electronic albums
Album Review: David Jaycock’s Hold. Star. Return is a glorious slice of 80s infused Synthpop that sparkles throughout
Let’s get this straight from the start, to quote Kevin Rowland – whatever musical hat he’s wearing, David Jaycock writes fantastic songs and tunes. In the guise he’s adopted for his latest album Hold. Star. Return, he’s buried himself in analogue synths to make a delightful record of 80s flecked synthpop. Taking influences from across …
Album Review: Slow Knife – A Hymn Supreme
Todmorden experimentalists Slow Knife have returned with a second album, the fully improvised two track long player, A Hymn Supreme. Taking its lead more than likely (as well as half of its title) fromJohn Coltrane opus, it’s explores spiritual jazz, but alongside noise electronics and lyrically explores the ‘authenticity of spiritual transcendence’. Part 1 lies …
Album Review: Maria Chiara Argirò – Forest City
After teaming up with Jamie Leeming on the album ‘Flow’ (read our review here) jazz fusion pianist Maria Chiara Argirò has returned with a new album, ‘Forest City’ released on US label Innovative Leisure. Forest City is a concept record, about the “duality of nature and city”, and where organic sounds and textures seem to …
Album Review: It’s no joke – Confidence Man about to Rock the World with new album ‘TILT’
Confidence Man’s sophomore album is an irresistible dance tour de force.
Album Review: Minute Taker – Wolf Hours
If you read Minute Taker’s bio, you’ll notice the references to eighties music, and the stars of the time who have inspired him. In the past, he’s even covered several of these legends; Pet Shop Boys, Kate Bush and Eurythmics to name but a few. But whilst Minute Taker, AKA singer songwriter Ben McGarvey, is …
Album Review: The Scarlet Hour – Blink EP
Formed in 2021 from members of Alternative/Post-Punk trio The Seventh Victim, The Scarlet Hour are a Synth Darkwave duo based in the North East. Delivering brooding bass hooks from Mel Butler, and dystopian lyrics from a tormented mind courtesy of Tim Synistyr, all sprinkled with Synth-Pop melodies. ‘Blink’ is the first release by the band. With …
Album Review: Dark Sky Burial – Omnis Cum In Tenebris Praesertim Vita Laboret
“Omnis Cum In Tenebris Praesertim Vita Laboret” is the 4th album from Dark Sky Burial, the new musical venture from Napalm Death’s Shane Embury. The album’s title translates as, “Life is one long struggle in the Dark.” The dark ambient soundscapes and unsettling industrial noise textures, with disorientating, electronic moments were composed by Shane Embury …
Album Review: The Witching Tale – ‘The Witching Tale’
Take multi-instrumentalist Michael J. York (Coil, The Utopia Strong) and the incredible vocal talents of Katherine Blake (Mediaeval Baebes), and the end result is something totally out of this world – folklore and mysticism, early Arabian and Mediaeval music, first millennia Eastern poetry blended together with Poe, Scott and Chesterton. The result is an ethereal …
Album Review: Anika – Change
It’s been eleven years since the release of the debut album by Berlin-based DJ, musician and former political journalist Anika Henderson, known professionally just by her first moniker. The new album is called Change, and it couldn’t be a more appropriate title; how different a world it has become in the decade and a bit …
Album Review: Sarah Davachi – ‘Antiphonals’
Sarah Davachi is a composer and performer who, like fellow keyboardists Ana Roxanne or Anna Von Hausswollf, relentlessly navigates the tidal intersections between electronic and drone music. As an artist she has serious collaborative credentials, having worked with such luminaries as Basinski, Grouper, Donald Buchla and Loren Connors, but since 2018 Davachi has focused more …