Meat Machine

Crack Cloud

Peace and Purpose

Meat Machine

Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Gotta go through it. And somewhere out there in the Pitch black beyond all darkness lies Peace & Purpose. The horizon you never quite crest until the inevitable end. Breathe deep — this fearful moment is the most alive you’re ever gonna feel.For the last decade, Crack Cloud’s vision has grown ever more expansive, more cinematic. Last go around, they dropped from The Heavens and then performed with their bare backs to an endless darkening desert. Now they’ve crammed all that life into some metallic and strange object called Peace & Purpose.All the terror of living. All the helplessness. All the raw human will. All glued and screwed and locked into this impossible tactile shape of dungeon dub; sour milk vox; Avant-protest music.Music armwrestling itself to the ground. Far afield of beauty. The discordant symphony of factory farming and grim timber of the meat processing plant. The grinding din of the cogs. And yet, never giving up in spite of all good sense. Even in death, we are a coterie of survivors. Look now: There’s Terry Fox on his one-legged Marathon of Hope across The Great White North while cancer spreads through his lungs. A self-annihilating drive to feel alive. Rage against the dying of the light, they say. Well, how ‘bout it then!??!Peace & Purpose is not in any way some art project meditation on Punk Rock. It is Punk Rock. Terrifying, inspiring, vital, invigorating and most importantly, utterly unexpected. Every...

CLAMM

Serious Acts

Meat Machine

Hailing from Naarm/Melbourne, punk trio CLAMM—comprising Jack Summers, Miles Harding, and Stella Rennex—delve into the tumultuous experience of youth striving to lead an authentic and principled life in an increasingly chaotic world. Their music confronts the challenges of navigating entrenched systems of power and oppression while striving to preserve mental well-being and a strong sense of self. Through their raw and visceral sound, CLAMM aspires to foster community, ignite creativity, and provide a channel for catharsis.Serious Acts continues the band’s signature raw intensity, with frontman Summer’s commanding vocals and incisive lyricism delving deep into the highs and lows of human existence.

Cistern

New Standard

Meat Machine

Cistern is a rock band from Squamish, BC, rooted in the unceded land of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation and formed by the restless souls of Noah Varley, Noah Wilson, McKinley Languedoc, and Chris Boys, the band channels the raw, scrappy energy of friends forging awe and anguish into song. As Ursula Le Guin once wrote in her Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, “It’s a strange realism for a strange reality”—a fitting description of the world Cistern builds with their music. Drawing from the collaborative sparks of their previous projects (Loam, Good Normal, Painted Fruit, and N0V3L), Cistern has carved a distinct sound that merges intricate instrumentation with DIY experimentation. Their debut album, Head Full of Questions (January 2024), is a tightly crafted collection of nine tracks that traverse jaunty rhythms and tightly coiled post-punk. This was followed by New Standard (May 2024), a five-song EP released through Meat Machine Records. The EP showcases their knack for crafting raw, tape-warm anthems recorded on an 8-track tape machine. The songs dive into existential and everyday themes with jittery tension, from the tangled relationships of “Crisis” to the hymn-like individuality of “Metal Detector” and the high-wire balance of “Pendulum.” Cistern’s sound draws inspiration from indie rock icons like Modest Mouse, Alex G, and Duster, balancing atmospheric grooves with tight, harmonious, and dissonant instrumentation. Their music is as intuitive as it is experimental—a testament to the band’s DIY ethos and creative synergy. Produced by Mikhail Oreshkov (N0V3L), mixed by Michael Halls, and mastered by...

Crack Cloud

Crackin' Up - Live In London

Meat Machine

Half multimedia art studio, half experimental musical group—the Vancouver-based collective better known as Crack Cloud took over Evolutionary Arts Hackney with their massiv genre-bending sound in October 2022. Fresh from the release of their sophomore record Tough Baby, this performance with six-piece choir and strings (the band totaled seventeen on stage), for one night only was recorded and documented on film and presented here as Crack Cloud - Crackin Up Live In London. A legendary band at a legendary venue.