Elli Because who doesn’t want to have a record that’s recorded largely with scraping chairs on a floor? No-one, that’s who.
Album review
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Discus Article XI was originally convened by Discus regular Anton Hunter of Beck Hunters, amongst others, for a Manchester Jazz Festival commission in 2014. Drawing friends to investigate the possibilities of large ensemble improvisation, they recorded a live set in 2014 which was released in 2018. Following the interest in this disc, they have now released a further live set, record in Newcastle in 2017.
Potomak It’s been twelve years since the last, proper, Einstürzende Neubauten album, whatever that means. They’ve been detached from the music industry for a while now, pioneering some kind of multiple fan feedback mechanism, which I guess predated crowd-sourcing and kept them away from the supposed struggles associated with label imperatives and the pressure to relate (to the public, to their fans, to themselves).
Upset The Rhythm (UK) / Antifade (Australia) It is great to see that Upset The Rhythm have squeezed another album out of Australian fun-lovers Primo! With their feel good blend of simple C86 / Sarah Records-inspired tunes and low-key but charming vocalising, they are a perfect antidote to the doom and gloom surrounding the current world situation.
Nonclassical With Pink Nothing, electronic musician and hardware constructor Tom Richards has pursued ideas on Daphne Oram‘s Oramics synthesizer and re-imagined it for a modern world, constructing his own and using it for these four lengthy and meditative, if somewhat unsettling, minimalist masterpieces.
Tapete The Monochrome Set were a unique band in the first throes of the post-punk scene. They took the energy of punk’s initial rush and used it for their own effervescent purposes.
Silver Rocket / Lokal Rekorc E, the collaborative project between Thalia Zedek, Gavin McCarthy and Jason Sanford, is perhaps the purest form of musical collaboration, with each member bringing equal input to their intriguing and fiery — but at times slightly sinister — brand of melodic, post hardcore guitar music. All three have done their time in the indie rock scene, with Thalia in Come and Live Skull, […]
Rune Grammofon Trondheim trio I Like To Sleep have found a fantastic sound, combining a questing, bass-heavy rhythm section of real earthmoving power with the shimmering dream of a vibraphone. It is an extraordinary discovery that brings to mind some of Tortoise‘s experiments, but with much more muscle and even more experimentation.
Eyeless Well, well, well. Look what these cats dragged in. There’s a witticism of Simon Munnery‘s that’s springs to mindd with this record: “Shakespeare says, ‘brevity is the soul of wit’. I say ‘Bum’. Thus, I win”. In Threads‘ schtick, such as it is, lies in vignettes of skittery improvisation, offering .
Discus Once again, Discus give us a musical body swerve with the latest release from improv monster The Geordie Approach. Shields, their first album in eight years, is made up of two monolithic slabs of rumbling noise that evoke fooling around in an abandoned railway yard.
Odin The latest album from Norwegian drum powerhouse Gard Nilssen involves sixteen players, so it is not for nothing that the band is called the Supersonic Orchestra. If You Listen Carefully The Music Is Yours is a veritable feast for lovers of the Scandinavian jazz scene; but perhaps best of all, there are three drummers and three bass players, so although it mines elements of jazz, there is […]
Hubro The Christian Wallumrød Ensemble has been trading through various line-ups for the best part of twenty years. After five albums with ECM, they arrived with Hubro and this is album number two for them after 2016’s Kurzsum And Fulger.
Spurge Right now, as we all try to re-orient ourselves to the frozen stills, underwater-slow latency and constant glitches of online communication, it’s a bloody blessing to have the self-titled Slum Of Legs album to hand. Not just because the gleeful instrumentation, heart-felt punk pop and reckless abandon will give you something to bop around your kitchen to, but because the mission behind it is a reminder that […]
Bureau B The shiver shiva of close-mic(ed) debris greets you on “Empfang”, an inky shoal of suggestiveness mauled in mysterious mantras as the flare of a sleeping beast’s nostrils dusts the air in drowsy electronica at the opening of Die Wilde Jagd‘s Haut LP.
Happy Robots Happy Robots is perhaps the perfect label name for the latest release from Roman Angelos. Spacetronic Lunchbox is a vehicle for NY-based composer Rich Bennett to go all library music wibbly on us, and I defy anybody to come out the other side of this eleven tracks in eleven minutes (yes, you read that right) extravaganza without a great big smile on their face.
Freaksville For the follow up to 2018’s compilation of instrumental tracks Quand La Nuit Tombe Sur l’Orchestre, Benjamin Schoos has divested himself of the ’70s theme tune rollneck and opened his shirt buttons to embrace his inner yacht God.
Consouling Jarboe‘s Illusory LP is just lovely, those warm jettisons of voice on the title track caught in the flow of a simple undulating accompaniment, its glittering glide delicately delineated in vaporising distance, the soft shimmering edges finally tapering out on a faint organ drone.
Upset The Rhythm Once again, Upset the Rhythm brings a report right from the coalface of the UK underground music scene. This time, the trio in question, Handle, extract a twisted and angular take on the bass, drums and vocal lineup with something that could be a guitar at times, could be a keyboard, but causes conniptions whatever it is.