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?
Mr Olivetti
759 posts
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 over the slightly kitsch shop.
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 latest album. The band have expanded to a five-piece since 2013’s Threace, but who plays what is a […]
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 it on CD
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 2016’s Epicycle, in which she re-configured classical pieces plus some of a more esoteric nature into her own […]
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.
Nicey Music Once again, that pseudonym of modern psychedelia and bedroom recording, Robert Sotelo is on the loose, this time firing out a missive courtesy of the good people at Nicey Music. This current cassette only release finds our enigmatic songwriter testing himself by writing solely on electronic keyboards
Modularfield Modularfield‘s continued campaign to highlight low-key experimental electronic music from around Europe has settled on Cologne, and particularly the latest album from Marco Petracca AKA HHNOI.
Tapete Annoyingly, when I received the CD of the latest Unhappybirthday release, the first thing that happened was for The Smiths‘ track of the same name to try and lodge itself in my brain. Thankfully, as soon as I pressed play, any thoughts of that rather lame song were sent running and were subsumed by a wash of gentle, hazy pop beauty.
Lumberton Trading Company The very healthy collaboration between noise artiste extraordinaire Philippe Petit and the gravelled voice wonder of Eugene Robinson is on its third instalment, and here the action — if you want to call it that — takes place in some god-forbidden forest way up in hills. The only way that you could possibly find yourself in these hills is to be completely lost and at […]
Disco Gecko Andrew Heath has been releasing low-key ambient works for the last seven or eight years, first coming to prominence collaborating with Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Although Roedelius is a good indication of what you may expect from Andrew’s work, I would say that it is even lower key, making a lot of use of found sounds and field recordings
Upset The Rhythm Upset The Rhythm have scored another hit with the latest from Sauna Youth, who tear through the rule book, spraying twelve tracks in our ears in less than half an hour and then heading for the pub, leaving us reeling. God knows where they have been for the last three years
Kranky Grouper is an irresistible force, but one that seems to become lighter and less substantial with each release. By that, I mean it is so ethereal in the true sense of the word that I am amazed it was even possible to catch it on tape.
Thrill Jockey Thalia Zedek has spent a long time in the independent music trenches, becoming particularly well known for periods in Live Skull in the 1980s and Come in the ’90s, plying a ferocious strain of guitar-orientated indie-rock. For the last ten years however, Thalia has fronted her own band and over five albums, including this latest, has allowed life and the influences of complementary band members to […]
Fourth Dimension / Foolproof Projects Andy Pyne and Lisa Jayne, who make up the duo of Map 71, have been highlighting their hinterland that exists somewhere between myth and dreamstate since 2014. Perfectly described by Lisa’s book of words, Mutant Dreams, they inhabit and document that precious point between waking and sleeping where things appear normal, but have a touch of the surreal in the tiny details.
Sub Pop There is often a sense of familiarity with Low albums. To a certain extent there exists a feeling that we have come to know what to expect when a new album drops. With Low’s twelfth full-length release, however, they have probably done the most that they can or have ever tried to do to cover the trail that the last twenty-five years has left.
Drag City It has been about eighteen months since David Pajo‘s return with Highway Songs, but what a transformation that period of time has wrought. As entertaining as that cut and paste of ideas and snippets was it, lacked cohesion and was clearly the sound of a man in flux; unsure of his place in the world or the direction in which his music should be going. In […]