Adaadat When I received this latest cassette from Adaadat, I was taken right back to my childhood and the story cassettes that used to come from Marshall Cavendish. You could buy them from the newsagents, and there would be a book and cassette combo that could keep an easily amused child quiet for ages. The duo Story Teller, made up of writer and broadcaster Bruce McClure and sound […]
Bureau B From its pounding opening track “Gizmo”, Emotional Detox seems like a new statement of intent for Camera. Rather than relying on the more traditional Krautrock tropes that were present on their previous releases, this opener has a sense of early eighties electronica mixed with a fifties sci-fi style synth lead. This makes it sound a little like a weird hybrid of The Buggles doing the soundtrack of […]
Constellation Stepping out from the shadows of A Silver Mt Zion must be quite an undertaking, but Jessica Moss has chosen this opportunity to release her third album and see what she can offer under her own steam. The violin is her main instrument and, along with voice and drones, she has constructed some elliptical sound worlds from these basic ingredients that are far greater as a whole […]
ABKCO I’ve always fucking hated The Beatles and I know that our Ma once said, in a louche fashion, that she preferred The Rolling Stones in the ’60s. I’m going to assume that was because of the better tunes and, like, generally being nicer to look at. She’s not really a one for your rock stuff, our Ma
Thrill Jockey Koen Holtkamp has been pretty busy over the last ten or twelve years, primarily with his label Apestaartje, but also releasing music under his own name, solos and collaboratively, as well as all the albums that the lovely Thrill Jockey-signed Mountains released.
Cherry Red OK. I have a shocking revelation to share with you. And there’s an easy way you can test my hypothesis. Get thee to the internet and find a recording of the Enfield Poltergeist case. In case you’re unaware, in the late 1970s, an Enfield family reported strange goings-on at their house in north London, including furniture moving, unexplained noises
Too Pure / Beggars Arkive When Stereolab arrived on the scene in the early nineties, plying their trade on limited, lovingly packaged, vinyl releases, they also brought with them a new aesthetic for those times.
Beggars Arkive In the early eighties, Bauhaus were a bit of an odd phenomenon; musically, they changed with each album, and, like their contemporaries Japan, it was difficult to pigeon hole them. Eventually they were lumbered in with a lot of diffused other artists under the gothic rock tag, something that their music, apart from a couple of numbers, didn’t really adhere to.
Upset The Rhythm For Rattle‘s second album through the good people at Upset The Rhythm, they have chosen to use the long player as an opportunity to stretch their drum and vocal experiments over durations that allow the tracks to fully insinuate with their gradually unfurling structures. It is as if they took the ideas exhibited on their self-titled four track seven-inch EP
Anthology This is a CD to go with a book about that library music there used to be. It’s about curios, you see? So here we have another sense of curios. I like the Rolling Stones, say, but it’s just such a thing from another time for me. Curio. This is probably more directly obviously a curio. Library music. Curio.
Bureau B For Qluster‘s seventh outing since the restart in 2007, the duo of HJ Roedelius and Onnen Bock has expanded to a trio with the addition of Armin Metz, and has taken what for them could be seen as a radical change in strategy. For Elemente, each of the eight tracks has been constructed using all-analogue equipment, a list of which is included on the back cover. Arps […]
Front And Follow Kick-starting Front and Follow‘s new series celebrating the past and present of some of the label’s regular contributors, the Sone Institute (after a six year hiatus) takes Ex Post Facto by the horns, presenting new work, along with a bonus download album of retrospective highlights and unreleased secrets from their archives. The new work is brilliant
Compunctio The recent collaboration between vocalist Andreas Eklof and electronic artist David Ahlen has resulted in the 1921 album In My Veins, a thing of rare delicacy that inhabits a hushed, candle-lit space set-back from the rigours of the world.
Brighton 2 November 2018 A story of intrigue, a tale of great mystery. A band of psychedelic travellers. A man so consumed by unctuous emissions that it was described as cagoule-like.
Dio Drone / Cheap Satanism Imagine walking home alone through some deserted, industrial area. A distant drone makes you aware of some presence, but nothing tangible. You think you are alone — but really, are you?
London 31 October 2018 Years ago, back in the early 1990s, I had a friend (well, I say “had”– we’re still friends and he’s here tonight) with whom I shared a lot of common ground in terms of musical taste. He used to always be on at me to listen to The Church.
Freaksville Since 2005, Benjamin Schoos and his label of esoteric pop-loving misfits, Freaksville, have been doing their best to keep the Belgian / French language pop scene awash with an alternative to the usual radio fodder. As a solo artiste, Benjamin has released six or seven albums which veer all over the slightly kitsch shop.
[PIAS] As a long-time fan, I found Dead Can Dance’s comeback album Anastasis a tad disappointing – that mesmerising sheen of old seemed oddly suppressed, and I don’t think the use of machined percussives helped matters either. Anyways, hearing Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry had a new album out, I thought I’d give them another try — and I’m so glad I did