This Little Underground: new releases + concert picks

LOCAL RELEASES

While accurate, calling the music of exceptional Cocoa Beach band Dunies “surf-punk” may be a bit too reductive. Indeed, they are, more than anything, a surf-punk band. But their recordings have occasionally shown other faces, and their latest release is a good exhibit of that depth. Tunes From the Dunes, Vol. 1 is a four-song trek into pulpy atmospherics that plays like a Robert Rodriguez soundtrack. It can be downloaded on Bandcamp and is streaming everywhere.

Speaking of pulp, new Orlando hard-rap label Criminalistic Records is emerging from the underground with lurid horrorcore looks. Their aesthetic is explicit and pretty much nutshelled in the latest release by label boss ISVVC. Raw in sound and intent, North Mass Maniac is eight purposefully lo-fi tracks that walk on the dark side with a depraved and druggy shuffle. It’s gangsta, it’s death rap, and it’s all a modernization of the grisly extremities of 1990s hip-hop. And yep, best believe I went and dug up my old Gravediggaz CD after this.

North Mass Maniac is streaming on Spotify, Soundcloud and the like, but is also available on limited-edition cassette on Bandcamp.

Oh look, it’s Alien Witch here again. Though the impossible clip that the Orlando no-wave act had set for themselves of an album a month this year has fallen a bit off pace, the quality and variety has surprisingly not. Four-leaf Clover is their fifth full-length release of 2021, and it’s the longest one yet. The 18-song collection is a compilation of new and old songs that takes things back to the guitar side of things.

Forlorn but often lovely, the dark, narcotic psych rock on Four-leaf Clover contains five new songs, six older songs and seven beautiful cover songs by the likes of Mazzy Star, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Johnny Thunders, Warren Zevon, Chris Isaak and Tom Waits that could’ve made an outstanding mini album of their own. And all of it’s generously available on Bandcamp as a donation-based download.

Composer Baishui rose from his origins in Sichuan province to become an experimental music star in China. Now, he’s continuing that journey from a new home base: Florida

MUSIC EVENTS THIS WEEK

The bad moon of the Delta variant’s still on the rise, so be smart if you go out.

Weedeater, Joe Buck Yourself, Adam Faucett: I wish more bills were this manifold. Having North Carolina sludge dealers Weedeater at the top of the bill might set some very metal expectations for the rest of the night, but this lineup’s got more interesting dimension than that. First, there’s the punkabilly of Joe Buck Yourself, who first gained notoriety in bands like the Legendary Shack Shakers, Assjack and Hank III. But then there’s Arkansas’ Adam Faucett, an impressive roots crooner with an alternative take on

BY BAO LE-HUU

BAISHUI | PHOTO BY ALICIA LI

folk and country. It’s a thoughtful roster of impressive variety that, taken together, is like an underground portrait of the American South. (8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7, Will’s, $22-$25)

Hadley’s Hope: This show by the scifi-loving Orlando band comes fresh off the recent release of their first new album in four years. Currently streaming everywhere, Diversions is a melodic blend of rock, prog, synth and pop that soars with Styx-esque ambition. (7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7, Orlando Brewing, free)

Baishui: This artist rose from his origins in a small city in Sichuan province to become an established experimental music star in his native China. Now, he’s pushing that journey from an even more remote location on the other side of the world: Florida. Since making his U.S. debut at SXSW 2013, Baishui ultimately relocated here, landing in our backyard and settling near St. Augustine.

Baishui’s music can plumb both deep folk humanity and profound avant-garde otherworldliness. He does so with astonishing range, roaming widely across genre — folk, ambient, electronic, post-rock, etc. — until transcending those boundaries altogether. This show will be a solo improvised performance that focuses on Baishui’s Sichuanese folk and dark ambient edges via guitar, analog synth modules, bamboo winds and laptop. A lot of serendipity lined up to bring this credentialed conceptual artist here, so seize the opportunity for this very special engagement. (7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11, Timucua, $25 in person, $5 livestream)

baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com