Somewherecold Judging by the sleeve notes, the latest release from Alex Keevill‘s The Microdance has clearly had a difficult gestation, but the end result seems to have been well worth the sweat and tears. Over the course of fourteen tracks and more than an hour, we are taken on an […]
Mr Olivetti
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Rune Grammofon For Master Oogway‘s second album, they find themselves aptly on Rune Grammofon, home of many jazz outliers for whom pigeonholes are not to be regarded. The simmering tension that opens Earth And Other Worlds on “Heracleion” is a case in point; a gentle sax line indicates a slow […]
Resipiscent I can’t believe Thomas Dimuzio has been producing sound for over thirty years and is still finding ways of taking the listener on sonic journeys; they are not always comfortable, but are invigorating and filled with new modes of expression. Perhaps that is the beauty of modular synth work; […]
L’invitation Musicale Adrien Durand‘s Bon Voyage Organisation are covering all bases on their follow up to 2018’s Jungle, Quelle Jungle? From experimental soundscapes to rhythmic locomotion to dancefloor-tinged funky soul, there is something for everyone.
Crammed Discs The Aksask Maboul story is an interesting one. Formed on 1977 by Crammed Discs supremo Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis, they recorded two experimental and now hard-to-find LPs, covering all sorts of genres, before merging with the Belgian band Honeymoon Killers and releasing another couple of diverse albums […]
Courier The latest beautiful little Courier Sound package to drop is another based on an intriguing premise. Using the idea of William Burroughs‘s obsession with the number twenty-three, mysterious electronic artist Alien has concocted twenty-three pieces in twenty-three minutes.
Thrill Jockey The photograph of Jim White and Marisa Anderson in the studio that adorns the inside sleeve of The Quickening says a lot of what you need to know about this album. The pair face one another, playing in real time, but they are intent on their instruments.
Happy Robots The trio who comprise Mood Taeg are the musical arm of a wider artistic collective that includes video and graffiti artists, DJs, photographers and painters. Over the course of the thirty-odd minutes contained on their debut LP Exophora, you feel an obvious love for all things motorik and […]
Thrill Jockey As Ripley Johnson strips away colleagues and friends, going from the four-piece Wooden Shjips to the two-piece Moon Duo and finally to the solo Rose City Band, so the enjoyment factor seems to increase as if, in reality, this is what he would choose to do.
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 […]
Nonplace Burnt Friedman‘s Nonplace label certainly keeps him busy along with all his other engagements, but to celebrate their fiftieth release, he has paired two tracks of his collaboration with João Pais along with two of the tracks from his Jaki Liebezeit sessions which were recorded in 2015 on his […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]