This disc of Norwegian psychedelia is much different than the kind other countries put out. Instead of sloppy stabs at slow repetition, there is instead four sprawling tracks of constantly shifting musicality that show obvious influences of psychedelics, new wave, classic and post-rock. However, the actual result isn’t as bizarre as it could be.
Give us an hour, we'll give you music to remember. This week we bring you an episode with brand new music from Softcult, Jim Rafferty, karen vogt, Ex-Easter Island Head, Jon Collin, James Devane, Garth Erasmus, Gary Wilson, and K. Freund, plus some music from the archives from Goldblum, Rachel Goswell, Roy Montgomery. Rubber ducks and a live duck photo from Matthew in the UK. Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
|
Although many (myself included) have accused this duo of being overly prolific and simply releasing every bit of recorded material that exists. While this is still a debatable case, this new full length album feels much more fleshed out and conceived when compared to some of their other works, and the addition of live drums on a few of the tracks doesn’t hurt either.
It’s hard to believe maybe, but Cornelius Waldner of Sagittarius started out his musical career playing in a black metal band, Hailstorm. Like many in that genre, he has felt the need to explore other avenues of musical expression and Sagittarius is one such exploration. Songs from the Ivory Tower is essentially the first proper release on a big label from him, delivering fifteen songs showcasing his quietly melancholic, small-scale songs and neo-classical instrumentals.
When everything went quiet in the Tindersticks camp a few years ago, Stuart Staples released a couple of solo albums, Dickon Hinchliffe started doing soundtracks and I was worried that the group was no more. A couple of Tindersticks compilations were released (a greatest hits and a BBC sessions double CD) but these felt like posthumous releases, nails in a coffin I was hoping did not exist. However, despite losing half its members, the band continues and has returned with a wonderful album that sounds like it could have been by the full line up in their prime.
I would have to consider the title of this disc either a misnomer or an intentional joke. As a recording, it is definitely warm and inviting, and though almost entirely based on looped elements, has an organic feel unmatched by most similar projects.
Chef Menteur’s second full length retains the sense of a group setting obscure crossword clues while working out what their equipment will do. The sound is deeper and tighter but doesn’t completely abandon post-space-drone- audio-collage.
Every once in a while something extraordinary manages to come my way with a power that is hard to deny. Such is the case with this London-based band's debut album, a stratospheric collection of musically mature, beautifully crafted, and subtly layered compositions that refuse to remain earthbound. This is the vision and brainchild of just one individual—Oliver Barrett, only in his early 20s and literally fresh out of University.
By all accounts Bryn Jones of Muslimgauze was a prolific musician, as any glance at his discography will confirm. Even nigh on a decade after his untimely death, new (or rather previously unreleased) material is still emerging steadily into the light of day. Jah-Mearab is one such, bringing together unheard material originally recorded in 1998 and simultaneously inaugurating a whole series of archive CDs to be issued by his European label.
Lustmord's latest, Other finds the ever-busy sound designer, film composer, and reigning king of dark ambient turning in another assured work of drift and despair.
The Tupac of the experimental world, even some nine years after his death, various labels are still issuing posthumous work from Bryn Jones. However, unlike Mr. Shakur, these aren't ramshackle scraps slapped together to make a quick buck, they're simply the product of one extremely prolific artist. The second volume of Staalplaat's Archive Series (the label that, at one point, was receiving a full length DAT a week of new material), this disc compiles mostly previously released material, including the whole Jaagheed Zarb LP that was issued as one fourth of the Tandoori Dog set, three of the four tracks from the MP3 only Melt EP, and three unreleased tracks.
