Anasazi - "I Saw the Witch Cry"

Hype has been strangely mute for NY deathrockers Anasazi, stranger still because of their association with hype-generator Sacred Bones Records.  The band is working on a follow-up to their self-released debut.  In preparation of that, they've released a single on Sacred Bones for the song "I Saw the Witch Cry".  It's all angular rhythms, ghostly synths, and a hoarse master barking orders at those subservient to him; exactly the kind of stuff Alien Sex Fiend would approve of.

Crystal Stilts Radiant Door EP Preview

Crystal Stilts Radiant Door EP Preview

Sacred Bones is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with in the world of independent music.  In the last year they've released stellar albums by Case Studies, Zola Jesus, and Amen Dunes, just to name a few.  Now they're prepping for a release of Crystal Stilts' Radiant Door EP.

The EP isn't a radical departure from Crystal Stilts' last album, In Love With Oblivion.  In fact, the first single off this EP, "Dark Eyes", even echoes Oblivion's "Silver Sun" with its reverence for chiming Byrds-like guitars and muffled bellows.  But where that album eventually became a bit of a chore to finish, the concise nature of an EP seems to be the perfect format for Crystal Stilts.  And even moreso than in their last album, the band dives head first into its psychedelic influences.  They opt for the Paisley Underground of 1980s Los Angeles instead of their earlier Joy Division worship setting themselves apart from an indie scene that still stubbornly has one foot planted in Ian Curtis' grave.

Highlights: "Dark Eyes", "Frost Inside the Asylum"