Electronic
Album Review: Quayola/Seta – Transient : an evocative debut album from these multi-media originals.
Acclaimed media artist Quayola is a visualiser who works within the confluence of sound and vision. As well as his extensive globe-trotting catalogue of solo exhibitions he has collaborated with Jamie XX, Plaid and the late, great Mira Calix, converging his imagery with their soundscapes. More recently he has paused and re-focused, taking what feels …
Album Review: José Medeles – Railroad Cadences & Melancholic Anthems : a stunning ‘tribute’ to John Fahey’s musical spirit.
So what do you make of tribute albums? Are they places to be seen, a rag bag of cover versions by a bunch of people who have nothing in common except convenient admiration? Well ‘Railroad Cadences & Melancholic Anthems’ by José Medeles may pay homage to John Fahey but there’s a gulf between this album …
PREMIERE: Tatum Gale takes a swipe at music industry cutthroats with ‘New Look, Same Great Flavor’
If the single artwork, above, seems gaudy, then that’s entirely the point: the New Orleans-via-Portland producer and songwriter Tatum Gale is asking you not to judge the book (or in this case, the song) by its cover. About two years since his Both EP, he returned last month with ‘Botanical Babe’, and is quickly following …
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 …
Live Review: Gary Numan / Divine Shade – O2 Academy, Glasgow 10.05.2022
For over 43 years, Gary Numan has fascinated audiences with his robot-like persona. Part innovator, part plagiarist, Numan has been an icon of electronic music since his chart toping single “Are Friends Electric” came out in 1979. He is a very different artist from those early days, the first few singles and albums feel stripped back compared …
Track/Video: T. Gowdy previews ‘Vidisions’ from new album ‘Miracles’ –peak kinetic motivation.
Sometimes electronic music can get short circuited by its own intellectualism, where high concepts and technical processes become the focus. Canadian music producer and audio-visual artist Timothy Gowdy’s work may take the profound as a springboard and it certainly involves a fair share of technological high jinks but these aren’t the defining features. What makes …
LIVE REVIEW: TEKE::TEKE/islandman – Manchester, 08.05.2022
Two exceptional, unmissable psych exports play Manchester’s YES
Album Review: JOYFULTALK – Familiar Science: a dazzling alt-jazz beat connection.
Multi-disciplinary artist, composer and musician Jay Crocker (JOYFULTALK lead-protagonist) works with combinations and reactions, fusing elements with care and microscopic attention to create the surprising but coherent. The last impressive JOYFULTALK release for Constellation, ‘A Separation Of Being’, took the chiming gamelan complexity, ringing peals of electronica and turbulent strings, then scaled things up to …
Album Review: Lalalar – Bi Cinnete Bakar: Furious electro-techno-rock from the Istanbul trio.
Those fine sound selectors at Bongo Joe have really been ripping up the new post punk envelope recently. We’ve had Tout Bleu’s dark-folk electronica, Amami’s earnest Rai inventions and most recently Societe Etrange caused a stir with their free form, dub informed workouts. Now the label is delivering direct from Istanbul, Lalalar’s debut album ‘Bi …
Live Review: Jason Sharp – The Rose Hill, Brighton 3.05.22
Even before the live music began there was a sense that something extraordinary was about to happen in the snug confines of the artsy Rose Hill pub on Tuesday night. The stage was set, dismembered guitar, clamps and vintage vox amp to the left, a yawning cabinet to the right, sprawling with leads that buried …