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.
Thrill Jockey Unfamiliar Minds is Elena Setién‘s second album for Thrill Jockey and comes on the heels of a previous collaboration with Xabier Erkizia, which came out on Forbidden Colours. Xabier is also integral to this album, but it is Elena’s dreamlike and gossamer visions upon which the we are whisked away to the enchanted realm of her imagination.
Robert Sotelo‘s latest LP Celebrant comes out to the world via the good offices of Upset The Rhythm. A keen self-interviewer and lateral-thinking artiste, Robert has taken a moment or twelve to guide the listener through each song on Celebrant, giving a personal touch to each number.
(self-released) The buzzing Bristol duo of vibraphonist Harriet Riley and fiddler supreme Alex Garden tumble their inspired collaboration into its second Sonder volume, taking bassist Stevie Toddler along for the journey and pushing one another a little further into where their two musical palettes collide. The previous album‘s sunny disposition has been replaced by some tones of a darker hue, and the pace is lessened at times to allow […]
Bristol, 21 January 2022 This is a pairing of contrasting acts, both enterprising bastions of electronica, one coming from a cinematic sensibility, the other skewing the dance equation.
Thrill Jockey Listening to In Free Fall, Maya Shenfeld‘s album of slow-moving and stately processions, it feels a little like visiting a gallery full of huge, abstract artwork or watching somebody gently unfurl a series of enormous flags. Everything unfolds at a pace that gives opportunity to be totally immersed in the evolution of each piece.
Southern Lord (CD & US vinyl) / Pomperipossa (vinyl in Europe) Recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival back in 2018, this is a powerful testament to the Anna von Hausswolff live experience. She eases you in gently with the lilting latitudes of “The Truth, The Glow, The Fall’, a folksy saturation pinning you back, a black magic love awash with swelling orchestration, that voice resining the architecture – […]
Discus The latest eclectic release from Bo Meson finds him teaming up with other Discus luminaries to re-imagine the life and possible success of Dylan Thomas through words and soundscapes, using the opportunity to shine a light on what might have been in an alternate universe.
Southern Lord An improvised uprooting of their Pyroclast and Life Metal albums — or epic exorcism — suitably broadcast on Samhain of 2019, these three tracks catch SunnO))) at the end of their world tour, emotionally expanding the raw material, giving the BBC 6Music listeners a monumental feast.
Bedevil Fermenting for over six years, Scapa Foolscap began as a series of rough sketches initially inspired by the shipwreck-strewn waters of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, understated soundscapes that gave Pumajaw’s vocalist Pinkie Maclure plenty of space to explore as it slowly evolved into the duo’s eighth album.