Thrill Jockey As Ripley Johnson strips away colleagues and friends, going from the four-piece Wooden Shjips to the two-piece Moon Duo and finally to the solo Rose City Band, so the enjoyment factor seems to increase as if, in reality, this is what he would choose to do.
Elli Because who doesn’t want to have a record that’s recorded largely with scraping chairs on a floor? No-one, that’s who.
Discus Article XI was originally convened by Discus regular Anton Hunter of Beck Hunters, amongst others, for a Manchester Jazz Festival commission in 2014. Drawing friends to investigate the possibilities of large ensemble improvisation, they recorded a live set in 2014 which was released in 2018. Following the interest in this disc, they have now released a further live set, record in Newcastle in 2017.
Nonplace Burnt Friedman‘s Nonplace label certainly keeps him busy along with all his other engagements, but to celebrate their fiftieth release, he has paired two tracks of his collaboration with João Pais along with two of the tracks from his Jaki Liebezeit sessions which were recorded in 2015 on his famously pared-down kit.
Potomak It’s been twelve years since the last, proper, Einstürzende Neubauten album, whatever that means. They’ve been detached from the music industry for a while now, pioneering some kind of multiple fan feedback mechanism, which I guess predated crowd-sourcing and kept them away from the supposed struggles associated with label imperatives and the pressure to relate (to the public, to their fans, to themselves).
Upset The Rhythm (UK) / Antifade (Australia) It is great to see that Upset The Rhythm have squeezed another album out of Australian fun-lovers Primo! With their feel good blend of simple C86 / Sarah Records-inspired tunes and low-key but charming vocalising, they are a perfect antidote to the doom and gloom surrounding the current world situation.
With virtually every public event in Europe and beyond cancelled, postponed or taking place on screens only, it comes as no surprise that the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 will not appear as a live and direct spectacle from Rotterdam to a billion television sets this May; but never fear, for Kev Nckells is still going to give each and every entrant into the non-happening competition a thoroughly superficial […]
Nonclassical With Pink Nothing, electronic musician and hardware constructor Tom Richards has pursued ideas on Daphne Oram‘s Oramics synthesizer and re-imagined it for a modern world, constructing his own and using it for these four lengthy and meditative, if somewhat unsettling, minimalist masterpieces.
Tapete The Monochrome Set were a unique band in the first throes of the post-punk scene. They took the energy of punk’s initial rush and used it for their own effervescent purposes.
Silver Rocket / Lokal Rekorc E, the collaborative project between Thalia Zedek, Gavin McCarthy and Jason Sanford, is perhaps the purest form of musical collaboration, with each member bringing equal input to their intriguing and fiery — but at times slightly sinister — brand of melodic, post hardcore guitar music. All three have done their time in the indie rock scene, with Thalia in Come and Live Skull, […]
Rune Grammofon Trondheim trio I Like To Sleep have found a fantastic sound, combining a questing, bass-heavy rhythm section of real earthmoving power with the shimmering dream of a vibraphone. It is an extraordinary discovery that brings to mind some of Tortoise‘s experiments, but with much more muscle and even more experimentation.
Eyeless Well, well, well. Look what these cats dragged in. There’s a witticism of Simon Munnery‘s that’s springs to mindd with this record: “Shakespeare says, ‘brevity is the soul of wit’. I say ‘Bum’. Thus, I win”. In Threads‘ schtick, such as it is, lies in vignettes of skittery improvisation, offering .
Discus Once again, Discus give us a musical body swerve with the latest release from improv monster The Geordie Approach. Shields, their first album in eight years, is made up of two monolithic slabs of rumbling noise that evoke fooling around in an abandoned railway yard.
Jawbone Attitudes to women were awful in the 1970s — pretty much like most of history preceding it, a whole half of humanity shoved into a subservient background, even worse seen as “playthings” to be used and abused.
Released on 23 April, The Microdance‘s new EP via Somewherecold Records is premiered below. The EP is available to download from Bandcamp. Speaking about the EP, Alex Kevill says
Odin The latest album from Norwegian drum powerhouse Gard Nilssen involves sixteen players, so it is not for nothing that the band is called the Supersonic Orchestra. If You Listen Carefully The Music Is Yours is a veritable feast for lovers of the Scandinavian jazz scene; but perhaps best of all, there are three drummers and three bass players, so although it mines elements of jazz, there is […]
“Deepblue”, in its “Slowmix” incarnation, is the lead track on the 12″ vinyl release april.#02 Live from Kashiwa Daisuke via Subcontinental records. The video for the track was directed by Sharath U Holla and is premiered below.
Hubro The Christian Wallumrød Ensemble has been trading through various line-ups for the best part of twenty years. After five albums with ECM, they arrived with Hubro and this is album number two for them after 2016’s Kurzsum And Fulger.