Pressing Concerns: Zero Point Energy, Ahem, System Exclusive, Lightheaded

Posted byrosyoverdrivePosted inPressing ConcernsTags:, , , , , , , ,

What a huge release week it is! I’ll be talking about the albums that come out this Friday (May 17th) for a while in Pressing Concerns, and we’ll be kicking it off with four great ones: new albums from Zero Point Energy, Ahem, System Exclusive, and Lightheaded appear below. It’s been a busy week here, so if you missed any of the blog’s earlier posts (on Monday we had Death by Indie, Bibi Club, Saturnalias, and Kill Gosling, on Tuesday it was R.J.F., Aerial, Pretty Inside, and Lowe Cellar, and on Wednesday it was an in-depth look at Micah Schnabel’s The Clown Watches the Clock), I’d recommend queuing those up, too.

If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

Zero Point Energy – Tilted Planet

Release date: May 17th
Record label: Danger Collective
Genre: Post-punk, art punk, college rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Pull Track: Disintegration

In the mid-2010s, there was this band from Atlanta, Georgia called Warehouse–they put out two albums for Bayonet in 2014 and 2016 before breaking up a year after the sophomore one, Super Low. I heard Super Low when it was new, and while it wasn’t my favorite album in the world, it stuck with me–Georgia art punk in the vein of Pylon, meaty but not unfriendly, topped off by the unique, striking vocals of frontperson Genesis Edenfield (who, more likely than not, is the main reason why Warehouse continued to rattle around in my brain for years after their dissolution). As it turns out, the end of Warehouse was not the end of Edenfield’s music career–he self-released a couple of solo records as Rug, came out as trans, moved to Brooklyn, and has now linked up with former Warehouse guitarist Ben Jackson to start Zero Point Energy. Jackson went through something similar himself (minus coming out as trans, I think), as he’d started a project called Tilted Planet upon his arrival to New York a few years earlier. 

Zero Point Energy ended up taking Tilted Planet as the name of their debut album, and it’s a collaborative reintroduction to Edenfield and Jackson–both of them play guitar, both sing, and both wrote material for the twelve-song, forty-two minute record. Aided by the rhythm section of bassist Jimmy Sullivan and drummer Nick Corbo (LVL UP, Spirit Was), Tilted Planet reinvents Edenfield and Jackson’s sound into something more polished and restrained, but still quite unique. American post-punk and garage rock still abound, but Zero Point Energy also adopt a mellow pop rock attitude that puts them towards the jammier end of classic college rock (perhaps bridging the gap between R.E.M. and Pylon). From the tuneful Sonic Youth/Yo La Tengo guitar tangle of opening track “I’m Receiving Downloads”, Tilted Planet is discernible as a well-crafted, sharply-honed indie rock record–it’s immediate and it’s not at the same time, inviting further listening to figure out just what Zero Point Energy are on about here.

Zero Point Energy aren’t afraid of leaning into their “pop” side, and putting the Jackson-sung summertime jam “Recurring Dream” and the ball of melody that is “Disintegration” back to back early on in the record goes a long way towards giving it the momentum it needs. The latter song reestablishes Edenfield as a generational vocalist–even if he’s not as confrontational-sounding as he was in Warehouse, there’s no restraining that voice, and as delicate as the last couple of songs on the record are, Edenfield’s raggedness ensures there’s no mistaking Zero Point Energy for anyone else. For his part, Jackson makes the most of the four songs he sings–mid-record standout “All That You Want” is a wobbly but assured-sounding college rock hit that’s the best pop moment on the album, and “Hyperquality” and “Negative Shape” let him show that he’s got a bit of range, too. The best thing about Tilted Planet, however, is how transparent any line between its two primary architects are–it’s a beautiful, obstinate, simple, complex melting pot of a debut album. (Bandcamp link)

Ahem – Avoider

Release date: May 17th
Record label: Forged Artifacts
Genre: Power pop, pop punk, jangle pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Waterlogged

Minneapolis power trio Ahem showed up in the back half of the 2010s, releasing a couple of EPs and an album in 2019 before going into hibernation for a half-decade. The typical pitfalls kept Ahem away for five years–marriage, raising children, band members moving, a global pandemic–but guitarist Erik Anderson, drummer Alyse Emanuel, and bassist Courtney Berndt kept at it, eventually recording their sophomore record in Cannon Falls, Minnesota and Minneapolis (with Nick Tveitbakk and Jordan Bleau, respectively). The resultant album, Avoider, is a massive collection of loud guitar-based pop music–you can call it power pop, pop punk, alt-rock, or college rock, but it’s got more than enough in its ten songs to please fans of any of those genres. The obvious old-guard influence (your Superchunks, Bob Moulds, Paul Westerbergs) is certainly there, and it’s got an off-the-cuff “indie punk” style reminiscent of the more tuneful style of mid-2010s “Salinas Records-core” groups like Big Nothing, Dogbreth, Swearin’, and Joyride!. Last but not least, I hear a bit of folksiness/rootsiness in Avoider–maybe it’s their proximity to Canada, but there’s a bit of The Rural Alberta Advantage in these songs, as well as more traditional alt-country rock.

