rescuing musical virtue in distress.
Books and covers eh? Maybe it is just me but the name Kid Kin conjures images of down-with-the-kids, rappy, cooler than thou, music, a fad which blew in on this week's zeitgeist shortly to be replaced as another fashion is ushered in. But that's the problem with pre-conceptions and jumping to conclusions. We all do... Continue Reading →
Introspective, ethereal musings provide a framework on which the lyrics hang throughout this record. Beautiful arrangements abound and provide the perfect support for a sweet vocal delivery that always finds the right time to strain and almost break. This is a classy emotional rendering that transcends the language barrier that I was often handicapped by.... Continue Reading →
Kicking off with the gloriously euphoric Have A Good Time, New Era is everything that you want in these dark and difficult times. Music has always been a means of escape for many and particularly through the recent isolations and social distancing people have used it as something to lean on to get them through... Continue Reading →
I've never really known where the sonic demarcations in dance music lie, where Downtempo merges into Ambient, where Deep House gets so blissed out it becomes Chill-wave, but then, I suspect not many people have, certainly not those who make the music. To such creatives, it is just music, and the sounds, styles and samples... Continue Reading →
This record takes a while to get moving. It initially feels like the electronics are driving the artists but after the loops and crunches hook onto a suitable groove the artists enter with shamanic chants and choral calls and responses. This all adds up to a well-considered aural journey. There are fragments of Swans, Can,... Continue Reading →
It's fairly easy to write a song that has a lot going on. Pop and rock music is littered with over-egged, more is more slices of it. Writing a song that is built out of the bare minimum, out of only what really matters, however, is a different art altogether. Those who are successful at... Continue Reading →
Say the phrase classical music and most people will automatically think of the past. But classical music is a genre like any other and so it moves with the times too. Star Goes Nova makes music that could easily be seen as the cutting edge of that genre, especially with this gorgeous creation. Okay, it... Continue Reading →
The back story behind the artist known as LUNA clipse is one of manic delusions, visions of the apocalypse and even false arrest. And whether the tale is wholly true or just makes for intriguing PR doesn't really matter. What matters is that track highlights issues of mental health, amongst other things, and its release... Continue Reading →
From the primordial soup or the depths of the ocean, the listener is drawn into a bubbling aquatic world of subsea sounds. Dub, dubstep, house and electronica are all featured on this record. It's a mix that I would normally find annoying listening to in isolation and not in the context of a club or... Continue Reading →
As long as you don't concern yourself too long with where Eat My Cult fits into the scheme of things generically or stylistically speaking, you are going to really enjoy this latest release from Let There Be Darkness. It's a dark sonic trip, a blend of voodoo vibes and twisted alt-pop, shamanic electronica and real... Continue Reading →
Inspiration comes from many diverse places and this is certainly never truer than when it comes to making music. The starting point for a song can range from a simple pang of love or a sunny day to the deepest personal reflections or secret wisdom found in ancient teachings. It is to the latter, the... Continue Reading →
Arriving with the tag line "sad vibes for rainy days" the track immediately sets the tone with Kristen Stewart's now-classic monologue of being at odds with the modern world from the film Anesthesia, something that it returns to reinforce the feeling of disaffection and dislocation. From there the song runs through a melancholic, electronic soundscape,... Continue Reading →
I read recently that none other than Lou Reed said that he often didn't know what his songs were about until he performed them live. Only then, in that live environment, did they begin to reveal their true nature and start making sense to him. The suggestion that the artist isn't always the most reliable... Continue Reading →
Tom Since Birth makes electronic music that embraces the full spectrum of what the term means and where the genre might be going. It has dance elements to it but rises above such simple rhythms. It is largely instrumental but can communicate with the listener through its weave of sounds in ways that many bands... Continue Reading →
And there was I thinking that it was only Grasslands that combined a love of making exploratory and innovative music with a real-life career in ecology and the environment. You have to admit that it is a pretty small cross-over point on any Venn Diagram that you care to create. But Gilles Poizat lives a... Continue Reading →
