Dishital Weekly is Counterzine’s weekly roundup of 5 digital only releases we think are worthy of your attention. The only rules are that we like it and there’s no readily available physical version at the timing of writing. When it was released, genre, platform: none of these matter. If it’s new to us and it’s new to you, it’s new.
1. Big Happy – Shonen Bat
Ohio’s Charlie Parsons is Big Happy, a misnomer of a DIY indie project characterized by its unmastered recording, floaty compositions, and vivid, surreal lyrics imagery. His debut album is a scattered emotional outpour that could be describe as something between Avey Tare and Panda Bear’s Spirit They’re Gone Spirit They’ve Vanished and The Microphones’ The Glow Pt. 2. An incredible introduction.
2. Dryclean – Tired + Wired
Released on the fourth of July this year, Brooklyn garage/post-punk band deliver their sophomore EP Tired + Wired. From the tempo shifting opening stomper “I Don’t Know” (which takes a stoned, grungy detour around the two-minute-mark), to the bouncy, raw, tight earworm “Technodrome”, to the deliberately paced closer “Wired”, its three songs showcase competence and versatility in high measure.
We also recommend their debut s/t EP from late last year. Between the two, you should have a solid chunk of Dryclean to dig into.
3. Milk Leg – s/t
Released in September of last year, Houston noise rock band Milk Leg’s s/t EP is a brutal, chaotic post-apocalyptic nightmare with a dark sense of humor. The guitar work is some of the best we’ve heard in a long while (it, no exaggeration, sounds like a goddamn siren on “Meat In the Pie”), but we also can’t sell short the delightfully sarcastic vocals and violent, pummeling drums. This one could be considering ‘arty’ with how off-kilter it is, but it does nothing to to inhibit its raw power, only enhancing it.
4. Roga Raph – Current-Space
The second project to come from New York’s Roga Raph this year following February’s Nostalgiks, Current-Space is a rock solid and polished jazz rap album. Just take a listen to single “Mortul” and tell us you’re not taken back to the early ninties days of Tribe. Raph’s flow is butter, the beats are butter, this fucker’s just smooth.
Nostaligiks is worth a listen, too: a more urgent, hooky record, but still excellent and the beats again are awesome.
5. Slurry – I Know You Do It Too
Released back in 2017, Slurry and their debut EP I Know You Do It Too are yet another example of the incredible independent music scene in Toronto. A heady slice of DIY post-punk/new wave with clever lyrics, idiosyncratic vocals, and expansive and cathartic compositions, I Know You Do It Too would’ve launched Slurry into the stratosphere in a just world but we’ll have to settle for them as hidden gem for the moment.
The band has since released a digital single with “Given” / “So So”, also highly recommended. “Given” has a wonderful country flair mixed in with the band’s signature style, and “So So” reminds of classic Pretenders.
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