The Sonic Cloth

Ok, I've been taking a breather since March. The Sonic Cloth will be back later with a new & improved format. More fun and spontaneity to be had with the same commitment to exploring rabbit holes of deep music. 

• Why I need a breather

• Every Album Ever

Chip in your pocket change to help me pay my podcast hosting fees so I can keep old episodes up while I'm on break. Donate @ https://linktr.ee/TheSonicCloth

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Feedback, trash talk, and inquiries: [email protected]

• Listen to the episode's mixtape @ https://spoti.fi/3SOBiDe

As a year, 2023 was an abomination. Thankfully, the music makers made some great music for us. New friend and fellow Flenser enthusiast, Wes, hopped on the show to discuss a bunch of 2023 albums we thought were overlooked in the usual music fandom spaces. We each chose four AOTY and then another five runner ups so strap in because this one went long…fuck else you got to do? 

Ceasefire Now // Save Gaza // End the Occupation // Free Palestine

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Wes’s Albums of the Year:

Wes’s Runner Ups:

Jamil’s Runner Ups:

Jamil’s Albums of the Year:

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I am joined by early metal blogosphere music writer and black metal enthusiast, Jon Rosenthal (Invisible Oranges, Decibel Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan). Jon leads us down a rabbit hole of eight fantastically bizarro black metal tracks. We’re talking operatic vocals, proggy breakdowns, Matrix-style club beats, dreamy lo-fi dirges, bebop covers, and other crimes against black metal orthodoxy.   

Follow @ronofjosenthal on Twitter 

Read Invisible Oranges, one of the oldest and still the best metal blog in the whole damn world

Here is a list of excellent interviews and album spotlights to accompany Jon’s tracklist:

• Ved Buens Ende: Written in Waters

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Follow @thesoniccloth on Instagram to grab the track list

Comments, questions, and bullshit can be sent to [email protected]

I am joined by Mega and Jet, two-thirds of Secret House Against (@SecretHouseTokyo), a Tokyo based, Leftist heavy, Hip-hop, Art, and Culture discussion channel, to dive deep into a partial discography rundown of the idiosyncratic rapper and artist, Billy Woods.

This exemplary run of albums spans six years and includes both Billy Woods and Armand Hammer (Billy Woods & Elucid) releases. In this episode, we dive into each album and examine themes, moods, lyricism, bars, and good old fashioned dopeness. 

Releases Discussed:

• Known Unknowns (2017)

We ran out of time so had to leave 2023's Maps release off the episode :(

Follow the Secret House Against Youtube channel who will be hosting the video version of this collab episode. Make sure to like the video, subscribe to their channel, and consider joining the Secret House Against Patreon community.

• You can snatch up music and swag direct from Backwoodz Studioz.

Correction: In this episode, we stated that Ashes57 was an alias for Geng PTP, however they are not the same person, despite having collaborated on the visual design. Apologies! 

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Subscribe & never miss a new rabbit hole.. Follow @thesoniccloth on Instagram to grab the track list. Feedback, trash talk, and inquiries: [email protected]

Hardcore music is shit hot right now and more than ever, a lot of decidedly non-hardcore music has snuck past the pit and onto show flyers. Who let all this adjacent bullshit through the gates and is any of it even good?

To help answer these dire questions, I enlisted writer and supreme music nerd, Jay Papandreas (Listen Up, Nerds) to help with the task of picking out some of the most notable, bizarre, and interesting releases of hardcore-adjacent belligerence.

We explore thirteen albums from the Ray & Porcell 7’’ and Die Kreuzen to Rival Schools and Self Defense Family. See ya at Adjacent Fest 2024. 

• Subscribe to the excellent Listen Up, Nerds column on Substack

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Follow @thesoniccloth on Instagram to grab the tracklist

Feedback, trash talk, and inquiries: [email protected]

We call back to episode TSC03: Ambient Americana but this time, we’re zooming out on this rich musical subgenre to examine the deeper roots of ambient country music, a subgenre that has evolved into a flourishing scene of diverse artists in recent years. I’m joined by music guru, Bob Holmes, of the superb ambient country group, SUSS, to examine the roots of the “high and lonesome sound”.

Bob conferred with the other SUSS members and takes us through a musical lineage that carves itself through soundtracks, classical music, 70’s rock, krautrock, jazz, country & bluegrass, and modern guitar music to arrive at the current wave of artists who lay down in the bed of cosmic ambient country music. 

• Find SUSS on bandcamp

Bob’s Modern Ambient Country Picks:

• Andrew Tuttle

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Follow @thesoniccloth on Instagram to grab the tracklist

anticon. were called a lot of things in their heyday. "Avant Garde Hip Hop". "Nerd Rap". "Emo Rap". "Not hip hop". "The hip hop equivalent of post-rock" (really). Regardless, the sprawling collective of eccentric wonderkids that called themselves anticon. remained uncompromising throughout the crew's legendary artistic run from 1998 - 2014.

Fellow anticon. comrade, Alex Volz, of the excellent Every Album Ever Podcast joins me as we make our case for the criminally slept-on anticon. discography. We swap early exposure stories, get to know the label’s founding fathers, and marvel at the sheer weirdness and creativity they brought to hip hop, experimental pop, beat tapes, and electronic music. You better believe that anticon. walked so that today’s crop of weirdo rappers could run. 

Rest in Power to Alias. anticon. forever.

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• Subscribe to the Every Album Ever Podcast

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Musician, Podcaster and Resident Mike Patton aficionado, Jason Walton (Agalloch, Sculptured, Snare of Sixes, Earth in Sound, I Hate Music Podcast), and I sat down to talk about the man, the myth, the legend: Michael Allan Patton. Jason put together a varied track list of some of General Patton’s deep cuts from across his flagship bands, collaborative efforts, and one-offs. We talk about Patton’s ability to subvert the frontman role, Mr. Bungle and Faith No More fandom in the 90s, the ever expanding musical universe that he inhabits, and how Patton’s fearless approach to music inspires Jason’s art to this day.  

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• Listen to Jason Walton’s music on Bandcamp 

Follow @thesoniccloth on Instagram to grab the tracklist

Restless. Prescient. Overlooked. Cerberus Shoal were an enigma of the 90s post-hardcore scene, progenitors of what would come to be known as post-rock, gurus of lush ambient rock, and ensemble avant-folk heroes. The Portland, Maine band evolved more between individual releases than most artists do throughout their careers. I was fortunate enough to have Jeremy DeVine, founder of the outstanding Temporary Residence Ltd. label, on this episode to dive deep on the first five Cerberus Shoal albums. We discuss the early incarnations of the band, their working relationship, reissuing the first three CS albums 20+ years later, and preserving the legacy of one of the most singular bands of the past three decades. 

• Pick up vinyl reissues of the Self-Titled, …And Farewell to Hightide, and Homb at the Temporary Residence Ltd. store.

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Please rate & review the show and shoot me an email at [email protected]