...this is a collection that casts a spell across any continental boundaries through its stunningly intimate yet deceptively intricate arrangements and desolate but dreamlike atmospherics.
album review
2660 posts
f like me you loved Thighpaulsandra‘s debut or the panoramic nature of his Golden Communion album, I’m glad to report the big-band sound is back with a vengeance on this new offering. ... Acid And Ecstasy is another extravagant triumph that I’m going to be listening to for years to come.
The Universe Will Take Care Of You is genuinely an album that gives you something more with every listen and a must for everybody with a sense of musical adventure
An illuminated hum, ending on a previously unreleased lop-lop mash-up of bird song, a possible remix of "Strange Birds" that would never re-surface on their live radar ever again. Live One is a seriously essential disc that documents a strong re-birth for Coil that over the ensuing years would never falter.
This album has an exquisite touch and a warmth and generosity that only comes from familiarity and respect. From Bach To Ellington is a lovely collection that does find you hankering after the originals, just to compare, but is also a standalone delight.
Evocative, enigmatic and enthralling throughout, for a collection that took years to mature on Glen Johnson’s home studio hard drives this is far more than just a digital cupboard clearance exercise, which should certainly be recognised as one of his finest curatorial creations to date.
...there is a lot of space in the songs, but when you concentrate the variation in instruments and sensations is really quite broad and the combinations are endlessly inventive. In the final piece, a ghost escapes offering the clearest of words so far, and the pleasant guitar and abstract percussion offer a lullaby-like backing that makes the disembodied voice even stranger.
Renowned electronicist and collaborator Matthew Herbert has joined forces with drummer and vocalist Momoko to produce a warm and inviting collection of downtempo dancefloor-affiliated tunes that highlight the latter's inventive approach to percussion and her sensual, soothing voice.
For all the anarchic trappings that proceed Australia’s profanity-framed Tropical Fuck Storm, there is clearly a lot more craft and imagination at play when the enterprise is examined up-close, as this first full-length release for a new home at Fire Records attests. As the quartet’s fourth LP-sized outing in all, Fairyland Codex bares the hallmarks of finding a creative sweet spot, between swampy sleaziness and more imaginative intricacies.
Furrow uses the trio as a means to find a home for those pieces that are less about improvisation and more about the feel of a classic jazz format. But where this selection differs and what gives it its variety is that they are inspired by many sorts of other artistic media, be they poetry, film or books.
There is care and consideration here and the pieces often feel as though there are dancers softly moving, wearing slippers so as not to disturb but fully engaged in the sinuous rhythm.... Aether II may seem cosy and soft but the little ripples that are scattered throughout give cause to reconsider.
It's Been A Long, Long Time is their first album in ten years, but that time has been well spent honing their skills live and by the sound of the virtuosity on offer here, this selection of jazzy standards have definitely been part of their repertoire.
The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed, the first release for Fire Records from Donaldson’s addiction-primed enterprise, which rounds-up a choice compendium of previously digital-only non-album cuts, inside signature ‘same-but-different’ packaging.
Capturing a year's worth of live performances in a visceral overload, Brut combines hectic speed drumming with obsessive looped samples and electronic slashes to create an intense journey that gives the sensation of a dancefloor wired up to the mains.
...the way the whole range of shades is filled in is quite a feat and one that makes the album very easy to return to. As a one-off it works perfectly; a chance meeting destined to live in the memory.
...just what Bureau B is about as there has been no pressing since the original release, plus they have unearthed three previously unreleased tracks and a shorter version of the the A-side to flesh it out to album length. The title track is a mid-tempo gallop with shiny squelchy synths and the simplest of electronic drum beats.
The clouds of complex microtonal chords in "I" could sit on their own, but there's enough clear, near-melodic notes floating through to make it distinctly composed. I say 'near-melodic' notes because while there's definitely lines that you'd maybe call monodic lines (that is, single notes), they're effervescent enough to never quite land like melody. If it's not clear, this is a lovely effect.
Amongst the pastoral birdcalls and wind rustling the leaves, the bass has retreated to a liminal throb, an ancient heartbeat its low tones giving a grounding to the natural sounds that move around our heads and open our eyes. We traverse the panorama slowly, with other elements introduced as we pass dreamlike carried on a bed of gossamer synth. The rush of water soothes as local bells toll gently.