Myths And Legends

Different Noises 128

This collection serves as a deep dive into the fringes of contemporary sound, where jagged post-punk energy meets the fluid complexity of experimental jazz. It is an intentional journey through diverse sonic landscapes—blending raw, lo-fi storytelling with cinematic, dub-infused atmospheres and expansive instrumental odysseys. Each track contributes to a restless, creative narrative that celebrates the unconventional and honours the spirit of musical exploration.

AUDIO

PLAYLIST

• Zu - Fuoco Saturnio ¹

• Tropical Fuck Storm - Irukandji Syndrome (Live) ²

• Reine des Lézards - Lady Coca Cola ³

• The Bordellos - Who Do You Think You Are? Paul McCartney ⁴

• The Jack Rubies - Boat Rocker ⁵

• The Corner Laughers - Rainbow Cardigan ⁶

• Eddy Current Suppression Ring - On Islands ⁷

• The Creedless Preacher - Bad Decision ⁸

• Kye Alfred Hillig - Ezekial Bobbing For Apples ⁹

• Aurelia Anne Cohen - Fairweather ¹⁰

• Chris Emmert - Long Goodbye ¹¹

• Dutchman - Papa Fronc ¹²

• Third Angle New Music - Phillip Glass : Return To The Hive ¹³

• The Go Betweens - Surfing Magazine (Airlock Demo) ¹⁴

• Ember Rev - Homecoming Rhapsody ¹⁵

• Moff Skellington - pockle ¹⁶

• Inca Babies - The Diseased Stranger’s Waltz ¹⁷

• Mark Snarski - If I’m Magic, You’re The Trick ¹⁸

• The Dream Syndicate - Merrittville ¹⁹

• The Parasite - Armageddon Dub ²⁰

• 2 Lost Souls - Who Is Being Protected? ²¹

• Henry Threadgill - Better Wrapped/Better Unrapped ²²

• Miles Davis - Spanish Key ²³

• Modar - Sorrow Of Holy Garden ²⁴

NOTES

1. Legendary Italian experimental trio Zu returns with Ferrum Sidereum, a big and bold double album released on House of Mythology on the 9th January. Ferrum Sidereum - Latin for “cosmic iron” - draws inspiration from the mythological significance of meteoritic iron, found in artefacts like ancient Egyptian ritual objects, Tibenta “Phurpa” blades, and the celestial sword of Archangel St Michael. This elemental force imbues every moment of the album’s apocalyptic sound. Whilst heavy in tone and subject matter, bassist Massimo Pupillo comments that their music also aims to “raise good energy... people would come up to us after the show and tell us that they felt alive.” The music combines the complexity of progressive rock, the grit of industrial music, the precision of metal, the spirit and energy of punk, and the freedom of jazz. The result is a sonic journey that is as cerebral as it is visceral, defying easy categorisation while remaining unmistakably Zu. The trio - Paolo Mongardi (drums, percussion), Luca T Mai (baritone saxophone, synth, keyboards) and Massimo Pupillo (electric bass, 12-string acoustic guitar) - spent a year refining this sprawling 80-minute epic through relentless rehearsals and live studio recordings in Bologna. Produced and mixed by three-time Grammy-wining engineer Marc Urselli, known for his work with Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, and Mike Patton, the album balances raw intensity with refined production tweaks and textures.

2. Live at RRR : I can’t tell you much about this other than it appeared on Bandcamp on January 6th, I bought a copy, and then it mysteriously disappeared, although it still appears on a number of search engines. It was recorded at Melbourne’s Triple R radio station in July 2025 and is a five track capture of the bands’ session in the Performance Space. Suffice to say the band are in fine form offering an alternative perspective on tracks from the Fairyland Codex album.

3. Another Andy Goz associated project - and where this band ends and Neon Kittens start is the subject of much conjecture. It is as usual a Metal Postcard release of which Mr Hocking observes: ”Back in 1977 Parisian band, Metal Urbain, released a single way ahead of what their anglo cousins were doing over in Londres. Along with Suicide it could be argued that they were one of the first to invent what would later become “industrial”. Rough Trade picked up on it in 1978. On the A was a tune called Panik but it was the B where the action was really happening ie, Lady Coca Cola. You’ll see, read, hear a lot of guff about 50 years since this and that record out of west london this year but nothing about these Parisians out on the edge of the known music world inventing something that would only make sense to anybody else until more than a few years had passed and even then only very few. It seems fitting that this should be Metal Postcard’s first release of 2026. All Praise Reine Des Lezards”.

