We are back! I’m sure everyone noticed this column was gone for a few weeks while I was on vacation. I know how instrumental these recs are to all our lives, and I apologize from ripping them away from you. I’d like to say I’m never going to do it again, but I have more vacation coming up at the end of August… plus maybe possibly some life stuff that might put the column on hiatus for a short while before then? (But probably not!) So I’m definitely going to fuck you all over again very soon.
But hey, I’ve mostly caught up on the music I missed while I was gone, which means we’re mostly caught up. And do we have a really good Coolest Stuff this week. There are a metric-fuck-ton of albums on the list, and that’s with me being extra discerning because I did not want this list going on forever. What was I going to do, drop 50 album recommendations on your domes? Even I’m not that insane. Instead, I did like 30.
Pijn took home the gold this week with From Low Beams of Hope, but we’ll get to that cool shit later.
Other finalists for Coolest Album of The Week were Corde Raide, Max Blansjaar, Other Half, Mabe Fratti and Boids. This will now be much easier to figure out. Why? I’ll tell you why. Because we now have an asterisk next to every finalist on the rec list so when you’re going down the list, you can say to yourself, “Holy shit, that’s one of the finalists!”
Look at the very first album on the list, which happens to be the runner up for Coolest of The Week. Check out that nifty little * right next to the album name. Think to yourself, “I wanna check out some loud-ass post-punk, garage shit, and oh look, this one isn’t just recommended, it’s extra recommended.”
And then while you’re at it, stay around for all of…
The Coolest Stuff of The Week | July 3rd
CORDE RAIDE – Des vestiges, des matériaux, des spectres *
Genres: Post-punk, indie rock, garage punk
Las Nubes – Tormentas malsanas
Genres: Punk, alternative, shoegaze
Taxidermy – Coin
Genres: Post-punk, math rock, noise rock
KRM & KMRU – Disconnect
Genres: Experimental, ambient, electronic
Das Kapitans – S/T
Genres: Post-punk, garage punk, punk
Porta d’Oro – Così Dentro Come Fuori
Genres: Post-punk, experimental, dub
smush – if you were here i’d be home now
Genres: Shoegaze, indie rock, alternative
Gavriloprincip – Sacred Memory Plaza
Genres: Shoegaze, grunge, punk
Kate Nash – 9 Sad Symphonies
Genres: Garage pop, indie pop, pop rock
Jahnah Camille – i tried to freeze light, but only remember a girl
Genres: Alternative, indie rock, indie pop
Max Blansjaar – False Comforts *
Genres: Alternative, indie pop, lo-fi
Old Saw – Dissection Maps
Genres: Experimental, folk, ambient
FOIL – T.A.W.B.O.E.
Genres: Punk, weirdo punk, hardcore punk
Moon Diagrams – Cemetery Classics
Genres: Electronic, shoegaze, trip-hop
Brunsten – Ethyl
Genres: Noise rock, punk, post-punk
Ephemera – Part II
Genres: Screamo, hardcore punk, emo
Other Half – Dark Ageism *
Genres: Math rock, indie rock, punk
TINKERTOWN – American Gothic
Genres: Alternative, folk, indie pop
BAD IMAGE – II
Genres: Punk, hardcore punk
EYE BALL – S/T
Genres: Punk, hardcore punk, egg punk
bad cough – good cough, bad cough
Genres: Punk, garage punk, DIY
Been Stellar – Scream from New York, NY
Genres: Rock, shoegaze, post-punk
Abel – Dizzy Spell
Genres: Alternative, shoegaze, indie rock
Tulpa – Dismantler E.P
Genres: Alternative, noise-pop, indie-pop
YELKA – For
Genres: Alternative, jazz, post-kraut
My Best Unbeaten Brother – Pessimistic Pizza
Genres: Post-punk, emo, indie-rock
Saccata Quartet – Septendecim *
Genres: Post-noise, dark ambient, jazz
Danny Paul Grody Duo – Arc of Night
Genres: Experimental folk, post-folk, ambient
Mabe Fratti – Sentir que no sabes *
Genres: Post-rock, experimental, indie rock
Katy the Kyng – Selfies Of You
Genres: Indie pop, alternative, singer-songwriter
cassper. – elevator
Genres: Electronic, mix tape, hip-hop
Boids – S/T *
Genres: Punk, noise rock, hardcore punk
EXCESS BLOOD – S/T
Genres: Punk, noise rock, goth
Pijn – From Low Beams Of Hope
Genres: Post-rock, experimental, post-metal
Above anything else, Pijn’s new masterpiece From Low Beams Of Hope is gorgeous. Everything else constituting its multitudes only serve as subpoints to this one undeniable truth. This is a gorgeous album operating on a level of perfection equal to or surpassing some of the greatest albums of the post-rock genre.
“Each day, time drops a tiny death at your door.”
And so From Low Beams Of Hope opens with this wonderful line that could mean a number of things. It could refer to our mortality or the constant disappointments and heartbreaks that build up each and every day over the course of our lives. That it conjures the image of time carrying death to you like a cat bringing you the unwanted body of a dead rat it caught makes it all the more effective.
But this line also succinctly describes the album itself. The album is built from tiny moments, built up across the expanse of each song and the album as an entirety to create moments of hope and heartache. Perfectly placed within time, the arrangements create tiny deaths in the heart of each listener. That’s the precise gorgeousness we’re dealing with here.
From Low Beams Of Hope is a masterclass in restraint, tension and dynamics, and that only works because of the expert pacing of each moment in time.
Almost set to the beating of the listener’s heart, these songs explode after a slow build of excruciating beauty and then comes down into a sublime ether of abstract bliss. It’s a cycle that repeats itself endlessly but also unpredictably. Within each song, one violent section might emerge or many. And when and where it might erupt from the ether is perfectly timed, but it’s from the math of a genius mathematician, when and where calculated to perfection by formulas too complicated to understand.
On top of all of this, the idea that there are songs here is somewhat a myth, too. There aren’t songs so much as movements and sub-movements within movements. Each supposed song moves right into the next, forming one, long magnificent piece. Between the string arrangements and great use of quiet moments to set up the loud moments to sound extra climatic and violent, there’s an orchestral quality to this. It feels like something that could be used as an extremely cool rock ballet.
Pijn have made something truly special here — a lasting statement in the post-rock genre. An album so beautiful, it feels like a tiny death with every listen. Each note of hope. Each note of melancholy. Tiny deaths Pijn has left at my door.
