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Thoofa
This second helping from Prescott has been well worth the wait. The musicianship is blinding, each track built up on little stabbing motifs playing footsie with Commodore computer tape loadings > Print this Continue reading Prescott – Thing Or Two […] Sub Rosa
> Print this Continue reading Radionics Radio: An Album Of Musical Thought Frequencies […] Optic Nerve > Print this Continue reading The Wolfhounds – Untied Kingdom… Or How To Come To Terms With Your Culture […] MIG Music
> Print this Continue reading Klaus Schulze – Androgyn […] Gizeh
> Print this Continue reading Aidan Baker and Karen Willems – Nonland […] Fourth Dimension
> Print this Continue reading Map 71 – Gloriosa […] Rocket Girl > Print this Continue reading Disco Inferno – In Debt […] Nakama
> Print this Continue reading Agnes Hvizdalek – Index […] Young God (Americas) / Mute (Europe)
> Print this Continue reading Swans – The Great Annihilator / Michael Gira – Drainland […] Self-released
> Print this Continue reading Sorrow Plagues – Homecoming […] Marionette
> Print this Continue reading Kilchhofer / Hainbach – Acosta […] Full Time Hobby
> Print this Continue reading Venn – Runes […] Ponderosa (Europe) / Northern Spy (USA)
> Print this Continue reading Arto Lindsay – Cuidado Madame […] Rocket
> Print this Continue reading Flowers Must Die – Kompost […] Thrill Jockey
> Print this Continue reading Trans Am – California Hotel […] |
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If this was a knitting pattern it would be full of lopsided colour, tangled dimensions and probably more armholes than really necessary.
It’s becoming a little unpopular, and there seems a tiresome insistence creeping in that music should stand for itself (I completely disagree), but I love electronic music that’s about something; I love a history and a context. The words surrounding a release are as important to me as the music within. Almost.
There seems to have been a lot of bands returning to action over the last few years, but surely one of the most welcome must be The Wolfhounds.
Klaus Schulze is one of the pioneers of electronic music; his expansive cosmic music from the 1970s changed the face of modern popular music, and along with Tangerine Dream, it gave the world the Berlin School sound. 
Less is more, so they say. But as facile as that gnomic wisdom is to state, successfully — satisfyingly — putting it into practice, musically or otherwise, can be another thing altogether. This is what the pairing of Aidan Baker and Karen Willems achieves here. 
Some of the best things come about from unplanned events: Lisa Jayne and drummer Andy Pyne (from Kellar, Medicine and Duty and more) first manifested as an impromptu performance at Supernormal in 2013 and this is their latest cassette together as Map 71 
Originally released as a 7″, a 12″ and an LP, these tracks were then compiled as a CD back in 1992 and have since been out of print for a long long time. Is this a 25-year anniversary re-issue? If so, it is one of the most worthwhile that I have seen in an age. 
Agnes Hvizdalek‘s solo début Index is a 47-minute piece that explores the sonic possibilities of the human voice, recorded at the bottom of a 60 metre-high chimney in the ancient factory of Casa das Caldeiras in the heart of São Paulo, made during her residency there in 2016. 
With the latest phase of Michael Gira‘s Swans project drawing to a close, the bundled and remastered edition of The Great Annihilator and Gira’s solo album Drainland could hardly have come at a better time for new converts who are interested in learning about the band’s history.
There’s a handful of genres that, arguably, benefit most from never actually changing. Hardcore (punk), for instance, hasn’t had an idea since the ’80s. Gabber was perfect from the get to. Black Metal operates in some weird space in my head where I sort of assume it hasn’t changed since, like Xasthur or whatever… 
Inaugurating the Little Mary series of collaborative vinyl releases on Marionette, Acosta is a split LP featuring label veteran Benjamin Kilchhofer on one side and Hainbach on the obverse.
The core duo of Venn have been together since 2013, with the current trio format since 2014. They have released a few 12″s and a CD-R which was distributed by hand in random places like HMV, Oxford Street, Soho House toilets and on Jack Kerouac‘s grave.
A culmination of a thirteen-year itch to get back to business, Cuidado Madame cuts into some of the sweetness of previous outings to revel in skittish twists of modernity. 
This is Swedish six piece Flowers Must Die‘s fourth album and the first to be made available outside Sweden. Rocket Recordings must have welcomed them with open arms after hearing the dramatic, expansive psychedelic masterclass that they have managed to squeeze into the nine tracks and forty three minutes of this LP.
Of all the so-called post-rock bands of the 1990s, Trans Am are one which can be relied upon to remain intriguing and interesting some quarter-century or so later. Completed in the week after the 2016 US presidential election, California Hotel (named in honour of the late Glen Frey of The Eagles, who died that year) still bursts with more energy and excitement than many far younger groups