Màgia Roja/ BFE Unlike the seemingly endless crop of darkwavers with weird keyboard characters for names, Silvia Konstance Costan and her partner in Dame Area, the Catalan underground veteran Victor Hurtado, stab at something less generic
Monthly archives: July 2018
21 posts
Glacial Movements Glacial Movements have one of the most perfect record label names and so far those releases that have arrived here have lived up to the name. Tropic Of Coldness is a duo based in Brussels that work primarily in a soft focus haze of washes and drones, using […]
London 22 July 2018 With a backdrop of toy robots, Rodney Cromwell were first up to ply their wares. A solid three-piece with a rather special take on synth-led indie, they breeze through their upbeat and groovesome set.
Hubro Once again Hubro are reporting from the coal face of the Norwegian experimental and improv scene with the latest release from the many-legged and multi-talented Skadedyr. With their third album for Hubro and band membership this time around weighing in at a good dozen, you could be forgiven for […]
Pompeii 19 July 2018 Pompeii, the city frozen in time, its people caught like statues in their death throes as the volcano erupted around them. The place is as stunningly beautiful as it is tragic; it is awe-inspiring as you feel transported back in time. The place has also become […]
Cyclic Law Sweden’s Peter Andersson has been running his Raison D’être ambient project since 1991, with a multitude of releases over the years including recent collaborations with Germany’s Troum. However, unlike a lot of ambient pieces that can have a tendency to sit outside of your eyeline and merge into […]
Domino I remember the first things that I reviewed for Freq were the Medical Records re-issues of the first two Pram albums, long out of print and absolutely essential. Whilst undertaking that I figured that it was unlikely we would ever see another new Pram album, considering Rosie Cuckston‘s move […]
London 14 July 2018 Ah, those summer OTO nights. It’s so hot in here that I can almost feel the electrolytes leeching from my body. With my dotage rapidly approaching, this is one of those sauna-with-the-clothes-on experiences which I really wouldn’t put myself through anymore were it not for the […]
Ici d’Ailleurs Based on one of the final works of Carl Jung where the alchemical informed psychology, Uruk’s second outing is another psychological pleasure for the headphonically inclined.
Fueled By Ramen Panic! At The Disco have existed in a few different forms and have covered various genres in their ever-growing career, starting off by riding the coat-tails of the legendary Fall Out Boy, helped along by bassist Pete Wentz. Now, Panic! At The Disco consists solely of Brendon Urie, […]
Hubro There seems to be no end to the fascinating post-jazz and experimental music going on in Norway, and Hubro are right in the thick of it, cataloguing all this for our benefit. The latest release to drop through my letterbox is the second release from trumpeter and soundscape artist […]
SFE / Cherry Red Claudia Brücken was the vocalist of 1980s electronic wonders Propaganda, her vocals soaring over such songs as “Jewel” and “P Machinery” that still sound wonderful today. Jerome Froese is the son of Edgar and one time member of Tangerine Dream during the 1980s and 1990s. On […]
Cyclic Law Taphephobia‘s latest release is an absolute peach. It is Ketil Søraker‘s tenth since 2007, the third for Cyclic Law and the album finds him revisiting the theme to Twin Peaks as a starting point for this gently unfolding journey, a cycle of songs that finds the listener drifting in […]
Grönland Yes, I confess, during my early teenage years I badly wanted to be David Sylvian. I spent a lot of time standing around nonchalantly beside neo-classical façades, trying to look as though I was on the cover of Oil On Canvas.
Bristol 10 July 2018 Opening act Pip Blom shambled on to a very warm response from an already two-thirds full O2 Academy Bristol. One singing guitarist and one drummer share the stage with a fluffy bassist and a manic guitarist looking like a young Jerry Harrison. The rhythm section were […]
Self-released Been sat on this for ages like an absolute fuckstand, but it’s a grower. Or perhaps a seeper, in the sense of the dreadful mould problem in Brighton, or the inexorable vortex of death. That kind of deal. You’re probably not familiar with Sam Cutting, but if you are […]
Front And Follow Filled with a Grouper-esque love of shimmered atmospheres, this (for the most part) psychedelically coruscates in gentle vaporous curls attached to simplest of melodics, the odd percussive clank here and there. The first solo track from Jodie Lowther welds this Lynchian sway, a cipher dance replete with a […]
Dur Et Doux Piniol are a French band consisting of two bassists, two drummers, two guitarists and a single keyboard player to make their unearthly music. Live, I would imagine that this is a very formidable experience, and certainly one to hammer home their barrage of sound.
House Of Mythology When asked about this latest collaboration with the Italian band Zu, David Tibet says they “made something very beautiful and very powerful for me to skip into”, and the surrounds certainly hold his words in a perfect tension.
Transgressive tl;dr: does this sound like the best thing you’ve ever heard? If you answered yes, read on. If it doesn’t, kindly fuck off or listen to it again, you feckless wank. So here’s the good news: it’s the album you wanted because you listened to “It’s Okay To Cry”, […]