The speed of the modern world in particular and the impact of the isolation of recent pandemic enforced Lockdowns has led to a massive upsurge in mental health issues. It's something that affects us all. From that feeling of not wanting to get out of bed in the morning to face the challenges of a... Continue Reading →
If you are one of those people who thinks that classical music lives only in the past, that world music is found primarily in the far-flung corners of the world, that electronic music is the bastion of the dance music set, then you need a bit of Alex Stolze in your life. But creating music... Continue Reading →
Although happy to admit references to '80s and '90's dream-pop sounds and electronic scenes, Something Stranger is nothing if not music for the here and now. It is easy to find past sounds threaded through the music, a sort of gentle motorik hypnotism powers much of the music and, songs such as The Storm could... Continue Reading →
Ask me to name the things that I love about Forest Robots and it is difficult to know where to start. Perhaps start with the names of the tracks. Take, In The Climb, Not The Summit, Lies The Most Wisdom, for instance, it sounds like a piece of ancient teching rather than a song title... Continue Reading →
From the first delicate and dulcet tones of opener Chalice of The Wind, a scene is set for where Reflections goes and what it deals with. These first, haunting sounds seem to drift like sonic mists rather than take on any more substantive musical form, a melancholic dirge floating into your senses on a cold... Continue Reading →
Having woven his way through some very innovative and interesting musical landscapes over the years, on stage, in the studio and behind the scenes, any new music from Sebastian Reynolds makes a loud ping on the radar of any interested in experimental, forward-thinking music. Nihilism Is Pointless, following very quickly (certainly by modern standards) on... Continue Reading →
You should never judge a book by its cover. And you should never judge n album by just the opening song. For whilst the first track 6.59 is an understated slice of chilled, jazz-infused piano, the sort that evokes images of smokey cocktail bars from the 50's full of sharp-suited men and elegant ladies, the... Continue Reading →
So many people listen to music quite wrongly. That might sound like a bit of an elitist thing to say but we seem to have become so invested in the throwaway, six-word, repetitive pop chorus that we miss the deftness and smarts of the music which it uses as a musical vehicle. It's why I... Continue Reading →
Taken from the soon to drop EP Delilah, Often is a smooth blend of sultry, up to the minute R&B grooves, ambient pop vibes and sensual electronica. It runs on a platform of floating synths and skittering beats, a blend which brings just enough pace and structure to the drifting sonics but which never gets... Continue Reading →
Writing about music is obviously a passion for people like me, but it is also a way of making a living. This obviously means that, like any job, you find yourself writing about music just out of obligation, a means to an end. Sometimes you are pleasantly surprised by what you find under the pen,... Continue Reading →
As part two of the Monomyyth Trilogy, which began with the breathtaking beauty of Astronomica, you would expect there to be some similarities between the two albums. And indeed there are. But there is also plenty which makes this album able to stand alone from its predecessor. As the opening track, Kabuki of the Starred... Continue Reading →
Ambient music has probably been the saviour of the soul over the last, terrible, year. Many people, unable to go to live shows or hang around in the usual hustle and bustle of a lively social scene, have been turned to ambient music to add some colour and company to their isolated existences. The art... Continue Reading →
With a title like that, you expect the song to either be crazy as a cat’s whisker or dark and brooding with nods to HP Lovecraft or Edgar Allan Poe, refreshingly, it is neither. As slices of trancey electronic dance music goes it’s mightily impressive. Built around a twinkly keyboard riff, the music can grow... Continue Reading →
Why hasn’t anyone done this before? Perhaps they have and I’m just out of the loop but as a concept what Norse Foundry do seems like the logical collision of worlds, a place where Role Playing and Tabletop gaming meets underground music. When gathered round the table for a session of your favourite Cyberpunk Role... Continue Reading →
To be perfectly frank I've struggled to review this album but with some perseverance I found an inroad on the third listening. Initially I found the vocal and language particularly jarring. I love European sounding recordings but confess I'm generally drawn to the French and Eastern parts of the eurosound spectrum. However, once I found... Continue Reading →