Discoverer 152: new indie findings

Here we are! Ready to get mesmerized with this year new music findings in our discoverer series, but while they start coming, let's make a quick stop to talk about three mind blowing acts found at the dusk of 2016. Cause it's never to late for great music!

Omni. We begin in Atlanta, Georgia, with this trio formed by guitarist Frankie Boyles (previously in Deerhunter and Balkans) and ex-Carnivores Philip Frobos on vocals/bass and Billy Mitchell on drums. After grabbing our attention with first tunes 'Afterlife', 'Wire' and 'Wednesday Wedding', past summer they delivered debut album 'Deluxe' via Trouble in Mind. Summoning Pylon and Wire's angular, powerful and oddly hypnotic postpunk, this was one the best records of the year (that I discovered too late to add to the list). Now they are back with the 7" 'Fever Bass/Thesis' single, out late February via Chunklet, and we are ready to get ourselves inmersed in the cascading, propulsive guitar riffs and ringing beats. Not to miss.

Ryley Walker. Quick move to Chicago, Illinois, to meet Mr. Walker, a young folk from Rockford who moved to windy city in 2007, joining the local noise scene with bands like Heatdeath and Wyoming before shifting slowly to his current folkie style. In 2011, being just 21, Riley's first releases appeared in the form of tapes 'Evidence of Things Unseen' and 'Of Deathly Premonitions', the latest alongside Daniel Bachman. A fingerpicking promise was born. After a bike accident in 2012 that forced Ryley to quit his day job, he became a full time musician, something evident with 2013 recordings 'In the West Wind' EP and 'All Kinds of You' LP, echoing Nick Drake. But Ryley was still adjusting to his own sound, which blossomed a couple of years later with LP 'Primrose Green', out through Dead Oceans, where he combined the talents of a full backing band with pastoral and psychedelic sounds, and his latest offer to date (if we exclude the collaborative efforts with Bill MacKay and Charles Rumback), 'Golden Sings that Have Been Sung'. Fated for greatness...

Gurr. Berliners Laura Lee Jenkins and Andreya Casablanca met in university and bonded over literature, music, movies and hanging out. Becoming a band seemed the natural next step and, around 2012 first tunes surfaced their bandcamp (please check the funny song descriptions) with a very limited cassette with these songs and many more released in late 2014 and a split EP with Burnt Palms on the same year. Official debut EP 'Furry Dream' arrived in April 2015 via Duchess Box Records. But we weren't prepared for their hyper-addictive first album 'In My Head', out in October 2016. Echoing bands of the 90s like the Breeders or Belly as well as beloved contemporary acts like Honeyblood or Chastity Belt this is stunning, carefree and overpowered collection of garagepop gems.