experimental
ALBUM REVIEW: Less Bells – ‘Mourning Jewelry’: absolutely affecting drone-post classical forged in loss
JULIE CARPENTER, who records for Texas’ home of boundary-pushing out-rock and drone beauty Kranky, has journeyed from musical academia at the University of North Texas, through session work as a violinist for bands such as Eels, to finding her own musical self as Less Bells. She released a graceful and beautiful set, Solifuge, for the …
See: Anna von Hausswolff reveals new album, plus new video for ‘Sacro Bosco’
If you are looking for gothic atmosphere, dark waves of sound and focused experimentalism then Anna von Hausswolff is waiting for you. Last seen supporting Sunn O))) in full band mode, this singular artist is set to add yet another layer to her eclectic catalogue with the release of ‘All Thoughts Fly’ on 25th September …
SEE: Ólafur Arnalds returns with the beautiful noir of ‘Back To The Sky’
IF YOU like your music to come with an architecture of gorgeously constructed post-classicism, an experimental and conceptual edge, yet still have enough presence in the world of contemporary pop that you can at least make the shapes of humming along to it, then Ólafur Arnalds is absolutely your man. The Icelandic composer, who found …
PREMIERE: The Galaxy Electric – ‘Tomorrow Was Better Than Yesterday’: retrotronics to watch Earthrise
THE GALAXY ELECTRIC is American husband and wife duo Augustus and Jacqueline, who adore the music of the past of the future: that sweet, groovy as hell, jetpack-sporting and pristine white polo-necked spot where Broadcast, The Soundcarriers and others converge to fulfil the prophecy of the music we should be listening to today, in the …
ALBUM REVIEWS: Andrew Elaban – ‘Variegated Tributary’/Claire Rousay – ‘Tuufuhhoowaah’: by turns, handsomely dronesome and fiercely plunderphonic
WHITED SEPULCHRE is one of those loving little curators of out-musics that play nuanced and important roles in our lives: their guiding light is that these creations are out there, finding the ears of those who are receptive, who will swoon, who’ll gather little aural treasures to their chests. The label has been operating out …
SEE: the Suicide chop-up of $hit & $hine’s ‘Hillbilly Moonshine’ – album in October
WHEN the going gets tough … You know the rest. A summer that’s bust more than a few consciousnesses has proved the right conditions for Austin, Texas’s Craig Clouse, who records fractured drone-psych with a dancefloor edge as $hit & $hine, to lay down deep frazzled psych groove, which we can lose ourselves in come …
ALBUM REVIEW: Conrad Schnitzler/Frank Bretschneider – ‘Con-struct’: beguilingly far out in sound deconstruction
Frank Bretschneider’s instalment in Bureau B’s occasional ‘Con-struct’ series is a fascinating, rewarding and wholly synapse-rearranging glitchtronica journey – do not operate heavy machinery under the influence
TRACK: Olivier Alary & Johannes Malfatti – ‘Drifting’: out-classical, ISDN warmth
MONTREAL-based, Toulousain composer Olivier Alary and his Berlin-based compatriot Johannes Malfatti have been friends for many years – that kind of relationship so much easier to conduct in our modern fibre-optic world. With an album apiece under their belts: Johannes’ Surge for Glacial Movements, and Olivier’s 2016 debut for FatCat’s 130701 imprint, Fiction/Non-Fiction, it became …
ALBUM REVIEW: Dmitry Evgrafov – ‘Surrender’: fashioning post-classical into new shapes
FATCAT’S boutique 130701 imprint is neck and neck with Erased Tapes as the stable of the sometimes rarified, always immensely listenable world of modern- and post-classical; especially the piano-based end of the colour wheel, the arena from which Dmitry Evfragov springs, and at which imprint he releases among the esteemed company of Max Richter, Johann …
SEE: Matmos’s ‘No Concept’: boundary-pushing collagists return
THEY’VE been quietly toying with our minds for many years now, Matmos: like the doll at the back of the wardrobe which, blessed with life, just twitches and stirs enough at 3am once in a while to introduce doubt into our brains. Exhibit one, m’lud: A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure, their …