Discus The latest release from pastoral improv troupe Orfeo 5 is tinged with a certain melancholy due to the passing of vocalist Ali Rigg. Main man Keith Jafrate, having chosen to review some pieces with which Ali had been involved back in 2007/2008, contacted Shaun Blezard and the sad circumstances came to light. These five older pieces were to be part of the collection of current work and […]
Album review
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Rednetic This latest release by FMS-80 on the ever-intriguing Rednetic label spins through series of dizzying, pastoral soundscapes bobbing on a sea of loops that scatter like sunlight on turbulent waves. A riot of bells on opener “Beidaihe Loop” holds incredible vibrancy, the mantra-like simplicity of the rippling loops moving through “Esplanade View” like a static vista of a fresh day, that panorama across a sunlit harbour in […]
Trace It is always a pleasure to learn of new Rothko material and this return is even more welcome considering it has been over two years since the Refuge For Abandoned Souls album. This first post-lockdown release thankfully contains none of the confusion and despair that has dogged some performers in this liminal period and it feels, as ever, as if Mark Beazley is operating outside the usual […]
Upset The Rhythm Japan’s Nicfit have been together since 2009, but this is their first full-length release besides a cassette comp of obscure singles. Upset The Rhythm have picked it up and it suits their oeuvre well with its cool, distant female vocals, post-punk, bass-heavy vibe and scrawling hypnotic guitar work. Whether they have taken their name from The Untouchables‘ one-minute punk flamethrower or from the better-known Sonic […]
Karlrecords Of course we’re all knee deep in re-issues of unheard electroacoustic works at this point in history, but Iannis Xenakis is something special-er than merely one of the bods who had a go at electronic means to produce music. A lot of composers went through periods of giving it a go and ultimately not finding their voice in it — while I’d personally say György Ligeti was […]
Spoonhunt Freewheeling improviser and collaborative double bass player Dominic Lash has an incredibly varied approach, not just to his instrument but to the way he structures the numerous outfits in which he plays. Recent releases on his own Spoonhunt label give a little indication as to his multifarious activities, and clearly to the warmth and keenness he engenders in his fellow players.
Erototox Decodings On the shirt tails of Zappi Diermaier’s recent solo project Monobeat Original comes this exciting take on faust. A primal purr that, I suspect, seeped into the series of rough mixes that Zappi, along with Schneider TM’s Dirk Dresselhaus and FaUSt’s Elke Drapatz produced, then sent out to the a host of Berlin-based collaborators to re-furnish.
Discus This is only James Mainwaring‘s second album under his own name which, considering the number of collaborations he has been part of, is kind of a surprise. To realise this suite of pieces that look with a despairing eye to humanity’s misuse of the planet as well as the myriad of microscopic miracles that are constantly occurring beneath our feet, he has assembled a sympathetic sextet that […]
ZamZam / Adaadat Hermetic mysticism, alchemy, and past-life regressions bend into this, with the recent birth of a new life further elevating the esoteric thematics. You could say this a labour of love, obsessively circling in tangled narrative and a brooding piano that empathically scaffolds. An instrumental centrifuge that percussively pearls your attention, ebbs the enigmatic itch of Mark Wagner’s words and their slipping meanings.
Thrill Jockey Unfamiliar Minds is Elena Setién‘s second album for Thrill Jockey and comes on the heels of a previous collaboration with Xabier Erkizia, which came out on Forbidden Colours. Xabier is also integral to this album, but it is Elena’s dreamlike and gossamer visions upon which the we are whisked away to the enchanted realm of her imagination.
(self-released) The buzzing Bristol duo of vibraphonist Harriet Riley and fiddler supreme Alex Garden tumble their inspired collaboration into its second Sonder volume, taking bassist Stevie Toddler along for the journey and pushing one another a little further into where their two musical palettes collide. The previous album‘s sunny disposition has been replaced by some tones of a darker hue, and the pace is lessened at times to allow […]
Thrill Jockey Listening to In Free Fall, Maya Shenfeld‘s album of slow-moving and stately processions, it feels a little like visiting a gallery full of huge, abstract artwork or watching somebody gently unfurl a series of enormous flags. Everything unfolds at a pace that gives opportunity to be totally immersed in the evolution of each piece.
Southern Lord (CD & US vinyl) / Pomperipossa (vinyl in Europe) Recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival back in 2018, this is a powerful testament to the Anna von Hausswolff live experience. She eases you in gently with the lilting latitudes of “The Truth, The Glow, The Fall’, a folksy saturation pinning you back, a black magic love awash with swelling orchestration, that voice resining the architecture – […]
Discus The latest eclectic release from Bo Meson finds him teaming up with other Discus luminaries to re-imagine the life and possible success of Dylan Thomas through words and soundscapes, using the opportunity to shine a light on what might have been in an alternate universe.
Southern Lord An improvised uprooting of their Pyroclast and Life Metal albums — or epic exorcism — suitably broadcast on Samhain of 2019, these three tracks catch SunnO))) at the end of their world tour, emotionally expanding the raw material, giving the BBC 6Music listeners a monumental feast.
Bedevil Fermenting for over six years, Scapa Foolscap began as a series of rough sketches initially inspired by the shipwreck-strewn waters of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, understated soundscapes that gave Pumajaw’s vocalist Pinkie Maclure plenty of space to explore as it slowly evolved into the duo’s eighth album.
Rednetic Regular Rednetic recording artist Zainetica is back with another album-length dose of his progressive synth-based hymns to modernity; the subtle, scuffling beats and the warm sense of movement evincing a sweetness and sleekness that leaves contemporaries trailing in his sky blue wake. There is the feeling of a whole new language, a revision of electronic beat-driven music with the dust and grime of our current existence swept […]
It’s often said that in hindsight some of the greatest inventions were so bleedin’ obvious that it was a wonder that no-one had ever thought of them before. In many ways that same logic applies here; given the dub chromosomes that, from the very offset, were nestled within The Pop Group’s DNA, it’s a forehead-slapping revelation that dub remixes of them, particularly this album, weren’t attempted years ago.