experimental
SEE: Otta’s ‘Sick Inside’ has a gorgeous, genre-busting fragility
SOUTH London-based, British-Finnish singer Otta is plotting an intriguing and sonically dazed course out on the creative fringes of singer-songwriter, lofi and soul. Her second EP, entitled Songbook, follows a critically tipped debut at the end of last year; and on the strength of lead track “Sick Inside” promises to be innovative, inventive, playful and …
ALBUM REVIEW: Aārp – ‘Propaganda’
MAKE no mistake, the debut album from classically trained experimentalist Aārp has serious conceptual intent. Entitled Propaganda, and out now on Paris-Lyon-Berlin imprint InFiné, it is pointedly political. The title is predicated on the media portrayal of death of Steve Canico, the French techno fan found drowned after an altercation with police at a festival …
TRACK: Home Counties’ ‘Dad Bod’ – fantastically Peel show awkward squad
IT WOULD seem the Bristol underground scene is in rude health. Last week we had a new download-only only round-up from Dorset boys moved uptown with a whole clutch of stoner psych goodness, Leeches. And now we have a second missive from Brizzle-based guitar shamblers Home Counties: and it’s a cracking, snotty-cuffed slice of John …
ALBUM REVIEW: Yair Elazar Glotman and Mats Erlandsson – ‘Emanate’
FATCAT’s boutique 130701 imprint is one of the leading go-tos for the experimental edge of modern composition: that zone where classical bleeds and blends with modern rock and electronic thinking, cross-fertilizing and moving forward. Out now is a first full-length collaboration for the label between Berlin’s Yair Elazar Glotman and Stockholm’s Mats Erlandsson, who have …
ALBUM REVIEW: Check Masses – ‘Nightlife’
FOR MY money, Edinburgh is the most beautiful first-division city in these isles. Its architecture, its hills, its views north and east over silvered cold seas. And, god, the culture. But it’s also the city of Ian Rankin’s crime noir; of the graffitoed walls and burnt-out cars of Royal Academician Jock McFadyen; of some Irvine …
TRACK: Jaga Jazzist’s “Spiral Era” remix is heading for other galaxies
GRADUALLY and cultishly, Norwegian octet Jaga Jazzist have been building probably the most interesting and wide-ranging catalogue in the modern jazz sphere; wholly unafraid of leaping genre fences, taking and tempering and incorporating strands of other musics in the most creative way. Listen to an album such as 2002’s A Livingroom Hush, or 2015’s Starfire, …
EP REVIEW: JOCKSTRAP – Wicked City: we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto
WARP debutantes Jockstrap – the duo Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye, jazz and electronics students respectively in a previous life – really do screw with the ol’ head, in the nicest possible way. It’s not like you haven’t heard many of the influences they draw on before, perhaps; but it’s the insouciant way they combine …
Premiere: Tristan Welch – Asset / Defect
Washington D.C. experimental artist Tristan Welch has returned with a new single Asset / Defect, out tomorrow and taken from the cd of the same name and we’re delighted to premiere it today on Backseat Mafia. Welch specialises in creating soundscapes using electric guitars and effects, and has active since the early 2000’s, his outlook …
Album review: Windy & Carl – Allegiance and Conviction
DEARBORN, Michigan, isn’t necessarily a name that trips off the tongue when you think of musical powerhouses; but this little satellite city of Detroit is a quiet mecca for fans of the more blissed-out, ambient end of the post-rock spectrum. It’s where you can find Stormy Records, the secondhand collectors’ vinyl joint run by husband …
Album Review: Warmer – Wooden Box with Strings
Warmer is the project of Nature Strip’s John Encarnacao – Backseat reviewed their last EP, Past Pacific, back in 2018. More recently the other main songwriter in The Nature Strip, Pete Marley, released ‘Savoury-toothed Tiger’ under the name Marveline which I reviewed last last month. With the release of Warmer’s new album ‘Wooden Box with …