Flush It Friday: Beyond Measure
Beyond Repair.
What’s the cure for getting headaches because you have to look at a screen all the time? Is it… looking more at the screen? I hope so!
Digital Negative – Intersect
Independent | July 11, 2025
Featuring Richard Johnson (Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Drugs of Faith) and Daniel Euphrat (Person918x, Bodied), Digital Negative is a hard-scrabble and sound-scrambled collage of the dystopic world we inhabit. Johnson’s memorable vocals bark, snarl, and marshal you through Euphrat’s expertly stitched-together samples, stark guitar riffs, and woozy beats. “Oligarchy,” the EP’s heaviest track, invokes Godflesh and Throbbing Gristle. Elsewhere, songs like “The Blanks” have a familiar Pitchshifter hustle and bustle to them while “Trapped” is goth-dancy like Skinny Puppy. Would it be out of bounds to say that it sometimes sounds like if the late SOPHIE had gone metal? Gnarly stuff.
Floating – Hesitating Lights
Transcending Obscurity | July 11, 2025
A lot should and will be said about Hesitating Lights over the rest of the year, so I’m staking just a small claim on the day of its release. Back in January, I heard “Dream Unending meets Pøltergeist with random icy blasts from northern climes.” On the full record, you’ll hear something like later-era Morbus Chron mixed with classic Siouxsie and the Banshees records Kaleidoscope and Tinderbox. Faint traces of black metal appear and disappear. “Grave Dog” through “Hesitating Lights – Harmless Fires” would be enough if the album didn’t close so strongly. Start preparing a slot on your year-end lists.
Moving Mountains – Pruning the Lower Limbs
Wax Bodega | June 27, 2025
I’m still collecting my thoughts on Pruning the Lower Limbs, the surprise 4th album from personal favourites Moving Mountains, so permit me a brief ramble while I figure out how to write a full review. Opener “Ghosts” is exactly what I’d want 12 years after the self-titled album. “Everyone is Happy, and Nothing is Good” sounds like a mellowed-out Appleseed Cast, as does, really, much of the album. I’ve seen folks elsewhere say this feels like a return to earlier albums like Pneuma. I don’t know. It’s a little too staid—a little too mature and restrained—for all that.
Chat Pile (+-) – Blood at Night II
Dungeon Earth | July 7, 2025
Who knew we’d be getting two odd ball releases from Chat Pile on some Monday in July? I’m highlighting Blood at Night II because the first three tracks, an almost hour-long jam session of feedback and synth, comprise what might be my favourite drone/dark ambient release of 2025. “Melissa Turns Around” reminds me of some of the best albums from Cryo Chamber minus all the bullshit AI. “Ocean Concrete” is enough to drive one mad, with an endless whirring and creaking and swirling and driving. You can feel the fillings in your teeth rattle. You can feel it all collapsing.
Calathea – Flowers & Knives
No Funeral | April 10, 2025
Last month, a dear friend asked how I’d rank Touché Amoré albums. I replied I never listened past Is Survived By. Consider Calathea’s Flowers & Knives my apology. Bringing together Touché Amoré flair-for-the-dramatic post-hardcore, various shades of Deafheaven pink, and even a little of the bright effusion of Lantlôs, Calathea have made something quite memorable from their home in Galdakao, Basque Country. Maybe it’s overstating the band’s geopolitics to say there’s something of that revolutionary Basque spirit, something of wanting things to be materially different, animating the band’s approach to a delicate yet dangerous sound. This is one helluva debut.
Let’s Flush!
Stick gets Pressy. Roldy gets Thissy.
Sodom is as Sodom does. 3.5 Toilets from Falxifer.
Back to my old ways: premiering new songs from Transcending Obscurity artists with fat riffs. New one from Retching!
Toilet Radio 569 is a special one as Jordan interviews Jonas from Katatonia. There’s also about 20 minutes of classic Joe n Jordan newsmongering.
365 premiered a new video from Cult of Lillith‘s Mario Infantes. You’ll probably dig it!
Reliquary Tower delved just greedily and deep enough in this FANTASY addition of Tag Diving.
There it is. Another lovely week. Share your GBUs. Have a lovely weekend. Happy birthday, Hubie.
