Today's Hotness: Night Dew Call, Katie Dey, TV Wonder

>> We love encountering evidence of the universality of indie pop, identifying acts from around the world mining the sounds of Anglophilic '80s guitar pop. That the "cause" side of the equation has traveled far and wide perhaps shouldn't be surprising any longer in our Internet-connected age, but the "effects" thrill us nonetheless. The very location of a band can seep into its interpretation of the form, and in sometimes subtle and effervescent ways complement the timeless aspects of the little genre-that-could. Be it in sound, language, spirit or even general enthusiasm, when it is good it is icing on the cake. Which is why recent digital singles from young Ukrainians Night Dew Call have caught our collective ear. Straight outta Pobho, the dreamy and twee four-piece craft dancey, clean and crisp singalongs for late night bar crawls amidst the open-collared breeze, as in its tune "Someday." "You'll see me around someday" promises a pleasant mid-range singer (in perfect English, we suppose it is worth adding for our lyrically fixated readers). The bending "ohs" and the earworm guitar line that opens the tune recall touchstone acts like The Smiths to some degree, but the brisk pacing and relaxed but confident guitar solos suggest that this band needs no help understanding how to execute an effective entrance into a three-and-a-half minute sleeper anthem. And so bring on the Globalism, we say. Download "Someday" for any price right here; that number as well as two other digital singles from this year, "Citizen" and "Schedryk," can be streamed via the embed below. -- Edward Charlton, At Large



>> We were quite entranced by Melbourne, Australia-based electro-acoustic sound manipulator extraordinaire Katie Dey's 2015 full-length debut, asdfasdf, taking note of her stunning and original twists of melody and sound. The songs were fairly singular, offering modernist, post-pop tones and pitch-shifted vocals that sounded painstakingly crafted. Just about a year later we now have the first fruits from Ms. Dey's follow up, flood network. Due Aug. 12 via Texas-based Joy Void Recordings, the album is heralded by a brace of preview tracks: "Fear o The Light" and "Only to Trip and Fall Down Again." The tunes indicate a slightly more rockist approach when compared against last year's model, with steady drums grounding impressive and unique EQ artistry and fuzz. Still, dubbing the tunes conventional, however, stretches the definition of that word toward the breaking point. "Fear o The Light" -- seemingly a counterpoint to asdfasdf's "Fear o The Dark" -- marries white-noise beauty to a steady, acoustic guitar-led folk-rock structure before Ms. Dey sets to work shifting her lovely vocals into hyper oblivion. The tune "Only to Trip and Fall Down Again" aspires toward blooping electronica that pleasingly echoes Clicky Clicky-faves The Books at times (that's an extreme compliment from this publication, don't you know), although the rhythm tracks' organic feel is more exotica than futuristic. This reviewer is expecting the majority of music press to adore Dey's inventive release: if only the overground was routinely this exciting. Joy Void is releasing the set on Pink/Blue/Yellow/Clear, Blue/Pink or Blue/Yellow splatter vinyl, color combinations that perhaps come close to approximating the amazing and original talent cut into the grooves. Pre-order flood network right here. -- Edward Charlton, At Large



>> This writer was absolutely in love with TV Wonder's Bird Sounds EP, which was released last year by the routinely excellent Faux Discx. The short set was a highlight of a pretty cracking year, and the Dutch quartet appear to have made the most of it, garnering slots performing with American indie heavy-hitters such as Viet Cong (now Preoccupations), dream-pop delighters DIIV and the mighty Detroit four Protomartyr. On top of this, the band has recorded two new songs for a cassette Geertruida Records issued late last month. "Glazed" and "Fixed Aesthetic" continue in the vein of the Sonic Youth-inspired jams of the aforementioned EP, but incorporate a pinch of additional clarity and studio punch. "Glazed" opens with a surprisingly major-key garage shuffle before introducing the more dissonant guitar interplay characteristic of the band's music. At the eighty-second mark, the band reacquaints listeners with its post-punk gloom and tension, and it is a delight to hear once more. From there TV Wonder locks into a groove so sinister that when the song's care-free opening chords return, they're run over flat by detuned anti-solos that capture the youthful anxiety and explosiveness this band expresses so well. It's just a great steamroller of a song that makes the most of its few, simpler parts. "Fixed Aesthetic" sticks more to the gloom side of the TV Wonder coin, but, again, the combo switches gears midway to a new part that captures a dreaminess and dread reminiscent of the late, great Women, while also still having its own stark and minimalist European voice. TV Wonder are on a roll, let us all pray they don't stop. Boston fans familiar with the shoe-brand cross-marketing phenomenon Converse Rubber Tracks will be interested to know TV Wonder recorded these two tunes in a single day as part of Converse Rubber Tracks Amsterdam. Order "Glazed" / "Fixed Aesthetic" on cassette right here, or click through the embed below to acquire the digital files. -- Edward Charlton, At Large

