News

Priapic, in peak tumescence, Wand re-break this surface, their atmospheric river flown in deep and wide. A tune standing alone against the world, “Help Desk” necessarily summons grandeur with a variety of keyboard tones, their lines extending to the far horizon. Oceanic solemnity or just plain chill? Slow-unfurling banners of orchestral colors imply the former, but we FEEL the latter – sweet like the first beam through our diurnal marine layer or a sudden puff of smoke at the Vatican City, indomitably calm among all... (read more)

In 2021, Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin convened in Stockholm’s Studio Rymden to bring forth several monstrously hypnotic improvisations, ultimately bearing their debut: 2022’s widely-acclaimed Ghosted. Two years on, Drag City is now pleased to announce the release of Ghosted II, out on April 26, 2024.

Here, Oren, Johan and Andreas have crafted a follow-up record that fuels a rock-solid foundation with years of performing live together as a trio: a fulmination of propelling grooves and persisting meditations. Ghosted... (read more)

Today, Six Organs of Admittance — the longstanding project of Ben Chasny — share “Summer’s Last Rays,” the second single from their upcoming album, Time is Glass (out April 26th) along with a string of West Coast tour dates. Time is Glass continues a cyclical pattern of acoustic Six Organs records released roughly every 6 years: School of the Flower (2005), Asleep on the Floodplain (2011), and the critically-beloved Burning the Threshold (2017).

Upon a head arrangement of classical chord flourishes, “Summer’s Last Rays”... (read more)

The High Llamas return today with new single “Sisters Friends”, a glitchy soul number featuring lead vocals from Rae Morris from their upcoming 11th studio album, Hey Panda, set to arrive on LP/CD/digital on March 29th.

“Sisters Friends” exemplifies what head Llama Sean O’Hagan was looking to achieve on this very modern pop album, combining and clashing various techniques new and old, to create a distinctive sound; when Rae and Sean’s vocals meet in the chorus, there is a euphoric twisting of... (read more)

Today, the legendary drummer Jim White shares his second second single and video, “Marketplace”, off his upcoming debut solo album All Hits: Memories(out March 29). “Marketplace” further illuminates Jim’s headfirst dive into pairing synthesized tracks against his unmistakable drumming, a practice heard first on last month’s lead single, “Names Make the Name”.
 
The tapping of the hi-hat, like signals from typewriters and stock tickers of old, sets the tone for “Marketplace.” Jim sprays staccato energy across the kit,... (read more)

Bill MacKay and Drag City are delirious with pride to announce the discovery of a new territory: Locust Land, the Chicago-based renaissance musician’s transcendent and singular new solo album due for release May 24, 2024. Alongside the album announcement, Bill is sharing the album’s lead single, “When I Was Here”, with its accompanying video and a tour commencing in June.

“When I Was Here”, featuring Mikel Patrick Avery on percussion and Sam Wagster on bass, is a surging, blistering, blues-inflected jam with a... (read more)

Today, Laetitia Sadier issues “Who + What”, the third and final single for her new album, Rooting For Love, her first solo album in seven years, out February 23rd via Drag City.
 
Alongside Rooting For Love’s two previously-released singles (“Une Autre Attente” and “Panser L’inacceptable”), “Who + What” is meant as nothing less than transformational sonic balm to aid the evolution of Earth’s traumatized civilizations. The song is a gently percolating Q&A led by Laetitia’s implacable vocal presence,... (read more)

Last month, The Children’s Hour were pleased to announceGoing Home, their unlikely and long journeyed sophomore album, set to arrive February 23rd. Today, the band is sharing the album’s second single, the jubilant “Dance With Me”. Listen here!

Discussing the single, David Pajo offers, "“Dance With Me" might well be my favorite song on Going Home. It documents a sweet moment I think we all can relate with.” Bar called the tune “A dance song for reluctant wallflowers.”

Going Home shows... (read more)

Wake up, Rip! For the past 25 years, Ben Chasny has made mucho music under the moniker Six Organs of Admittance, while living in different places out on the road most of that time. After two decades of shifting permanence, Chasny had returned to Humboldt County, from whence Six Organs had long ago emerged; there, in the name of everything cycling, of circles that spiral concentrically and remain unbroken, Time is Glass was conceived. The 21st album from Six Organs of Admittance shows itself... (read more)

Rafael Toral’s revolutionary guitar treatments of the 1990s established far frontiers in experimental guitar; with his forthcoming album, Spectral Evolution, Toral's DIY “Space Program” electronic modules aid his explorations in jazz guitar space, unfolding aspects of drone and ambient sound into sensuous new-phase orchestral arrangement, gently, yet relentlessly pointing new directions in the evolutionary idiom we call music. About "Second Short Space", the now-live third single in advance of the album release, Rafael says:

"One thing I always loved... (read more)