Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Dressed in Wires (aka Simon Earp) continues his one-man mission to inject digital hardcore with his own special brand of I-don’t-really-get-it humour. This cassette’s title track may begin as a one trick assault on the John Williams theme, but thankfully soon reveals much more going on.
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11581 Hits
This overlooked album by Serge Gainsbourg collaborator Jean-Claude Vannier is as close as composing gets to stream of consciousness. Seemingly dipolar pieces of music have been sandwiched together with deft skill and grace to make an album so rich in sound that ears everywhere will feel like they’ve just had their last meal care of a Michelin star restaurant. It’s rare that the kitchen sink approach to writing music works but Vannier pulls it off in style.
6722 Hits
In the face of diminishing returns from his midtempo/ downtempo releases for Warp, Ninja Tune, and Planet Mu, Luke Vibert's latest for Rephlex showcases his boldest material this century, suggesting that there may yet be some more good ideas up this maturing musician's rumpled sleeve.
10257 Hits
These two albums by Isabelle Antena show how easy it is for an artist to lose everything that makes them interesting. On a Warm Summer Night (Tous mes Caprices) is an artifact from a time best forgotten while L’Alphabet du Plaisir, the 'best of' compilation, also contains a lot of stinkers but also enough good pieces that show that Antena wasn’t always crap.
8271 Hits
Robert Pollard’s second solo album of 2006 is a mixed bag of pop gems and forgettable tunes that betray an inconsistency of effort. While it’s the sort of thing I expect from one of his numerous side projects, that one of his so-called major releases is so scattershot can only be considered a disappointment.
7342 Hits
Gearheads can be counted on to make a fantastic sounding record, however, unfortunately it is commonly difficult for gearheads to compose compelling enough songs to turn a good album into something fantastic enough to match the production.
10813 Hits
Pretentious art projects fail mostly on one level: they pretend that their conceits alone will win them accolades. The title of this recording and the description it has on Blossoming Noise's Web site refer to Jean Baptiste Poquelin Molière and a comedy he wrote that was censored from public performance for a period of time. While it doesn't sound very intriguing to me to begin with, the time travel crap added doesn't help, nor does the relatively lame music.
12839 Hits
Mike Connolly’s Failing Lights project has been pretty hit-and-miss to date, maybe more miss than hit if truth be told. Some of the material’s been known to sit in a bleak rut for ten minutes at a time, gathering little more than bedsores and buboes. This is a much more active and interesting listen, taking the wrecked ambient avenue into more together territory.
10358 Hits
Armed with dissonant guitars and disheveled rhythms, Glasgow’s Park Attack stagger from the murk to spread discord at every opportunity on this incendiary album.
6421 Hits
The cover art of Mathew Sweet's second Boduf Songs release for Kranky hints that this could be a sequel. The design is of a similar style, but the flowers and people of the old Victorian prints are replaced with more foreboding images. Follow a trail of bread crumbs down a shadowy path into the woods depicted on the cover, and there's that scary thrill of being enveloped by trees, not knowing what will be encountered. The air is so fresh, the ground so soft, but once inside, there are serpents, flies, and poison.
7236 Hits
I think I'll be forgiven if the first thing that came to my mind when receiving this album was Grand Funk Railroad. Such an association may seem inconsequential, but given titles like "First Time in Heels" and "Terrified," it's hard to imagine the band's name doesn't speak of the members' (perhaps twisted and cynical) attitudes and dispositions.
9346 Hits
This latest EP from Freddie Ruppert, aka This Song Is a Mess But So Am I, is captivating from the beginning with its deconstructed beats, rants, and an abundance of distortion thrown in every direction.
11454 Hits
I thought I was in for an exciting trip with the first few minutes of this reissue. "I See You Pan" has a fascinating sound: like popcorn popping but all the kernels are made of stainless steel. It is noise but in a quiet and dynamic way. Alas my enjoyment of things wasn’t to last when the vocals and organ arrive.
7284 Hits
Joanna Newsom has abandoned the constraints of pop framework and has created a masterpiece for voice, harp, and orchestra. Ys consists of only five songs yet they stretch between seven and 17 minutes, all of which are extensive fairytales without choruses, refrains, and rarely a repeating motive.
12376 Hits
Not only can a Various Artist collection succeed thematically, but it can shine due to a curator's impeccable taste, and Imaginational Anthem 2 is a nearly flawless collection. Whereas the first volume featured acoustic guitarists from the past and present, this volume seems more forward-looking, slightly more focused on the newer guitarists who have their future stretching out in front of them.
6817 Hits
I strongly feel that Various Artist compilations are both fun and useful but it's always good to have some kind of underlying theme. This one succeeds in concept, and a fantastic concept it is, but the contents end up taking it down a few notches.
7599 Hits
As tribute albums go, one dedicated to a painter is not something I’ve encountered before. Being a fan of Francis Bacon, I was very excited to hear this album but alas half of it is useless. The other half though is great although only one of the four tracks really nails the feeling that I get from looking at one of Bacon’s paintings.
7195 Hits
Every time I think I’m done with Merzbow he releases an album that grabs me by the face and screams “LISTEN TO ME!” F.I.D. (standing for Fur Is Dead) is one of those albums. It is powerful and burly but surprisingly not as brain drilling as usual. The chaos normally unleashed is instead channelled into a droning, pulsing muscle. This is one of the most exciting Merzbow releases I’ve heard yet.
8443 Hits
Tim Harbeson’s debut as Fence Kitchen is a collection of recordings that originally accompanied both marionette and dance performances. Eerie and sly, these songs could just as easily be coming from the cracked windows of a carnival fun house.
9153 Hits
Silbur Records is reissuing some remastered versions of old Lycia records. I don't think I would have had the taste for them in the mid '90s, and the intervening decade and extra knob-twiddling hasn't changed that.
10053 Hits
