rescuing musical virtue in distress.
With a background ranging from jazz to progressive rock and embracing everything from guitars to the more rootsy Mandolin family of instruments, When Mountains Speak has had quite an eclectic musical upbringing. But even that knowledge doesn't quite prepare you for the sheer uniqueness and gorgeous understatement that makes up the music found on From... Continue Reading →
Following the October release of his 'Mockingbird Love' EP comes the much-anticipated ‘next’ full-length album from legendary Scottish music-sculptor Robin Guthrie, titled 'Pearldiving'. On this journey of 10 new tracks, Guthrie returns to his signature instrumental genre, evoking an atmosphere and sound so instantly recognizable, and yet so very personal. From the slow-burning opening notes of ‘Ivy’ to the last swelling distortion... Continue Reading →
This 4 song sonic slice comes, lyrically at least, from a wonderfully subversive place. Although lyrically might not be the right word as its vocal component comes in the form of spoken word pieces, sound bites and film quotes, a sort of word collage which is used to point at everything that is wrong with... Continue Reading →
If there is an EP that better sums up the creative scope and genre-hopping nature of song-crafting in today's music scene than this, then I am yet to stumble across it. Most people would be more than happy to have created a record with such grace and beauty, such cinematic elegance and infectious artistry, that... Continue Reading →
Whilst other, perhaps less imaginative, artists are still patting themselves on the back for merging existing genres into new hybrid forms, Star Goes Nova seem to be able to create whole new genres from the ground up. And that is a much more satisfying sonic scenario, certainly for the listener, so I should imagine for... Continue Reading →
Pianos and percussion form the armature on which nuance and mood hang precariously. This 6 track recording is built around a simple left hand that can feel clumsy or delicate or unsettling depending on how you feel about it. The right hand explores simple melodies and these are often bound up in arpeggiating runs that... Continue Reading →
We know that Color The Void is great at the art of soundscaping. Both Second Guess and the more recent single, Time, display their skills in this area perfectly. And soundscaping is an art in its own right, one that goes above and beyond mere songwriting. If I can turn to my oft-used analogy of... Continue Reading →
If someone was going to write music that would chime perfectly with my current tastes, then it wouldn’t sound radically different to the beautiful and beguiling sounds that Norrisette conjures up. If at all. Back in the heady days of post-punk when synths were new and samples were just about imaginable on the technological horizon,... Continue Reading →
There is much talk at the moment about the challenges facing musicians cut off from their place of work, much moaning about lack of support for the arts and those who make a living within. There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth on social media about the state of the world and the future... Continue Reading →
Anticipation is a much under-appreciated tool in the composers bag of sonic tricks but Call of Dreams is built almost exclusively on just such an energy. From the first, soft and oozing electronic washes it is a track which causes the listener to be constantly waiting for the big sonic jump, the musical pay-off. And... Continue Reading →
For a while the handpan became the hipster instrument of choice, at least it did in my part of the world, the ukulele having fallen out of fashion, just like the banjo and mandolin before it, before being allowed to return to its quiet, sonic folk pastures. So it was an absolute thrill to find... Continue Reading →
If ever there was a piece of music which deserves to be prominently placed in the next Sci-Fi blockbuster movie, then this is it. With it’s obvious Vangelisian, Blade Runner-esque fluidity and a video which revels in mystery, beauty and science fact, this short dream state slice of ambient cinematics goes beyond just being about... Continue Reading →
I’m not saying that Five Days in Krakow wouldn’t be as powerful a song without the great accompanying visuals but sometimes such a pairing, a beautiful song and engaging images, makes both more than the sum of their parts. It is certainly the case here. Five Days in Krakow is a love letter to a... Continue Reading →
When you look back over the history of classical music, it is interesting to see how it has moved from been something exclusive, being performed for the upper echelons of society into a modern world where it has found perhaps a new found sense of purpose, being accessible to the masses by its perfect matching... Continue Reading →
Pekkanini’s music is always going to have that 60’s vibe to it, when one of your most prominent instruments is the Theramin, the associations with past sci-fi theme tunes is hard to avoid. But as his latest album proves, “it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it” and his deftness as... Continue Reading →
