experimental
Premiere: Montreal’s Population II ready new album with the intense ‘Pourquoi qu’on dort pas’
There’s no language barrier with Montreal trio Population II, so don’t worry if you can’t speak French – the Francophones serve up enough intensity to get the meaning across. They’ve been building up toward the release of their new album Électrons libres du québec for a few months at this point, but its release is …
Track/Video : Percussionist/producer Ben Sloan, previews the sweeping ‘Philistine’ from incoming ‘muted colors live’ EP.
Percussionist and producer Ben Sloan looks set to continue his confident step out into the spotlight with an incoming second release, the EP ‘muted colors live’, due 27th October via NY’s New Amsterdam Records. Sloan’s decade plus as collaborator and contributor, drumming with the likes of Moses Sumney, Beth Orton, WHY? and The National, may …
Premiere: Stream Careful’s first new music in a decade, the ‘Promise/Practice’ EP
Back in June, Eric Lindley resumed releasing music as Careful after taking a hiatus from the project following 2014 album The world doesn’t end. His first new release since then picks up where he left off nine years ago as if no time had passed. Of course, a lot can happen in nearly a decade, …
Album Review : Arthur Hnatek Trio – ‘Apnea’ EP : bringing new energy to the Jazz/IDM intersection.
To introduce Arthur Hnatek as a jazz drummer only skits across the surface of the soundscape he works within. Sure he has drummed in units led by Tigran Hamasayan and Eric Truffaz but primarily Hnatek’s own musical explorations lead him closer to destinations where electronica and acoustic generated rhythms cross paths. He’s been releasing music …
Track/Video: Electro-acoustic voyager Mount Maxwell previews the panoramic ‘Sky Eye’ from incoming ‘Littlefolk’ album.
Sonic geographer, Hotham Sound label founder and electronic musician Jamie Tolagson a.k.a Mount Maxwell returns this Autumn to continue a run of gently stunning soundscapes that began with the two part ‘Blue Highways’ (from 2016 to 18), continued with 2019’s ‘Only Children’ and last surfaced with ‘The People’s Forest’ a couple of years ago. His …
Album Review: Thomas Fehlmann – Umdrehen (Edition DUR)
“Turning around” is Thomas Fehlmann’s new magic word. It allows him to approach constraints and difficult topics from a new perspective, turning them into something positive. “Umdrehen” is an exploration of sound, combining linguistic and artistic work practices. The album starts with “Bundy/Blessing,” disrupting Fehlmann’s ambient surface and introducing spatial music that leaves gaps for …
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 …
Track/Video : Justin Walter previews long awaited new album ‘Destroyer’ with the title track’s aching beauty.
Jazz trumpeter and electronic musician Justin Walter is an artist who obviously takes care. It’s been six years since his last for Kranky, the ethereally wonderfilled ‘Unseen Forces’ and before that his debut on the label, ‘Lullabies & Nightmares’ announced itself in 2014. So incoming news of his new album ‘Destroyer’, due 13th October through …
Premiere: Stream New Yorkers FORAGER’s essential debut album Pipedream Firewood
We’ve been lucky enough to live with this album for a little bit. If there’s one thing you need with New York trio FORAGER, it’s time – there’s an immediacy to their music that’s quite refreshing, but the added layers of complexity will take more than one listen to begin to reveal themselves. It also …
Album Review: Brin & Dustin Wong – Texture II : An intense connection of micro-beats and shifting loops with a free jazz spirit.
Imagining the outcome of this collaboration is in many ways a bit of a stretch. First there is guitarist Dustin Wong, in the past a key member of the under-valued Ponytail, who rode the first math-rock wave along with Battles, and more recently an explorer of interwoven guitar pieces, often long form, for Thrill Jockey. …