ZamZam / Adaadat Hermetic mysticism, alchemy, and past-life regressions bend into this, with the recent birth of a new life further elevating the esoteric thematics. You could say this a labour of love, obsessively circling in tangled narrative and a brooding piano that empathically scaffolds. An instrumental centrifuge that percussively pearls your attention, ebbs the enigmatic itch of Mark Wagner’s words and their slipping meanings.
album review
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Thrill Jockey Unfamiliar Minds is Elena Setién‘s second album for Thrill Jockey and comes on the heels of a previous collaboration with Xabier Erkizia, which came out on Forbidden Colours. Xabier is also integral to this album, but it is Elena’s dreamlike and gossamer visions upon which the we are whisked away to the enchanted realm of her imagination.
(self-released) The buzzing Bristol duo of vibraphonist Harriet Riley and fiddler supreme Alex Garden tumble their inspired collaboration into its second Sonder volume, taking bassist Stevie Toddler along for the journey and pushing one another a little further into where their two musical palettes collide. The previous album‘s sunny disposition has been replaced by some tones of a darker hue, and the pace is lessened at times to allow […]
Thrill Jockey Listening to In Free Fall, Maya Shenfeld‘s album of slow-moving and stately processions, it feels a little like visiting a gallery full of huge, abstract artwork or watching somebody gently unfurl a series of enormous flags. Everything unfolds at a pace that gives opportunity to be totally immersed in the evolution of each piece.
Southern Lord (CD & US vinyl) / Pomperipossa (vinyl in Europe) Recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival back in 2018, this is a powerful testament to the Anna von Hausswolff live experience. She eases you in gently with the lilting latitudes of “The Truth, The Glow, The Fall’, a folksy saturation pinning you back, a black magic love awash with swelling orchestration, that voice resining the architecture – […]
Discus The latest eclectic release from Bo Meson finds him teaming up with other Discus luminaries to re-imagine the life and possible success of Dylan Thomas through words and soundscapes, using the opportunity to shine a light on what might have been in an alternate universe.
Southern Lord An improvised uprooting of their Pyroclast and Life Metal albums — or epic exorcism — suitably broadcast on Samhain of 2019, these three tracks catch SunnO))) at the end of their world tour, emotionally expanding the raw material, giving the BBC 6Music listeners a monumental feast.
Bedevil Fermenting for over six years, Scapa Foolscap began as a series of rough sketches initially inspired by the shipwreck-strewn waters of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, understated soundscapes that gave Pumajaw’s vocalist Pinkie Maclure plenty of space to explore as it slowly evolved into the duo’s eighth album.
Rednetic Regular Rednetic recording artist Zainetica is back with another album-length dose of his progressive synth-based hymns to modernity; the subtle, scuffling beats and the warm sense of movement evincing a sweetness and sleekness that leaves contemporaries trailing in his sky blue wake. There is the feeling of a whole new language, a revision of electronic beat-driven music with the dust and grime of our current existence swept […]
It’s often said that in hindsight some of the greatest inventions were so bleedin’ obvious that it was a wonder that no-one had ever thought of them before. In many ways that same logic applies here; given the dub chromosomes that, from the very offset, were nestled within The Pop Group’s DNA, it’s a forehead-slapping revelation that dub remixes of them, particularly this album, weren’t attempted years ago.
Empty Birdcage Regular improv collaborators Daniel Thompson and Colin Webster have released this live set from September 2020 to give the uninitiated a glimpse of their playing relationship and the way that differing viewpoints lead to surprising interactions, veering from placid waves to more frustrated and awkward splashes.
Happy Robots The oval oddness of Anaphora’s opener “Pilomotor Reflex” are ace, reversed shivers cerebrally nibbling slowly, beaconing out on a delightful Kraftwerkian romance (minus that detached chill). A dance of chameleon-like shapes that fluidly viper that dry percussive, an agitated softness for that anti-capitalist narrative to dagger deep, tangle favouringly with your reason. Political / cultural arrows that empathetically grenade throughout the whole of this album, nestled in […]
Discus For French singer Carla Diratz‘s latest album, she has enlisted two of the Discus family to conjure some surprisingly diverse soundscapes for her smoky, timeworn vocalising. Both Martin Archer and Nick Robinson are hardy veterans, capable of providing the perfect backdrops and these veer from the gentlest of piano laments to forceful, driven, post-prog whirlwinds. In fact, the opening two tracks show the full range of their […]
Constellation When the first Light Conductor album was released, I remember considering that it would be a suitable one-off experiment and that an attempt by Jace Lasek and Stephen Ramsay to follow it might be folly; but I am really pleased to say on the strength of Sequence Two, it was a wise decision as there is much more ground for them to cover. This time, spread over […]
Constellation As with many artists, the genesis of Jessica Moss‘s fourth album occurred during lockdown and it acted as a means of working her way through the enforced isolation. Judging by her previous offerings, the sense of remove and the overwhelming melancholy is something to which her violin sound is suited; but on Phosphenes, it is as if the bar were raised and the immersive sensations of solitude […]
Geophonic The packaging for the latest Aperus release is a thing of beauty, containing a number of glorious weather photographs selected at random from Brian McWilliam‘s well-curated archive. Thankfully, the sounds contained within live up to this lush presentation, channelling the spirit of Covid as well as the New Mexico mountain fires which were delivering smoke to Brian’s back door. As you can imagine, these disturbing events have […]
Sulatron Dave Schmidt AKA Sula Bassana invites us yet again into his personal cosmic world with his very own inventions for electric guitar. This album was recorded over three nights and expands Sula’s ever shifting psychedelic sound, using only a very basic setup of instruments to keep the mind focussed on the universal otherness.
One Little Independent Not only did Poppy Ackroyd have to contend with Covid around the writing of her fourth album, but the birth of her first child also coincided with the process. As you can perhaps imagine, on the strength of that, the album runs through a full range of emotions from thrill and ebullience to concern and introspection. Although the album is solely piano based, using the […]