Honest House I really miss the heyday of the kind of muscular, sinuous post-rock that was plied by the lies of Shipping News and June Of 44. Thankfully for me, the twin bass guitar-led Delwood have stepped into the frame and their first outing is a real winner. The idea of two bass guitars has me thinking firstly of Rothko and then of Girls Against Boys, but Delwood […]
Bellissima It was only a matter of time until Katharine Blake (Miranda Sex Garden and The Mediæval Bæbes) and Michael J York (Téléplasmiste, The Utopia Strong, Current 93 and Coil) would conjoin a bewitching whole, gather a few musical friends into the equation to produce this haunting debut that gathers the periphery around you in a stretchy equilibrium.
Crammed Discs The latest Aquaserge release is yet another unique addition to their intriguing canon of work. Expanding the band to a nine-piece here, they have drawn inspiration from four contemporary classical composers; but rather than retreading those steps, they have chosen to expand on the original ideas, tailoring them to suit their own sound in its inimitable glory and reflect something modern back to the mid-twentieth century.
Important Imagine, if you will — you are driving through a vast flat featureless landscape. It is snowing so hard you can barely see, spirals of snow and frost whorling on your windshield. The ground undulates, ever so slightly, the rise-and-fall the only hint of motion, of any life at all. The swells come together, faster and faster, higher and higher, until the frost-bitten landscape becomes like a […]
One Little Independent The latest album from Scottish inventor and sound artist Lomond Campbell tips a hat to fellow tape loop enthusiasts William Basinski and Steve Reich, but goes one step further by actually engineering the machinery himself. It involves some complicated device which includes tape loops, a rotating magnetic disc and a couple of eccentric cams that ensure that every second of the soundscapes presented here is […]
Klanggalerie Long-time contributor to and performer with Eyeless In Gaza and wife of Martyn Bates, Elizabeth S has just released her first solo album. Gather Love presents twelve tracks that texturally invite you to ask what it means to be human, sparkles with a withering warmth that stays with you.
Constellation Judging from the artwork of the latest Jerusalem In My Heart album and the fact that Qalaq is explained as feeling of deep worry, the state of play in the Middle East is a constant concern to Radwan Ghazi Moumneh. The renowned soundscaper and producer has managed to use this album as a representation of the tension that prevails in the region, yet also shows the beauty that […]
Mute Phew‘s New Decade strips it all away, orbits the sultry sizzle of fragmented abstracts and of course Hiromi Moritani’s vocal dynamics that magnetically grab-bag. Born in the pandemic, the album’s whispering contours were a result of wishing to not annoy the neighbours too much, an oh-so-quiet verve that’s best suited to and appreciated on headphones.
From the band: Cult Italian band Larsen will be releasing a new collaborative album on 11 November 2021 via Torino-based publisher Witty Books. Over the course of 2020 Larsen released a series of monthly sessions of improvised music. It was a project intended as a sonic real-time documentary made available to their supporters on the Patreon platform.
Upset The Rhythm Upset The Rythm‘s radar is always sharp and can be relied on to serve up a healthy antidote to the burger’n’fries musical factory that clogs up our cultural arteries. Companioning the creative, often at the expense of commercialism they go, scouting fresh talent, scouring the musical roadside for neglected gems, and I’m guessing their recent journey with Normil Hawaiians has bought fresh dividends in the […]
Discus Martin Archer is once again proving himself one of the hardest-working people in music with two very different collaborations in quick succession. It seems that every other release that comes from Discus involves his playing, but there is always an extraordinary diversity in styles and sounds. The latest albums here from avant-rock / prog jazz trio Das Rad and an improv duo with guitarist and old friend […]
Rage Peace Ex-Prince Rama frontwoman Taraka Larson returns with her debut solo album, trading in digital exotica for freakout psych garage jams to excellent effect. Prince Rama, also sometimes known as Prince Rama Of Ayodhya, encapsulate a certain particularly far-out strain of late 2000s / early 2010s psychedelia. Darlings of the blogosphere from the very start, they represented a unique moment when particularly weird music was breaking out […]
Disciples / R.A.T.S. It’s been a long time since Pale Saints‘ Ian Masters and His Name Is Alive’s Warren Defever worked together as ESP Summer on their country-tinged 1995 self-titled release, so it came as a pleasing surprise when the project was mysteriously resurrected last year – even more so the strange disembodied ambience that they gathered into that tantalising instrumental offering. Now the duo return to flirt […]
One Little Independent With their second album, AVAWAVES, the duo of Aisling Brouwer and Anna Phoebe, found themselves stranded far from one another during the enforced partition of lockdown, but still with a burning desire to collaborate on new music. The synchronicity of their ideas and sounds is in no way affected by the isolation and if anything, there is a sense of longing that plays throughout Chrysalis […]
FatCat Following numerous delays, the twenty-fourth — and last ever — issue in FatCat’s long-running and much-loved Split 12” series finally arrives. As with previous releases, the notion was to pit different sounds and styles against one another in an attempt to draw out links and similarities, or merely introducing the unknown to a more established name.
Nomark Warning: this review will be extremely biased as I think Amon Tobin is dope as hell. Coming back from my dad’s during my younger years entailed many long bus trips on the 76 towards Waterloo station. To help pass the time, Dad would lend me his old iPod, and give me albums to fill my ears with as I gazed out of the window at the swarming […]
Crammed Discs Brussels in the early ’80s must have been a really cool place to be, with Marc Hollander starting up Crammed Discs just as Tuxedomoon arrive, spreading their stateside art rock sensibilities across the city. Lurking in a bar in the centre was Benjamin Lew, tinkering with an MS-10 and producing his own from found sounds and an experimental outlook. Meeting Tuxedomoon’s Steven Brown was a match […]
Rednetic The eleven tracks spread across the latest release from 4T Thieves apparently owe something to Boards Of Canada; but having never listened to that act, I can only say that the woozy soundscapes and lethargic trip hop beats captured here have a real effect on the listener, their odd textures and slipperiness bringing to mind the sort of lonely, sweeping, slow motion vistas of Bowery Electric.