After a mediocre attempt at recording latin versions of rock standards and an appalling attempt at latin standards, Uwe Schmidt revisits the music he clearly knows best: electro pop. This tribute to Yellow Magic Orchestra has the energy and excitement as his Kraftwerk covers despite the overused latin samples and pointless interludes and transitional pieces.
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12337 Hits
Although I don't listen to dark-ambient-spooky-droney music as much as I used to, occasionally I'll listen to an album here or there that rubs all my buttons (hooray for impromptu mixed metaphors) and reminds me why this genre can be such a compelling one.
9413 Hits
With Baird’s deep, commanding voice, Lullaby for Strangers is more likely to induce troubled sleep than peaceful rest. In fact, her hypnotic singing could very well induce trances, if not somnambulance.
9484 Hits
Auto Da Fe use a number of exotic instruments with pleasant, albeit mostly straightforward results. The singing, however, immediately reminded me of class field trips to the Renaissance Fair, an association I unfortunately couldn’t shake throughout the course of the album.
7667 Hits
Taking a side step from his series of numbered Astral Social Club volumes, Neil Campbell drops a quick two track smack round the head. Recorded live in April 2006, this may be titled after a bolt from the heavens but it’s much less rapturous than his usual material. This is a simpler, sweatier, and less delicately formed ASC release that shows him in a heads down noisier drive.
6150 Hits
The Matinée Orchestra’s debut album is a treat. It is folky and psychedelic but not like the current batch of artists like Devendra Banhart et al. Instead The Matinee Orchestra combines a mixture of traditional folk styles with modern technology and atypical instruments. The result is a wonderful collection of music with only a very occasional lapse in quality.
6200 Hits
Field recording isn’t just pointing a microphone at your scene of choice and hitting record. There is a skill in capturing the atmosphere and life of the moment and allowing a listener to recreate the scene in their mind in vivid Technicolor. All of the artists featured on Recorded in the Field by… have this skill in spades.
11865 Hits
As the title suggests, this album contains two improvised pieces. Each one was recorded live and shows Gaping Maw in great form. The mix is at times unbalanced due to the nature of the recordings but overall this is a fantastic document of two formidable performances.
6628 Hits
No further proof of noise's validity needs to be made; there are plenty of people in the world messing around in their basements and making annoying sounds that their parents, neighbors, and roommates hate them for. Recorded at the Kongsberg Jazzfestival in 2005, Hana had the chance to annoy a whole crowd of people at once and likely succeeded.
9103 Hits
Also on Utech, but of more interest than Anders Hana's release, is the multi-instrumental, sound generating outfit Silo. Cello, trumpet, and "traditional Maori instruments" in hand, this group does more than just pump out disjunctive noise; their soundscapes are intriguing and dark, like a stranger episode of X-Files sewn into a blanket and thrown over my head.
5945 Hits
For their second album on Secret Eye, this Finnish group salvages gear from some electronic junkyard to make these gurgling basement recordings. Perhaps not, but that’s what the fidelity of this album suggests. It’s not such a bad thing, however, because the recording quality brings a murky depth to the album resulting in an underwater feeling, caressing the music and allowing it so swim.
7426 Hits
From the Tindersticks front man’s forthcoming album come two songs which are more like his band than the collection of songs he showcased previously. Both are that kind of epic melancholy orchestral swing that Tindersticks do so well.
12321 Hits
A founding member of the late Argentinian trio Reynols, Courtis is no stranger to extreme media. Past works like symphonies for blank tapes, chickens, quartets for whistling kettles, and one piece called Reynols Plays The Eiffel Tower make a record of no-input feedback sound rather tame. And it is, in the best way.
9441 Hits
This is an Ache label release of spirited electronic experimentation by eleven different artists, all reworking a sample of sound originally created using only a bicycle. Track #12 is that source material, which you are free to use to create your own piece. While some contributors emphasise rhythm, others favor smoother propulsion. Everyone avoids the temptation to hit-and-run with unnecessary power or weight, in favor of a lighter touch well-suited to this magnificent subject.
6276 Hits
Consider this a continuation or addendum or something for my last review of Nice Nice. After I covered the Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter EPs I got some into some pleasant debates which resulted in my receiving of their EP Yesss! on Audraglint.
18212 Hits
The third part of Nurse With Wound’s Echo Poeme Sequence was delayed heavily thanks to problems with pressing the 7" single. I can't say it was entirely worth the wait as both the audio content and quality of the pressing are not up to scratch.
11673 Hits
This New Zealand group goes underground to summon some nefarious entity to the earthly plane, torment it a little bit for fun, and then banish it back to the void from which it came. None of that is true, of course, but it’s the sort of vivid imagery this strange, dense recording produces.
6533 Hits
The recordings made by This Heat during the band's brief existence (1976-1982) are marked by a startling originality, a flame burning so intensely that it used up all the oxygen in the room and quickly extinguished itself. The trio of Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward, and Gareth Williams made music that was urgent and political and yet esoteric and subterranean; by turns bright and buoyant, then dark, nebulous and scratchy. The music borrowed freely from krautrock, musique concrête, dub, punk and industrial, but never sounded like anything other than This Heat.
18325 Hits
There is a big difference between a musician and a gearhead, and when the music becomes more about the technological process than the product, its creators sadly become the most entertained audience.
10285 Hits
While there are no obvious peak hour dancefloor decimators to be found here, this apparent Random Trio member's solo debut on Tectonic makes a fine addition to any dubstep DJ's arsenal.
9280 Hits
