London 31 October 2018 Years ago, back in the early 1990s, I had a friend (well, I say “had”– we’re still friends and he’s here tonight) with whom I shared a lot of common ground in terms of musical taste. He used to always be on at me to listen […]
Yearly archives: 2018
232 posts
Freaksville Since 2005, Benjamin Schoos and his label of esoteric pop-loving misfits, Freaksville, have been doing their best to keep the Belgian / French language pop scene awash with an alternative to the usual radio fodder. As a solo artiste, Benjamin has released six or seven albums which veer all […]
[PIAS] As a long-time fan, I found Dead Can Dance’s comeback album Anastasis a tad disappointing – that mesmerising sheen of old seemed oddly suppressed, and I don’t think the use of machined percussives helped matters either. Anyways, hearing Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry had a new album out, I […]
Drag City (Americas) / Domino (Europe) Will Oldham is the player behind the part that is Bonnie “Prince” Billy and the musical entity that was Palace (Music / Songs / Brothers etc). Using these identities, Oldham has carved out a niche as the altest of alternative musicians, country or otherwise, and […]
Thrill Jockey The dynamic trio Upper Wilds, who comprise members of Parts & Labor and Ex-models, amongst others, are using the thrill of intense guitar riffage to explore the outer limits of our recognisable universe and report back
Adaadat Using a heavily modified record deck as the source of most of the rhythmic elements he sues, Graham Dunning has been constructing his mechanical techno into hypnotically surging loops of base sound that revel in a strangely satisfying recursion.
Sub Rosa As soon as the files were securely on the MP3 player of choice, I listened to First Time Out on the train, sipping coffee and watching the sun-dappled Essex countryside flash by outside. It was an unseasonably warm autumn day and, as the train stopped at Tilbury East, two […]
Drag City Cave must have one of the most unsuitable names in rock history. Not having heard them before, I was expecting some sort of dark metal sort of act, full of foreboding — so I was more than happy to uncover the sunny, funk-inflected psychedelic mantras contained within this […]
London 22 October 2018 In the last few years, an underground music scene has been steadily growing in strength. Taking its ideas from mostly horror and science fiction soundtracks of the 1980s and mainly using vintage synthesizers, the scene dubbed itself synthwave. Using a mismatch of John Carpenter, Giorgio Moroder […]
Upset The Rhythm Well, this baby smacks you in the face with its furnace-like enthusiasm in an impenetrable feast of guitar, drums and yelling from the Leeds duo Guttersnipe. If you’ve seen them live, you’ll be happy to hear that that self-same ferocity is bleeding out of this release unimpeded.
Glacial Movements Patrick Bernatchez‘s film Lost In Time was originally produced a good seven or eight years ago and the soundtrack that Murcof produced for this double narrative take of life and death was originally released on vinyl back in 2014. The good people at Glacial Movements have chosen to re-issue […]
Editions Mego On the back of last year’s double LP début comes this teasing taste of UUUU‘s expanding soundworld, a two-track twelve inch that steeps your ear in some mighty fine sonics as your eye is creeped out by the grainy black and white of the cover.
London 13 October 2018 Hallowe’en is just around the corner, and as the holy month of Spooptober gets underway, what better time could there be for that most festive of tipples, a Nurse With Wound / Current 93 cocktail? And that’s just what’s being served at Shepherds Bush Empire tonight, […]
Beggars Arkive On the heels of The Frenz Experiment came this curve ball for The Fall’s eleventh (or maybe thirteenth) album. Who could have foreseen a ballet soundtrack was in the offing? Yeah, it was quite a surprise
Figureeight Since Gyða Valtýsdóttir‘s exit from Icelandic collective Múm, she has spent her time back at the conservatoire, studying the cello and attaining qualifications both in the classical style and also in free improvisation. Since then, after journeying with artists as diverse as Damian Rice, the Kronos Quartet and Jonsi; and releasing […]
Faber and Faber There’s so much here. This book has almost been written several times, but here we have it; the real deal. If much of this material has been covered in other places, David Stubbs injects everything with a new light and throughout he maintains a sense of reverent […]
Transgredient Troum have been illuminating the drone landscape for over two decades now, so to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, they decided to issue a lush two-disc set where they invited friends, family and interested parties to tackle their favourite selections from the Troum catalogue.
“” — Lisa Jayne Following the release of their latest Void Axis CD via Fourth Dimension and Foolproof Projects, Lisa Jayne and Andy Pyne sat down to discuss the album, their music, art, methods, origins and sources of inspiration with Kev Nickells. The interview is presented as two audio recordings
Nicey Music Once again, that pseudonym of modern psychedelia and bedroom recording, Robert Sotelo is on the loose, this time firing out a missive courtesy of the good people at Nicey Music. This current cassette only release finds our enigmatic songwriter testing himself by writing solely on electronic keyboards
Modularfield Modularfield‘s continued campaign to highlight low-key experimental electronic music from around Europe has settled on Cologne, and particularly the latest album from Marco Petracca AKA HHNOI.