Mick Barr's latest album sees him take the concept of a face melting guitar solo and turning it into a multi-faceted and layered composition. There is no room here for any straightforward musical structures to provide a basis for Barr to take a solo from; instead he just goes at it without any thoughts given to easing the listener in gently. The concept of free jazz is one familiar to most but here is an example of free metal, the guitar screeching away from the pack and leaving a scorched trail behind it.
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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I wasn't sure what to expect upon receiving this disc. The stark, digitally treated artwork that adorns the heavy, textured sleeve has little in the way of credits or information, and no specific background on the artist, which is, I'm sure, his intent. A bit of the Google finds that it is the debut release of Greek artist Thanasis Kaproulias, and none of this is needed to enjoy the disc, which lays comfortably between the rough experimentations of proto-industrialists like Throbbing Gristle and the modern day esoteric work of Francisco Lopez and Asmus Tietchens.
In some ways this work is reminiscent to the 
Having had the privilege and pleasure to catch this dazzlingly deviant duo in concert on several occasions this decade, this album of covers seemed all but inevitable. Here, much to my delight, the diminutive diva and her frizzy-haired ivory tickler present some of these practiced though never before released songs on disc for the very first time.
The stark packaging adorning this CD gives no hint of the majesty of David Jackman's latest drone opus. Omega marks the third and final instalment of a trilogy that started with Sanctus on Robot Records and continued with Amen, also on Die Stadt.
Attention American Idol contestants! Luigi Tenco failed to make the final of the 1967 San Remo Festival. As a protest against the jury's taste in music, he shot himself in the head. The song Tenco performed was "Ciao Amore Ciao" and had I been judging he would still have pulled the trigger. However....
The Room40 label is quickly establishing itself as a touchstone for oblique, esoteric electronic experimentation. So on first glance, this album's cover art of a flower seems somewhat out of place among the austere design and digital graphic manipulations. It is, however, a very appropriate image given that beyond all of the digital processing and trappings, what lies beneath the layers is a subtle, beautifully melodic work that retains the innate warmth of the acoustic instruments that form the source material of these tracks.
