For the love of music
Although instrumental music is so intrinsic to our daily life, whether it’s deadly lift muzak or the enthralling score to an on-screen drama, it’s still considered somewhat of an oddity for your average music fan to stock up on releases with a wordless voice-free remit. Which is a shame, as good instrumental music can often be a life-line for … [Read more...]
With the influence of Can seemingly reaching its highest watermark right now, it’s somewhat inevitable that a long-awaited trawl of the band’s archives has finally come to fruition. Although a reissue campaign in the early-to-mid-2000s for Can’s official album catalogue put the group’s legacy into good working order with strong yet … [Read more...]
Having been on a shamefully belated personal Can back catalogue trawl over the last year, it’s clearly apparent that not one album can truly represent and illustrate what made the band so special and so important. Even the over-polished and disjointed albums from the band’s twilight years are at least, in parts, crucial in explaining their … [Read more...]
It’s hard to think of many musicians with a 40+ year career sustaining inspirational creativity whilst retaining much of their original modus operandi, but Hans-Joachim Roedelius is certainly one of those gifted few. A genuine grandee amongst Germany’s pioneering and close-knit experimental musical community since the late-‘60s, the … [Read more...]
With its sheer volume of releases and increasingly vinyl-centric tilt, it’s arguable that the current workings of Chicago’s pioneering Thrill Jockey label are straining fans’ finances as well as running the risk of over-supply and quality-control lapses. No such concerns can, however, be raised when a less-prolific elder statesman on the … [Read more...]
Although retrospective eyes regularly fall upon Kraftwerk for the group’s profound impact upon the music world as we now know it, we should not neglect re-examining the actual recorded body of work produced by the Düsseldorf pioneers. Sure, we can forever play a spot-the-Kraftwerk-influence game when analysing the good, bad and plain ugly of … [Read more...]
Despite nearly two decades of activity, Chicago's Tortoise continue to sustain an awkward yet alluring sense of mystery. Consequently, for many it has become all too easy to define Tortoise by well-merged collective influences (Miles Davis, Can, Kraftwerk, Neu!, John Fahey, Ennio Morricone, Gang Of Four, Augustus Pablo, Brian Eno, Tom Verlaine, … [Read more...]