experimental
Live Review: The All Seeing Hand at Schmørgåsbaag, Hobart, Sunday, 23 April 2017
In the early evening on a Sunday at the very edge of the world, a fitting place to witness an extraordinary performance from New Zealand band The All Seeing Hand. I had already recently noted the remarkable level of talent coming out of New Zealand in my recent review of Fazerdaze, and The All Seeing …
Album Review: Hauschka – ‘What If’
Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee Volker Bertelmann AKA Hauschka’s is about to release his eighth album ‘What If’, haunting melodies, mysterious sounds, pristine ambience, minimalism, frenetic buzz, vintage sci-fi echo and complex patterns ‘What If’ is the representation and culmination of everything Bertelmann has worked towards over the past dozen or so years. “I was …
Album Review: David Douglas – Spectators Of The Universe
David Douglas used to do videos now does music…….ok more info…………he has a wealth of analogue equipment, including a prized Roland Space Echo with which he creates waves of celestial melodies, intertwining them perfectly with crisp, driving beats, swerving through the cosmos, leaving a shower of arpeggiated synths and hypnotic vocals in his wake………more?…. well …
Album review: Xiu Xiu – Forget
From the howled opening lyrics to ‘The Call’ it’s very clear that Xiu Xiu’s latest project is a giant step away from last year’s Plays The Music Of Twin Peaks. Forget takes the project back into original songwriting, yet keeps the haunting atmosphere that they created on their last record. From the leads singles ‘Wondering’, …
Album Review: Richard Pinhas – Reverse
Richard Pinhas is what you’d call a pioneer of both electronic music and experimental rock. His early years were spent recording with first Schizo, then space rock pioneers Heldon, as well as releasing records under his own name. He doesn’t shy away from dissonance and extended stays in musical pieces that seem to go on …
Album Review: Brad Laner – Micro-Awakenings
Brad Laner is one of the most creative musical minds you’ve probably never heard of. He’s a California guy that’s been deep in the experimental music scene since the mid-80s. From cassette excursions with Debt of Nature and Steaming Coils, to the monumental noise pop provocateurs Medicine in the late 80s and early 90s, to …
Album Review: Cellophane Garden – Illuminations
When you think of a musician holed up in the Ozarks of northwest Arkansas creating music amongst those storied wooded hills, the sound that comes to mind is a particular one. That sound probably isn’t of the atmospheric and spatial variety, but more of the old time-y, bluegrass variety. In fact spatial, atmospheric, dreamy, and …
Album Review: Ashley Bellouin – Ballads
After the needle drops on Ashley Bellouin’s debut album titled Ballads you know right away this isn’t going to be a sappy collection of odes to lovers and significant others. The pastoral drone of harmonium, glass armonica, and other assorted spectral toys hit your ears and seem to open a portal that leads into some …
Album Review: Conrad Schnitzler/Schneider TM : Con-struct
Conrad Schnitzler was a German experimental music pioneer. He founded Berlin’s legendary Zodiak Free Arts Lab, a subculture club, in 1967/68. He was also a member of Tangerine Dream, showing up on their debut record Electronic Meditation. He left Tangerine Dream and then formed Kluster with Roedelius and Moebius. Schnitzler recorded three albums with Kluster then …
Album Review: LTO – The Number From Which All Things Come
Bristol based musician LTO has released his debut album ‘The Number From Which All Things Come’ the title refers to the numerology of the number 10, 10 was described by Agrippa (an ancient Roman occult writer) as a complete figure marking the full course of life, he also attributed the number to a sense of totality and end achievement……for …