Grand Rapids post-punk group Lost System will be releasing their debut EP, through Kalamazoo-based imprint Chromatin Records, on November 17th. Formerly known as Black Monuments in the Grand Rapids underground music scene, they made a name for themselves after playing with bands like Sheer Mag, Lumpy and The Dumpers, and CCTV. After Black Monuments broke up, they formed Lost system with three of the four members and recruited a new bassist, Adam Niemara, who also creates all of the band art-work. The result is something different. A unique sound with a distinct message to be heard. This project invokes a dynamic and dark energy inspired by the many frustrations of the world we experience today. Lost System will be playing a release show alongside Protomartyr November 18th at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids, MI.
Lost System’s recent single Future Shock is an intense piece showing the constant pressure of a collapsing economy. A reminder of what we are living in and the fear of what’s to come. Repetitive to drive home the point of a bleak future. The song will be available for streaming at soundcloud.com/chromatin-records/future-shock
Lost System was formed in the latter half of 2015 and have been creating new material at a very quick pace since. They have found a more mature sound with a focus on songwriting rather than playing shows. Each member brings a unique presence to the band and a wide variety of influences including Factory Records style Post-punk, 80’s Goth, New Wave, and Hardcore Punk. This is truly something unique that we are proud to release, for it is a representation of true artistic expression without compromise.
Cassette / Digital Album
The Agnes Circle are a London based post-punk duo that consist of bassist Rachael Redfern and songwriter Florian Voytek. LA native Florian arrived in London in 2015 via Brooklyn. He instantly met Rachael and the two immediately began writing and recording together in a make shift home studio in North London.
Drawing on elements of English post-punk and French cold wave, their first full length album Some Vague Desire enhances the formula earlier displayed on the debut EP Modern Idea. Eight new songs that combine angular guitars with lush and driven bass lines the two envelope their sound together with hypnotic rhythms and melodic croons.
LP / CD / Digital Album
FORGET was recorded during a period of epic productivity for Xiu Xiu. While writing FORGET, they released the lauded Plays the Music of Twin Peaks, collaborated with Mitski on a song for an upcoming John Cameron Mitchell film, composed music for art installations by Danh Vo, recorded an album with Merzbow and scored an experimental reworking of the Mozart opera, The Magic Flute. All of this frantic, external activity lead to a softly damaged dreaminess and broadened intent that has not been heard before in other Xiu Xiu works.
Standout track, “Wondering” is one of the catchiest boogie pop gems in the Xiu Xiu catalog, but like much of FORGET, it still bears an underlying tension that manifests differently in each piece. From the haunted guitar duet of “Petite”, the hilariously fraught lyrics of “Get Up,” the advanced industrial boxing match of “Jenny GoGo,” or the experimental goth explosion of “Faith, Torn Apart”, all the songs, in their own ways, build to a roiling boil of a fate in vanishing.
The calligraphy on the cover translates literally to “we forget.” It bows to the universality of everything and everyone’s inevitable decline and foggy disappearance. Regarding the album title, Xiu Xiu singer Jamie Stewart said, “To forget uncontrollably embraces the duality of human frailty. It is a rebirth in blanked out renewal but it also drowns and mutilates our attempt to hold on to what is dear.” FORGET is both the palliative fade out of a traumatic’s past but also the trampling pain of a beautiful one’s decay.
LP / CD / Digital Album
Frustration is now this fully grown-up lion that has no intention of ending up as a bedside rug. The grouches that you only hear when the press hands them a megaphone, and that would be disarmed if their MacBook were taken away from them are still talking about the good old days. The king of the jungle is back to restore its order, reminding tourists that coming here as a casual observer is not an option, because this is no ordinary regional park. The great history of rock can take a hike because our softened nerves are yearning to be tense one last time, our voices get lost, and we want more of those poor attempts at stagediving if only we can see Frustration one more electrify a crowd like they did at the latest Villette Sonique, with their social-class comrades of Sleaford Mods. And this, is the only reason why we agree to give in to music, this intrusive thing that never asks for our advice. The rest is just a background noise of conceited babbling saturating the feed of our souls. Bollocks, basically.
LP / CD / Digital Album
THE DOCTORS is a bass / guitar / keyboard / drum machine duet that blends influences from post punk and cold wave. Producing a condensed sound of industrial, cold and hypnotic, drawing its energy in ultra-fast beats and a powerful bass combined to a saturated guitar.
After several tours in France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany for their EP “dctrs2″ published in 2013 and now sold out, they shared the autumn 2016 Mini Cave Festival in Münster (Germany) with Frustration, then the Black Bass Festival (Gironde, France) with Mondo Generator (QOTSA side project), Inspector Cluzo, JC Satan…
Digital Album
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