PRAH The fourth moon-related release from Yama Warashi finds Yoshino Shigihara‘s band shifting to the Moshi Moshi offshoot PRAH and further stretching their legs with a unique distillation of gently fuzzy psych and that dreamy Japanese vocalising that gives them such an exotic appeal. Over eight lengthy and quixotic tracks, the album leads the listener through gentle foothills and mountain glades to more extreme terrain, switchback paths and […]
Yearly archives: 2022
161 posts
Buried Treasure Recorded entirely within a closed-input / fedback set-up and two antique tape machines, Howlround‘s Trespass And Welfare involves no actual input at all – samples, synths, pedals all abandoned in order to chase the ghosts in the machine. Ghosts that for the opener “Sonicjob Horsfunk” are of the squelchy techno kind. A lovely relentless dry-ended-LFO-scooped headfuck raygunned into the cut-off choked distance.
Thanatosis Produktion The list of groups of which reedist Martin Küchen is part is almost as long as my arm. A serial collaborator, his choice of fellow travellers is hugely varied and the number contained within the groups can be anything over two, the Angles projects and Fire! Orchestra perhaps being the most prolific. Here though, he has chosen a rare moment of solitude, and using alto and […]
SPV It’s a strange feeling to be reviewing the last-ever Klaus Schulze album. Since 1981, I have been a follower of his work after after reading that he was connected to Tangerine Dream, who I was a massive fan of at the time. From that first listen I understood that Klaus’s music shared many elements with TD, but were very much distinctly Klaus as well. The album I […]
Post 3 Electro Knights is a recent collaborative affair from members of Leeds band Bushpilot, who were active back in the nineties; here they have chosen electronic music as their jumping off point, an experiment in synthesis that finds the three members happily exploring the far reaches of their chosen instruments, usefully listed on the back of these two sprawling EPs. Recorded back in 2019/2020, the music travels […]
Sedna Chronicles Sedna Chronicles is a travel guide to the occult, unusual and downright eerie. English Heretic’s Andy Sharp and The Hare & The Moon’s Grey Malkin attempt to channel the weird energies trapped within their favourite Scottish haunts, and to be honestly they do a great job, the accompanying fold-out guide enhancing the experience.
Out This is the final release in the UT back catalogue re-issue campaign and finds them arriving at perhaps their most fully realised iteration. A good number of the tracks here feature Charlie D on drums, leaving the opportunity for the trio to lend further texture to the already dense and at times claustrophobic sound. Interestingly though, installing Steve Albini in the engineer’s chair removed just a touch […]
Modulisme To celebrate the second anniversary of the Modulisme facility that Philippe Petit has established, he decided to forego the usual improvisation technique and attempt a series of compositions that would perhaps show another route for him and give some further impetus to the already exploratory process of a true world citizen.
Black Editions Masayuki Takayanagi is something of a legend in free circles, although tricky to place — nominally free jazz, but a great deal more aggressive than that. Also proximal to free improv, but again a fair amount more savage and, with the exception of maybe Derek Bailey, Takayanagi was more transparently immersed in some very heavy jazz techniques.
Thanatosis Produktion Linnéa Talp‘s first album under her own name is all about exploration of the ambient splendour of the pipe organ; but also in combination with her recent discovery of the Buchla synth. Not necessarily obvious bedfellows, her subtle and intricate use of them, along with gently administered contributions from some fellow luminants, produces a series of .
Electronic musician, artist, producer, engineer as well as module designer and maker for Future Sound Systems, Bristol-based Finlay Shakespeare‘s session for Philippe Petit‘s Modulisme project shows off his grasp of the classic British sound of independent modular-adjacent pop music from its heady early years. His influences also are also steeped in experimental electronic music, which led him to create the Throbbing Gristle-inspired Gristelizer eurorack module in association with its […]
Bristol 16 June 2022 Unfortunately got to the venue a little late, but luckily managed to pick up Stereocilia’s set somewhere at the midway point. Fresh from his support slot for William Basinski at St George’s, that guitar of his was ace, caught in a filigree of looped frets, melodically across a series of brooding landscapes. A textually torn building up of layers full of dramatic swings and […]
Sofa For Propan‘s third album and their second for Sofa Records, they have dusted off a piece that was originally commissioned by Femme Brutal for the 2016 show at Oslo’s Parkteater. To produce these sprawling adventures, the duo has been augmented by six friends and fellow travellers on Swagger, and this seems to have pushed the scope of the album far beyond what the duo might have accomplished […]
Rocket This re-visit to The Utopia Strong sound-world is a meditative one, full of sketched atmospherics, where splintered notes seem to levitate, shimmer to symbiotically smile. A chemistry lesson whose individual tracks blur into a sensory whole, subtly pulled three ways, but still sparking a hypnotic unity.
Thrill Jockey Kid Millions, Oneida drummer, serial collaborator and sonic adventurer has chosen to release this current sonic curveball under his given surname; whether this is to put distance between his other projects, it is hard to know but it makes for another half turn in his scattergun career. Taking some hints from the recent Jan St Werner collab, the Colpitts album has a hint of the sort […]
Zam Zam What an arresting cover, the naked singer holding up the ace of hearts and the inevitable ace of spades, “the most powerful cards in the deck”, as weathered metaphors for the prismed verve contained therein, compass points for the emotional minefield of first love, first heartbreak and the limbo between.
Buried Treasure For Revbjelde‘s long-awaited follow-up to 2020’s Hooha Hubub, Buried Treasure supremo and long-term Zyklus member Alan Gubby has been joined once again by Tim Hill on saxes and Peter Hope on vocals, as well as various other one-track guests. Having listened to and enjoyed the recent Zyklus compilation, it is no surprise that the variety of styles utilised over these twelve pieces is pretty impressive and […]
limitedNOISE For the latest issue of his Climbing In Circles series, drummer Will Glaser has brought in long-time collaborator Matthew Herd on sax and piano and trumpeter Alex Bonney, here stretching his electronic legs. Coming into the studio and using the opportunity to improvise as well as see how the studio can perform as a fourth element has led the trio down some interesting alleyways, with each of […]