Album Review: Federico Balducci & fourthousandblackbirds –‘Succulent Succubus’ : probing and powerful philosophical-drone music bursting with ideas.
Writing about any music released via the defiantly unconventional Difficult Art and Music imprint should not be a straightforward undertaking and maybe the task exposes the gaping flaws in the reviewing game. What is good, why compare, what is shallow, why is this deep and who says so? All a reviewer really does is say …
Track: LA vocalist/composer Sharada Shashidhar announces new album ‘Soft Echoes’ with the succulent, sensitive title track.
You may have been lucky to have caught a glimpse of LA based vocalist/composer/producer Sharada Shashidhar’s debut EP ‘Rahu’ a few years ago. Here was a musician bringing something different to the future soul arena. Yes there were those spikey beats, intricately collaged electronics and no limits influences, but the vocal delivery eased away from …
Album Review: Belong – ‘Realistic IX’: The illusive ambient-shoegaze duo return, their deceptive power undiminished.
Things may come and things may go but the shoegaze dance still unravels. Thirty years on from a time when Catherine Wheel were possibly the most important thing in the world to a small herd of droopy fringed teenagers, some of the scene’s more prominent pioneers have been having another moment. Ride have heaved themselves …
Album Review: Passepartout Duo And Inoyama Land – ‘Radio Yugawara’ : A sublime collaboration delivers a fresh and fulfilling ambient statement.
Living with music, living through music, living inside music are descriptions which could all get thrown around when trying to capture Passepartout Duo’s relationship with their sound art. The sonic partnership between pianist Nicoletta Favari and percussionist Christopher Salvito which began in 2015, thrives on constant travel, seeking out new collaborations as well as inspirational …
Album Review : Harvestman –‘Triptych Part Two’ : A pulsating second album in Steve Von Till’s ambitious, post-metal trilogy.
Officially released on 21st July to coincide with the Buck Moon, Steve Von Till (aka Harvestman) delivers ‘Part Two’ of his ambitious ‘Triptych’ album cycle (‘Part One’ coincided with April’s Pink Moon and was reviewed in BSM HERE). Von Till may be a prolific musician, whose output as lynch pin of post metal pioneers Neurosis …
Album Review: Olivier Cong –‘Tropical Church’: a significant ambient hymn to the heart of a city.
Hot town, summer in the city“, The Lovin’ Spoonful’s immortal sixties pop hit may not be a song that will immediately ping into mind when listening to ‘Tropical Church’, the new album by musician, sound artist and composer Olivier Cong. Yet Cong’s graphic soundtrack for his own city, Hong Kong, puts the listener as closely …
Track/Video : Steve Von Till /Harvestman delivers the haunted ’Galvanised and Torn Open’ ahead of his elliptical album ‘Triptych: Part Two’.
So a few days until the Buck Moon on 21st July means that the release of the second instalment in the Harvestman ‘Triptych’ series is similarly imminent. This three album musical cycle created by Steve Von Till (aka Harvestman) the guitarist/vocalist/lynch pin of seminal post metal pioneers Neurosis began this April with the earthy psych …
Album Review: Colin Fisher – Suns of the Heart : Spectacular sound sculptures with an internal energy.
“Distinctly gifted musician”, “Canadian mainstay”, “master sonic storyteller” are all quotable snippets which journos have rustled up for multi-instrumentalist and composer Colin Fisher. But as you dig into his sprawling catalogue you begin to realise that for once these aren’t empty words, if anything they’re an understatement. Here is a musician who’s been energising the …
Track: Sound artist extraordinaire, Michael Scott Dawson previews new album with the achingly poignant ‘Present Day’.
You could say that Saskatchewan sound artist and producer Michael Scott Dawson is a key contributor to the We Are Busy Bodies catalogue. Since 2020 he’s gifted the label three solo albums and two collections as a lead member of the post rock minimalists Peace Flag Ensemble, but those numbers only hint at his significance. …
Album Review : Hypnodrone Ensemble – ‘The Problem Is in the Sender – Do Not Tamper with the Receiver’: An epic drone-rock statement from the Berlin-based collective.
So here’s the real sound of the psychedelic underground filtering through once more. Beyond retro, pastiche or nostalgia, forward thinking, lifeblood music that connects the pathways of cosmic rock, kosmische, trance and improv, part of the essential root system that feeds so many derivatives. Experimental guitarists Aidan Baker and Eric Quach have been injecting their …