Brace yourselves; Coalesce is back. The pummeling hardcore unit’s new two-song seven-inch may not be out until September, but that doesn’t mean we can’t rock it on repeat.
Coalesce
Salt and Passage 7″
Release: September 11, 2007
When is seven minutes of song worth waiting eight years? Answer: Coalesce‘s Salt and Passage seven-inch record. Coming as the group’s first real material since 0:12 Revolution in Just Listening (Relapse), the group’s two new songs, “Son of Son of Man” and “I Am This,” bring listeners to their knees with uncompromising grooves and crushing heaviness. Original guitarist Jes Steineger is back with more meter-counting madness, and drummer Nathan Richardson, Jr. (The Casket Lottery, ex-The Appleseed Cast) has joined the team with his precise, mid-tempo beat work.
Coalesce: [mp3]http://www.crashandbang.com/audio/02%20Cowards.Com.mp3[/mp3] (0:12 Revolution in Just Listening)
DJ Mayonnaise
Still Alive (Anticon)
Release: July 17, 2007
Using as apt an album title as one will find, Anticon‘s DJ Mayonnaise proves that he actually is still breathing with his sophomore album that was eight years in the waiting. The nearly all-instrumental disc eases through forty-nine minutes of low-key synth hop with delightful guest spots of clarinet, tenor and alto sax, and guitar.
DJ Mayonnaise: “Easily Distracted” (Still Alive)
The Meat Puppets
Rise to Your Knees (Anodyne)
Release: July 17, 2007
(This review will appear in its entirety in ALARM Magazine’s fall issue.)
The first new Meat Puppets record in seven years (twelve if you’re really counting) isn’t a glorious return to form. Luckily, it’s an exceedingly good one. There’s plenty of new territory, from mandolin-led folk (“Tiny Kingdom”) to sea shanty (“The Ship”), and it’s all filtered through their signature fried Americana. At almost 67:36, this does run a little long, but the inevitable low points are few and at worst merely boring, never embarrassing (even the hookless electro-thump clinker “Light The Fire” has guitar pyrotechnics on its side).
The Meat Puppets: Various Tracks
Serengeti & Polyphonic
Don’t Give Up (Audio 8)
Release: July 17, 2007
Abstract vocalist Serengeti has teamed up again with Polyphonic the Verbose, a maestro of organically infused electro-ambience, for this multi-faceted album on Audio 8. And though Serengeti can be a bit corny as he weaves in and out of rapping and sung or spoken-word vocals, the production of Don’t Give Up is a mash-up of glitchy, modern sounds.