Avoider opens with a barnburner in “Lapdog”, a song that sounds like it was forcibly ripped from somewhere, aggressively dragging Ahem back into the fold. It’s built of strong, muscular hooks and it shares Mould’s penchant for frantically hammering the catchiness out of the track for all its worth. The triumphant-sounding “Waterlogged” is no less of a success, from the blaring guitars that kick the song off to the roaring catharsis of the chorus (which is little more than the song’s title). “Leap Year” shifts gears to Ahem’s lighter, breezier side–but their jangly college rock mode is no less catchy, as it and fellow sunset-strummer “Sunroof” are both clear highlights as well. “Better” starts in similar territory, but the huge, starry-eyed power pop core of that sound is impossible to restrain, with the “Yeah!”s in the cautious-but-giant refrain blooming among the traded-off vocals and melodic guitars. If the quieter musical moments on Avoider let Ahem’s hooks shine through, the louder ones only punch them up–the chugging punk rock of “Old Hell” has plenty going on in between (and within) its twisting instrumental, while the fuzzed-out power ballad of “Pressed Flowers” balances subtlety with roaring guitars impressively. Avoider closes with a mini-epic in “Pinwheel”, which goes from catchy power pop to harder-hitting alt-rock to a big, dramatic finish in under two minutes. You don’t have to chart the song’s entire course to appreciate how fun it is to listen to it–Ahem know what they’re doing and where they’re going, and that’s what matters. (Bandcamp link)

System Exclusive – Click

Release date: May 17th
Record label: Mt.St.Mtn./Le Cèpe
Genre: Synthpunk, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: 2 Little 2 Late

System Exclusive are a Pasadena, California duo (Ari Blaisdell and Matt Jones) who make synth-based music that also features sharp live drums and some excellent electric guitar shading. They began their career in 2022 with an LP on garage rock legend John Dwyer’s Castle Face imprint, and last year they put out a three-song EP called Party All the Time which, indeed, contained a cover of the Eddie Murphy synthpop hit. In short: they’re one of the more intriguing rock bands going at the moment. Blaisdell and Jones have remained busy, touring heavily since their inception but still finding time to put together Click, their sophomore full-length. System Exclusive sound as potent as they’ve ever been on their latest album–falling right between “synthpunk” and “synthpop”, Click is bright and expansive without leaning on pastiche, and it’s able to sound rough-edged and surprising without being tossed-off. The synths are all over the place and painstakingly arranged, the guitars just as much so, and Blaisdell’s vocals sound impossibly strong–the sheer weight of Click would be remarkable for any band, let alone an underground post-punk duo from southern California. 

Single “2 Little 2 Late” opens Click with System Exclusive at their most streamlined–of course, this is all relative, as the song’s new wave-y punk skeleton still finds time for all sorts of synth diversions in between the punch-in-the-face lyrics from Blaisdell (“I want to see regret in your eyes!”). The record dives headfirst into layered synth-rock from this moment forward, but Click is still a punk record on some level–while the heavy synthpop assault wins out on tracks like “Fashion Island” and “Tower”, there’s no denying the classic post-punk influence on the guitars fighting for a spot on “Carry On”. “Song With a Hangover” shows that Click has even more surprises–although the sparkling, Martian synths are the first thing you’ll notice, the song eventually develops into a huge-sounding post-apocalyptic ballad that’s Blaisdell’s finest moment as a vocalist on the record. The second half of the record is where System Exclusive let the groove take the reins a little more openly, whether that means the all-in 80s-rock of “Can’t Stand 4 It”, the bizarre ringtone synth-rock of the title track, or the slow-moving but confident closing track “Lose Control”. By the end of “Lose Control”, System Exclusive have molded the song into a full-scale constellation of sounds, percussion, synths, and guitars all flying around each other in orbit. Paradoxically, System Exclusive don’t sound like they’ve lost control of anything here, but does anyone have a real handle on the universe anyway? (Bandcamp link)

Lightheaded – Combustible Gems

Release date: May 17th
Record label: Slumberland
Genre: Dream pop, indie pop, jangle pop, synthpop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull Track: Moments Notice

Last year, Slumberland Records introduced us to New Jersey’s Lightheaded with an excellent five-song EP entitled Good Good Great!. Their Slumberland debut established the young group (vocalist/bassist Cynthia Rickenbach and guitarists Sarah Abdlebarry and Stephen Stec) as classic indie pop devotees, a bunch of kids who unabashedly love The Aislers Set, The Clientele, and The Go-Betweens and fit perfectly on Slumberland’s roster. The first Lightheaded album for Slumberland (and second LP overall) has followed barely six months later, and while it’s not that much more substantial than Good Good Great! (eight songs in twenty-four minutes compared to five in fifteen), any and all new Lightheaded music is welcome in my book. Combustible Gems offers this, of course, but it’s also not merely a repeat of their last release–compared to the punchy, something-to-prove indie pop of their EP, Lightheaded sound more smooth and natural this time around, letting the songs unfurl on their own and claiming the extra record space as breathing room. Rickenbach and Stec (who share songwriting duties) are still writing sharp pop songs into the foundation of their sound, regardless of its textures.

“Always Sideways” functions as something of a statement opener for Combustible Gems, with its cavernous dream pop feel and tasteful synths leaning hard into the “regal” side of Lightheaded’s sound. No one’s going to mistake it for krautrock or anything, but it’s a superb way for the band to branch out while still keeping one foot on the ground–and by “ground”, I mean “bouncy, jangly, guitar-based indie pop”, which Lightheaded immediately offer up in the record’s first half with the twin hookfests of “Dawn Hush Lullaby” and “Moments Notice”. In addition to the hits up front, Lightheaded still find time for a few more instant pop winners in “Bright Happy Girls” (busting out some “retro” moves but still freewheeling on its own) and “You and Your Mother” (which balances its giddiness with just enough restraint to deliver maximum impact), although the rest of Combustible Gems is where the band really let the big, dreamy open hover over their pop music. “Still Sitting Sunday” flits between jangle pop and synth-heavy dream rock, while “Hugging Horizons” completely dispenses with any ballast and embraces being lighter than air. Foggy but clear-eyed, humble but undeniable–inspiring stuff from an inspiring band throughout Combustible Gems. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

Leave a comment