4. Brian Bordello advises “The Bordellos are back yes myself Ant Shea Dan Shea have gathered to bring the world a three and half minute of shambolic silliness a pop song influenced by my love of shambolic pop silliness a song i can imagine the Seeds performing on the kids tv show Crackerjack in the 70’s whilst Peter Glaze and Don Maclean danced the marimba. A song influenced by my love of Paul McCartney and memories of walking up to Dead Fly Rehearsal rooms in the 80’s with my guitar and every time a old man in his garden would shout Who Do You Think You Are ? Paul McCartney. as i walked past .. it never got old for both him and me ..i was tempted occasionally to buy a gun and shoot him and shout who do you think you are ? John Lennon ... so please indulge my memories and give it a listen on one of the many streaming and download sites .. released very kindly by Metal Postcard Records”.

5. Another single from the Visions In The Bowling Alley album

6. An early preview single from the forthcoming album from Northern California’s indie pop darlings . “Rainbow Cardigan” released January weaves together the complementary threads of exuberance and melancholy of the band in one giddy singalong that builds anticipation for the band’s first new album in over five year, due in March.

7. Another track from the recent So Fresh: Tote-ally Summer For Black Peoples Union compilation collecting some of the best of new Australian music.

8. Andy Butlin returns with the first single from new release Slaves To The Algorithm. It features Paul Rosenfeld from 2 Lost Souls on 12 string electric and Paul O’ Sullivan on bass.

9. The new single from Tacoma, Washington songwriter Kye Alfred Hillig, released January 7. It’s the first taste of his upcoming album The All-Night Costume Company, landing March 4. Sharp, melodic indie rock with alt-country roots, anchored by haunting guitar leads and classic-style male/female harmonies.

10. Launched in 2020, The Magnolia Sessions showcases bluegrass, dark country, and folk singer/songwriter acts, recorded live in an intimate outdoor setting by a large magnolia tree at the Anti-Corp/Black Matter Mastering headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, by owner Dan Emery. Originally from Tucson, Aurelia Anne Cohen trained in classical ballet, folk dance, and theatre in her youth. Her grandmother, Stephanie Stigers Varon, a celebrated ballerina, began her granddaughter’s training at age three. Moving to the Navajo reservation at age eight and then down to the border of Mexico at eleven caused her life view to diversify at an early age. At fourteen years old, she discovered the aerial arts, joining a dance company as the youngest performing member and soon entered the world of professional physical theatre, spectacle and circus arts. She began traveling, teaching, and performing internationally in 2006, working with North America’s premier pyrotechnic theater troupe, Flam Chen as a principal performer, choreographer, and director and for the non–profit, Many Mouths One Stomach. She also helped develop the Tucson Circus Arts Aerial program. In 2010 she met Jason Dea West, she embraced her long-standing desire to learn an instrument to accompany her song-writing, and they have made music and toured extensively with Jason Dea West as Intuitive Compass. She has worked as a principal performer with The Carpetbag Brigade and as an aerialist, dancer, and designer with Anatomia Dance Collective and Shadow Tender as an assistant director/costume designer and choreographer. Her instalment of The Magnolia Sessions features a mix of original songs and a few traditionals with her friend, Brice Clayborne Clark, joining the session on fiddle.

11. Another Magnolia Session. Chris Emmert reveals on his instalment in the series, “This album is a blend of both old and new songs. Most of them were meant for other albums or projects and have been swapped or backburnered. We recorded them a few years ago and the somewhat misfit collection of tunes made perfect for this type of raw and stripped-down field recording. Allowing me to play them the way I wrote them and avoid thinking too much about their arrangement or development. However, there are a few here I still intend to revisit someday.” Dan Emery writes, “Chris’s session is the second of the two that were recorded a while ago and didn’t get released until a couple of years later. We did this in September of 2023, but these songs still sound vibrant and amazing to me. So never releasing them was not an option.” Emmert is a gifted songwriter and accomplished musician whose sound organically blends the timeless traditions of folk, the storytelling soul of country, the raw emotion of the blues, and the high and lonesome sound of bluegrass. His music paints vivid pictures of life, love, and the landscapes that have shaped him.