Today's Hotness: Steiner, Protomartyr, Goddam Nobody

>> The placidly spiraling first label release from self-styled "non-guitarist with a guitar" Steiner, the nom de guerre of Belgian Stijn Hüwels, is a captivating collection of ambient compositions. The set, titled At Or From A Distance, will be issued Feb. 17 via London-based experimental label Glass Reservoir in a limited edition of 50 handmade CDs or as a digital download. Each of the seven tracks contained therein gorgeously swell with gently modulating guitar samples that cycle in and out of perception like so many ocean waves. The compositions are virtually edgeless and form a lush, connected suite that would play perfectly as a score to emotional scenes from a futuristic sci-fi romance. Opener "Topography/Hiro (I)" emerges from atypically utilized white noise and distant whispers, but before long Steiner throws the switch on a looping and smooth long-form delay melody that repeats as echoes from a field recording construct an aural atmosphere to house it. "Unsettling (Evening Before Bedtime) (VII)" patiently strides along long ambient drones, while a melody fighting the monotone underneath powers the piece's great push-and-pull motion. This builds in intensity and volume until the four-minute mark, where the piece suddenly embraces a complex strum that ultimately brakes up, evaporating into dead air. "The Opposite Of Now (VI)" is a distinct highlight, perhaps Steiner's "pop song" of sorts. The composition wanders peacefully but eventually locks into a motif that is both uplifting and elegiac; its repetition is as entrancing as it is catchy, and reinforces the cinematic charm of the entire collection. Stream the set's "I Seem To Glimpse You In Every Window (II)" via the Soundcloud embed below. Pre-orders for At Or From A Distance -- surely another unqualified victory for Glass Reservoir -- will be taken (here, in all likelihood) beginning Jan. 31. -- Edward Charlton



>> Detroit post-punk unit Protomartyr will April 8 issue what promises to be a cracking sophomore long-player, Under Color Of Official Right, via Sub Pop-offshoot Hardly Art. The first preview track from the quartet's forthcoming, 14-song set is the anxious and menacing exhortation "Scum, Rise!" The track exudes the sort of early post-industrial nihilism and defeat whose roots clutch late-'70s England, where acts like Joy Division and Gang Of Four internalized and then memorialized the physical and spiritual decay of Manchester and Leeds respectively. The members of Protomartyr likely need not look for inspiration -- or, indeed, whatever the opposite of inspiration is -- outside the confines of their native Detroit (the metropolis is presently bankrupt, although its art holdings were recently saved from liquidation by $330 million in donations). Perhaps as a result of the strife in their environs, perhaps not, "Scum, Rise!" seethes within its atmosphere of boxy reverb. Discordant guitar notes pulse in the space between fuzzy floods of stinging chords and hungry cymbal crashes, while fronter Joey Casey drawls verses through gritted teeth. The tune is as bracing as it is harrowing, particularly as Mr. Casey warns "there's nothing you can do, nothing you can do, nothing you can do, nothing you can do..." While it is harder and darker than the earlier tunes posted to Soundcloud, "Scum, Rise!" throbs with vitality and will certainly keen the interest of post-punk adherents. Pre-orders for Under Color Of Official Right are not yet being taken, but watch this space. Stream "Scum, Rise!" via the Soundcloud embed below. Protomartyr's prior label Urinal Cake reported here earlier this week that it has sold out of a second pressing of the Detroit act's 2012 debut LP No Passion All Technique; the first pressing sold out in less than two months.



>> Let's leap from Hardly Art to Art Is Hard, because life should be mildly confusing but filled with indie rock and exciting verbs. Exeter-based Art Is Hard is relaunching its rock-solid Pizza Club single series for 2014 (they spent 2013 away from pizza boxes but engaged in a similar enterprise via postcard). Every other Friday this year Art Is Hard will reveal an exclusive single for free download, and then sells only four (that's right, four) hard copies; the hard copies come on a 5" CD stuffed into a 7" pizza box (hence the series' moniker). In 2012, these hard copies were snatched up in seconds, so if you are a physical media completist with an ear for great indie pop, prepare for routine, crushing disappointment -- but also regularly dispensed bits of indie pop delight. The price for the singles series ranges from free to a mind-boggling ₤125, but sadly, that deluxe top tier (which included a pizza date with the label proprietors) is completely sold out; read all the other pricing details right here. The first single of 2014 is a lovely and blurry pop strummer from Falmouth bedroom-pop concern Goddam Nobody, the brainchild of one Matthew Oliver. Mr. Oliver's tune is called "Cut And Paste To Waste," and it evokes images of crushed wet leaves in the gutter and rain streaking across the windows of a train car. After a solemn introduction of backwards guitar, lo-fi production and cloudy reverbs crowd layers of wistful vocals, pretty, chorus-pedaled guitar and steady drumming. It's Phil Spector's wall of sound gone haywire, an aquarium whose water needed to be changed months ago, but the noise does not thwart the composition but instead strikes a balance that, ultimately, imbues the shiny pop beneath with a warm glow. "Cut And Paste To Waste" is an exception to Art Is Hard's practice of only releasing exclusive material, as the tune was the title cut to a Golden Oldies-influenced EP self-released in late 2013. So, to review: Pizza Club is back for 2014, stream "Cut And Paste To Waste" via the embed below.