Former Japanese hardcore group Envy continues their growth with their latest album, one of soaring guitar epics that are marred only by a sameness in mood and approach. While starting strong, the album starts to unravel as the group adheres to its own formula too frequently.
Hotter than July. This week's episode has plenty of fresh new music by Marie Davidson, Kim Gordon, Mabe Fratti, Guided By Voices, Holy Tongue meets Shackleton, Softcult, Terence Fixmer, Alan Licht, pigbaby, and Eiko Ishibashi, plus some vault goodies from Bombay S Jayashri and Pete Namlook & Richie Hawtin. Solstice moon in West Midlands, UK photo by James. Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
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Inside this inverse carcass sleeve art comes a slice of fresh white vinyl, a very un-Dead Machines like piece of plastic; most Wolf Eyes side projects look like they’ve been scraped from the walls of a suicide watch art workshop. This is Mr and Mrs John Olson’s most straight and soundtrack-like work to date, managing to upset the neighbourhood’s canine contingent while retaining that trademark low tech malignant sound.
Compiling two separate albums on one disc, this Striborg release is a relatively disappointing affair. Over 70 minutes of pedestrian black metal is not something I need in life.
Jessica Bailiff's fourth full length for Kranky is easily her most approachable work to date. Feels Like Home provides all of the familiar elements of Bailiff's unique songwriting, but in easily-digestible three minute slices.
For his fourth CD, Yoshio Machida improvises on a steel drum, using no electronic processing as he has previously and only minimal overdubs to create music that’s both impressionistic and meditative.
The impression that I got from various official sources for the band is that Everlovely Lightningheart are some kind of artistic commune that have tapped into some abstract spiritual plane and have brought back enlightenment in the form of music. While there is a lot of beautiful music on this album, Everlovely Lightningheart are far from the cultural monument that they're portrayed as.
Lisa Germano's latest record (her first for Young God) is beautifully weird. Any record that lays out the line "Go to hell/Fuck you" as the sing-along hook to a lush, folky lullaby can't be bad!
After puzzling some and dazzling others with the bizarre and inaccessible detour 'Plat Du Jour', Matthew Herbert makes a long awaited, though less than thrilling, return to the forward-thinking discotheque.
This is the absolute best video biography of the only relevant period of Factory Records (1978-1981), featuring interviews with Tony Wilson, Peter Saville, Peter Hook, Chris Watson, and members of Durutti Column, Section 25, A Certain Ratio, The Names, and many more. Unfortunately, compared to what the public has to go on, that's not saying much.
The fourth album from the Welsh experimental rock band Ectogram is a heavy going yet rewarding experience. Elements of angular post punk guitar playing are mixed with krautrock influenced rhythms (Ectogram being tour buddies with Faust make this no surprise) and some unusual “do I like it or hate it?” vocals to make a pair of intricate and fascinating CDs.
