Rednetic This latest release by FMS-80 on the ever-intriguing Rednetic label spins through series of dizzying, pastoral soundscapes bobbing on a sea of loops that scatter like sunlight on turbulent waves. A riot of bells on opener “Beidaihe Loop” holds incredible vibrancy, the mantra-like simplicity of the rippling loops moving through “Esplanade View” like a static vista of a fresh day, that panorama across a sunlit harbour in […]
Monthly archives: February 2022
10 posts
Shaytoon Following on from last year’s Maramar cassette, Aria Rostami returns with a further exploration of devious beat-driven electronica. This time around, Bolbol is a seven-track EP featuring mixes of the title track from Sote and Sepehr which ally curls of electronica and mysterious keyboard refrains with the kind of beats that sit as well on the dancefloor as on the sofa, and while the misty voices of […]
Trace It is always a pleasure to learn of new Rothko material and this return is even more welcome considering it has been over two years since the Refuge For Abandoned Souls album. This first post-lockdown release thankfully contains none of the confusion and despair that has dogged some performers in this liminal period and it feels, as ever, as if Mark Beazley is operating outside the usual […]
London 22 February 2022 OK, so what with Covid an’ all, I haven’t been to a gig in OVER TWO YEARS (Julian Cope at The Barbican, if you must know, and yes, he was ace, and yes, once again I got lost in the venue for ages because Barbican) so it’s with some trepidation that I venture into The Grace to break this ridiculous losing streak. And while I […]
Upset The Rhythm Japan’s Nicfit have been together since 2009, but this is their first full-length release besides a cassette comp of obscure singles. Upset The Rhythm have picked it up and it suits their oeuvre well with its cool, distant female vocals, post-punk, bass-heavy vibe and scrawling hypnotic guitar work. Whether they have taken their name from The Untouchables‘ one-minute punk flamethrower or from the better-known Sonic […]
Karlrecords Of course we’re all knee deep in re-issues of unheard electroacoustic works at this point in history, but Iannis Xenakis is something special-er than merely one of the bods who had a go at electronic means to produce music. A lot of composers went through periods of giving it a go and ultimately not finding their voice in it — while I’d personally say György Ligeti was […]
Spoonhunt Freewheeling improviser and collaborative double bass player Dominic Lash has an incredibly varied approach, not just to his instrument but to the way he structures the numerous outfits in which he plays. Recent releases on his own Spoonhunt label give a little indication as to his multifarious activities, and clearly to the warmth and keenness he engenders in his fellow players.
Erototox Decodings On the shirt tails of Zappi Diermaier’s recent solo project Monobeat Original comes this exciting take on faust. A primal purr that, I suspect, seeped into the series of rough mixes that Zappi, along with Schneider TM’s Dirk Dresselhaus and FaUSt’s Elke Drapatz produced, then sent out to the a host of Berlin-based collaborators to re-furnish.
Discus This is only James Mainwaring‘s second album under his own name which, considering the number of collaborations he has been part of, is kind of a surprise. To realise this suite of pieces that look with a despairing eye to humanity’s misuse of the planet as well as the myriad of microscopic miracles that are constantly occurring beneath our feet, he has assembled a sympathetic sextet that […]
ZamZam / Adaadat Hermetic mysticism, alchemy, and past-life regressions bend into this, with the recent birth of a new life further elevating the esoteric thematics. You could say this a labour of love, obsessively circling in tangled narrative and a brooding piano that empathically scaffolds. An instrumental centrifuge that percussively pearls your attention, ebbs the enigmatic itch of Mark Wagner’s words and their slipping meanings.