Relapse In a world ridden with plague, what could be more timely than black metal? And in a world facing impending climate catastrophe, what could be more timely that deep ecology? And in a world regulated by time, what could be more timely than timelessness? Fortunately, there’s a band who […]
Yearly archives: 2021
167 posts
Intimate Inanimate After the languorous drift of the recent collaboration with Daniel Blomquist, Aria Rostami has turned up the tempo and returned with a series of glichy, dancefloor friendly, sub-techno grooves that are as easy to consume curled up on the sofa as in an early morning warehouse club scenario. […]
Erototox Decodings Thomas Dimuzio‘s love of the Buchla synhtesiser is well known and here, on the precursor to Sutro Transmissions, we find his initial forays into that universe, that limitless dimension that means every release is a new journey or a new series of travels into the unknown.
Freestyle Dan Berkson‘s journey through music has taken him a long way and through a lot of styles to wind up producing this classic jazz album. Forming a funk band, playing in Chicago and then moving to London producing deep house 12″s, he eventually re-connected with his first instrument, the […]
Buried Treasure Delaware Road supremo and all around electronic whiz Alan Gubby has been producing pieces under the pseudonym of Zyklus for the best part of forty years, which is an incredible feat, let alone all the other pseudonyms and collaborations. ‘ Stimulacra compiles twenty-three tracks from Zyklus’s oeuvre dating […]
Zam Zam / La République des Granges / Permafrost / Murailles Music From the Tesla crackle of the intro to that extending shadow of organ creeping on throughout, the weird melodics here on Rien Virgule‘s La Consolation Des Violettes feed a widening crescent of expectation. A rich invitation that stirs […]
Timeless Editions There’s a lot to unpack. Visually, The Universe Is A Haunted House is a beautifully presented book, too big for comfort, like an ancient Bible, waiting for its lectern. Images tumble out and over each other – like Peter Greenaway’s books, Pillow and Prospero. It overwhelms at every […]
(self-released) I was intrigued to learn of ambient jazz duo Nelson Patton‘s deep involvement with the genre defying artist / singer Lonnie Holley and there is some obvious bleed between his brand of impressionistic, dreamlike song-writing and the slightly woozy, eyes half-closed atmospheres of Universal Process, their latest album. Although […]
Two albums linked by a label (Discus) and a player (Matthew Bourne ) and possibly joined by being somewhere in the fallout of jazz that’s not quite jazz. Neither sounding particularly alike, and that’s as it should be. Mzylkypop – Kiedy Wilki Zawyja? There are other words that precede it […]
Yew As a child, I had an image of how the future was going to look and I have to confess that forty-odd years later, I am pretty disappointed. Everything seems to be smaller, more compact, less shiny and interesting and space is almost ignored. The sounds on Losing Circles […]
Sub Pop I think this didn’t leave the CD player for a good ten listens when it came through. I wouldn’t say I was one of those Low fans. I was mostly indifferent for the last twenty years or so. But Double Negative really was a massive shot in the […]
Odin The grouping together of Hans Hulbækmo, Hanna Paulsberg, Marius Hirth Klovning and Bárður Reinert Poulsen was always going to be a dynamic affair, but by giving themselves only two days in Propellor Studios to try and recapture the essence of their live outing in February 2021, the spontaneous results […]
Bedroom Community As often happens with these things, Rakhi Singh was a new name on me and then her Manchester Collective popped up for this year’s proms, putting in a rare performance of establishment-baiting Julius Eastman. Having checked out some of her other work, she’s clearly comfortable sitting with the establishment […]
Carton / Coax Visual artist and sound sculptor Jean Francois Riffaud has taken his RIFO alter ego on a guitar odyssey hanging primarily on tonal repetition and hypnotic rhythmic interaction. Running through five inter-related pieces that spur one another on like an enthusiastic relay team, the guitar on Betel is treated […]
Geist im Kino It is hard to believe just how prolific Rutger Zuydervelt is as Machinefabriek, and how he finds the time to put together something as thoughtful and involved as the soundtracks created here for choreographer Yin Yue‘s dance pieces. There are two separate commissions here, both inhabiting a […]
Room 40 For his latest epic, composer Lawrence English has eschewed anything human-made and has chosen to weave a series of pieces from sounds recorded over a period spent in the Amazon. Rather then putting down a recorder and allowing it to capture whatever happens and unleash that, he instead […]
Carton Records and Coax Records have jointly released Betel by French musician JF Riffaud, also known as RIFO. The album draws on the music of sub-Saharan Africa such as that of Sunny Ade or Flamme Kapaya as much as being influenced by American primitivists and minimalists from John Fahey to […]
El Studio 444 and REBOOT Q: What do you get when you cross a twee pop No Wave band, a post-industrial noise outfit, and some Universal Indians, what do you get? A: Nowhere close to anything you’d expect, whatever that might be. “Is that supposed to be some sorta joke?” […]
Thrill Jockey William Tyler‘s folky Americana has graced releases by Lambchop and Silver Jews as well as his increasingly assured solo releases. Marisa Anderson treads similar ground on her own records, although the recent collaboration with drummer Jim White did lead down some exciting improv avenues. The eight tracks presented […]
Cleopatra Nouvelle Vague‘s Marc Collin adopts a fly-on-the-wall approach with Le Choc du Futur to transport you back in time to a synthetic studio in 1978, peeling back the years to remind us why electronic music truly matters. It’s difficult, if not perhaps impossible, to truly maintain a perspective on […]