Mortal Prophets – ICNCLST (Album Review)
NY-based artist John Beckmann is having a purple patch. Since 2022, his work as Mortal Prophets has yielded three EPs, numerous singles, and five albums. The latest album, ICNCLST/, is billed as an EP, but with seven tracks, it also meets the criteria for an album by some metrics. ThoughContinue Reading
Interview: Yea Big
Stefen Robinson, aka Yea Big, discusses his improvisational work with Tatsu Aoki. The pair’s 2nd EP, The Hand and The Moon, Part Two, is out now on FPE Records. NT: Hello, Stefen. Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Congratulations on your recent EP with Tatsu Aoki, The Hand andContinue Reading
M.Haiux – Summer Nights and Still Water (Album Review)
Sometimes, having nothing to lose offers the biggest gains. This sentiment is true for Liverpudlian guitarist Matthew McPartlan, whose debut album of wandering solo acoustic guitar work, Summer Nights and Still Water, manifested after an 18-month hiatus from music. According to the artist, this resulted from “a number of failedContinue Reading
The Diomedes – DIOMEDES (Album Review)
A raw intensity permeates DIOMEDES, the sophomore album from London-based three-piece ectropunk outfit The Diomedes. This intensity manifests in high-octane drum patterns, expansive guitars, wide-ranging synths, and soaring vocal performances, demonstrating the band’s celestial ambitions. Comprised of members Mark Champion on vocals, guitars, and synths; David Myers on drums; andContinue Reading
Single Reviews: 21 August 2024: Hannah Lev, Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka, Pantaleimon, Yammerer, Andrew J Brooks
Photo by Ivan Mani Hannah Lev – Palm to Palm experimental London-based electronic producer Hannah Lev casts a woozy spell on “Palm to Palm,” a consummate single full of anxious synth swells, sharp hip-hop beats, and angelic vocals. Scratch that. The vocals are angelic, but like an angel that fellContinue Reading
The War Yaks – Bifurcate (Album Review)
“Bifurcate” is a word that means to divide into two branches or forks, like a river splitting and flowing in different directions. Separation is a theme that resonates with New Jersey prog artist Nat Rusciani, who experienced the dissolution of her band shortly before starting The War Yaks with co-writerContinue Reading
Ogenblik – This Used To Be The Sound Of The Future (Album Review)
Leixlip-based musician Ogenblik’s experiments in retrofuturistic production culminate in his debut album This Used To Be The Sound of The Future. Employing a range of outdated recording techniques, from dictaphones to the ill-fated MiniDisc, Ogenblik splices everything together with environmental acuteness, Frankensteining innocuous acoustic guitar melodies into more pressing statementsContinue Reading
The Singer and The Songwriter – Dreams! The Dead! Ghost! Future (Album Review)
What makes the human spirit so indomitable? Despite social injustices and economic disparities, people continue to wake up and live their lives every day, clutching onto shards of hope. This question lies at the heart of Dreams! The Dead! Ghost! Future, the third album from Californian folk duo The SingerContinue Reading
Sanford: – Extinguished Dreams (Album Review)
What is America? This question has been posed by sociologists and comedians with varying degrees of seriousness and sarcasm for decades. With such a large, diverse population, it can be hard to see a unifying concept beyond the English language. However, music and culture often bridge these gaps. South CarolinaContinue Reading
Single Reviews: 9 August 2024: AM sin, Soft No, Yndling, Supercaan, Trigger Object
Photo by Junpire Nguyen AM sin – Silver Lining electronic London-based duo AM sin crafts a meticulously roaming synthetic piece with “Silver Lining.” Soft sounds turn to harder territory across the six minutes of this track, but the sense of melody is never lost, even if it’s never explicitly expressed.Continue Reading