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Review: BIG BRAVE's music epitomises what has been called 'massive minimalism,' with layers of textural distortion and feedback accentuating its weight and frayed edges. Their artistry blends traditional folk techniques with a modern deconstruction of guitar music, all of which is evident in the new album A Chaos Of Flowers, which is a follow-up to their fierce 2023 album Nature Morte. Lyrically, the songs delve into vulnerability, isolation, and co-existence in nature and guitarist and vocalist Robin Wattie drew inspiration from poetry by female-presenting artists, exploring alienation's impact on the psyche. This record is a testament to the band's ability to evoke intense emotions through minimalist yet powerful arrangements.

Review: Rhode Island based metallic experimentalist duo The Body have become renowned, not just for their own unique brand of heaving, caustic, dread-laden doomgazing, but for their dynamic slew of collaborative projects which has seen them work with the likes of deathgrind extremists Full Of Hell, sludge metal bastions Thou and noisecore industrialists Uniform, to name but a few. Orchards Of A Futile Heaven is the latest work to join this ever-expansive list of collaborations, seeing the pair link up with Berlin based DJ and experimental producer Dis Fig (aka DJ Felicia Chen) in an effort "to find new avenues to make heavy music that looked beyond tropes of metal and electronic music by merging the two". The resulting maelstrom offers a cacophonous swarm of distorted, screeching electronics and ethereal, menacing vocals submerged beneath layers of haunting, nocturnal, sonic malevolence. Perfect for all the family.

Review: Sludge-inflected noise-rock trio Eye Flys may have whittled themselves down following the departure of second guitarist/founding member Spencer Hazzard (Full Of Hell), but that seemingly hasn't diluted their sonic hubris by one single iota. Following on from their 2020 debut full-length Tub Of Lard and 2021's Exigent Circumstance EP, this self-titled sophomore effort continues their pummelling examination of a broken world and systemic prejudices through grinding, buzzsaw riffs and barrages of fuzzed out grooves that echo the likes of Melvins only if fed through a rusted woodchipper. Ugly music for ugly times.

Review: Los Angeles-based Canadian-American experimentalist Claire Rousay has made a name for herself due to her unique approach to post-rock-inflected ambience built off of primitive DIY field recordings captured on a Zoom H5 Handy Recorder, resulting in a curious form of emo musique concrete or "emo-ambient". Following on from a myriad of collaborations, projects, and singles, Sentiment marks her first full-length to put her usually hidden voice front and centre; utilising auto-tune to craft emotive hyper-folk musings delivered with androgynous hues. Described as a "meditation of the poignant emotional terrains of loneliness, nostalgia, sentimentality, guilt, and sex"; Rousay uses fractured narratives and one-way conversations to deliver painfully relatable, often uncomfortable musings, smothered beneath layers of droning reverb, monotonous acoustic plucking, and everyday sounds almost too familiar to pinpoint. The end result is the musical equivalent to our inner monologue at its lowest ebb, nattering incessantly while the world moves on around us, while sonically, it's the culmination of all Rousay's experimentation thus far, yet simultaneously more fearless and fragile.

Review: Claire Rousay continues her compelling evolution with this stunning new album on Thrill Jockey. sentiment once again finds threads of instrumentation and field recordings interweaving with snatches of poetry, dialogue and of course rousay's heart-rending vocal turns. The lens on this particular record is focused on loneliness, nostalgia, sentimentality, guilt and sex, captured in moments of heartfelt songwriting and passages of experimental, ambient exploration. It's simultaneously challenging and immediately endearing, adding ever more depth to rousay's intriguing profile as she dabbles in pop without ever compromising her experimental instincts.