For the love of music
All India Radio – Red Shadow Landing Martin Kennedy, the creative, Australian maestro/spaceman behind long-running project All India Radio, touched down with Red Shadow Landing in October. Martin is joined by Mark Wendt on bass, Kaz Seiger on keyboards, and Michael Evans-Barker on drums and percussion. Like its predecessors, this album … [Read more...]
Ever wonder what happens when an intelligent post-rock/metal outfit runs out of creativity? They disband, that's what. ISIS realized it was time to stop and thankfully so. I think they realized it a bit late but "better late than never". Much to the dismay of their dorky young male cult following, the first related project release is not … [Read more...]
Not all ambient artists are treated with the reverence usually shown Tim Hecker, but then, his music is much more than just ambient in nature. It is difficult to ignore, not only because it feels so harrowing, but also because it's so physical when played at normal volume, full of tactile textures and warm, low-end rumble. When the recent news … [Read more...]
Ironwood’s first full length release “Storm Over Sea” shows plenty of potential. Unfortunately for the band, they may have overstepped their bounds in a genre that is a novelty at best. There is an overwhelming sense that this band can accomplish good things, but certain elements of their current sound should definitely be scrapped in favor … [Read more...]
Sarcasm isn't a quality often found in music that swells and drones, but The Fun Years find a place for it in their heady mix of treated guitar and oscillating filters. Straddling the genre line between ambient and noise, the duo of Ben Recht (baritone guitar) and Isaac Sparks (turntable) gives the merest suggestion of humor with its titles (God … [Read more...]
It isn’t often that you hear a record that sounds like you threw your speakers in a bathtub full of water. To his credit, How To Dress Well has more than pulled off this feat that. The new album, Love Remains, was made entirely by Tom Krell earlier this year. This record isn’t easy to digest and I wouldn’t do it justice without backing up … [Read more...]
Structural concerns aside, dream pop and shoegaze both principally hustle their wares through a textural esthetic – dream pop with an ethereal sheen of glassy reverb, wordless whispers, and blurry effects; shoegaze with languid waves of distortion, swells of feedback, and ripples of noise. But what if you completely removed the structure from … [Read more...]
With endorsements from Spoon's Britt Daniel and the legendary Julian Cope, Coin Under Tongue comes with a promise to deliver on its new album Reception. Further adding to its pedigree, the album is released by Death By Audio -- the home of A Place To Bury Strangers' Oliver Ackermann. So, what's the music like? If you remember the band Swell, … [Read more...]
Like a sonic assault reminiscent of A Place To Bury Strangers, Bambara's new release Dog Ear Days nevertheless manages to shape sound into more than just blunt-force trauma for the ears. The band knows how to craft melodies, wrap them in barbed wire, and drop them in acid. The band hits on many touchpoints of post-punk and shoegaze but never sounds … [Read more...]
Despite having a history steeped in lawlessness, black metal has become a battlefield ruled by its own peculiar order. Don't see it? Reference the limited viability of any sound in the genre not stemming from the genus Burzum or Darkthrone, the isolationist allegiance of artists to their own national "scenes", or the ongoing trend in boiling down … [Read more...]