Heartbreaking Bravery

Tying together the final loose ends of the exceptional material that surfaced over this site’s recent mini-hiatus are full streams from the following: Silent Pictures, Puddle Splasher, Beef Jerk, Nona, The By Gods, and Lord Bendtner. As always, each of those titles are deserving of as many — and likely more — listens that they’ll inevitably receive but today’s feature spot falls to one of the year’s most ferocious split 7″ releases.

Each band provides one song to the split and each band makes that song count. Miss June (pictured above) kicks things off with an explosive burst of noise entitled “Anxiety on Repeat” that quickly falls into a back-and-forth pattern of frantic verses and monstrous sections of noise/punk that suggests some unholy union between Sonic Youth and Le Tigre. In under two minutes and thirty seconds, the band provides a whirlwind of pure exhilaration and unbridled emotion that dissects, embraces, and curses anxious impulses all at once. Abrasive, startling, and brilliant, it would have made the 7″ worth the purchase on its own.

Of course, Astro Children step up to the plate for the flip-side, grit the teeth and connect with all of their collective might. Their song, “When You Lose”, takes on a more sinister, insidious approach that slowly draws the listener in with a tantalizing sense of creeping darkness. Subtle, eerie, and altogether haunting, “When You Lose” shows the band operating at a level that many seasoned bands could never hope to match. It’s a beautiful complement to the meteoric force of “Anxiety On Repeat” and ultimately secure the split a spot as one of this year’s finest releases.

Listen to the split below and pick it up here.