Zonedog For Under Triple Suns, Jan Gleichmar‘s Disrupt finds itself abandoned far from home, heading through the upper atmosphere, stretching and randomly steering through the sparsely lit sky amidst the rumble and flash of multitudes of unseen objects. The sound of freefalling against the background drone that opens the album contains a sense of helplessness. A voice appears telling us that “you have suffered minor head trauma” and […]
Mr Olivetti
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Discus Jan Todd‘s third outing as Frostlake finds her appearance as part of The Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere lending a warmer and more open feel to this double-length collection when compared to the icier, more dramatic Ice And Bone from 2019. There is a lightness and an airiness to her voice this time around that brings to mind the first shoots of spring bringing to an end the […]
Honest House I really miss the heyday of the kind of muscular, sinuous post-rock that was plied by the lies of Shipping News and June Of 44. Thankfully for me, the twin bass guitar-led Delwood have stepped into the frame and their first outing is a real winner. The idea of two bass guitars has me thinking firstly of Rothko and then of Girls Against Boys, but Delwood […]
Crammed Discs The latest Aquaserge release is yet another unique addition to their intriguing canon of work. Expanding the band to a nine-piece here, they have drawn inspiration from four contemporary classical composers; but rather than retreading those steps, they have chosen to expand on the original ideas, tailoring them to suit their own sound in its inimitable glory and reflect something modern back to the mid-twentieth century.
One Little Independent The latest album from Scottish inventor and sound artist Lomond Campbell tips a hat to fellow tape loop enthusiasts William Basinski and Steve Reich, but goes one step further by actually engineering the machinery himself. It involves some complicated device which includes tape loops, a rotating magnetic disc and a couple of eccentric cams that ensure that every second of the soundscapes presented here is […]
Constellation Judging from the artwork of the latest Jerusalem In My Heart album and the fact that Qalaq is explained as feeling of deep worry, the state of play in the Middle East is a constant concern to Radwan Ghazi Moumneh. The renowned soundscaper and producer has managed to use this album as a representation of the tension that prevails in the region, yet also shows the beauty that […]
Discus Martin Archer is once again proving himself one of the hardest-working people in music with two very different collaborations in quick succession. It seems that every other release that comes from Discus involves his playing, but there is always an extraordinary diversity in styles and sounds. The latest albums here from avant-rock / prog jazz trio Das Rad and an improv duo with guitarist and old friend […]
One Little Independent With their second album, AVAWAVES, the duo of Aisling Brouwer and Anna Phoebe, found themselves stranded far from one another during the enforced partition of lockdown, but still with a burning desire to collaborate on new music. The synchronicity of their ideas and sounds is in no way affected by the isolation and if anything, there is a sense of longing that plays throughout Chrysalis […]
Crammed Discs Brussels in the early ’80s must have been a really cool place to be, with Marc Hollander starting up Crammed Discs just as Tuxedomoon arrive, spreading their stateside art rock sensibilities across the city. Lurking in a bar in the centre was Benjamin Lew, tinkering with an MS-10 and producing his own from found sounds and an experimental outlook. Meeting Tuxedomoon’s Steven Brown was a match […]
Rednetic The eleven tracks spread across the latest release from 4T Thieves apparently owe something to Boards Of Canada; but having never listened to that act, I can only say that the woozy soundscapes and lethargic trip hop beats captured here have a real effect on the listener, their odd textures and slipperiness bringing to mind the sort of lonely, sweeping, slow motion vistas of Bowery Electric.
Fallen Moon John Sellekaers‘ latest Feral Cities album is a series of drone-based soundscapes that fit well with the brooding but slightly abstracted cover image. There is a sense of solitude that runs through Arcs And Layers, but the sort of solitude that is bracing and life-affirming. The jittery opening to “White Heat” echoes around your head as the unstable bass looks for a way of settling down. […]
Thrill Jockey The bringing together of Montreal’s Big|Brave and Portland’s The Body has produced a gratifying collision culminating in a series of tales taking in slow, ancient folk and creeping, hypnotic post-metal in equal measure, laying them bare and then piling noise and heartache into the mix to provide an album that enthrals ever more with repeated listens. On Leaving None But Small Birds, this temporary seven-piece has […]
Intimate Inanimate After the languorous drift of the recent collaboration with Daniel Blomquist, Aria Rostami has turned up the tempo and returned with a series of glichy, dancefloor friendly, sub-techno grooves that are as easy to consume curled up on the sofa as in an early morning warehouse club scenario. What sets these tracks apart from the usual IDM type electronica is Aria’s willingness to back the beats […]
Erototox Decodings Thomas Dimuzio‘s love of the Buchla synhtesiser is well known and here, on the precursor to Sutro Transmissions, we find his initial forays into that universe, that limitless dimension that means every release is a new journey or a new series of travels into the unknown.
Freestyle Dan Berkson‘s journey through music has taken him a long way and through a lot of styles to wind up producing this classic jazz album. Forming a funk band, playing in Chicago and then moving to London producing deep house 12″s, he eventually re-connected with his first instrument, the piano, just as the vibrant London jazz scene was kicking off.
Buried Treasure Delaware Road supremo and all around electronic whiz Alan Gubby has been producing pieces under the pseudonym of Zyklus for the best part of forty years, which is an incredible feat, let alone all the other pseudonyms and collaborations. ‘ Stimulacra compiles twenty-three tracks from Zyklus’s oeuvre dating from 1983 to 2006, some of them perfect incidental snippets at under a minute and others looming far […]
(self-released) I was intrigued to learn of ambient jazz duo Nelson Patton‘s deep involvement with the genre defying artist / singer Lonnie Holley and there is some obvious bleed between his brand of impressionistic, dreamlike song-writing and the slightly woozy, eyes half-closed atmospheres of Universal Process, their latest album. Although only just released, the pieces were written and recorded a couple of years ago, pre-pandemic, so it carries […]
Yew As a child, I had an image of how the future was going to look and I have to confess that forty-odd years later, I am pretty disappointed. Everything seems to be smaller, more compact, less shiny and interesting and space is almost ignored. The sounds on Losing Circles that Thomas Dimuzio and partner in sound, Double Leopards‘ Marcia Bassett, conjure up are exactly how I imagined […]