While it almost seems more of an experiment than a true composition at times, this 140 minute work shows the clown prince of minimalist drone working on live improvisations using a unique instrument, a double piano. And while sounding purely experimental at times, the work transcends the academics and is just as enjoyable to listen to as a work of art as it is a study of an instrument. |
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While it almost seems more of an experiment than a true composition at times, this 140 minute work shows the clown prince of minimalist drone working on live improvisations using a unique instrument, a double piano. And while sounding purely experimental at times, the work transcends the academics and is just as enjoyable to listen to as a work of art as it is a study of an instrument.
7575 Hits
It comes as no surprise at all that this collaboration between Sunn O))) and Goatsnake's Greg Anderson and Gentry Densley from Iceburn is black and metallic. I think anyone would be completely floored if it were to be too insane of a departure from either artist's day jobs, and the influence of their main projects definitely shows through. But, aided and abetted by a slew of collaborators, Ascend has a style and character all its own, even with the obvious lineage from the participants, it is a very interesting work that stands on its own.
12688 Hits
Our new, semi-regular feature of notable new dance singles continues with reviews of The Juan Maclean, Audion, Kelley Polar, Low Motion Disco, Goldfrapp and Ricardo Villalobos.
36570 Hits
Another V/VM alter-ego uses analog and digital sources to create vivid impressions of a specific landscape of Northern England. The mood is akin to a wet cold late-winter trek across the harshly beautiful terrain and the rare prettier music captures precious moments when the sun breaks through.
13663 Hits
Scan the obsessive posts on the handful of dedicated roots reggae forums online and the name Bunny "Striker" Lee will inevitable crop up—and rightly so. Focusing solely on his productions between 1973 and 1979, this compilation may not be even remotely exhaustive, but it provides a worthwhile if slightly forgettable gateway into the influential producer's sizeable body of work.
9760 Hits
Afrobeat has always been too far eclectic for simple classification, destined to confound those who prefer their music neatly categorized into genre buckets. That special quality makes this compilation of previously vinyl-only remixes and reinterpretations of recent material from the renowned percussionist all the more fitting.
9813 Hits
It is difficult to judge a soundtrack when listening to it in isolation from the movie it is meant to accompany. This album, roughly half and half the work of Jason Pierce (under his J. Spaceman pseudonym) and the Sun City Girls, is enjoyable by its own merits but unfortunately has moments where the music sounds incomplete, the necessary images absent.
13125 Hits
The result of what could only be described as serendipity, an ad-hoc trio of current/former Boston luminaries Vic Rawlings and Michael Bullock joined up with Lebanese trumpet player Mazen Kerbaj on a short tour after a single gig together, two sets of which are presented on this disc. Although recorded only five days apart, the two shows are actually quite different in character and feel, but both show improvisation at its best.
7009 Hits
Run DMC once said that a DJ could be a band, or at least that's how Chuck D paraphrased them. Dissecting that statement, it is perfectly logical to assume that a slab of vinyl could be an instrument, and this new disc from Philip Jeck proves that. Working live with record players, junk shop records, old Casio SK keyboards and recorders, Jeck has made a warm, nostalgic album that both personal and inviting.
12447 Hits
While Z'EV has been performing since the 1970s, this emerged back in 1981 on Backlash Records as his first studio album. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its release, German-based label Die Stadt has reissued it as a limited CD, housed in the original LP-sized packaging along with a hand-made insert.
9802 Hits
Reissued with bonus tracks and detailed sleeve notes, this album highlights the period where Bryars moves from his previous style involving the synthesis of non-musical sources, loops and an almost standard (but beautiful) orchestral arrangement. Here he composes for small ensembles and includes piano and vibraphone almost anywhere he can. This is a very different Bryars to the one I am familiar with, very different but still utterly captivating.
10758 Hits
Back in 1988 the intention was to sequence these mainly instrumental tracks for release amidst the mostly vocal pieces from the same session. Had that happened, then Sun City Girls' best known release Torch of the Mystics would have been the rarest of beasts: a consistently excellent double album.
12654 Hits
With each new release, Anthony Mangicapra’s Hoor-Paar-Kraat becomes more distinctive and adventurous. I have enjoyed previous releases, some feeling more finished than others, but In Eros Veritas is probably the stand-out of the lot. Here many of the elements and approaches that work particularly well in other pieces come together like lesser metals mixed to form an alloy, creating a far stronger album.
11264 Hits
With a title like this, it would take some level of ineptitude not to guess what this album sounds like. The only fear from such a title is that it will either be campy hipster metal or that it cannot possibly be awesome enough to live up to such a lofty title. Previous releases from Lair of the Minotaur rule out the former worry instantly, and only seconds of listening prove the latter completely unfounded.
8207 Hits
Matthew Bower's reappearance as Skullflower a couple years back has already yielded a slew of releases that, while retaining his love of all things noisy and guitar based, has shown frequent stylistic shifts. This, the first installment of Utech's "URSK" series (after concluding the excellent "Arc" series ) is nearly an hour of full on feedback and guitar shriek that, for all its harshness is immensely listenable and demands to be listened to VERY loudly.
12802 Hits
On this four track, half hour-ish EP, Kieran Hebden has created something that is for all intents and purposes, techno. We in the field of music criticism hate such simplistic descriptions, and especially one such as that with some unintentionally pejorative connotations, but this is something that could easily get asses shaking at the disco or wherever the kids go to dance these days. But, for all its 4/4 thumping, it is also an amazingly complex piece of programming and composition that is just as well suited for deep, headphone-centric analysis.
11664 Hits
HNIA have the ability to weave music out of the wispiest of substances, with every note issuing from their music seeming veritably to shine with the brightest of lights. This four-track EP is no exception, with delicacy and sparkling coruscations tumbling deliciously and lazily from the speakers, and scattershot glints pinging off in all directions.
8446 Hits
This recording is something of a rarity: the sound artist Yoshi Wada, ex of New York but now living and working out of San Francisco, very rarely commits his works onto any kind of commercial platform. The Appointed Cloud is a recording of a live performance from way back in 1987, of an installation created in the Great Hall of the New York Hall of Science. It displays all the hallmarks of Wada's abiding interest in accidental tonalities through the use of drones, a home-made 80-pipe organ, bagpipes, a siren, and percussion of various species.
12594 Hits
Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt have abandoned their usual working methods for their new album. Gone are closely mic'd, digitally processed samples of non-musical objects, and along with them the heavily conceptual processes that have often made the liner notes of past Matmos albums as much fun as the music itself. In their place: synthesizers, synthesizers and more synthesizers.
9409 Hits
This delightful vinyl single celebrates the occasion of the inauguration of The Embassy of The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland in Mexico City on 30 August, 2002. It is a perfect demonstration that few things are more serious than well-spun yarns and few things unravel as amusingly as seriousness.
12446 Hits
