We’ve reached the twelfth day of The Joyzine Advent Calendar; not the same as the twelfth day of Christmas, as some seem to think, which, in the UK at least, is actually 5th January – supposedly the night before Epiphany when the three wise men are said to have arrived at the stable and the also the point at which you should take down your Christmas decorations – though the various different branches of Christianity all seem to celebrate it on a different date so I wouldn’t be too worried if your tree’s still up a week into the new year.
Leaving the theological and calendrical debates to one side, we’ve got more great new music for your listening pleasure today with another double helping from a brace of our favourite bands.
Track #1: Lark – The Operation
Lark have been creating what frontman Karl Bielik describes as “unsound sounds” for more than a decade. Characterised by dark subject matter, heavy basslines and grimy electronics, the band released an album of remixes earlier this year, with the likes of Art Trip & The Static Sound and The Band of Holy Joy providing their take on tracks from 2015’s Funny Man LP.
Today Lark release a new single, ‘The Operation’, based on a rather macabre chapter in British military history in which the corpse of a homeless Welshman, Glyndwr Michael, was disguised as that of a deceased military courier and cast into the sea along with a briefcase of falsified top secret documents in order to trick the Axis powers into thinking that the Allies were planning to invade Greece and Sardinia, rather than their actual target of Sicily. The operation, brutally codenamed ‘Mincemeat’, was a success.
Watch the video for ‘The Operation’:
Track #2: Hasslich – Parasitic Sister
New London trio Hasslich include amongst their number Jim and Wayne, formerly of Rhesus,whom those who’ve been following Joyzine since our early days will be very familiar with. They recorded their debut mini-album Broadmoor DIY Castrati this year, a dark album of heavy, goth fringed punk rock from which today’s track ‘Parasitic Sister’ is taken.
The band have taken what these days can be seen as a bold stance of eschewing social media, with their sole online presence a stream of the new album, which you can listen to here. They kick of 2017 with a show at The Fighting Cocks in Kingston-Upon-Thames on 7th January.
Check back tomorrow for more free downloads!