Aster Tracks

 Not a whole lot this week. Listened to some current releases sure but had a lot of catch up records on my list this week. Speaking of, been really sleeping on Shrezzers and The Dirty Nill. To get into this week though, I do have some singles I’d like to throw your way below. Bicep - Saku (feat. Clara la San) (Ninja Tune) Irish electronic duo Bicep put out their new record Isles this week but the track that really stood out to me is “Saku.” Very nice ambient/ethereal track if you’re into that type of thing. 3OH!3 - I’M SO SAD (Photo Finish Records) 3OH!3 continues to ride the wave of this “””return””” (They didn’t go anywhere but anything to get that sweet click bait I suppose) and shockingly do well with every single on the cycle. This is the third of these so far and I’m actually starting to look forward to the album if that’s what it’s leading up to. Architects - Dead Butterflies (Epitaph) Another band shocking me on their album cycle. I am 100% always up for a genre change if t...

 Beach Bunny, the indie rock quartet from Chicago, IL, has had a pretty boom in the recent year. From their song a title track to their 2019 EP Prom Queen making a fairly viral splash on Tik Tok and even getting to play Jimmy Kimmel just two weeks back. On a personal note the band has made a huge impact on me in the past year, with their 2020 album being my second favorite of the entire year and the lead single from this project on the tail end of the year easily becoming one of my favorite singles and making me highly anticipate this release for 2021. The band promised this EP would be an angrier, edgier side of them as opposed to the sad lamenting found on Honeymoon. That single, “Good Girls (Don’t Get Used),” opens the EP up with a bass riff and vocal lead from the first second and takes you right into the track. As the song goes on we get a sense it’s what we’d come to expect but does come through with a straight-up pop punk chorus and a bridge that sounds more so 90s pop. No...

Weekly winners is a series I’ve been playing around with for a while that I believe is finally ready for your presentation. Basically what we’re going to do is spend about a week or so really sitting with the releases of the previous week, then on the weekend when we’re getting the new music of the current week I can show you the stuff that I thought was worth your time. This gives me a chance to really sift through the list so you don’t have to. First we’ll go over albums, EPs and other projects, then some key tracks and end it off with a list of tracks that I don’t have any comment for but are still valuable to hear in my view. Gatecreeper - An Unexpected Reality (Closed Casket Activities) Short, sweet and vile record from Arizona’s Gatecreeper. An Unexpected Reality is made up of seven one minute punk/metal tracks that hit you hard and fast then closes with an eleven minute epic drone metal track. You Me at Six - SUCKAPUNCH (AWAL Recordings) Weybridge band You Me at Six kicks off th...

  I’ve tried to write this a few times and have found I’ve been going about it all wrong. I attempted to listen to all these releases over in an analytical way and essentially review each one. I don’t think that’s what needs to be done here as a top list is supposed to be personal so I’m going to explain what each release means to me instead. That being said, I feel the need to thank any musician who put work in and released anything this year. The pandemic and state of the world made making art very difficult and I can only imagine the strain of losing the ability to tour and make a steady income. This year was hard for anyone and I went through plenty myself. I tried to listen to more music this year. I spent whole days at work or home throwing on album after album of things I had never heard before and tried to emphasize the current year. I didn’t skip anything based on genre, artist (with very few exceptions) or anything really. If I never heard it I just threw it on and tried ...