Melissa Auf der Maur: the archive makes the case
Her first music in 15 years digs through '90s 4-track demos and road recordings. A true archive, and a partial record.
BY JOLT Staff · SEP 6 2026 · 1 min readThe first Melissa Auf der Maur release in 15 years is an archive before it is an album. BASS WOMB ROOM: My '90s 4-Track Demos x Field Recordings, out September 4, 2026, gathers songs she made on a 4-track tape machine in the '90s and blends in experimental recordings taken while touring. It comes via Envision Records and MAdM Productions: digitally, as a tape capped at 500 units, and as a vinyl pre-order set to dispatch December 4, 2026.
This release doesn't disguise its disorder. The album contains 15 tracks over about 42 minutes, with ten songs below three minutes and several significantly shorter. 'Sparkle Bass' lasts 38 seconds. 'Courtney Chimes In' comes in at 1:23. Those cuts seem like sketches, not like hits, which is the intent behind a work of this sort.
What keeps the collection from feeling like an easy archive drop is the care. Auf der Maur produced the record with Alex Crow. Radwan Ghazi Moumneh handled mixing, Ryan Morey did mastering, and the chosen formats match the work's scope. A 500-unit tape and a postponed LP indicate that this release was intended for listeners seeking the backstory, not just tracks.
The weakness is the trade-off. Fragments stay honest to a process, yet they cannot support an album the way finished songs do. The five tracks exceeding three minutes must anchor a record flanked by 38-second sketches and field-recording textures, and the core does not always hold firm. That renders BASS WOMB ROOM valuable as a biography but limited as a listening experience.
Rating: 3. Call it a 3. The archive justifies itself; the album format demands more structure than the tracks supply. This is an honest release from someone who delayed 15 years before issuing it. That has merit, yet it also has a ceiling.
