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In the Sasu Ripatti oeuvre, this savagely deep album stands as a hallmark of the producer's virtuosity. Enraptured by his latest album under this moniker, Whistleblower, I take special delight in returning to his long out-of-print Chain Reaction classic and reconnecting with the artist during his rise to infamy.
Four albums into their career, Liars take yet another artistic sharp turn; a set of relatively conventional rock songs. For listeners used to the contrary experimentalism of their last two records, Liars will be as polarizing as anything the group has done.
The international collaboration between electronics mangler Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) and cellist Aaron Martin makes for an ominous, foreboding piece that would make for an excellent Hitchcock movie soundtrack.
It's important to note Menche is an experimenter of sound, not an academic. Here, he takes this opportunity to deconstruct the sounds made by conventional instruments and use them to create something far removed from the original source.
Over the last few years, Berlin's beloved have been intensely busy. Much of their time has been spent working concurrently on various projects, releasing around a dozen studio albums over the last five years. During this latest phase of the ongoing supporter project they set themselves a goal of producing an album over the course of a year, one song a month as a gift to those who were helping to fund their forthcoming album, Alles Wieder Offen. With three "bonus" tracks thanks to the phase lasting a few months longer than intended, the 15 Jewels are quite unlike Neubauten's entire back catalogue. Even the frequently challenging releases of the Musterhaus project do not prepare me for the sheer freedom expressed by the band.
The fifth album from this Chicago trio manages to create its own unique take on so-called psychedelic rock by clearly showing some influences that will give newcomers a familiar point to grab hold of while still taking them somewhere entirely new.
The Phill Niblock dedication on the first track's title is a dead giveaway to this album's sound and method of production; solo instruments processed into sheets of static tones that are held indefinitely. Schmickler and Chrisholm succeed in turning out two good tracks in that tradition, but the appeal of this album will certainly be limited by its self conscious austerity.
After their fantastic second album, Pelican return with City of Echoes. It is another quality performance from the boys but it does not always reach the same highs as The Fire in our Throats will Beckon the Thaw or the intensity of their live performance. That being said, Pelican are still on top of their game. It's just unfortunate that they have previously proven themselves to be so good that all their new music is subject to tougher scrutiny.
Its dark grey sleeve depicting a black sphere is an aberration in Rune Grammofon's usually bright and cheerful aesthetic and indeed the third album from Ultralyd promises to be a much more intense ride than most of the label's output. The sleeve does not mislead: this is the long night of Norway made music and this is a powerful and brilliant album that is as a far cry from the usual merry styles of Ultralyd's label mates.
Everything comes together on this, the third album by folk songstress Marissa Nadler, her best yet. This time out, Marissa Nadler's guitar and songwriting skills have advanced by leaps and bounds, and the atmospheric production by Greg Weeks adds the perfect lysergic touch that elevates the album to the status of a contemporary classic of psych-folk.
