Berlin
Album Review: Zone Null – ‘Phase 1’: Taking the bass to unknown places- epic, long form electronic improv from the Berlin-based duo.
Pounding into January with the irrepressible Ruptured Records and a debut album, ‘Phase 1’ from a new collaborative project Zone Null, featuring bassist Tony Elieh and electronic composer/performer Burkhard Beins. Elieh has long has been a pivotal contributor to the Beirut alt rock scene having been a member of the seminal noughties band Scrambled Eggs, …
Premiere: The exquisite dream pop exponents Fabels exclusively unveil the new ethereal single ‘Luister’ ahead of new album and tour.
Here at the antipodean outpost of Backseat Mafia, we are truly honoured to be able to bring you an exclusive listen to the new single ‘Luister’ from the legendary dream pop duo Fabels. Fabels are Hiske Weijers from Berlin and Ben Aylward from Sydney and together they produce dreamy, hazy vignettes, heightened by an air …
Album Review: Fabia Mantwill Orchestra – IN.SIGHT : Expansive big band jazz packed with invention, melody and sonic lushness.
For any composer the jazz orchestra has always been about much more than expanding the soundscape, it represents a leap of faith where artists dare their own capabilities and imagine what’s possible. That’s why seminal orchestral jazz music of Gil Evans, Carla Bley, Ellington, Sun Ra and beyond carries such a potent thrill and why …
Album Review: Tavare-‘Too Small To Be So High’: A delicate and solemn slow core triumph.
Trying to keep track of Canadian experimental guitarist and composer Aidan Baker’s recorded output since his first release in 2000 is an almost impossible challenge. The Discogs bible lists around 170 albums under his name and that’s not including the stuff he’s created as part of bands like Arc and Nadja. Baker has become a …
Say Psych: News: Berlin Psych Garage Quartet Sacred Buzz release new LP Radio Radiation
Sacred Buzz is a 4-piece psych garage band from Berlin, Germany. It materialized out of thin air in the hot summer of 2023 and already became known for stirring up Berlin’s psych underground scene with their mesmerizing blend of raw energy, kaleidoscopic patterns, and psychedelic rhythm. Sacred Buzz has kickstarted their live show path by …
Say Psych: Album Review: The Third Sound – Most Perfect Solitude
Berlin psych/post-punk band The Third Sound have recently released their sixth studio album Most Perfect Solitude. It is the follow up to 2022’s First Light and has been eagerly anticipated for some time. The LP marks a new chapter, not just in sound but personnel, for the band led by Icelandic musician and author Hakon …
Track/Video: Producer/composer Àbáse previews his re-energised new album ‘Awakening’ with the elevating afro-funk of ‘Menidaso (My Hope)’.
Hungarian keyboardist and producer Szabolcs Bognár aka Àbáse has been on the ‘one to watch’ list for a while now. A cornerstone in the Budapest nu-jazz/ afro-beat scene as a band leader, his first solo album, ‘Laroyê‘ in 2021 turned muso heads in his direction with its seamless weave of soulful beats, West African vibes …
Album Review: Einstürzende Neubauten’s ‘Rampen (apm: Alien Pop Music)’ is an atmospheric, extra-terrestrial sonic masterpiece.
‘Rampen’ (rocket launching pad) is the name for the improvisations that occur during live performances of Einstürzende Neubauten: the springboard for innovation and creativity. It forms the basis for the new album that was born out of temporal necessity and other exigencies when a decision was made by the band about recording again following 2020’s …
News: Einstürzende Neubauten announce new album ‘Rampen (apm: alien pop music)’ out 5 April and unveil brilliant first single ‘Ist Ist’ ahead of tour.
Last time round it took the brilliant Einstürzende Neubauten 12 years between albums when they released ‘Alles in Allem’ back in 2020 during the midst of the COVID crisis. This time round we have only had to wait a faintly bearable four years with the news at they will be releasing their new album, ‘Rampen …
Track/Video : Heavy doom protagonists The Body & Dis Fig preview new collaborative album with the explosive ‘Dissent, Shame’.
‘Collabs’ – are they anything more than product placement these days? Well in some worlds driven less by the algorithm, collaboration still has a meaning and a purpose. Step forward the indispensable Thrill Jockey Records and news of an incoming album ‘Orchards of a Futile Heaven’ due 23rd Feb, from the artistic coupling of The …