New Releases From Hard Quartet, The Smile, Fred Thomas

October is starting off with a bang and a long list of great new releases. Here are a few notables.

Hard Quartet - Heel Highway This new indie rock "supergroup" consists of Stephen Malkmus (Tape Op #15), Jim White, Emmett Kelly, and Matt Sweeney. Fuzzy guitars, wild drumming, and groovy slacker vocals paired with years of collective songwriting skills make for a fun listen. There are hints of early Pink Floyd, Neil Young's Harvest and After the Gold Rush albums, Big Star, and much of the indie rock aesthetic all the band members helped define. Produced by Hard Quartet and mixed by Daniel Schlett with Emmett Kelly.

The Smile - Cutouts I can't get enough of The Smile, so the release of their second album in 2024, Cutouts, has me thrilled. Recorded as part of the same sessions as their second release, Wall of Eyes, Cutouts feels very much a companion piece but has some sonic expansions with a few more tracks that feature synths, but on the whole it's simply another collection of fantastic boundary-pushing songs and sonics. Thom Yorke's lyrics are as trippy as ever, and his melodies are, as usual, hauntingly beautiful. The recording and production is flawless, with great drum sounds, guitar tones, and sounds that range from bone dry to processed and ethereal. The time-based effects range from spring and oil can reverb sounds to multi-tap delays, and they are effectively used across various mix elements for a ultra-dimensional listening experience. First listen standout tracks for me are "Zero Sum", the dubby "Don't Get Me Started", and the stilted polyrhythmic grooving of "The Slip". Simply put, Cutouts is another art rock masterclass in songwriting and production. Produced, engineered and mixed by Sam Petts-Davies. Recorded at Abbey Road.

Fred Thomas - Window in the Rhythm We recently interviewed Fred Thomas, and he just released Window in the Rhythm, a seven song, 60 minute album of great stories, field recordings, at times intimate nylon string guitars, upfront vocals, and swilrling shoegazer moments. There is a sense for much of the album that your are in the room with Fred as he plays you his new songs. My favorite track is the sprawling 14 minute album closer "Wasn't." Its driving beat and downstoke bass groove decends midway into a fuzzy sonic impressionistic landscape of cymbal wash, Mary Lattimore's harp flurries, and feedback that is both destabilizing and euphoric. Looping around back to the the album's opening track, "Embankment," made me appreciate the sequencing and invited me back for another round of listening. Take this one for a long drive. Produced by Fred Thomas with Drew Vandenberg.