Aster Tracks

Atlanta’s Sister Sleep is one of those bands who I’ve gotten to watch grow so organically from, basically, their inception. I became aware of the band on their second EP ever, 2023’s In Bad Faith, which demonstrated their sound as queer throwback post-hardcore. On this new single, “Collect Your Skeletons” they are joined by Splitjaw’s Maude Stout. Splitjaw, in their own right, are a much different band, hardcore from Chicago but still with the element of queer resilience. Their collaboration finds this collective at a really even middle ground between their distinct styles. The verses are quieter in tone but are pounding underneath the surface. Maude’s feature itself feels like a fit of rage continuing to burn out until the end of the track. This is a queer run blog, something I have definitely talked about in the past. I write a lot of words, mostly about music and other projects of mine. When we’re in a disaster, locally, across the country, across the world, I never quite feel intel...

  Early last year Philly's Mystery Dungeons released a good, but short, "self-titled" EP I ended up going back to quite a bit. While personally not totally privy to the project's history, a quick glance at the statements attached to the EP and now the debut LP show connections to various artists and a bigger picture than what we can see on a BandCamp page. Regardless of where they've been, I'm interested in where they are now, and Open World is a pretty clear view. For a record with such a short run time this has a wide variation of sonics. What makes emo-chiptune such a fun genre is while you're aware of what you're going to get the difference in artists lays in their personality coming through. You do get this here; the OST influence is more tragic and introspective. What sets Mystery Dungeons in particular apart is a willingness to wear hearts on sleeves. None of these songs try very hard to be fun, some of them are, the first three tracks are a ...