vocals and guitars of vintage shoegaze while also reaching for more familiar aspects of the band's previous experimental electronic sounds (for proof, check the ghostly musical vision that is King Krule collaboration 'Boxing').

Review: Skep Wax's first Under The Bridge compilation, released in 2022, reunited the bands, songwriters and producers who populated cult early '90s indie label Sarah Records. This hotly anticipated follow-up repeats the trick, presenting 20 recently recorded cuts from the Bristol-based imprint's original roster of artists. It too, is a hugely successful - and understandably nostalgic - exercise, with hi9ghlights including the bright-and-breezy indie jangliness of Action Painting's 'Just Who Are The Cockleshell Heroes', the shoegaze-influenced dream pop haziness of Soundwire's 'Everything Is Real', the near Balearic soft focus shuffle of 'Double Nine' by GNAC, and the saucer-eyed excellence of The Orchids' 'A Final Love Song'.