6dimensions Impulse Model is Bobby James Pike‘s first release as Heartless, appearing on techno doyen Steve Bicknell‘s 6dimension label as a deeply delirious slice of modular groove. Bloopy and bleepy it may be, but it’s also full of twisting dancefloor passions that writhe as if alive
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Important For the second collaborative release between the wonderfully wonky minimalist composer and toy lover Charlemagne Palestine and our very own Grumbling Fur Time Machine Orchestra, they have chosen to spread a 2016 live show at the Copenhagen Jazzhouse across three sides of beautiful aqua vinyl housed in a suitably mysterious and oily gatefold cover
Substantia Innominata Deeply droney and rumbling, the mysterious tones of Sisters Oregon finds its source material at least in part drawn from recordings by Steven Wilson (of No-Man, Porcupine Tree and more) of a boy’s choir, though this is rarely made obvious. Other sound origins are even less identifiable, so perhaps its best to simply leave it as the latest exercise in Bass Communion‘s explorations of the wonderful world […]
Bristol 30 October 2017 Motion in Bristol was home to two giants of the alternative music scene on the day before Halloween this year. The weather was clement, the venue opened on time and the mighty Godspeed You! Black Emperor had brought along friends and fellow sonic travellers Bardo Pond, so we knew we were in for a full on evening’s treat.
Aphelion Editions EP/64 is the band, a threesome of drums, electronics and vocal abstracts from Nick Janaway, Dan Johnson and Dali De Saint Paul. This tasty artefact documents some mighty fine live action, the date of which is betrayed by the Roman numerals of the title.
Artemisia Black metal has traditionally been the preserve of Satan, and the occasional Nazi; its blastbeats and shrieking were never going to be suited to tender love songs, after all. But in the quarter of a century since the infamous Norwegian black metal murders and church burnings, it has evolved and enhanced itself. Obviously Old Nick’s still a popular subject (and there are still Nazis, sadly), but Wolves […]
Tona Serenad Swedish composer Matti Bye has been producing music for twenty-five years now, much of which has been piano based. His early years spent improvising to moving pictures has brought an interesting aesthetic to his approaching his own music and this, his tenth LP, is a mysterious and ethereal listen.
Sacred Bones I’ve just spent a few days driving down the south coast of England and then around the Devon countryside, listening to John Carpenter’s Anthology all the way. And the first thing to say about it is, it works. Overlaid on any landscape you’d care to imagine – a traffic-jammed motorway, a small-town suburb, a swooping coastal road, a mist-sodden moor, a little high-tide cove – it creates […]
Fourth Dimension / Idioblast At times uncompromisingly brutal, Theme‘s Sacral Blood Warning barely lets up the pressure from the opening moments to its close what sometimes seems like a small aeon later. Along the way, they pummel and pound, rant and reverberate, shaking their groove as much as the walls.
Cherry Red I saw that car. You know which one. In Stockwell, where I used to stay at a mate’s brother’s squat. I think Thatcher On Acid or Blyth Power or someone lived there. It just sat on the street a few doors down and we took polaroid pictures of each other lying in vaguely provocative poses on the bonnet. Eventually, someone yelled at us to fuck off, […]
Barhill The wasted-sounding wastrels of Killflavour offer up the latest in a series of records that are aimed so far out that there’s a distinct possibility that they are heading for a fall off the edge of the known musical world.
Rabid Records The surprise announcement and immediate drop of a new Fever Ray album is some of the most exciting news all year. (Though it’s digital only today — you will have to wait until February 2018 to get a physical copy). And oh boy, it’s been a long time- – the magnificent first album from Karin Dreijer’s solo project appeared eight years ago, so to hear new […]
Bureau B The three man guerilla riot that is Camera have taken new directions, but following in their wake is Licht by Franz Bargmann and Timm Brockmann, both ex-members of the band, but both with a work ethic that means less than a year after the release of Camera’s Phantom Of Liberty (on which LP neither played) we have something a little different into which to sink our aural teeth.
Blue Tapes and X-Ray / Ici d’ailleurs For most people of certain age, the name of Gdańsk, Poland’s principle seaport on the Baltic, will forever bring to mind scratchy newsreel footage of world-historical importance: vast grey shipyards, cold hairy-looking men smoking furiously and wearing donkey jackets and, perhaps most vividly of all, legendary moustache-wearer Lech Wałęsa signing the Gdańsk Agreement of 1980
Front & Follow Ten years after its inception, Front and Follow‘s roster has grown up to be a very interesting beast indeed. Straggling left-field electronicia, folk and avant-pop, fostering strong recurring returns from Kemper Norton, The Doomed Bird of Providence and Sone Institute whilst always pushing further afield
Turquoise Coal Alan Holmes, one half of Spectralate and doyen of the Welsh alternative scene — which includes being part of the wonderful Ectogram — has been beavering away on those fringes for the best part of thirty years under a wide variety of different names and in different styles.
Rhino / Merciful Release It’s a sobering moment when you realise it’s been a full quarter of a century since Andrew Eldritch, The Dark Lord Of Leeds, has gifted the world with any new music. Despite the latest incarnation of the band being as prolific at gigging as any Sisters Of Mercy line-up has ever been, we’ve been given nothing new.
London 21 October 2017 On 21 October 2017, I was lucky enough to go see Frank Iero And The Patience at Omeara in south London. I did not arrive in time for the opening band, Paceshifters, unfortunately, but I did make it for the second half of the The Homeless Gospel Choir.