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Hot Sugar – “And the walls came tumbling down” (demo)

Beatsmith Hot Sugar drops a demo for the track “And the walls came tumbling down.”

The dreary and emotive piano playing sampled on the track was originally featured in this video, but it seems to have now made it into a full-fledged beat, which is getting a release on the forthcoming GOD’s Hand EP. Enjoy!

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Sielunvihollinen – “Viimeinen Valonlähde”

A rough but well-written black metal demo track from Sielunvihollinen, which was dropped off to me by the dude who fronts the project Dødkvlt. Look for a straightforward chord progression, mid-paced beat, and a blaring lead guitar melody on this one.

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Blessed State- 2012 Demo

Some catchy, energetic, and melodic hardcore punk coming from this new demo from Western Massachusetts’ Blessed State. It’s rough around the edges, but surely worth a listen. Some great guitar leads manage to shine through the grit of this recording, and some spots like the lone guitar introduction of the last track do come off as legitimately down in the dumps for music of this level of aggression. Enjoy!

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False Light- Self-Titled

False light is conjuring nothing but blast beats and corpses on this new EP of theirs, which is available as a free download right now on Bandcamp. Try it out via the widget above.

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Download TAMUTAMEN’s Demo

Considering the Nordic countries commonly associated with black metal, I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow when I heard this particular band, TAMUTAMEN, hails from Tel Aviv, Israel. However, I guess it’s not such a big deal since bands like Liturgy, Krallice, Deafheaven, and Wolves In the Throne Room have done a lot in terms of making black metal about sound, not just culture.

So, if you’re looking for something “trve” or “kvlt,” you might want to move along, because TAMUTAMEN seems to focus more on energy and aggression than any sort of set rules and standards. While the band does have some great blast beats and tremolo picking–I wanna mention here that some of the lead guitars get pretty melodic and colorful, too–there’s an undeniably strong hardcore punk influence in the handful of songs on this new demo of theirs. Find a download of all the songs right here. Check out a session performance featuring the band in the video below, too:

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Death Grips- “Poser Killer” / “Fyrd Up”

Currently, the TND camp is in the midst of a bit of Death Grips fever, and there’s no cure in sight. Addiction, addiction, addiction.

So, late last month, what seems to be a few Death Grips demos surfaced on YouTube, but they haven’t really received the blog buzz they deserve. To my knowledge, YouTube user MichealMcNanner was the first person to have shared these tracks on the internet, and how he came about these songs is bluntly explained in the comments for “Fryd Up”:

Judging from the sound quality and production on these two tracks, they sound early. Maybe even produced prior to the EP tracks that preceded last year’s Exmilitary. Still raw and intense, though. Grab these two tracks below:

Download: Death Grips- “Live From Death Valley”

And check out my Loved Listed review of Death Grips’ the Money Store here.

Edit: I’ve been told these tracks were also released, rather covertly, as a part of the Death Bomb digital singles collection.

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Robin Pecknold- “Olivia, in a Separate Bed”

Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes has released this song demo where he pines for the love of a woman named Olivia. The song being a demo is pretty stripped down, and features Pecknold’s strong vocals over some lightly strummed acoustic guitar. The vocals in combo with the lyrics display a great contradiction of beauty and sadness. In some ways the song resembles a courtly love poem of a man being smitten with someone he has little contact with. It is an uncharacteristically sad tune for Pecknold and he has said it is likely going to change. This track offers the range of his songwriting and some of the different directions that Fleet Foxes or Pecknold himself could take, which is something I wouldn’t mind seeing.

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New Have A Nice Life Demo

We had a new Giles Corey album from Connecticut singer-songwriter Dan Barrett earlier this year. Awesome! Now, I guess we’ve got ourselves a new demo from the project that pushed this guy into the spotlight he’s currently in: Have A Nice Life. In true Barrett fashion, this track is dark, overblown, and massive.

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Phoria- “Dolls Spinning Wide”

Dolls Spinning Wide (Demo) by phoriamusic

Recommended to me by the, uh, Recommender, is one of the many promising acts rising out of Brighton these days. The Recommender has a better working knowledge of them than I do, but this group in particular is standing out to me.

On the small group of tracks they’ve been able to scrap together thus far, I’m hearing plenty of influence coming from Radiohead. But things get even more interesting on the recent string of demos then band has uploaded to its SoundCloud page.

In the case of these tracks–especially “Dolls Spinning Wide”–the emotions come of very bleak and depressing, and a lot of the instrumentation crescendos as if the group has been closely observing the work of established post-rock acts like Mogwai and Sigur Ros.

Enjoying what I’m hearing so far, and I hope you are as well. Looking forward to what these guys do in the future.

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New Eula Demo ‡ MP3

A couple weeks ago, some of my CT Needle Drops came to a show in Hartford where Eula and Procedure Club played. ‘Twas a good time.

The good people in Eula told me they have a new album on the way, and gave me a 3-track demo of songs that’ll be on the LP. To me, this band’s music has always represented tension and anxiety. And the song below has plenty of that. It’s like an insomniac twitching in bed at 3:20 in the morning; waiting for the sweet release of sleep to arrive.  Download / stream “Dirty Hands” below, and let me know what you think:

MP3: Eula- Dirty Hands

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