Ponderosa (Europe) / Northern Spy (USA) 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.
Monthly archives: April 2017
23 posts
Rocket 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 […]
Thrill Jockey 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 […]
Faber and Faber A long time ago, I wrote that Genesis P Orridge singing “marmalade” in Throbbing Gristle‘s “Hit By A Rock” on D.O.A. was the key moment in industrial music, a moment that most of the “industrial” artists that stomped around in the wake of TG utterly missed. You […]
London 12 April 2017 Belinda Carlisle was right when she said “Heaven is a place on Earth”. David Byrne, however, despite the superiority of his recorded output, was wrong when he said “Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens”. Although he was KIND of closer to the money when […]
Adaadat / Drum Rider Hypnotic and dreamlike, Elephant House‘s début LP ambles in on a calmly unfolding ride through ticking, tickling and trickling percussion that sets the scene for the strange and beguiling journey that follows.
Sleeps Brothers The epitome of 2010s Steel City metal, You Are We will climb into your head and make itself at home. Full of rage and angst, this album is the soundtrack for modern youth’s opposition to the world right now.
Play Loud! It’s a miracle that any of this happened at all, given the claustrophobic nature of the (can’t believe it called itself Democratic) DDR/GDR. If you’ve ever seen The Lives of Others, you’ll get a good idea of the level of repression and fear the folks behind the wall […]
City Slang It has been about twenty years since I last listened to Turkish pop music. A trip to Istanbul for a wedding saw us return with CDs by Sertab Erener and Tarkan, amongst others. The mysterious and impenetrable Turkish language made even the most basic pop sound exotic and mildly […]
Zeitkratzer Productions / Karlrecords Continuing their long-running series of interpretations of avantgarde and electronic music through the ages, Reinhold Friedl‘s exploratory ensemble celebrate their twentieth birthday (and Karlrecords‘ tenth anniversary) with the first round of a selection of pieces
Impossible Objects Of Desire I didn’t ask for this, but it came anyway. I’d been a Fujiya and Miyagi sceptic: too accommodating, too precise, too Brighton.
Jahtari Shinsekai comes on fresh and fast, as if WaqWaq Kingdom are in a hurry to cut to the chase, to speed through the dubs and rev up themselves and their listeners into a frenzy of echoed FX and sturdy rhythms.
Is this folk music? Perhaps, in the way that an elegiac requiem mass can be, or a threnody of loss and suffering felt on the part of a musician for the shocking violence which unfolded in his home town.
Red Robin / Jahtari Continuing the longstanding reggae tradition of producers cutting basic rhythms and then letting different singers and deejays work their vocal ways into the mix, New Zealand-based duo Naram and Art laid down the core tracks for this first EP
MVD For me, Morphine was one of the most important alternative bands to come form the USA in the Nineties. Their sound was unique and it is not often that can be said about a band, particularly a three-piece coming from the thriving post-punk and independent scene of Boston.
Trilithon Transits consists of three evenly spaced explorations of sonic time and motion taken – as the band name suggests – at the speed that the duo of Holy McGrail and Howard Marsden find most conducive to eroding the boundaries between the listener and the music.
Jahtari Seemingly beamed in from a parallel easy listening universe where the one and only King Tubby still reigns supreme, the Gl. Harlev Organ Orchestra deploy their vintage Technics organ, complete with cheesy electronic rhythms, dubbed up and overdriven.
Sulatron During the late Sixties, part of the psychedelic experience was to discover your inner self by going on the hippie trail to India and Nepal. Here people would find gurus, live in ashrams and contemplate the universe by the side of the Ganges. Electric Moon’s fifth studio album seems […]
Play Loud! Formed in 1994 by ex PLO and Young Scamps members Kai Drewitz and Sabine Blödorn, Floating Di Morel have been mixing it up on the Berlin underground circuit for some time now. This, their latest album is my very first taste and I’ve got to say I’m really […]
Ormo Derby Derby is a French three-piece consisting of bass, drums and electrified trumpet. For them, the perfection of a monotonous drone is their goal, the sort that takes you away, transcending the ordinary and allowing you to slip into that mantra-like mindset where the slightest variation or the minutest change […]