AOW is full of great music again! This week showcases the talents of Caleb Cordes and his band Sinai Vessel. Power psych rock is always welcomed and this week it is coming from Belgium’s The WRS. Finally, the excellent four-track recordings from Canada’s Christo Graham. No time like the present to pick up some new music and these three artists would be a good place to start.
Sinai Vessel
Nashville, Tennessee
Ground Aswim is the third album from Sinai Vessel — the band turned solo project of 27-year-old Caleb Cordes. The sound of Sinai Vessel has always evolved alongside Cordes’s life. As the band’s sole constant creator, Cordes wrapped bright indie-rock guitar tones over his earlier releases and expanded into a modern emo roll on 2017’s Brokenlegged. With their new album, Ground Aswim, was recorded live, with some of its tracks left completely free of overdubs. Cordes’ voice has softened, as he delivers the most emotionally cathartic songs of his career.
Artists With Similar Fire: Stove / Pinegrove / Hovvdy
Sinai Vessel Bandcamp
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The WRS
Charleroi, Belgium
The WRS are a power psych rock trio from Belgium and they come straight at you on their self-titled debut studio record with all their instruments blazing that includes big riffs, pulsating bass and an intense backbone with the drums. and lightning bass. The opening track “Magic Powder” is an incredible introduction as it just takes off like a jet engine at the 2 minute mark with a memorable and loud guitar riff. This energy continues throughout the album as The WRS have a punk garage rock under-layer that continues to break out of its overall psych rock chains for a fantastic listen! The album is out now on Rockerill Records.
Artists With Similar Fire: Karkara / Osees / Frankie And The Witch Fingers
The WRS Bandcamp
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Christo Graham
Lansdowne, Ontario
Three years after his November Baby LP, Christo Graham’s follow-up album, Turnin’ is a musical u-turn, retracing his steps through the chronology of recording at home, of “moving out”, and coming around to it again. All 12 tracks individually reflect the closeness and the constraint of recording at home. Last spring Graham brought home a four-track tape recorder that belonged to his grandmother. On an unlabelled reel that accompanied the mystical machine, he uncovered buried treasure — two songs his grandmother recorded years ago singing in four-part harmony with herself. Though Graham had no new songs written before acquiring it, the machine quickly began to turn out songs like chair legs on an industrial lathe and four weeks later he had 12 tracks all inspired in one way or another by this remarkable recorder. The album is out now on We Are Busy Bodies.
Artists With Similar Fire: Cass McCombs / Whitney / Ben Lee
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