London 5 December 2018 The good people at Upset The Rhythm have been trading for fifteen years now and the calibre of artists that they have to play seems to improve with every year. It feels as though they made their home at The Islington and tonight’s treats for the […]
Mr Olivetti
740 posts
Lo Recordings Lo Recordings have been going for over twenty years now. An often overlooked but important arbiter of modern electronic based music, they have chosen this moment to release a compilation of material that they see as exploring the connections, overlaps and roots of that oft over-used term ambient. […]
Beggars Arkive For me, one of the best things about Bauhaus was that they managed to cover so much groundover a relatively short career and for each album to be a rapid progression from the previous. After the dark dealings of In The Flat Field and the esoteric spirituality of Mask, […]
Adaadat Sound artist Joel Cahen initially designed this album to be listened to in a submerged state, ie in a body of still water like a swimming pool or large baths. Apparently, when sound travels through water it moves four times as quickly as through air and also affects our […]
Modularfield Another of Modularfield‘s lavishly packaged cassette-only releases and yet another welcome change of direction for the label. Ambient guitarist Lela Amparo has released six of the most deliciously sweet guitar-based instrumentals on this mini-album.
three:four Swiss musician Manuel Troller has tried to shy away from performing solo, generally acting as collaborator with a wide variety of more esoteric artists, including Julian Sartorius and Merz. Having been asked three years ago to support Marc Ribot at a jazz club in Bern, circumstances have found him more […]
Adaadat When I received this latest cassette from Adaadat, I was taken right back to my childhood and the story cassettes that used to come from Marshall Cavendish. You could buy them from the newsagents, and there would be a book and cassette combo that could keep an easily amused […]
Constellation Stepping out from the shadows of A Silver Mt Zion must be quite an undertaking, but Jessica Moss has chosen this opportunity to release her third album and see what she can offer under her own steam. The violin is her main instrument and, along with voice and drones, […]
Thrill Jockey Koen Holtkamp has been pretty busy over the last ten or twelve years, primarily with his label Apestaartje, but also releasing music under his own name, solos and collaboratively, as well as all the albums that the lovely Thrill Jockey-signed Mountains released.
Too Pure / Beggars Arkive When Stereolab arrived on the scene in the early nineties, plying their trade on limited, lovingly packaged, vinyl releases, they also brought with them a new aesthetic for those times.
Upset The Rhythm For Rattle‘s second album through the good people at Upset The Rhythm, they have chosen to use the long player as an opportunity to stretch their drum and vocal experiments over durations that allow the tracks to fully insinuate with their gradually unfurling structures. It is as […]
Bureau B For Qluster‘s seventh outing since the restart in 2007, the duo of HJ Roedelius and Onnen Bock has expanded to a trio with the addition of Armin Metz, and has taken what for them could be seen as a radical change in strategy. For Elemente, each of the eight […]
Compunctio The recent collaboration between vocalist Andreas Eklof and electronic artist David Ahlen has resulted in the 1921 album In My Veins, a thing of rare delicacy that inhabits a hushed, candle-lit space set-back from the rigours of the world.
Dio Drone / Cheap Satanism Imagine walking home alone through some deserted, industrial area. A distant drone makes you aware of some presence, but nothing tangible. You think you are alone — but really, are you?
Freaksville Since 2005, Benjamin Schoos and his label of esoteric pop-loving misfits, Freaksville, have been doing their best to keep the Belgian / French language pop scene awash with an alternative to the usual radio fodder. As a solo artiste, Benjamin has released six or seven albums which veer all […]
Thrill Jockey The dynamic trio Upper Wilds, who comprise members of Parts & Labor and Ex-models, amongst others, are using the thrill of intense guitar riffage to explore the outer limits of our recognisable universe and report back
Drag City Cave must have one of the most unsuitable names in rock history. Not having heard them before, I was expecting some sort of dark metal sort of act, full of foreboding — so I was more than happy to uncover the sunny, funk-inflected psychedelic mantras contained within this […]
Glacial Movements Patrick Bernatchez‘s film Lost In Time was originally produced a good seven or eight years ago and the soundtrack that Murcof produced for this double narrative take of life and death was originally released on vinyl back in 2014. The good people at Glacial Movements have chosen to re-issue […]
Figureeight Since Gyða Valtýsdóttir‘s exit from Icelandic collective Múm, she has spent her time back at the conservatoire, studying the cello and attaining qualifications both in the classical style and also in free improvisation. Since then, after journeying with artists as diverse as Damian Rice, the Kronos Quartet and Jonsi; and releasing […]
Transgredient Troum have been illuminating the drone landscape for over two decades now, so to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, they decided to issue a lush two-disc set where they invited friends, family and interested parties to tackle their favourite selections from the Troum catalogue.