Photo by: Alana Wool
Despite the outright denial in its title, death is present in every one of the songs on Never Die, the collaborative album from Midwife’s Madeline Johnston and Matt Jencik (of Implodes, Don Caballero, and Slint’s live band) — out July 11 on Relapse Records. Pre-orders are live at the links below. Jencik held the tenderest thought imaginable when he came up with that phrase—”Never Die”—the fact that the people he loves eventually would, a certainty that feels impossible and remote, until the day it absolutely doesn’t. Never Die represents Jencik’s desperate bid to hold onto everyone he loves, to keep them on Earth so fiercely that they might enter the grave with claw marks on their skin. Johnston, who recognizes the grace of mortality (and who, as Midwife once sang: “I don’t wanna live forever,” over and over) serves as the spiritual guide for the album, transmuting the fear of death into an incentive to live more keenly and dearly. Stream the single “Delete Key” and watch the visualizers. Continue reading
Listening to Recurring Dream from Chicago quartet Implodes is like standing in the eye of a storm whilst still enduring its surrounding tempestuous arms. It is an enveloping concentration of whispering beauty and intensive emotive aural howls which makes an inescapable impact no matter how enriching or corrosive you find the release. The previous albums from the band have investigated and taken inspiration from ‘the deep psychic recesses where our sonic memories first took shape.’ The promo to the new album goes on to declare that ‘With their new album, Recurring Dream, Implodes breathes fresh air. Melodies that were once distant echoes are now suffused with energy and clarity of purpose, submerged rhythms now walk in the light of day.’ That is the band’s intent though maybe not necessarily realised by individual thoughts and emotions the release undoubtedly inspires, it may not ignite the purpose which drove the band to their creativity in the listener but it does trigger an evolving experience of emotion and imagination which marks it as an impressive piece of work.