Of all my weeks so far, this one is the least noisy. Even the album I recommend by a band literally called “The Noisy” is a pretty subdued shoegaze/indie-pop joint, if that’s an omen of things to come. Not that some of these bands don’t get loud or chaotic (look no further than Coolest of the Week, Sodom & Sagesse), but overall, this is a more introspective week. Seems appropriate as we come tumbling toward the end of the first half of 2024. If you’re not taking this time to obsess over all your awkward interpersonal interactions so far this year, are you even human?
Aside from winners, we had three other finalists for Coolest Album of The Week. Feller is somewhere on the post-rock to punk spectrum, and their album is not only a lot of fun but deceptively complex. Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly is (are?) a ghostly act, almost haunted by both the memories and influences of its past to make something entirely unique, a blending of many styles and cultures into a voice of its own. Lastly, Jonathan Fitoussi is who I guess you could call the runner up. His electronic symphony is breathtaking, an absolute masterpiece of minimalism, space and sound.
If those recs sound good to you, or even if they don’t, we have a lot more coming your way. Please step into my office and check out…
The Coolest Stuff of The Week | June 5th
Feller – Universal Miracle Worker
Genres: Post-rock, punk, rock
trust blinks – Turns to Gold
Genres: Shoegaze, indie rock, slowcore
NUVOLASCURA – Twin Mystery: A Compilation
Genres: Post-hardcore, hardcore punk, screamo
The Noisy – The Secret Ingredient is More Meat
Genres: Alternative, shoegaze, indie pop
Jonathan Fitoussi – Poème Symphonique
Genres: Electronic, avant-garde, ambient
Polkadot – …to be crushed
Genres: Alternative, indie pop, emo
Embedded Figures – 6 Lovers
Genres: Punk, garage pop, cold wave
Mike Cooper & Jason Kolàr – Mauve/Pink
Genres: Dub, post-everything, experimental
Nova Wild – S/T
Genres: Indie rock, alternative, indie pop
Hubble – II
Genres: Shoegaze, post-rock, indie rock
THE IDEALIST – EXTENDED PLAYER
Genres: Electronic, dub, minimalism
Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly – MESTIZX
Genres: Electronic, psychedelic, art punk, bomba
Gnod – Spot Land
Genres: Psychedelic, alternative, minimal
Slash Fiction – We’ll Hold This Line Until Hell Freezes Over
Genres: Alternative, emo, punk
BEAK> – >>>>
Genres: Post-rock, experimental, kraut rock
Gaffa Tape Sandy – Hold My Hand, God Damn It
Genres: Punk, indie rock, alternative
Coppergear – Ouverture
Genres: Electronic, experimental rock, ambient
MURF – Already Dead
Genres: Hardcore punk, noise rock, metal
Sodom & Sagesse – Berzingue
Genres: Post-rock, math rock, noise rock
When I said this was a more introspective week, I wasn’t talking about Sodom & Sagesse. This band will blow your face off. Raised from the same chaotic juices as bands such as Lightning Bolt and Les Savy Fav at their most unwieldly, no, it isn’t meant for quiet moments of reflection.
Berzingue is meant to be played loud as fuck while you go hard at something.
It doesn’t matter what you’re going hard at. Are you going hard at your office job? Good. Driving 15 above the speed limit on the highway? Fuck yeah. Going for a run? Playing Church League Softball? Spending five straight hours grinding ranked mode in Smash Brothers? Sure. I mean, okay. The important thing is you’re going hard and this album is fueling you.
Much like the beforementioned Lightning Bolt and fellow French countrymen Vultures, Hyenas and Coyotes, Sodom & Sagesse are a two-piece. They have Jean-Loup Dutoit on drums and electronics and Philémon Tranchant on guitar and vocals. Both musicians are goddamn breathtaking in their dexterity and imagination.
But here’s the thing about a two-piece versus a band with more members — a two-piece can get louder in an album format. Much louder. This is because, unlike the real world, recorded audio has a loudness cap. You try to go over that cap, the audio doesn’t get louder, it just clips, gets distorted, and generally doesn’t sound how you want it to sound (unless you’re going for that, but there are better ways). So every instrument, noise; sound has to fit underneath this cap. If a band adds something, typically, that means they have to lower the volume on something else.
So, back to a two-piece — fewer instruments, the less you have to lower the volume on each one, and the louder everything sounds. And trust me, everything on Berzingue sounds consistently and constantly pretty fucking loud. Dutoit’s drums and Tranchant’s guitar are a two-headed monster constantly on attack.
However, where other two-pieces like Vultures, Hyenas and Coyotes or Bronson Arm fill a lot of the remaining space with vocals, that’s not always the case with Sodom & Sagesse.
Sometimes vocals fill in the space. Sometimes it’s just the guitar and drums rising progressively louder and louder into an ear-blistering crescendo of noise. Other times Dutoit fills our ear holes with odd sounds and figures that truly need to be heard with headphones strapped securely to our noggins for us to fully appreciate the intricate details layered beneath the onslaught. These samples are treated equally to vocals, giving the album a fun-house, anything-goes, experimental bent not unlike mid-period Battles.
Throughout the album, they don’t just play with space but also time. Songs speed up and slow down. Vocals seem to warp at times like a broken vinyl played over this insane chaos. These small changeups go a long way in creating a constant sense of shifting in what could otherwise feel like a very uniform album in less capable hands.
It would have been easy for Sodom & Sagesse to go at breakneck speed and volume constantly, constantly through this whole album, and that would have been a pretty kickass album in its own right. But they decided to do something better. Like pretty much every album that gets Coolest Album of The Week, they took something good and injected it with just enough artistry to make it great. Better than great, this is a fucking amazing work of post-math-rock bliss. Is that a genre? It is now.