...two epics-within-themselves .. a pair of expansive CD / digital-only outings from reliable combinations of creators and curators, from the scene that never sleeps.
album review
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Utterly compelling sonics that pearl potently, splash morbidly into the piano pins of “Disintegrate”, hinting echoes of the next album, grasping at a haunting sadness that would be later expanded upon, but for now slowly falling into the expressionist despair of silence. It might be forty years old, but it still remains a brooding masterpiece. Thank you Dais for bringing Camouflage Heart back into the world.
We have absolutely no idea what to expect as each new section starts, so it is best to just immerse yourself and trust to their natural flow. ... Once again, Uroboro set new standards on what we can expect from an improv gathering which feels more like a series of extended conversations between good friends
For the latest release for experimental jazz label Clonmell Jazz Social, guitarist Ted Morcaldi has convened a trio to flesh out his dreamlike concoctions. With some percussion from Joshua Blackmore and bass form Joel Humann, Ted spins twelve diverse pieces using the very different tones of electric, classical and twelve-string guitars plus various synth sounds.
Acting as the latest ambassadorial outing from the Bedroom Suck community and following on from 2018’s enigmatic eponymous LP under the somewhat off-putting Cyanide Thornton moniker, Birding Out captivates as an idiosyncratic creative deposition from its own little corner of the world.
It's A Love Song is the first Massaker release of new material since 1993's Koksofen and it is quite the cumbersome journey. Spread over three tracks and thirty-four minutes, the LP consists of an abstract intro of muted bells, dropped instruments and loaded silence; and then two live versions of recent composition, the titular "It's A Love Song".
Entering a realm where the laws of latter-day rock and pop physics don’t really apply, this second self-billed long-player for the label -- from the artist formerly known as Ziggy Heroe -- trades in the suave and sophisticated side-alleys that largely became forgotten about since The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and their peers rewrote the rules of engagement in the latter-half of the 1960s
A triangulation of talent, the '70s library album cover art repetitively alludes to a collaboration between three members of Bristol’s No-Wave wrecking ball, Repo Man (Liam McConaghy - guitar / Anthony Brown - bass / Bojak - sax, violin, vocals) collectively labelled Repo; and two members of Exeter’s free jazz trio Capri-Batterie (Matt (K) Lord on tenor sax and bass and Kordian Tetkov on all things percussive and squeaky), an extra contingent that swerves tastily in there, temples the tension with extra perspective.
Two recent albums involving Swedish pianist Mathias Landæus give good indications of the standard of his piano playing and ability to interact with other players. Both albums are by trios, with the first, Mathias with Nina de Heney on bass and Kresten Osgood on drums, giving us Dissolving Patterns; while the Landæus Trio, which features Johnny Åman on bass and Cornelia Nilsson at the drumkit, present Resilience.
Once more on to the fertile fields of the DIY electronica scene we go, cutting a path to search for the most interesting of musical crops that grow and regenerate at exponential rates…
God Unknown Although of Australian extraction, Daren Smallman is currently based in the UK, involved with God Unknown Records and recording as synth psych legend Dez Dare. In love with vintage synths and combining glam, post-punk and psychedelia, he’s eager to squeeze all that into a three-minute pop song and thus arrives Cheryl! Your Love Shines Down Like A Supernova’s Death, his latest missive. With all instruments and singing […]
Segmenting its sequencing between six quite lengthy instrumentals and three song-based collaborations, Swallow unapologetically and assuredly bridges the gap between Ride’s formative basilica-ceiling scraping epics and the post-rock world the group part-inspired through the interregnum years.
Vocalists Malin Alander, Silje Risdal Liahagen and Synnøve Brøndbo Plassen are all acclaimed solo artists on the Norwegian music scene. Together as Hekate they breathe new life in to the folk dance form slåttetralling, which involves three-part unison singing with a touch of basic percussion ...
Hedvig Mollestad on guitar, with Ellen Brekken on bass and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad on drums are a power trio in the old sense of the term with the riffs on opener "See See Bop" truly heavy and distorted. They ply a slow, boogie rhythm with an epic '70s production that brings to mind ZZ Top with that kind of Southern-fried sound, but blown through with noise.
Having delivered two top-drawer albums already this year from this side of the Atlantic – in the form of recorded outings provided by The Gentle Spring and Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires (see Freq reviews passim) – the indie-pop renaissance operations of Skep Wax now enter a creditable new co-release arrangement with the US-based Slumberland Records for two like-minded East Coast ensembles.
Finnish pianist Antti Lähdesmäki plays in a number of different groups. but for We Tend To Help Each Other Out Here, it is just him and his piano. Over thirteen diverse pieces, he allows his personality and the foibles of the instrument to insinuate their way into our consciousness.
Brussels-based composer Valerie Leclercq has been recording as Half Asleep for the best part of twenty years. Although essentially Valerie's brainchild, there is assistance from like-minded friends who allow her unique vision to be brought to fruition.
Having hooked-up as a low-key instrumental explorer super-duo of sorts in recent years — under the moniker of Whin – the Glasgow-based Martin John Henry (De Rosa, Jewel Scheme, Henry and Fleetwood) and Robert Dallas Gray (Life Without Buildings, Even Sisters) unpack themselves again for near-simultaneously dispensed solo albums via Gargleblast and through self-released arrangements respectively. Whilst both releases feature varying degrees of supportive intermingling from the pair, they plough determinedly divergent furrows.