Dur Et Doux Piniol are a French band consisting of two bassists, two drummers, two guitarists and a single keyboard player to make their unearthly music. Live, I would imagine that this is a very formidable experience, and certainly one to hammer home their barrage of sound.
reviews
House Of Mythology When asked about this latest collaboration with the Italian band Zu, David Tibet says they “made something very beautiful and very powerful for me to skip into”, and the surrounds certainly hold his words in a perfect tension.
Transgressive tl;dr: does this sound like the best thing you’ve ever heard? If you answered yes, read on. If it doesn’t, kindly fuck off or listen to it again, you feckless wank. So here’s the good news: it’s the album you wanted because you listened to “It’s Okay To Cry”, “Ponyboy” and “Faceshopping” already. In fact, this review is most likely an abject lesson in the fatuous
Modularfield After 2017’s Atmospheres Volume 1” on Modularfield, Denver-based Ann Annie has found an opportunity to follow it up with Volume 2, containing more pastel sketches and gauzey sunset glances, perfect for easing the mind and gently sinking into contemplation. Over the course of about half an hour and seven tracks, Ann takes us gently by the hand and leads us through long grass and around rippling pools
Modularfield Noah Pred is a techno and house producer and DJ from Canada, who over the last fifteen years or so has released a plethora of dance-orientated tracks spread across numerous esoteric labels. However, his latest album Homeward finds him at a bit of a crossroads.
Dais A Thousand Lights In A Darkened Room Nestled between their experiments with acid house and the esoteric Time Machines identity, Black Light District (and ELpH before it) were temporary monikers in which to tinker, delve deeper into what made Coil tick without being overshadowed by the crippling claw of context. An elemental approach that vividly paints possibility, seems to be pawing a significant other.
Geo Gagarin is one of the noms de plume of Graham Dowdall, who has been recording for the last thirty years with such luminaries as Ludus, Rothko, Pere Ubu and Nico among others. Gagarin itself started back in 1995, and in that time he has released seven albums all through his own Geo label. Last year’s Corvid was very well received and on the strength of that, he has […]
OhAh This man’s been with me for ages, through the ludicrously brief existence of Rema Rema, the equally short lived Mass (their “F.A.H.T.C.F.” is still my ultimate cup-half-empty song) and then the constant outpourings as the The Wolfgang Press. Five studio albums that poked around in some satisfyingly gloomy, dark melodics and veered towards the dance-friendly, Allen’s vocals always thistling intrigue, inquisitioning the human animal to steely basslines […]
Mute This is Aaron Hemphill‘s first solo release since his amicable departure from Liars a few years ago, and I can’t help thinking how fun it would have been if all ex-members were able to trade under the Liars name as if they were an updated version of Faust. This record, although solo, can’t help but be compared to his work with Liars and for me it holds […]
Bristol 17 June 2018 Former Throwing Muses and Belly bass guitarist Fred Abong was first up, and apparently the airport had lost his guitar so Kristin had kindly lent him hers for the night. Not heard any of his solo work, so I was at a disadvantage, but I liked that Pavement-like glimmer he was plying
All Good Clean 1099 are a five-piece instrumental rock band from Trondheim in Norway, all of whom take responsibility for song-writing duties, and according to their Discogs page the band is pretty much post-everything, including post-yacht. This little nugget goes some way to explaining why they stand out from the usual crowd of vocal-less guitar bashers that have proliferated over the years.
Thrill Jockey It has been five years since Wooden Shjips last dropped an album, and to my mind they were arriving at a point where they were taking the place of Spacemen 3 as the premium hypnotic, psychedelic riff machines, but with the frustration and ennui removed and good old West Coast chills thankfully taking their place. This album may be the one where they start to put […]
Sulatron Any album that has the words Space Soundtrax in the title is always going to catch my (mind’s) eye, but the fact that this is Sun Dial and released by the fabulous Sulatron Records; well, I knew I couldn’t go wrong. Multi-instrumentalist Gary Ramon always manages to put out some interesting music, so let the space portals open as I delve into a cornucopia of music for interplanetary travel.
Glacial Movements Paul Schutze is an Australian sound composer who has been producing music since the late 1980s. This album, his first in eight years, is released on the extremely apt Glacial Movements Records from Italy and is one long, gradually unfolding treasure that is almost like an attempt at prehistoric music; constructing sounds that pre-date what we understand and go back to the formation of the earth.
Nonplace After Nonplace‘s recent issue of two Drums Off Chaos EPs, they have chosen now to re-release Manos Tsangaris‘s 1989 12″ Elephant’s Easy Walk Through The Moonlight EP, but have replaced the original b-side “Drum 2” with a recent track, “Elephants Cry Salty Tears”, specifically recorded for the purpose of this edition.
Cherry Red Arcane shibboleths wasn’t necessarily the core of The Fall, but they were often the grist in the coal mill. I’ve bloody prevaricated on this review for yonks, which is ridiculous as it’s The Fall album I’ve probably listened to most since that fateful week in 1997 when I bought a record and was mildly outraged at what an incoherent mess it was.
Fysisk Format Spurv are an instrumental guitar band from Oslo who are a new name to me, but a fantastic discovery. By the looks of the cover, there must be six main chaps in the band, but the credits encompass quite a few more, including cellos, trumpets, synths and effects, as well as an array of guitarists, a bassist and drummer.
The Royal Albert Hall, London Saturday 26 May 2018 Hi. I’ll be conducting today’s gig review. Yeah. The Radiophonic Workshop were live at the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room last week, and because occasionally somebody buys me tickets to this sort of thing and drags me off with them, I was lucky enough to get to go and see the show. Little did I know that, this time, there […]