Bondo – Print Selections (Album Review)
LA-based four-piece Bondo make delicately robust music on their debut album Print Selections. If “delicately robust” sounds like an oxymoron to you, that’s because it is. The group’s music is contradictory in that it is both gentle and edgy, innocent and sinister, and lulls the listener into a strange worldContinue Reading
Single Reviews: 27 February 2023: Vitesse X, Michael It’z, Shayan Javadi, Wolf & Clover, Sweet Giant
Photo by Kyle Johnson Vitesse X – Right Now alternative pop NY-based electronic thaumaturge Jordan Stern, AKA Vitesse X, spins an intoxicating waterfall of sputtered melodies, hazed-out vocals, and danceable percussion on her recent single “Right Now”. The single is taken from the upcoming follow-up to her debut album, Us Ephemeral,Continue Reading
Album Reviews: February 2023: Igor Ballereau, United Isolation Ensemble, Clara Engel
Photo by Sinitta Leunen Igor Ballereau – ijkl French composer Igor Ballereau leads the listener down complex corridors of dark piano, expressive guitar, gutsy percussion and strange sonic experiments on his recent album ijkl. Field recordings of crumbling earth and falling stones are set against sporadic and discordant strikes onContinue Reading
Sam and the Sea – Evil Ghosts (EP Review)
There’s a haunting quality to the music of New York-based artist Sam and the Sea. On their debut EP, “Evil Ghosts,” they deliver seemingly gentle songs, but there is more happening under the initial surface of experimental folk and shoegazing indie, a type of heavy metal in disguise, like aContinue Reading
Joao Ceser – BRZ (EP Review)
Being able to find value in the regular is a precious gift. Poets need this skill, not just to help them give meaning to nature but to life. Someone who knows this is Italian producer Joao Ceser. It’s easy to envision the Brianza-based producer sitting in his studio atContinue Reading
Kalulu – Featuring (EP Review)
Rotterdam-based artist Marinka Stam established the musical project Kalulu in 2016. Since then, she has collaborated with other artists to make divine electronic pop that neither gets too commercial nor too obscure. Instead, Stam’s music bounces along with an alluringly intellectual gait, underpinned by thoughtful production and polished songwriting. HerContinue Reading
the soft form dissolves – Pattern Recognition (Album Review)
The recently released trailer for the Tetris movie led me down a wikihole where I landed upon “The Tetris Effect”. The Tetris effect is when you engage in a game for an extended period, and the logic of the game world follows you into the real one. So, for example,Continue Reading
Single Reviews: 17 February 2023: Kayam, Yew Haiku, Why Patterns?, Orchestre National Urbain, Jacques Bailhé
Photo by Alex Cooper Kayam – Omens alternative Berlin siblings Kayam have recently released their sophomore album “Omens”, and the titular first single from that album is an alluring introduction to an album of intimate and environmental alternative folk music. However, the group prefer to classify their music with theContinue Reading
Girondolini – Girondolini (Album Review)
Girondolini is a musical project by Vienna-based jazz-trained drummer July Skone. Formerly of the high-concept, in-your-face project Gudrun Von Laxenburg, Skone’s recent outing sees his impressive drumming style take a backseat to sample-based plunderphonics pulled off with quicksilver precision. Featuring a cast of collaborators, the self-titled debut album is aContinue Reading
The House Flies – Glimmer (EP Review)
With a tonic of indiscernible sounds, sultry bass lines, snappy percussion, colourful guitars, and hauntingly elusive vocals, The House Flies beguile the listener with their recent EP, Glimmer. The solo recording project of Murnau’s Alex Riggen, The House Flies delivers a gothic brand of alternative post-punk, obscuring emotionally led songsContinue Reading