For every rush of adrenaline there’s the eventual lull. For each euphoric high there’s the comedown to follow. Thunderheads (Aqualamb Recordings) — the debut record of LaMacchia — plays like the 3am winding down of a night of excess. Thrills and sensual desires wedded to a shadow of sadness and introspection.
Coachella Festival has announced its full lineup for their two weekends of festivals this spring. The mostly Rap and Pop music lineup had already confirmed headliner Rage Against the Machine for April 10th and 17th. Other artists performing April 10-12 and 17-19 includes headliners, and so are Frank Ocean and Travis Scott, and Thom Yorke, Lana Del Rey, Lil Uzi Vert, FKA twigs, DaBaby, Run the Jewels, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Nas X, City Girls, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Idles, Charli XCX, 21 Savage, Disclosure, Big Sean, Carly Rae Jepsen, Yaeji, Snail Mail, Swae Lee, Noname, Caribou (and Daphni), DJ Koze, Calvin Harris, Denzel Curry, Danny Elfman, Cuco, 100 gecs, and Fatboy Slim are among the artists on this year’s lineup. Duck Sauce—the A-Trak and Armand van Helden project—is on the lineup after being inactive since 2014. Japanese digital pop star Hatsune Miku will also perform. Danny Elfman will also perform a set as well. The reunited My Chemical Romance was heavily rumored to appear at the festival, but they’re not on the lineup. Tickets for weekend 1 are already sold out. The pre-sale for weekend two begins on 1/6 and is also expected to sell out.
According to a report from Consequence Of Sound, My Chemical Romance will be performing at next year’s Coachella Music Festival. The website reports is saying industry source. In a story first reported by Ghost Cult, Rage Against The Machine is already confirmed with other potential headliners in Frank Ocean, Travis Scott and more. Other acts that will reportedly be performing include Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Lana Del Rey, and Australian electronic artist Flume. The recently reunited MCR have never played Coachella. The festival returns for its 21st edition on April 10-12 and April 17-19 2020 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. The festival typically reveals the official lineup in January with tickets going on sale shortly after.
It’s time for another Ghost Cult “End Of Year” Guest post! We’ll be sharing lists, memories, and other shenanigans from our favorite bands, partners, music industry peers, and other folks we respect across the globe all month long! Andrew Mikhail and his Orchestral Blackened Death Metal band Serpents (US) released their immaculate Temet Nosce release, played some tour dates formulated many plans for 2020. Andrew took some time out to share his personal Top 25 albums of 2019, and he also curated a Top 50 Spotify playlist available on the Serpents U.S. Page that deserves your attention too! Continue reading
It’s time for another Ghost Cult “End Of Year” Guest post! We’ll be sharing lists, memories, and other shenanigans from our favorite bands, partners, music industry peers, and other folks we respect across the globe all month long! Today’s list comes from Shiv Mehra, guitarist of Deafheaven and Heaven’s Club. Check out the list!Continue reading
It’s been a long wait for those of us whose curiosity was piqued by the dark, emotional splendour of Irish quartet Raum Kingdom’s 2014 self-titled EP. Finally, an album, Everything & Nothing (both self-released) is here, and almost from the outset, it oozes the hostile, plaintive post-Metal beauty for which one would hope.Continue reading
Anybody here with broad tastes recall The Blue Nile? They of 80s Indie Electronica fame? For some reason the wrought moments of their minimalist, stark melancholy spring to mind when harmonized, plaintive vocals burst through the chaotic ambience of Texan super-project Pyramids. The rest sounds nothing like, of course…
Doubtless somewhat responsible for the complex, occasionally harsh noise surrounding those honeyed tones, Blut Aus Nord‘s Vindsval and Gorguts‘ Colin Marston join Mike Dean‘s men for sophomore album A Northern Meadow (Profound Lore). Lead track ‘In Perfect Stillness, I’ve Only Found Sorrow’ emerges like some lo-fi, Post-Black Doves; shoegaze Indie strains blending with slashing yet melodic guitar, while the high-pitched, soaring vocals bring Thom Yorke into the equation. Though this is the early template, strange soundscapes envelop the structures with the intricate rhythms and Post leadwork furthering the Radiohead connection, albeit with more weight to the body – an at times crushing sequence of blows bursting a colliding crescendo of noise in both ‘The Earth Melts Into Red Gashes…’ and ‘The Substance of Grief Is Not Imaginary’.
As the titles suggest cheery this ain’t, yet the euphoric effects of the music at times contrast from the intent and that pensive, melancholy voice despite the obvious emotion of the whole: the resonant, rising harmonies and emotive, synthesized atmospherics of ‘Indigo Birds’ charging the soul and calming the frozen wastes of agonised, railing riffs.
In many ways this is the aural depiction of a nervous breakdown, the conflicting emotions crashing together, those fluctuating rhythmic structures and occasionally blackened riffs being the violent mood swings. The complexities and contradictions in the sound are both zenith and Nemesis, highlighting both the harshness and the beauty but also occasionally dampening just as things threaten to explode. Picture Red Sparrowes or Alcest if you will, with the hostile anguish retained just to tease whilst remaining an integral part. The dark-Mastodon feel of ‘Consilience’, a sinister organ adding to the portentous mass, closes an album in equal parts exquisite, beguiling yet a sprawling achievement; one most definitely worth sticking on every time you’re dwelling on that crossroads between depression and ecstasy.
8.0/10
PAUL QUINN
