***CHALK HANDS exclusive premiere***

CHALK HANDS

"Charm"
exclusive song premiere

For fans of: Envy, Shizune, Vi Som Älskade Varandra Så Mycket, Amanda Woodward, Yarostan, Shirokuma and Amber Daybreak

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I am elated to bring you a new song from CHALK HANDS. If you're anything like me you've been keepin' an eye out for anything new from this band since their debut, two-song EP 'Burrows & Other Hideouts' release two years ago. The new song we're premiering today is called "Charm" and it is from the Brighton band that will be included on the '3-Way split' 12" releasing in full tomorrow alongside Reveries and Okant. You can grab the stellar release from the following labels as well as the bands' bandcamp pages.

Future Void Records (UK - vinyl)

Callous Records (UK - tape/vinyl)

Missed Out Records (US - vinyl)

Dingleberry Records (GERMANY - vinyl)

Time as a color (GERMANY - vinyl)

Smart And Confused (FRANCE - vinyl)

Dischi Decenti (ITALY - vinyl)

CHALK HANDS bandcamp (U.K.)

OKANT bandcamp (Sweden)

REVERIES bandcamp (U.S.A.)

(2019) CHALK HANDS "Charm" (from '3-Way' split)

Ooooo baby this is a banger. It builds for nearly a minute before erupting in an explosion of screamo and post-hardcore not unlike Amanda Woodward and Envy. There's a second slowdown with a nice, driving post-everything instrumental section that brings the almighty Sed Non Satiata to mind, so that's sayin' something. This swirls, hurtling through space until 3:30 when its gravitational force finally lassos the listener and leads them over the edge of their event horizon. It's one hell of a trip. Well done, my friends.

ADDITIONAL LINKS & WHATNOT

Chalk Hands OMSB review

'Last Word' by: RAYLEIGH

RAYLEIGH's 'Last Word'

Year: 2019

For fans of: Ampere, Mahria, Frail Hands, Itto, Crowning, Nuvolascura, Blind Girls, Obroa-skai, Улыбайся Ветру, Loma Prieta and Capsule.

Review by Dave Cullen:

So pretend it's the summer of 2017, and pretend you're in Crowning and you're playing the midnight slot at a festival in Vancouver. Senza is there, Rayleigh is there, Dad Thighs, lots of cool people. Crowning isn't so much on tour, but rather on vacation with guitars, so we're looking around trying to figure out who we can borrow a full band worth of gear from. Rayleigh comes through and lets a bunch of strangers  borrow just about everything in their van. I might have even borrowed Cory's pants, i don't remember. Either way, Crowning plays a C+ set and we get the hell off the stage because somehow 3 more bands have to go on still. This anecdote doesn't really serve a purpose past revealing how biased I am.

So here we are at the final, posthumous release from Edmonton's own Rayleigh, harboring members of Mahria and Obroa-Skai. If you're familiar with Rayleigh then you know what you're in for; an onslaught of technical guitars, throaty screams, and a very structured lack of structure. And right here at the end, Rayleigh wears these 4 tracks better than any of their older material.

The first track, "Blood Letter", begins with a red herring as the ambience of an orchestra tuning is soon obliterated by the expected chaos that has come to define the Rayleigh experience. It always sounds as though the band writes songs 6 seconds at a time, in an almost Exquisite Corpse style, while their embrace of melody keeps them ever sounding all that mathy or disjointed. They seem to have found that elusive middle between straight forward and excessive. Sure there's some flexing in there, but it's never off-brand.

The fourth track, "Diamondback", is my clear favorite. I'm a real sucker for those opening guitar noodles and the constant rearranging of tempos. The lyrics paint a picture of a person intentionally cramming their mind with obligations and responsibilities in order to not spiral into worse thoughts. The line "Thoughts racing, body immobile. Will we wake from this Faustian nightmare?" is incredibly relatable. Who among us hasn't felt like Faust, transitioning helplessly from moment to moment, emotion to emotion, all the while being expected to participate and react accordingly.

And then it's over. The final chugs chug out for infinity and we're left with nothing but the aftertaste (and the other EP, and LP, and their old and new bands, and you can have whatever is in my pockets).  Definitely give this a listen. Definitely give their other stuff a listen. And definitely check out Mahria and Obroa-Skai when you get the chance.

