New Noise: Dry Mouth, Lux Ovarye, Bi-Hour, Andy Citawarman

In this week’s roundup of new music? Stoned noise, melted bubblegum, acerbic synth-pop and bottomed-out grandeur.

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– True to form, “stoned noise” duo Dry Mouth offer an appealing place to veg out on their new 7” c/o Vir Rash. ‘Gone Troppo’ cycles through soggy repetition and harsh bouts of erosion, while ‘Thumb Tax’ goes from a watery start to a dirge-y, washed-out crawl. The project pairs Cooper Bowman from Flat Fix with Sean McMorrow from Cockpit, while the single follows their limited tape Astral Outback, which you can buy here. Despite the caved-in vibe and droning malaise happening here, there’s a lot of ticklish melody bubbling up to the surface all the same. Great cover art, too, from Christopher L G Hill.

– We know absolutely nothing about Northcote quartet Lux Ovarye’s Weird Time except, well, it’s a quartet from Northcote led by a guy using the handle Lux Ovarye. But we sure like what we hear on debut single ‘Robin Hoods’, from the forthcoming album Weird Time. It’s got the melted-bubblegum feel of Ariel Pink down pat, and it shares some eccentricities with the similarly named Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks. As a single, it’s a rare one that takes its time and just world-builds for a spell, feeling out the band’s own loopy parameters.

– Confession: we missed Bi-Hour’s self-released debut album Strawberry Licorice last year, and we’ve only just come around to their follow-up EP An Accident. While the album showcased the Hobart duo’s dab hand at rigid, crackling post-punk, the EP dives straight into synth-pop without losing that damaged weirdness. An Accident has the most fun with the acerbic centrepiece ‘A Guide on How to Win an Arts Grant’, which should appeal to fans of The Native Cats and Devo. It’s out now on 100-run CD through Vacant Valley, with guest vocals from Kate Binning (Sue-Oh-Nine) and Jonathon Ainslie (Treehouse).

– Remember Snowman? Of course you do. Well, following that band’s demise, Joe McKee went on to release the “frightening and beautiful” Burning Boy in 2012 and Andy Citawarman gave us the single ‘No Rewards No Regret’ the same year. Now Citawarman returns with the shape-shifting oddity ‘For Velvet Rain’, written for his niece. Evolving from spooky piano and disembodied harmonies to dance-y repetition and searing noise, it’s a consuming piece of music that finds beauty in unlikely places. Citawarman himself compares it to Ben Frost and Fuck Buttons as well as Nils Frahm and Aphex Twin. If you appreciated the bottomed-out grandeur of Snowman’s swansong Absence, you’ll love this.

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To nominate new music for this column, email us at news@messandnoise.com.