TRACK | Karl Neudert – yamevoyadormir (unfinished)

5/5 golden merles

To my taste, Karl Neudert’s extremely prolific demos are better produced than anything I’ve ever mastered.

When the chorus/backing vocals kick in around the one minute mark something very good becomes revelatory and mercilessly catchy.

Seek out his hyper-active youtube channel for more radiant lo-fi hooks.

TRACK | Dig Nitty – Screen

5/5 golden merles

Dig Nitty, “Reverse of Mastery” was one of the best albums of 2020.

Screen is a bit more up-tempo than the majority of the album, but it all includes these inventive, careening vocal melodies drenched in the appropriate level of reverb. The drumming pattern in the chorus is expert and perfectly arranged.

Other standout tracks are the harpoon to the heart that is “Angel Calling,” and the highway hypnosis of “Palm Springs.” But it’s all very good.

Erin McGrath et al are writing excellent songs.

Please buy them.

TRACK | Jesuslesfilles – +1

5/5 golden merles

This is some combination of gut and sucker punch. A brilliant French-Canadian garage rock tune that launches right out of the gate into several varied strong melodies. There are also some superb driving vocals and excellent jangly guitar production.

The strength of the melodies and production mean that the 90 second run-time is brief even by my standards. But this allows for borderline infinite replayability.