Goodnight Rayleigh, thanks for the tunes.

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(2018) RAYLEIGH - "Blood Letter" (from 'Last Word')

(2018) RAYLEIGH - "Last Mechanical Art" (from 'Last Word')

(2018) RAYLEIGH - "Sun Stealer" (from 'Last Word')

(2018) RAYLEIGH - "Diamondback" (from 'Last Word')

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Buy the tapes:
- in the U.S.A. (silver versions available)
- in Canada (gold versions available)

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OMSB "Diamondback" premiere

OMSB 'If History' album review

OMSB Rayleigh review/interview

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ISTILAH

Band: ISTILAH

Genres: Punk / Hardcore / Emo / Screamo / Skramz / Emo-violence
Related artists: ?.
Country: SINGAPORE
Years Active: 2016-present
Song: "Listen Now Listen"
Album: "Fill the Void"
Year: 2018
For fans of: HerLens, Zdzis Law, Yarmulke, Blue Friend, Tröpical Ice Land, Orchid, The Ultimate Screamo Band, Coma Regalia, Via Fondo, Cape Light, Komusō, Sto Cosi Cosi, Forget Me Not, Dip Leg, Sans Visage and Suis La  Lune.

Label(s): Self Released / Dekaden Records / Canopus Distro

This post's artist is from the April 2019 Mix. This is track #2.

You can download: the April 2019 Mix#4 right here or get the new May 2019 Mix#5 here.

If you've been following this blog you'll likely have come across a few posts gushing about ISTILAH. I first heard the three-piece Singapore screamo/emo-violence band when my friend Jörg (Machina Rex, Yung Nat$, Swallows Nest) showed me in a podcast that we did together back when I lived in New Zealand (check it out here). The song he showed me is titled "Lightning in a circle" and can be found on the band's 2016 'Demo'. The four-song debut EP is excellent, utilizing classic screamo/emo-violence riffing with desperate screams that comes off sounding very Japanese and I fucking love it. Opener "Never again" hits the Orchid meets Yarmulke vibes nicely while "Nothing" climbs like Indian Summer before rooting to a sick groove. The same year they released another two tracks on the 4-way split w/5000, Ilill and Rûth including "Time will tell" which is a cool jam tail-ended by an outro that is very, very Suis La Lune.

It was 2018's 'Fill the Void' that pushed me from like to love, as the eight tracks take a slightly more aggressive approach which makes the Japanese style so much more obvious, whether intentional or not I don't give a damn cuz I've been eating this shit up for over six months. There are some very cool vocal patterns in "Listen Now Listen" that start about 25 seconds in and drives the music during the pulsating ridiculousness preceding the Yage-esque at close. There's a ton of cool stuff in "Apartheid", including the eerie/swirling section about 30 seconds in and a sick, epic palm mute midsection that is easily one of my favourite parts on the record. "Crisis Point" has a frantic opening that slides into a nice groove with an added, high, dipping guitar riff while "Between Trees" does much of the same chaos before doing dreamy emo for final half. "Unjust" is fire and doesn't let up for its two-minute entirety and boasts a really cool ending that is rooted in a guitar ring-out over drumroll that first hits at 1:08.

I don't know what ISTILAH is doing next but I'll be all over it when it comes out.

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DISCOGRAPHY

2016 - Demo cassetteEP (stream/donate/download here)
2016 - 4-way split cd w/5000, Ilill and Rûth (stream/donate/download here)

2018 - Fill the Void EP (stream/buy here)

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(2018) ISTILAH - "Apartheid" (from 'Fill the Void')

(2018) ISTILAH - "Listen Now Listen" (from 'Fill the Void')

(2018) ISTILAH - "Unjust" (from 'Fill the Void')

(2016) ISTILAH - "Time will tell" (from '4-Way' split)

(2016) ISTILAH - "Nothing" (from 'Demo')

(2016) ISTILAH - "Never Again" (from 'Demo')

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ISTILAH additional links

Bandcamp

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OMSB Best Of 2018

Idioteq "Top 10 reasons you don't drop your Year End Lists before the year is fucking over"

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