The child is safely tucked up in bed and I'm sipping a glass of wine listening to the latest emissions from New Zealand native and Braille records founder David Watson who has previously recorded for Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label and the John Zorn affiliated Avant imprint.

 

Xi 

An international nine-piece ensemble that combines acoustic and electronic instruments and that brings in a variety of guest singers like J.G. Thirwell and Barry Adamson to help articulate their vision has the potential to add up to something spectacular. While there are some good moments, Our Moon Is Full was too dry and unfocused to hold my attention.

Central Control

Another month, another vinyl only release from Jesu. This time Justin Broadrick shares the LP with Matthew Cooper's Eluvium. The cheap postcard-style sleeve of the pyramids and the surrounding desert belies the organic and fertile sounds on the vinyl. It may not be Broadrick's best work under the Jesu moniker but along with Cooper's contribution, this is a worthy addition to both artists' growing catalogues.

 

Temporary Residence Limited / Hydra Head

There's a type of tranquility which is like a running stream—perpetually in motion and slowly (try thousands of years) changing the landscape—but then there's a still type like a vast lake where a drop that disturbs the surface ripples and resonates. 

 

Darla

The idea of an orchestral approach to the electronic and tape compositions of Iannis Xenakis may seem like an absurd endeavor, but it works, extremely well.

Full of top-shelf songs, this disc gets at the heart of what a culture-based compilation should be. It is eclectic enough to adequately represent a nation's worth of musicians and singers, but unified enough to present a cohesive listening experience.

This album more than lives up to its visceral title. It contains some of Bishop's most intense and downright ugly work to date as a solo artist, but also some his most sublime. Bishop willfully defies the traditionalist and academic conventions of solo-guitar work, offering both examples of controlled musicianship and malevolent noodling.

Larsen have always been at odds with most of their contemporaries, almost mythical stories about getting signed to Young God Records, a tribute album to Autechre that features no computers and no obvious references to the band or their music and all sorts of strange rumours abounding about the members of the group. However, the live album/DVD ABECEDA sees them cement their reputation as serious artists (minus any negativity that concept might carry with it). ABECEDA is a well-thought out concept delivered with care and finesse by Larsen and their friends. Musically it is as strong as any of their previous efforts and visually it stands out on its own.

Another reissue from the Les Disques du Crepuscule back catalog, The Fruit of the Original Sin is a two-disc compilation appropriately subtitled "A Collection of After Hours Preoccupations." While there isn't anything overt that these tracks have in common, many of them share a tinge of melancholy and beauty in equal measure, qualities that are especially noticeable late at night.

This slab of vinyl is perfectly on point in referencing metal twice in its title. Heather Leigh Murray's pedal steel, the cornerstone of Taurpis Tula's sound and energy drenches both of this album's sides in metallic offal. From rust to the molten spread of wet metal to the hiss of megalithic spear-tip in water, this is amongst their heaviest (and best recorded) work yet.