album review
Album review: Cory Hanson – ‘Pale Horse Rider’: a psych-country triumph from Wand frontman
You might expect Pale Horse Rider to be a really good record; it’s actually a great one. It’s a record about LA written with all the perception and acuity of native. It takes the country-psych template and when it plays within it, it plays with grace and precision and blur; and when it shifts out beyond, it does with the dynamics of British exploratory rock. All points covered, no filler; perhaps its time to crown Cory the new Wolf King of LA. Buy.
Album review: Spirit of the Beehive ‘ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH’
New album from Spirit of the Beehive on new label, Saddle Creek, out April 9th this is Entertainment, Death. The shape shifting Philadelphia trio return with a new work for a new label but remaining true to their spirit of noise rock immersion with their work being less music but pop music just not as …
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
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
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.
Album review: The Natvral – ‘Tethers’: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart frontman returns with a more Laurel Canyon thing
FOLLOWING the disbandment of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart in 2017 after the release of The Echo of Pleasure, Kip Berman found himself at a creative crossroads, having written about young adult life in New York City with maturity and a fine ear for a tune. Tethers is the further maturation of Berman …
Album review: The Antlers – ‘Green To Gold’: a safe haven in a frugal year
A highly anticipated comeback for Peter Silberman’s band, with an album full of soothing melodies
EP Review: Sammy Honeysett debuts ‘Queen of Wands’
Sydney-based singer-songwriter Sammy Honeysett today releases her debut EP Queen of Wands, revealing more of the rising talent’s wistfully melodic indie-rock. Produced by Jack Nigro (Julia Jacklin, Middle Kids, DMA’s), the five-track offering is a reflection of Sammy’s versatility as a sensitive yet determined artist. Revealing how the EP got its title, Sammy says she …
Album: ’68 – Give one Take One
Josh Scogin kickstarted ’68 back in 2013, naming the two-man outfit he modestly undersells as “a little rock, a little blues, a little hardcore” after his father’s old Camaro. Joining with percussive Nikko Yamada, the band unleash an array of guitar, bass, drums and keys, and pedals. Like a Delta Blues reimagining of Bleach-era Nirvana …