Music
See: Jade Jackson – ‘6FT Changes’: a Californian country lament for the disconnect of social distancing
JADE JACKSON, the husky-voiced country singer-songwriter who’s been making waves with her particular caress of the country form since Gilded, her 2017 debut for ANTI-, has dropped a softly haunting new tune looking at the socially distancing rules that keep us from the intimacy of touch. With a delicate hush she sings: “Six feet changes …
Premiere: Incognosci share new video for track Perfect Specimen
We are absolutely delighted to be premiering on Backseat Mafia the new video from Brazilian death metal band Incognosci. ‘Perfect Specimen’ is taken from their latest album “A Biography Of Madness”, released late last year by Extreme Sound Records. A riot of drums, detuned rifle quick guitar and skin flailing vocals. The intense stare from …
Say Psych: Album Review: MØAA – Euphoric Recall
Exploring dark memories embedded in nostalgia, MØAA present their debut LP Euphoric Recall out now on WWNBB (We Were Never Being Boring). MØAA was first conceived by Jancy Rae when she began writing and recording demos while living in the forest near Seattle. Serving as an outlet to process a troubled past, MØAA was named after …
Album review: Christine Ott – ‘Time To Die’: French composer returns to Gizeh for a modern compositional masterclass
Without a doubt one of the most potent voices in modern composition today, Christine Ott is as happy to push right out into dark, even industrial-infused experimenta as she is to play a straight bat with absolute confidence in the deeper classical tradition and the wider avant-garde palette; she can do it all, if she chooses, and when she breathes the ondes Martenot into life; there really is no one to touch her
See: Muck Spreader drop the shadowy dub riot of ‘Take Flight’ ahead of a July EP; there’s a June tour, too
A CHAOTIC, riotously fun force of nature which – if you believe the myth – came about after lightning struck, Muck Spreader are back with a shadowy, gloriously dub-jazz didactic single, “Take Flight”, ahead of a July EP for Brace Yourself – and a tour in very fine company. The new eight-tracker, Abysmal, follows last …
Album review: Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles – ‘Keys’: pull up a pew for bluegrass instrumental delight
You know what the best thing about Keys is; for all its intimacy, the focus wholly on how the two players and their instruments mesh,a real joy in creation rings through. William Tyler, Black Twig Pickers, Jack Rose fans; please come on over and pull up a pew
Track: Glass Animals release new version of ‘Heat Waves’ ft. Iann Dior
The heat continues to rise for Glass Animals as single Heat Waves gets a dynamic rap rework from next-gen US star Iann Dior (emotions, gone girl). The original track continues to hold strong in the singles charts, still at #1 in Australia and in the Spotify Global Top 50. Spotify showed a monthly peak of …
See: Theo Alexander’s ‘Bright-Eyed Hunger’: London composer targets the dream state with his dazzling minimalism
LONDON pianist Theo Alexander likes to loop, to evoke the dreamstate, to explore the beauty of harmony and melody and repetition. He’s an album coming up on Toronto’s lovely Arts & Crafts imprint in late May that looks to seal his reputation as one of the most interesting people working in the minimalist end of …
Album review: Balmorhea – ‘The Wind’: Texas post-classical duo present a lovely set for Deutsche Grammophon
Balmorhea draw a line back in the tradition to the much-missed Louisville, KY outfit Rachel’s, who opted to take an idea and use whichever instrumental mix they found brought out the best of what they wished to convey. And The Wind roams freely and with precision across a spectrum from formal classical through a more pastoral take on the form and all the way out to ambient experimentalism, spoken word, found sound, with a unity and cohesion. It’s just a lovely, thoughtful record; complex in its simplicity
Album review: Chihei Hatakeyama – ‘Late Spring’: a halcyon, beautiful ambient journey
Late Spring takes elements of IDM, shoegaze, and drone, and fashions them together in an impressionistic, delicious fog, with a pretty unique pastoralist feel, alive in nature. It’s pretty much the only album I’ve ever heard that makes me reconsider such unassailable classics of the slow leftfield as Stars of the Lids’ The Tired Sounds Of … and Windy & Carl’s Consciousness and made me think: whoah there guys, these records are a bit … sharp-edged, right? Take it easy. Let it breathe. That halcyon. Late Spring is bloody, bloody beautiful.