Italian trio She's Analog have an intriguing and atmospheric approach to instrumental improv. With No Longer, Not Yet, their second album, they attempt to create a space that is liminal, somewhere that movement and creation intersect with sound and it has to be said it is pretty successful.
Monthly archives: July 2025
21 posts
There is care and consideration here and the pieces often feel as though there are dancers softly moving, wearing slippers so as not to disturb but fully engaged in the sinuous rhythm.... Aether II may seem cosy and soft but the little ripples that are scattered throughout give cause to reconsider.
It's Been A Long, Long Time is their first album in ten years, but that time has been well spent honing their skills live and by the sound of the virtuosity on offer here, this selection of jazzy standards have definitely been part of their repertoire.
The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed, the first release for Fire Records from Donaldson’s addiction-primed enterprise, which rounds-up a choice compendium of previously digital-only non-album cuts, inside signature ‘same-but-different’ packaging.
Capturing a year's worth of live performances in a visceral overload, Brut combines hectic speed drumming with obsessive looped samples and electronic slashes to create an intense journey that gives the sensation of a dancefloor wired up to the mains.
Belated sequel to the derivative and half-forgotten horror potboiler about a group of teens who cover up a deadly car accident, but are pursued a year later by their own collective guilt, and more immediately by a mysterious killer with a hook for a hand.
...the way the whole range of shades is filled in is quite a feat and one that makes the album very easy to return to. As a one-off it works perfectly; a chance meeting destined to live in the memory.
Precious Recordings is clearly in it for an Olympic marathon, albeit with a few sprints along the way. Hence, following on rapidly from a still-fresh trio of seven-inch singles from newbies and returnees, comes two ten-inch outings, bringing fresh sounds from veteran players and a near-forgotten aural slice of the past, respectively.
...just what Bureau B is about as there has been no pressing since the original release, plus they have unearthed three previously unreleased tracks and a shorter version of the the A-side to flesh it out to album length. The title track is a mid-tempo gallop with shiny squelchy synths and the simplest of electronic drum beats.
The clouds of complex microtonal chords in "I" could sit on their own, but there's enough clear, near-melodic notes floating through to make it distinctly composed. I say 'near-melodic' notes because while there's definitely lines that you'd maybe call monodic lines (that is, single notes), they're effervescent enough to never quite land like melody. If it's not clear, this is a lovely effect.
Amongst the pastoral birdcalls and wind rustling the leaves, the bass has retreated to a liminal throb, an ancient heartbeat its low tones giving a grounding to the natural sounds that move around our heads and open our eyes. We traverse the panorama slowly, with other elements introduced as we pass dreamlike carried on a bed of gossamer synth. The rush of water soothes as local bells toll gently.
...two epics-within-themselves .. a pair of expansive CD / digital-only outings from reliable combinations of creators and curators, from the scene that never sleeps.
Made me wish I was more familiar with what was being played, but to be honest it didn’t really matter, for now I was caught up in the muscled savagery of it all. That all-in passionate and sweat-drenched prism of sharded lyrics and tons of wah-waded and drone-coated interest. A driven emphasis greedily keeping you up close and personal, crowned by this wedging might of double drums.
... the reason it works, always has worked, and just keeps working is that Guitar Wolf, like Motörhead, don’t fuck with the formula. And, like Motörhead, they take rock’n’roll, strip it back to its basics, and do it faster, louder and, most importantly, COOLER than anyone else.
Utterly compelling sonics that pearl potently, splash morbidly into the piano pins of “Disintegrate”, hinting echoes of the next album, grasping at a haunting sadness that would be later expanded upon, but for now slowly falling into the expressionist despair of silence. It might be forty years old, but it still remains a brooding masterpiece. Thank you Dais for bringing Camouflage Heart back into the world.
We have absolutely no idea what to expect as each new section starts, so it is best to just immerse yourself and trust to their natural flow. ... Once again, Uroboro set new standards on what we can expect from an improv gathering which feels more like a series of extended conversations between good friends
But these days, of course, not only does the Man of Steel have to meet sky-high expectations in terms of spectacle and visual effects, but he also has to compete with an overcrowded marketplace of increasingly indistinguishable spandex-clad do-gooders. So he’d better be faster than the speeding bullet of audience fatigue, and more powerful than the locomotive of diminishing returns.
For the latest release for experimental jazz label Clonmell Jazz Social, guitarist Ted Morcaldi has convened a trio to flesh out his dreamlike concoctions. With some percussion from Joshua Blackmore and bass form Joel Humann, Ted spins twelve diverse pieces using the very different tones of electric, classical and twelve-string guitars plus various synth sounds.