There are many ways of writing music, from the rigid and formulaic to the abstract and fluid. It is at the latter end of the spectrum that you find Inkräktare, an occasional collaboration between Dean Garcia and Mark Wallbridge. It takes a brave man to jot down sonic ideas and musical creations in their most unstructured... Continue Reading →
Electronic music always had more potential than the guitar scene that it had to fight its way through. I, being old, remember the way it was treated in its infancy, how it was derided for not being real music, but even in those early, monophonic keyboard days, as ex-punks bent broken keyboards to their will,... Continue Reading →
The last time I encountered Daniel Angelus he was splicing dreamstate pop with hazy synthwave and understated dance grooves and lamenting the loss and longings of two far-flung lovers separated by the vast emptiness of space. And fans of Reflection, the song in question, will find much to their taste on this 4-track outing, the... Continue Reading →
Described as a missing link between the first two albums and a planned forthcoming release, these four tracks have been talked about in hushed tones by those in know for a long time now. Having been recorded over a decade ago prior to debut album No Windows to the Old World, there is much here... Continue Reading →
The instrumental pieces on The Humors, the second full-length album from NYC-based freelance guitarist Ryan Dugré, are meant to create mood and space. Drawing influence from film music, sparse scores such as Neil Young's music for Dead Man, as well as the more melancholic pieces found on Marc Ribot's Silent Movies, Ryan's music is graceful and meditative. Dugré composed the majority of the record in... Continue Reading →
Not that there was ever any doubt, but the fact that Palm Rose choose to open this debut e.p. with a song built of transient grace and gentle drifting qualities, proves that they know just how good their songs are. They are probably too modest to admit it but deep down inside they know. Most... Continue Reading →
Albecq is the collective of prolific London based artists and composers Angus MacRae, James Jones and Thom Robson. Formed in late 2016 through a love of vintage synths, unhurried free-flowing soundscapes and the pioneering ambient expeditions of Basinski and Stars Of The Lid they bring along their debut full length offering ‘A Distant, Guiding Sun.’... Continue Reading →
All music is going to remind you of something that you have heard before, how can it not, there is a finite amount of material to work with and only so many ways that you can combine it. It is a big number, but not a limitless number. Sadly most people are content to put... Continue Reading →
I’ve always been a sucker for ambient, drifty, dreamy music. I’ve also always loved strange, glitchy electronica. But it isn’t often that you find the two coming together in such a complimentary fashion. Kate Bush led the way and the likes for Bat For Lashes carried the torch, but outside of, say, Mandalay and Lamb... Continue Reading →
I’ve always been drawn to contemplative and ambient music such as that found on Invadable Harmony’s EP Beneath The Surface. I guess it comes from being surrounded with live music for a living that the music I chose to fill my personal space with, the music that gently colours my home once the door to... Continue Reading →
Music can mean different things to different people, we all remember the song that was popular or was playing when we had our first kiss or our first dance at a disco, and music, be it good or bad, becomes intertwined with the good times and, sadly, the bad times. Music we heard in our... Continue Reading →
Hourglass is a song which says so much about the musical world we find ourselves in today. With the abandonment of the old tribal allegiances, the hard and fast rules which created rigid styles, musicians are freer to make music which wilfully fuses genres, cross-pollinates sounds and gene-splices musical DNA. Less and less are we... Continue Reading →
Musical genres are pretty much the equivalent of having a nine to five job. Those who adhere to them follow the strictly dictated rules and follow the logical and practical sequences of their chosen path. They serve a purpose and make the world turn in an orderly fashion. That’s fine, it’s the norm, it is... Continue Reading →
You can trust Mr Dog The Bear to take an unusual approach to releasing an album. Normally, as a reviewer, I receive an intangible link to the album’s on line home, if I’m lucky I get a physical version through the post. But Mr Dog The Bear has always been about music built around a... Continue Reading →
As one half of Dead Can Dance, Lisa Gerrard explored wonderful sonic territory and created music which wandered between re-imagined world sounds and soundtrack style arrangements, she painted with cinematic and widescreen musical colours, and balanced the ethereal and the neo-classical. She has since been associated with numerous big budget soundtracks but is equally likely... Continue Reading →
