DiN There is something about the sound of the modular synth that spells the future to me, more than any other music making device. It is the sound of science fiction, but also science fact, and it is the wonders of the universe rather then the horrors of the universe that they tend to evoke, that limitless space and the sense of endless adventure. Here, in the third […]
Bristol 11 November 2019 “My vagina’s really angry”, goes the walkie-talkie on the table, crackling in flick-knifed distortion and abrupt statics. DJ Ductape has a few people scattered about outside the venue, supplying miscellaneous inputs to her show — one random conservationist, the other drumming railings and yet another going Mozart with random Casio melodies.
Thrill Jockey Ryley Walker has been leading any interested parties a merry dance since his career started in earnest with 2015’s Primrose Green. I was talking to somebody who had taken a friend to see him this year at The Fleece in Bristol, expecting the pretty psych-folk of that album and ending up with the post-jazz extrusions of The Dave Matthews Band, which flies in the face of […]
London 8 November 2019 Berlin-based avant-garde guitarist Caspar Brötzmann is back in London, touring as Caspar Brötzmann Massaker, his cult power-trio featuring bassist Eduardo Delgado-Lopez and drummer Saskia Von Klitzing. Always a favourite of the experimental guitar crowd, he arrives after having supported SunnO))) in Europe and is having a resurgence of interest due to Southern Lord reissuing the majority of his back catalogue.
Figureight After 2017’s EP Recôncavo was re-issued on Phantom Limb, people have obviously been awaiting a full-length album from Louisville-based JR Bohannon and here it is, a rare release on Shazad Ismaily‘s Figureight label. The rich musical history of Louisville in Kentucky, from Appalachian finger-picking to the post-rock vibes of the likes of Slint, are all filtered through in the DNA of JR’s music to create a hybrid that […]
(self-released) A re-visit to one of my favourite Legendary Pink Dots albums, Asylum Relaspe re-shapes the patients’ mood, and propels its themes with new perspectives. Some tracks are obvious nods to Asylum’s original content, but others are more slippery with context, wiggling out of the woodwork, adding to the fun as Patrick Q Wright’s musical nous excites the eleven tracks therein, his fevered violin playing and voice spinning […]
Rocmusic It is great news that the first three R.O.C albums are finally back in print. It has been many years since the listening public received the unexpected assault on the senses that was the first, self-titled album. That juxtaposition of Karen Sheridan‘s angelic, dreamy vocals with Fred Browning‘s more bitter, vitriolic vocal attack, all couched in a series of dramatically diverse musical backdrops that all three band […]
London 28 October 2019 The SunnO))) juggernaut rolls into London for the first time since their triumphant show at The Barbican in 2017. A quick glance at the stage after arriving confirms that Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson — the core members of SunnO))) since forming in 1998 — have not mellowed with age. The now-familiar columns of vintage Sunn Model T, Hi-Watt and Ampeg amplifiers are stacked impressively high […]
Glacial Movements Algida Bellezza is Alessandro Tedeschi‘s seventh album for Glacial Movements and it is another release that fits perfectly into their oeuvre. Over five mistily submerged tracks, a bleak, monochrome landscape is evoked through the slow moving actions of Netherworld‘s electronic drones and mysterious unseen sounds that lurk in the flailing snow storms that envelope the fractured pieces on offer here.
Discus Considering how long and varied the careers of Alex Maguire, Martin Pyne and Mark Hewins have been, this is the first time that the three have played together, and Discus is the perfect home for their meeting of musical minds as MPH. The CVs of the three members include an incredible variety of musical styles that seems to have culminated in a freedom that is quintessentially pastoral, […]
Mute Bristol in 1979 saw the emergence of one of the most beloved and influential bands of the punk era. Reformed again in recent years after a prolonged period of dormancy, decades after their serial appearances on the front covers of a number of influential music papers such as Melody Maker, NME and Sounds, they continue to draw in devoted audiences still in thrall to the energy and […]
Bureau B Kreidler have been going for twenty-five years now and are on their twelfth or thirteenth album, let alone all the other projects that the various members have. It is an impressive record, and even more so that each Kreidler album brings something a little different to the table. For the follow up to 2017’s European Song, they have pieced together and album of two halves; the […]
Editions Mego Back in the late nineties, in an attempt to distract myself from the drilling sounds whilst waiting to be seen by the dentist, I flicked though this lad mag (I forget the name of it). Amongst the usual antics I spot this review for The Elbow Is Taboo, worlds removed from the normal chart-friendly preferences of the publication,
Taken from their forthcoming album for Interchill (Guardians, to be released in early 2020), the Condor EP finds Evan Fraser and Vir McCoy mixing up mostly acoustic instruments in ambient style.
Bristol 25 October 2019 Well, we may have missed The Jesuits, but Bristol’s Perverts more than made up for any disappointment. The charismatic leader was decked out in a silver jumpsuit, Elvis musical staves stitched to his legs and noddy-eared headgear completing the look. He danced the stage like a demented Tellytubby with this peculiar bent-knee jig as the music behind him jutted like a no-wave convention of […]
London 19 October 2019 Compere: “Jesus is a …” Audience: “CUNT!” [giggling] This is about as highbrow as it gets all evening. Camp as the campest tits. There’s also a punter dressed as Jesus displaying his irritation at everyone wearing the “Jesus is a cunt” t-shirt. #lol #classicbants.
Young God / Mute Michael Gira has never shied away from the bareness of the bulb’s inspection – his narrative always gnaws at the fragmented prism of the self, right from the sweaty simplicity of their beginnings to the sophisticated diatribes of the later years, even including the physical force of Swans‘ recent rebirth.
ADAADAT The continent-straddling meeting of musical minds that is Elephant House has reconvened after a couple of years’ rest to produce this ode to pan-cultural dream states that is Chollima.