rescuing musical virtue in distress.
Music trying to push at the boundaries of sonic convention often gets things very wrong. Either it tries too hard to be different, is too "out there" for even the most adventurous and discerning tastes and collapses into an undignified, and unlistenable, mess, or it just tries to push together two or more genres that... Continue Reading →
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 →
If ever there was an offering of music so difficult to classify it would be Hey! Tonal's new self-titled album. The brainchild of multi-instrumentalists Mitch Cheney and Alan Mills, the music is built up in layers and I rather like this approach to sound production, it's a little like sketching in audio form and the... Continue Reading →
There are certain instruments that, if I see them listed on an album, my interest is piqued. Banjo is one, I have a weird fondness for the strange twang that only comes with a banjo. Another is the cello, there is something brooding and rich about the tonal qualities of the cello, it sits rather... Continue Reading →
To say that Lone Cabin Crow is a strange album is both an understatement and the utmost compliment. It is strange in that it seeks new pathways through recognisable genres or blends of genres and taking sonic roads less travelled that at least skirtclose to the familiar. And I do mean strange as a compliment.... Continue Reading →
Where I Am a Rocketship fits into the musical landscape is not the issue, I doubt that you could get two people to agree on that anyway, all that matters is that they exist. And if their music is the epitome of genre-hopping…or better still genre-swerving…sonic creativity then they are beating a path that others... Continue Reading →
Most music is made with only entertainment in mind. Some might occasionally give you something to think about. Less often it might inform you or at least have immersed you, however briefly, in a place new and unexpected. Very rarely does it present whole new and beguiling topics to muse upon, does it make you... Continue Reading →
I've seen him about. I've watched play in others bands. I've heard music that he has scored for other people's projects. I've even exchanged a few brief words with him here and there, post-gig and on the hoof. But I don't think you start understanding a musician until you have heard music that they have... Continue Reading →
I'll be the first to admit that Fabp, in all of his musical guises, confuses me. But that's okay, who wants to live in a world where answers are easy to come by or where there are no surprises? When you head into one of his albums you are assured of only one certainty. Nothing... Continue Reading →
I'm in a corridor in an experimental situationist arts centre somewhere in Northern Europe and Blurt are playing in a room to my left and Gong are playing in a room to my right. What should I do? Easy. Stay right where I am and listen to Paar Linien. This is the happiest I've ever... 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 →
Both as a solo composer and as frontman of the gloriously experimental The Academy of Sun, Nick Hudson has been responsible for some gorgeous and creative, not to mention gorgeously creative, music. Some of it has pushed the boundaries of what alternative rock can be, at other times it has taken more graceful and ornate... Continue Reading →
I'm always intrigued when you read a list of artist's influences and inspirations and not one of them lies within what you would call the mainstream for modern music. Whilst so many artists are looking to tried and tested templates from Oasis to Taylor Swift to Drake to emulate, Fredo Viola follows more in the... 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 →
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 →
Life is at its most fulfilling when it is challenging. It needs to be full of the unexpected and the new. Of wonder and possibility. It needs to take us to new places and allow us to see the world in different ways. And the same is true of music, music that matters at least.... Continue Reading →
Never rely on genres. They always let you down. I should imagine that ten different journalists writing about Arhkota's strange and beguiling new single would label it with ten completely different generic soundbites. And even then, none of those would accurately capture the broken, classical grace, the oriental vibe, the blending of ambience with abrasion,... Continue Reading →
If you think of the bass guitar being used as a lead instrument, then the chances are that your mind conjures the sound of over the top solos and bombastic grooves. Essentially, most people who have fallen into such a category in the past have always tried to force four strings through a six-string prism... Continue Reading →
Sometimes it is the simplest and the oddest things which are the difference between giving an album a spin and leaving it unexplored, especially given the majestic and dangerously unstable stack of CDs found on my desk. But as soon as I saw the phrase "Italy's ayatollah-core trio," I knew that I needed to check it out.... Continue Reading →
I’m not saying that he makes a conscious effort to do so but Simon McCorry’s music does raise the question of where the border lies between music and what lies beyond. Of course, there is no real answer to that and Nature in Nature is as musical and relevant…perhaps even more so, than the pop... Continue Reading →
Woah! This is certainly a track which gets right down to business. No softening up, no gentle easing in, just a sonic salvo powerful enough to knock you across the room. Still, if you are going to make a fast, first impression, why not just come out swinging? And that is exactly what happens on... Continue Reading →
You know when you are searching out music on the internet, you open a few too many windows and you end up with two tracks playing at the same time due to some automated bot triggering a tune. The Internal Conflict sounds a bit like that at times. But rather than making for a series... Continue Reading →
If you are one of those people who like your music neatly boxed and labelled with appropriate names and sonic demarkations, to fit neatly into existing genres or sound like what has gone before, then you should avoid this two-track offering (what we used to call a single, kids) from Unspeakable Vehicle. In fact, stop... Continue Reading →
With a lot of artists, it is easy to set the scene before heading off into a the rabbit hole of writing a review. So many seem to have a definite direction of travel or a style or sound which is easy to sum up in a few short soundbites. But where do you start... Continue Reading →
When you write about music for a living, you tend to be able to get a handle on most things. You have either heard something like it before, or can see some of the joins between this genre and that style, perhaps you can even hazard a guess at what might be in the artists... Continue Reading →
Titles can tell you a lot about music. Not so much what that music might sound like but it does suggest something about the way the artist behind it thinks. Anyone who capitalises their title and introduces unnecessary spacing, writes track names in lowercasewithnospacing, removes vowels from a ttl or uses one title to reference... Continue Reading →
Get Your Shit Together is like little that you have heard before. Well, it’s like little I have heard before and I basically listen to music for a living. I guess the clues where there to see in the track titles. What does Observation of Obfuscation really mean? Is it actually possible to have a... Continue Reading →
A few months ago I reviewed an album by STANLÆY called The Human Project, it was more of an art piece in that it took in performance art, videography and the ‘album’ was merely the soundtrack to this piece. It was strange, unnerving and unlike anything I had heard before, so with eager ears I was... Continue Reading →
Rules are made to be broken. We all know that. To some that is a worn-out cliche, to others it is a way of life. Rule breaking for the sake of it is fine if you want to head off down some belligerent, non-conformist, punky-rant route, but rule breaking with a purpose is where it... Continue Reading →
If the idea of a post-genre world is one that is now widely embraced by modern music makers, some artists, Cellista certainly being one of them, have gone much further, even bluring the lines between the various artistic disciplines themselves. And if the recent Transfigurations album painted this idea across a wide canvass, current single,... Continue Reading →
