Tag: Axis: Sova

Top 30 Albums of 2018: #’s 30 – 26

Here’s the list you’ve all been waiting for. As always, there are so many good albums out every year that it’s impossible to keep track of them all. Here are my top thirty.

#30: The Dunes (self-titled) – A great return for the Dunes, this album of Australian psychedelic rock is full of reverb, fuzz, and even surf touches.

#29: Underworld and Iggy Pop – Teatime Dub Encounters – This EP was made during lunch meetings at a hotel and blends great stories from Pop with Underworld’s masterful beats.

#28: Avis: Sova – Shampoo You – This Chicago’s three-piece’s newest garage rock-psych record gets better with each listen.

#27: Windhand – Eternal Return – This doom metal album became one of my favorites of the year as soon as I heard it. I immediately began recommending them to anyone and even bought it as a birthday gift for a pal.

#26: Makeness – Loud Patterns – This electro album wasn’t on my radar until Makeness’ label sent it to me for review. It turned out to be a solid record with interesting structures to it.

We’re into the top 25 tomorrow. Come back for more!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Axis: Sova – Shampoo You

Chicago power-punks Axis: Sova tighten up but still keep plenty of live-to-tape fuzz and fury on their newest record – Shampoo You.

The opening riffs of “Terminal Holiday” are a great example of that.  The guitar fuzz is almost funky and then almost psychedelic while the Peter Hook-inspired bass keeps you from free-floating beyond gravity.

The guitars are pure new wave on “New Disguise.”  The skronks and squeaks are great, and the drum beat is like something from an early Knack record.  “Crystal Predictor” is one of the sharpest post-punk tracks of 2018 with a catchy chorus and guitar chords that shred one moment and then ooze the next.

The dual vocals on “Dodger” are a great touch to an already keen track that is louder than you realize at first.  “Stale Green” slows down the tempo but ups the power and grooves.  The bass groove on “Shock Recognition” could be from a Cure B-side, while the guitar solos border on noise rock cacophony and the electric drums are so precise that they might cut you.

The album ends with the Black Angels-like “Same Person Twice,” which might be about reincarnation or being stuck in repetitive relationships.  I like that they decided to end the record on a slightly mellow note.  It’s like a cool-down after a high-intensity spin bike workout.

This is one of those records that gets better with each listen.

Keep your mind open.

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Axis: Sova to release new album, “Shampoo You,” this November.

Axis: Sova Announces Shampoo You,
out November 16th via God? Records, and November Tour

Watch Video for “Dodger”
Photo Credit: Grant Engstrom
Axis: Sova returns with Shampoo You, out November 16th via Drag City imprint, God? Records. Shampoo You is the latest Axis: Sova album, following 2015’s Early Surf and 2016’s Motor Earth. With each succession, the Axis sound shape morphs in subtle yet definitive ways; now, with Shampoo You, the impact is unprecedentedly direct and connective.  Stereogumhave noted “They’re sleeker this time, more melodic and a little less hazy”. Take first single, “Dodger.”  It emerges from the reverberating chambers of its predecessors with expectedly scorched, punching guitars, before giving way to the unexpected: harmonized, crystalline vocals, put forward for immediate impact. Aboard a galloping waltz beat testing the structural integrity of its own mechanical limitations, “Dodger” lilts from its final big chorus into a weaving guitar confab, escalating and emoting into deeper, wordless territories of song.
The hallucinatory video for “Dodger”, which premiered on Stereogum today, was conceived with a heavy nod to the 1960s mylar chamber photography of Ira Cohen.
Axis: Sova has always been a rock band, even when the “band” was just Brett Sova and his Roland TR66 Rhythm Arranger creating a surging maelstrom of reverberant fuzz, with guitars foregrounded and wailing at length, while beats distended the depths. Shampoo You sounds the arrival of the trio version – Sova with Tim Kaiser (guitar) and Jeremy Freeze (bass) — in trademark Axis style: relentless tempo with distorted, interlocking guitar concussions, and vocals that howl of other worldly mutation. It’s the first Axis: Sova album entirely performed and recorded live to tape as a three piece. The amusement of rock-making turned thrillingly alive, they’ve honed in on a sleek transport for their new sounds, with tightly conceived power-punk and classic pop touches creating memorably melodic (and harmonic) contours. Head down to the scar-wash and let Axis: Sova Shampoo You!
Axis: Sova have announced a November tour, dates are below.
Axis: Sova Tour Dates
11/9 – Indianapolis, IN @ State Street Pub *
11/10 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar ^
11/13 – Rock Island, IL @ Rozz Tox
11/14 – Minneapolis, MN @ Eagles Club *
11/15 – Madison, WI @ Mickey’s *
11/16 – Chicago, IL @ The Hideout *

* w/ David Nance Group
^ w/ State Champion, David Nance Group

Watch Axis: Sova’s “Dodger” Video –
https://youtu.be/r40cWHjYcXY

Shampoo You Tracklist:
1. Terminal Holiday
2. New Disguise
3. Crystal Predictor
4. Dodger
5. Stale Green
6. Shock Recognition
7. Same Person Twice

Pre-order Shampoo You –
https://lnk.to/shampooyou
Keep your mind open.
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