...it's certainly singular and perhaps dry, but it's equally a showing of some breathtaking capacity for keeping the listener on their toes. He closes with some leaping and clattering that belie his seventy-three years -- Keiji Haino's not ready to stop hitting shit really fucking hard and long may he continue.
reviews
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The Gothic romance of James Whale’s 1935 horror classic The Bride Of Frankenstein is drastically relocated to Prohibition-era Chicago and New York, although that element of camp which made the original such a beloved cult item remains intact, and the new setting offers a sly metatextual nod to the era in which it was made.
...brings together older material that has been fermenting in other canonical places with newer pieces cooked-up afresh between the foursome. The result is an album that intrepidly tips a lot into a collaborative cauldron and pours out plenty of impressive distillations.
...thoughtful, measured shapes of the violin are carefully released and there is an air of subtlety to the support, with even the warm caress of the bass providing a sense of solace. The arms around the shoulders allow space for these musical tales to unfold from the vocal, piano and trumpet reflecting a concerto melancholy...
The latest two releases from experimental label Rope Worm find French improvisational duo Maninkari and Polish exploratory drummer Daniel Szwed expanding sound in very different directions, but both leaning very much towards esoteric instrumentalism.
UK trio Mammal Hands are continuing on their trajectory combining pastoral, spiritually aware jazz with hints of minimalism and classical to evoke a space that is constantly moving, but at a pace that is adventurous yet welcoming.
Remarkably the result of just a one-day session last summer, Blank Arcades is an internally wandering yet never unfocused affair that finds multiple routes between sparse simplicity and collaborative camaraderie.... With such well-measured richness to unpack in its roomy interiors, Blank Arcades is another captivating Andrew Rumsey-curated place to get lost inside.
There are hints of jazz inflection here and there, but the album offers far more: a very personal view that recognises some jazz tropes but disguises them with their own subtle sway. In places the bass and drums shapeshift, rolling like marbles with a willingness to forgo structure for texture when it seems right and allow light to pierce through.
...the latest in the V/H/S series -- the eighth, in fact, which is impressive for a series devoted to the found footage format, which has long had its day. In fact, calling them VHS just seems weird at this point, as the traditional main audience for new horror movies have probably never used a VHS machine in their lives, and the letters VHS probably mean very little.
Nominally to promote last year's England's Screaming album, it felt more like an opportunity to engage with an audience who had clearly travelled many miles with him over the years, such was the familiarity and ease of atmosphere. The Face Bar is an interesting venue, looking like a social club suite with a series of interconnected rooms and the stage for tonight is set up in front of some very comfy looking chairs and makes for a convivial setting. An engaging character and raconteur, Eric is armed only with two guitars and a series of effects pedals to lay waste to songs old and new.
Celebrating Buried Treasure’s latest Extracellular comp (which is going to get its own well deserved write up soon, I promise), label boss Alan Gubby invited a few of its featured artists to perform at a tiny arts centre just off the London Road in Reading, Berkshire. Knowing the calibre of the label’s eclectic radar and having sampled many previous happenings this was definitely an opportunity not to be missed
...a neatly-distilled pop-noir affair – which includes recuts of prior EP extracts and newer material – that shifts between layered moodscapes and shadowy minimalistic grooves... Glen Johnson is clearly unafraid to wander wherever his perennial penchants take him
...a half-hour album filled with minute-long sketches, each inhabiting its own little world. The BELLASTRA is a random prompt generator that used found sounds to guide the players, with each of the trio adding electronics, accordion and flute respectively.
...as stylish and well executed as the crimes it depicts, while revealing the weaknesses in the chains binding its litany of incident together. But believable characters and a sly sense of humour lubricate its procedural plot, easing us around its numerous chicanes without diluting their thrill factor.
Expansive pianist and composer Olly Chalk has been in the contemporary improvised music scene in London for a number of years, often collaborating but always searching. Here, for In Those Remote Stars, he has drawn a quintet around him of like-minded individuals who bring a sense of bubbling adventure to his eleven compositions.
If 2025 wasn’t quite busy enough for Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey’s Skep Wax label -- in widening its scope via a slew of new signings and extra global connections -- then 2026 looks set to just keep on building upwards and outwards, with some pretty epic touring schedules and a flux of new releases already in the calendar well into the spring.
Paper Masks is a lovely focused affair where the hypnotic pull of the words shimmer in a peppery abstraction that invites you to taste the kernelling kinetics behind what’s being spoken.
...a product of near-seamless mind-melding that traverses multiple timelines of choice historic influences, without any fashion-focused anxiety.