STREAMING // (Track) Lau.ra – “Body Go”

Listen Here – BandCamp

STREAMING // (Album) NANORAY – “DIGIMAIDEN”

Listen Here – BandCamp

3D Cover Artwork Elements By: Bāph

Track List: DT, Magic☆Mirror☆Mayhem!, 1,000,001 MOLA, Meter ~ Workbench, Endless ∞ Higanbana, Myztic Stage 🜂 Frost & Fire, Magmatic ☢ Refinery, Reg, Inner ⊛ Core, Become YOU

STREAMING // (Video) Toro y Moi – “Déjà Vu”

Listen/Watch Here – Youtube

Director: Justin Morris

Director Of Photography: Nicholas Woytuk

Producer: Alex Lianopoulos

Steadicam: Franz Brun

Assistant Camera: Max Henderson

STREAMING // (Album) GOVLINK – “Now Through Forever”

Listen Here – BandCamp

Production, Mixing, + Mastering By: Heather DiStefano

“Homelink” Produced In Collaboration With: Ronnie King

Track List: Heartlink, Cereal Milk, Non Exit Channel, Fiberlink, Interlude i, Neuralink, Comlink, Homelink – Govlink + Kevlar Wedding Dress, Interlude ii, Purgatorylink, Outro (Permalink)

Misc. Day – No Defense Lines

There is a certain element of campiness that is attractive in soundscapes, and while 2014 seems to be a lifetime ago, King Babies from The Death Set is a fun genre cross of electronic components with rambunctious playstyles.

Where 2014 was seeing releases from Run The Jewels and Flying Lotus, The Death Set was able to fly fairly under the radar with their own levels of experimentation. Separating the lines of attacking on mainframes and production from a synth-punk approach, The Death Set on King Babies is engaging and interesting at every turn.

While the EP is only four tracks and around eight minutes, King Babies has enough of a change in each track that the record feels more complete as a project than a package of quick snacks.

“Lite The Fuse” is the first introduction to the record and while the builds and breakdowns are the first thing to notice, The Death Set layers most of their instrumentation to crush each other instead of giving room to digest. “Lite The Fuse” is essentially a squash of a mix where the authentic drums strike over the electronic percussion and together create this symbiotic feast for sonics.

The group effort of vocals sung together also creates multiple voices that jump over each other in a clash for the microphone. Being release number 500 for record label Dim Mak, The Death Set are able to strike fast and be more of a positive effect for live energy that transposes the record format.

“Think Shank” immediately sparks to the mind for being a breakneck jump into crowd work with these almost unrelenting amounts of percussion in a one-two step fashion as strings and synths pound overhead.

Describing through distortion and clipping shouts, “Late night’s insomnia forgiven, think shank that’s just how we choose to live it. Cats and dogs on film we find efficient, days lost to this it makes no difference.”

For each track just barely reaching into two minutes on average, King Babies can feel like a lifetime for being trapped in this loop where The Death Set is more based on emotional draw than any technicality on playstyles. From their images where bass and guitars are thrown into the crowd, amps are used as footstools, and percussion sets become launch pads; King Babies reflects that power in sound.

The final track, “The Enemy” is actually the more simple in approach and is a stomping mess of shouts displayed over chugging guitar notes. Lyrically, The Death Set opens more doors than they close. They illustrate, “Pull it all apart, the noise and vents. Evacuate everything that doesn’t make sense. Homebound, no sound, forced out, living like an animal zoo tamed let out.”

Those final moments for The Death Set create one last approach of sonic vertebration, one last defense before succumbing to an exploding finale of builds into fireworks. Only eight minutes in stature, The Death Set is special on King Babies without ever losing that intriguing factor to performance.

Listen To King Babies Here!!! – Soundcloud/Spotify/iTunes

SUNDAY SAMPLER // (Playlist) “04/17/2022″

Listen Here – Spotify

“A playlist of tracks that were featured on MattsMusicMine.com from the week of April 11th – 17th. From Reviews to Streams, never miss a track with these playlists that are uploaded every single Sunday till I drop dead.”

