Just ask a head: White Crate and Lower Grand Radio hosting a punk rock solstice party
New from the Bay this week: Remaster of Deafheaven's "Sunbather," ambient techno by Chroma Sea, a dub single by DJ Sep ft. Khalifa, post-industrial by Talk Show
Saturday December 16th.
White Crate and Lower Grand Radio at Beauty Arts Supply in Oakland.
Featuring sounds and more from Street Eaters, Shuv, Máu, and Freaks of the Industry.
DM for address.
Discounted entry for Patreon subscribers!
— White Crate
SONOROUS SCREAMING, REMIXED
Deafheaven’s beloved Sunbather album has been remastered and re-released this month to celebrate its 10th (!) anniversary. This is quite a nostalgic release for me: Alongside the droney bliss of Sunn O))), this was the album (and artist) that turned me on to metal in general. As an angsty teen who basically only listened to Depeche Mode, metal might have stayed out of my listening territory if Sunbather hadn’t been recommended to me repeatedly by multiple music heads. And for good reason. It’s lovely how Deafheaven makes existential screaming sound sonorous, soaring, and strangely optimistic. Not to mention that their poetry is pretty if you dig into it.
Did Sunbather need a remastering? Maybe not. But well-attuned ears may notice a live quality to the new release. Compared to the original studio album, this edition sounds more akin to my experience seeing Deafheaven perform Sunbather in Minneapolis in 2017 and at San Francisco’s McLaren Park in 2022. There’s more space between the instruments and depth to the sound, which, for a dense noise palette, cultivates an enveloping sonic experience rather than a muddied one. Deafheaven manages to balance each musical component with almost symphonic attention to detail—a pleasing juxtaposition sprung from screaming about the beauty of love, the groundedness just from being alive, sailing upon hopeful, melodic guitar lines.
— Elise Mills
AQUEOUS AMBIENT TECHNO
“A portal can physically or emotionally represent a door to another world.
It can be anything that takes you from one feeling to another.A cup of coffee, a song, a car ride, a kiss.
In some ways, everything is a portal and I love collecting them.”— Gabi Abrão (@sighswoon)
As someone who just this week happened to revisit early 1990s work by The Future Sound of London, William Orbit, and Enigma, I was more than primed to hear the full-length debut album from SF audiovisual project Chroma Sea in collaboration with Ryan Celsius Sounds. Portals is an aqueous ambient techno adventure, basking in the “pure energy” exchange between the physical and digital worlds. It’s soft like a pillow, and remarkably calming and optimistic even when commenting on social media and the world wide web. In this way, it’s also nostalgic, recalling early excitement about the joy and power of the Internet, which allows us to connect with each other and create whatever worlds we can imagine living in. On Spotify, the album plays with dreamy, vaporwave-tinged “Canvas” loops created by multiple visual artists.
— Ronny Kerr
WOBBLY DUBBY TRIP HOP
“We’re living in a time of tribulation”
Muted bass, wobbly trip hop sounds, and the dark truths of our time open up DJ Sep’s new single “Many Are Called”. Dubbed out horns arrive in the middle of the track, turning the tone to a call to the children that it’s “time to be free.” On the instrumental flip side, “Awayway Riddim,” those big triumphant horns become even more prominent capping the riddim with positive movement and vibration. The tracks are up on Bandcamp now but arrive on all platforms Friday, December 1.
— Ronny Kerr
POST-INDUSTRIAL DARKWAVE
The project Talk Show by Drew Zercoe and Heng Wang introduce Hyperstition for punks’ listening pleasure, thrashing to the sounds of post-industrial, death metal, and darkwave. Be sure to peek at the lyrics for each track, as they are otherwise indiscernible (like a little Easter egg for lore); the descriptions yield abstract yet visceral vignettes, capturing the austerity of isolation through power electronics, and the immediacy of feeling. Raw, seemingly disparate pieces come together into a chaotic collage.
Hyperstition is an album for our times, where information and worlds are re-constructed amidst propaganda and startling technological (r)evolutions, and how those realities intersect with what I hope to be the downfall of capitalism, imperialism, and empire. This description is particularly poignant (from final track “New Ocean Prison”):
“i know the door to change must return anew to go beyond rebirth to stop the sudden world with an endless poem to reforge both the blades assaulting every throne return of the saint the logic of power escaping the limits the flower of life stop the world of shadows of innovation rescue the voice beyond rebirth.”
— Elise Mills
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[rock] The Helltones, The Mutilations, My Evergreen Soul — Dec 1 at Ivy Room
[indie] The Reds, Pinks & Purples, Chime School, Artsick — Dec 1 at the 4 Star Theater
[ambient] Growing, Marshall Trammell & Paul Costuros — Dec 2 at Thee Stork Club
[club] BLOOM: A 7-Year Celebration of Life ft. ØBSRVR, Farsight, Kudeki, emilyinamillion, William Wardlaw — Dec 2 at Underground SF
[hip hop] Brycon, Baegod, Sbvce, Monsrock, Mcstravick — Dec 3 at Moe Greens
[rock] Sour Widows, Credit Electric — Dec 5 at Tiny Telephone
[latin] Natalia Lafourcade — Dec 5-6 at San Jose Civic
[indie] Suzanimal (EP release), Oona, Hot Brother — Dec 7 at Ivy Room
[metal] Deafheaven, Touché Amoré, crushed — Dec 7 at the Regency Ballroom
[ambient] Maria BC, Chuck Johnson — Dec 7 at Thee Stork Club