#fresh stream

FRESH STREAM: BILLY BAO - "BUILDINGS FROM BILBAO"

FRESH STREAM: SSLEEPERHOLD - "Ruleth"

FRESH STREAM: ALASDAIR ROBERTS & ROBIN ROBERTSON - "HIRTA SONGS"

FRESH STREAM: THE FAGETTES - "GONNA DIE OUT HERE"

FRESH STREAM: CLIPD BEAKS - "LOST OFFERINGS"

I’m a sucker for short-yet-pungent albums, and Clipd Beaks sure does it right. This California crew stitches together massive sheets of atmospheric punk in 4 tracks that total just over 20 minutes. Lost Offerings begins innocently enough with a groovy 80s dance-hall riff – but it doesn’t take long for “Womb to Tomb” to erupt with piercing, crashing tritones. The track swells and contracts as deep solid bass, screeching hot tubes, and raging screams jerk you back and forth between Nirvana-esque harmony and lush dissonance. “Black Vacuum” rises out of the wreckage, takes its time and saunters along like a cool-headed loner smoking outside his Junior Prom; doomy swirls of cosmic noise rain down and dissipate, and swooning major gaze-riffs drift in and out. The sparse desert feel of “All Ways Closer” lingers, and that mesmerizing guitar riff echoes over and over until the drums accelerate and arches of phased feedback aggregate like sand dunes. The track trudges forward, fades to the scrape of a turning magnet, before “Tied Sky” falls into sitar-like synth drones and trance-inducing bass – but the trance is cut by a harsh keychange. That rich bass pulls you deeper into the dream before everything fades to a swirling hum, and you’re left in a weird place between agony and peace, wondering how these guys are able to pack so much texture into such a small space. Snipe a copy on Moon Glyph Records, get a digital copy on Clipd Beaks’ bandcamp, and stream it below.