Featuring: death’s dynamic shroud, Quelle Chris, Soul Glo, Mother Maryrose, Ultha, Golgothan Remains, DJ Lucas, Brian Eno, David Byrne, Fergus McCreadie, Primitive Man, HEALTH, Poppy, Lamb Of God, Death Parade, IDLES, Warthog, Turning Point

Track List: 너 땜에 맘이 맘이 맘이 맘이 괴로워요, Loving Is Easy, Alive Ain’t Always Living, Driponomics, He Knew And Did Not Know, A Shrouded Longing For Promethean Fire, Like A Karen, Mea Culpa, Very Very Hungry, Forest Floor, Cage Intimacy, DEAD FLOWERS, COLD BLOOD, Smoking And Safety, Crawl!, Four Walls, Vanishing Dream

STREAMING // (Track) Turning Point – “Vanishing Dream”

Listen Here – BandCamp

Vocals: Pepi Lemer

Tenor + Soprano Sax: Dave Tidball

Acoustic + Electric Piano, Synthesizer: Brian Miller

Bass Guitar: Jeff Clyne

Drums + Percussion: Paul Robinson

New Music – Concrete Burial

HEALTH quickly makes a jump to the multiverse of an alternate future where industrial soundscapes and metallic wars are being fought constantly. Striking some distance with their DISCO tapes that often feature an eclectic amount of guest musicians; HEALTH on DISCO4 :: PART II is in full control of a soothsayer destruction.

False idols can bear witness to the twisted beauty that DISCO4 :: PART II cements into the skull through the guise of POPPY on “DEAD FLOWERS” or the feature of Nine Inch Nails on the following “ISN’T EVERYONE.” Somehow underneath all that hardbody exterior, there is an angelic nature to the chaos and crushing mobility that HEALTH can display.

“DEAD FLOWERS” as an introduction starts strong and is the materialization of harsh synth progression and intense percussion to match. POPPY is almost ethereal to the mix and stands above the smoldering and wilting instrumentation below them.

HEALTH acts not just as a trio for one of the best collections of social media accounts via Instagram but is a triforce of real prowess to production. Continuing to impress from their earliest endeavors, DISCO4 :: PART II is an area where their expertise for collaboration and the ability to pull the best of performances from people continues to inspire.

The track “ISN’T EVERYONE” was released as an early single for DISCO4 :: PART II and besides the obvious connection of Nine Inch Nails and HEALTH being in the same room, the meeting of the minds pays off vividly and was quickly one of the best tracks for 2021. Now seeing it as a complete picture for DISCO4 :: PART II in 2022, the other pieces on the record make this connection seem like a small fragment of this arching puzzle.

Later tracks like “COLD BLOOD” which features Lamb Of God are blitzing and show the adaptability that HEALTH holds in their hands. In a similar way to how Full Of Hell and HEALTH were able to divide and conquer in this hammer and anvil tactic. Lamb Of God follows a similar suit and is unstoppable here, delivering one of their best tracks in years. The addition of HEALTH’s Jake Duzsik on the vocals ties in this perfect blood-stained bow around the mix.

Duzsik on vocals becomes one of the epicenters for HEALTH’s instant recognizability, pairing that with artists like Street Sects or The Body who are better known for their ability to crush and destroy instrumentation; the mix becomes the best of both molds.

“THE JOY OF SECT” is especially interesting to dissect as Street Sects is able to mix these margins of growls, shrieks, and eventually howls into the pipeline with clean vocals over stomping percussion and one-two steps. The fun of DISCO4 :: PART II comes in the transitions however and the following piece with EKKSTACY is a direct change in tone.

“STILL BREATHING” becomes this almost reprieve from the madness and slaughter that is DISCO4 :: PART II. It is unlike any other track on the record and marks a clear distinction sonically for HEALTH.

Amidst all the destruction, all the hell that HEALTH brings on, their melancholy style on “STILL BREATHING” is one of the more approachable and introspective performances on DISCO4 :: PART II. Through the soft vocals and the touching instrumentation, HEALTH appears nearly human for a change of pace. That humanistic tone will immediately disappear after “STILL BREATHING” ends, but the engagement is peaceful for once.

In the final moments, DISCO4 :: PART II is a graceful march toward some unrelenting end of life. While not a shocking demise, HEALTH is creative in their efforts and forces love where there can be hate.

Listen To DISCO4 :: PART II Here!!! – BandCamp/Spotify/iTunes