The full band gets a side, and then each member gets a side, lonely style on this double LP. Considering the plain black sleeve, anonymity seems to be an intrinsic principle. For the sake of functionality, I’ll assume the order of artists listed on the accompanying sticker is also the order of which they appear on the sides: Wolf Eyes, Failing Lights (Mike Connelly), Spykes (John Olsen), and Nate Young (errr, Nate Young).
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11076 Hits
Making Buddha Machines instantly redundant, this 30-second endless cassette loop by Demons creates a space that the listener gets to color in for themselves. Nate Young (Wolf Eyes) and Steve Kenney make the repetition of this brief loop more involving and entertaining than most drone/noise acts full-length releases.
10869 Hits
Music that was made to illustrate a slide lecture on Hans Henny Jahnn's novel The Night of Lead, a tale of alienation and sado-masochism which was greeted with revulsion and largely forgotten. This is the first release under his own name by Hanno Leichtmann, though fans of his work with Static and Pole can listen without too much trepidation.
6852 Hits
Last year's Sleep England, Michael Cashmore's first solo album under his own name, eschewed the verdant soundworlds of Cashmore's previous work as Nature and Organisation in favor of austere, minimal simplicity. This new EP is somewhat of a return to form, featuring lush arrangements and guest vocals by Antony, singing lyrics written by David Tibet.
15109 Hits
The second album from Oneida's Bobby Matador and Erica Fletcher percolates the brain with its rich variety of effects and treatments. The songs themselves are pared down pop nuggets without a whole lot of structural variation. Even though there aren't a lot of different styles on display here, the palette of sounds used on this recording often surpasses that limitation.
6628 Hits
The group's name suggests that the music is going to be like licking white hot, blistering, celestial comet trails as I soar through the universe in a multicolored ball of pure musical ecstasy. Unfortunately I am always disappointed by the "free" folk that greets me when I press play. On their second self-titled album, things have not improved much. There is nothing here to make me change my stance on the music; I still find them entirely impenetrable.
7013 Hits
Split equally between instrumental and vocal tracks, these six songs wander through a few different neighborhoods, each providing a colorful and distinct snapshot of Mayo Thompson's latest ruminations.
8411 Hits
There's a paucity of solo horn discs out there that aren't severely punishing on the head. The focus on a single instrument (even one as versatile and open to exploitation as the sax) over 54 minutes in the majority of hands turns into a form of auditory abuse.
10140 Hits
A self-released compilation featuring lots of unreleased, rare, and reworked music, this is a must for even casual Foetus fans. I nearly dismissed this as another remix album but it is far from that (there is only one remix and it is not bad). It may be an odds-and-ends collection but it is impossible to tell while listening. This is one of the best things J.G. Thirlwell has ever put his name to.
11986 Hits
The vibrations these two anonymous musicians produce are deep enough to cause strong sexual arousal, as alien as the technology of a visiting spacecraft, and heavy like the boot of an enemy on your throat. Special Powers is littered with a spectrum of styles, the moods shifting from cold and technological to dirty and carnal fluidly. The beats pound like war drums at times and at others they come to form simple, minimal grooves that pulse and groan with all the twitching, robotic life of a science-fiction novel.
9196 Hits
Lullabye Arkestra sunk their talons into me pretty quickly. The album starts with slow, mournful strings and horns that build into a dramatic climax in which the floor suddenly drops out, replaced by the band in full-on assault mode. Before the song even finished, I had to go back and listen to that amazing opening again.
6112 Hits
This blacker than black collaboration between Stephen O’Malley and Peter Rehberg is a great piece of mood music. KTL is more subdued than the main output from both of these artists, yet together they instil a palpable sense of tension into the music to give it a captivatingly creepy result.
9096 Hits
At its best, Hot Chip’s second album has a handful of decent singles. At its most uninspired, though, it’s bogged down by a lack of imaginative beats and a reliance on fashion over depth.
8977 Hits
Alex Cobb's Taiga Remains project has always catapulted aural sparks into the foreground, but this 3" CDR pretty much destroys all competition. Burning huge sunspot holes into the hear-and-now this packs more heat than Schwarzenegger used to before he went political/uber-fascistic, and without the aggression.
9623 Hits
The One Ensemble of Daniel Padden released two fantastic records before Live at VPRO Radio upped the ante immeasurably. The comical and the sublime tendencies of Padden's previous work were married effortlessly in those recordings. Wayward the Fourth is a continuation of the musical environment showcased in those songs: a small step forward from a nearly perfect performance and a chance to hear more songs in that style.
11414 Hits
Pulled from the nowhereland of the out-of-print CDR graveyard, this 10" re-release of Burning Star Core's 2003 Amelia EP is probably the only decent chance that we the latecomers will get to grab these three tracks. This, the first of six vinyl BxC releases in 2007 from the No-Fi label, will hopefully help to shine a little more much overdue light on Spencer C. Yeh's project. Music this good shouldn’t be left to fall prey to disc rot.
9837 Hits
Ocean's demos are not earth-shattering examples of metal but they are genuinely great shards of doom. The two songs here should have been included (even as a bonus disc) with the debut album, Here Where Nothing Grows. While it's great they're now available, this limited vinyl-only pressing means that they will not get the deserved coverage.
7575 Hits
More analogous to the filthy, funky Ed Banger and Gigolo labels than meathead pop-trance jingles, this album certainly wont revolutionize electronic music, though it will compel clubgoers worldwide to shake their asses and rock to the beat. It's abundantly clear that DJ Splank, also known as John Starlight, can't run fast enough away from his past.
9740 Hits
The ridiculously prolific singjay's fourth (by my count) full-length CD in the last twelve months doesn't match his higher profile releases for VP and Tads nor does it contain any of his charting singles.
9548 Hits
Listening to this latest Joe+N release it seems like he's nonchalantly clawing himself one step closer to creating a definitive slice of starveling musicality. The production sound and improvised song structures on this CDR have all the hallmarks of effortless one-takes that couldn't be faked without a bank of bespectacled major label engineers.
10444 Hits
