Buzz Blog

We're delving into June's local releases, the majority of which are online this week since the weekend had no release shows booked. --- The first release you probably already know about if you read this week's issue of City Weekly. Gypsy-punk band Juana Ghani released their second full-length album, She Lost Her Head, last night at Bar Deluxe. You can read about them more in this article, and snag the new album off Bandcamp for a mere $8.

Next up is the latest from Intra-Venus & the Cosmonauts. One hell of a band out of SLC, they create a psychedelic glam/goth/space kind of sound that definitely stands out. The last time we heard from these guys (seen above, courtesy of Facebook) was in March 2013 with their Launch EP; over the past year, they've been producing singles. The Black Box Sessions EP came out last week, and while it may have only six tracks, it feels like a full-length, with songs ranging from about five minutes to the lengthy 21-minute opener that has four previous singles linked together as one. You can snag it from their Bandcamp for a mere $5.

Moving along into mathcore territory, we have the sophomore album from Gates Of Nocturne. This is a Lindon band with only one member, producer and musician Ian Fordham, who took it upon himself to play all five instruments has created a great headbanging sound. Yeah, it's over-produced with one guy at the helm, but he's turned out a great product from his efforts. Prior to 2014, he had only a couple of singles and an EP out, and in February, he released his debut full-length, titled Of Sentience/Of Psyches. He's now followed that album up with Recompense, which has got some great instrumental tracks like “Protect” and “Under the Mountain.” You can download it for whatever you'd like to pay on his Bandcamp.

We'll move from mathrock to 8-bit with MaskedEpsilon, which is the alias of electronic producer Kenneth Cobble. Following into the rarely visited genre of video game music, Cobble creates complete soundtracks to video games, from the levels to the menus to even the smallest sound effects. As a gamer myself, this is the kind of stuff you appreciate and don't realize it until years later. Like a random song from The Cure that you hear once and gets stuck in your head for ages. The album we're highlighting today is a complete soundtrack to a game you can play as a demo right now called Crystal Catacombs. You can download the album on Bandcamp for $4, and try out the demo to the game itself at LevelsOrLives.com.

Keeping with the mild instrumental theme we've got going, we've also got an album out from a project called Softest. This is essentially a two-man effort. The music and art is from Braden McKenna (WYLD WYZRDZ, Navigator, Sleepover), and Sean Conrad recorded all the “field” sounds. Do you remember that scene in 24 Hour Party People where Martin is “recording silence”? That's kind of what Conrad did. The two married some lovely instrumentation with the sounds of rain into this ambient album called Music For Rain: Volume One. If you're looking for some music to play in the background as you chill out, nap, do yoga, meditate or do anything else to give you peace of mind, this is a must-have. You can download it on Bandcamp for a mere $5.

And finally to slowly wake us up, we have the debut album from an SLC project called Big Club. The combination of Andrew Aguilera and Kyle Luntz have combined samples, sequencing, a drum machine and a few other audio tricks to make a cool self-titled EP. That's really all there is to it, just something instrumental and cool to listen to. You can download it totally free off their Bandcamp right now.

Love music, head out, buy local.