12. Following a long-form FM radio residency, streak of television appearances, award nominations, major film cameo and a collaboration with a bona fide 1970s rock legend, Frederica, Delaware-based Dutchman reveal the centrepiece of their momentum: the release of their Double A side singles “Springfield 78” and “Papa Fronc.” Dutchman’s momentum began the first week of January, appearing on “The Bertram Newton Show”. Broadcasted on ‘Cruisin’ 92.1 WVLT-NJFM’, a four-hour deep-dive conversation covering the band’s history, self-built production, and behind the scenes stories of the band were carried onto late night radio. Unbeknownst to them, the appearance would spark a 8-month long residency at the station. Within days, Dutchman was everywhere. They appeared on multiple podcasts, including ‘33/24’ and ‘Recall The Podcast’ as well as sat down with the ‘Delaware State News’ for a profile that helped introduce their story to an even wider audience.

13. Portland, Oregon-based contemporary music champions Third Angle New Music releases the first-ever complete recording of Philip Glass’ 1000 Airplanes on the Roof – March 6 on Orange Mountain Music. The work, by Philip Glass with a libretto by David Henry Hwang, is a “science fiction music drama” which premiered July 15, 1988 at the Vienna International Airport, Hangar No. 3. It’s a seldom-performed work that resonated deeply with Third Angle in a run of performances in 2023 (beneath the “Spruce Goose”).

14. Surfing Magazines sits within the Go‑Betweens’ early 2000s period, appearing on their 2000 album The Friends of Rachel Worth, recorded after Robert Forster and Grant McLennan reunited following a long hiatus. The song reflects the band’s characteristic blend of observational detail and understated storytelling, using the image of reading surf magazines as a way to explore youthful dreaming, imagined freedom, and the pull of distant places. It’s shaped by the group’s Australian background—where surf culture is both ubiquitous and mythologised—yet the narrator’s relationship to that world is more aspirational than literal, turning the magazines into symbols of escape rather than documents of a lifestyle actually lived. This version is an early demo of the song.

15. Another track from their new album

16. Another track from his recent album - another new album is on the way

17. Another track from the Reincarnation album

18. Another track from Mark’s new album

19. The final track from the classic Medicine Show album

20. The second track from the new album

21. Another track from the new series of EPs

22. Henry Threadgill’s 1993 release Too Much Sugar for a Dime captures his Very Very Circus ensemble at full stretch, built around paired guitars, paired drummers, and multiple tubas. The album pushes tightly structured rhythmic patterns into dense, shifting ensemble writing, with abrupt contrasts between heavy low‑end lines, violin passages, and sharply angled melodic figures. It stands as one of Threadgill’s most distinctive early‑90s statements, marked by unusual instrumentation, precise ensemble coordination, and a focus on layered rhythmic cycles rather than conventional solo‑driven forms.

23. Spanish Key unfolds as one of the most driving pieces on Bitches Brew, built around a fast, repeating electric bass figure that anchors long stretches of collective improvisation. The track moves in sharply defined modal blocks, with the ensemble pivoting between them through cues rather than chord changes, creating a sense of constant forward motion. Electric piano, multiple keyboards, and percussion layers build a dense rhythmic surface, while Davis, Wayne Shorter, and Bennie Maupin enter and exit in bursts rather than extended solos. The result is a tightly wound, high‑energy piece that relies on momentum, texture, and ensemble interplay rather than traditional melodic development.

24. Sorrow of Holy Garden presents Modar’s early black‑metal framework built around fast, repetitive guitar figures, raw vocal delivery, and a narrow, high‑intensity production style. The recording leans on continuous tremolo patterns and tightly wound rhythmic cycles, with minimal dynamic shifts and a focus on atmosphere through repetition rather than layered arrangement. From yet another Weedian compilation - this time from Malaysia