“Forget grooving with a Pict” says Eiderdown Records, of their new live cassette from Seattle’s Fungal Abyss, “this species of furry things are blasting away, the sounds echoing across ancient underground river beds where blind cave-fish raise their heads and say ‘Right…
Signor Benedick the Moor‘s self-released debut El Negro was like King Lear filtered through Janelle Monae’s Archandroid, a grandiose, genre-hopping tour de force as deep and glorious as any rap album released over the past half decade and, for my money, the single most impressive hip-hop…
In its only one-and-a-half years of existence, Vancouver-based cassette imprint 1080p has become one of the most consistent labels around, releasing cassettes that speak to a focused but ever-sprawling reach of modern electronic music. With a release schedule that grows exponentially from month to month,…
Even as Disappears have slowed to a schedule of one new album every eighteen months, their sound is still evolving at a breakneck pace. Just as luckily for us, their trajectory feels almost completely separate from any larger trends in the past five years. When the band dropped Era last year and pivoted…
This Is All There Is comes from Austin based lo-fi recorder Lew Houston, his first recent release not “recorded in an RV in a driveway in Austin, TX,” as with his three prior Breatherholes releases, and the first recorded with a full band, now re-christened Lesser Beings. Mixed and recorded…
#1 – 11/17/14 – Portland based synth recorder Daryl Groetsch shared a new long-form ambient composition, his first work to date formatted as a typical, YouTube relaxation video, with suitably relaxing keywords trailing the title “Sleep, Meditation, New Age, Ambient, Synth;”…
Big Hush has got this sound down pat. The sound is one that functions not unlike the band’s name would leave you believe. It’s a sound that barrels through a wooly cavern with robust, toothy guitars, hypnotically layered vocals (and sweet in that their voices remind me of The Weepies), and glassy,…
The ascending, pulsating, relentless synths that open Night Riders’ debut full length are deliciously misleading. Just as soon as you’re grabbing ahold of steady ground, weathering that synthetic storm, the combo blast their 2xLP Future Noir wide open, into cool grooves. Opening cut, “Sombre…
We’re kicking this week’s stream off with the latest from Russian imprint Full of Nothing, a collaborative three-way EP from label proprietors Love Cult and friends released at the beginning of this month: “Pick a Piper / Squalloscope / Love Cult is a collaborative EP by three artists…
As the sordid story goes, Abigail Rosa Ghimp was born in London in the early eighties, moved to Germany to study Art History and began recording sounds with little to no listenership whatsoever – basically passing around her dark, mysterious sound collages to close friends. In 2012, Ghimp suffered…
The ever-prolific Larry Wish dropped another sprawling synth odyssey upon us, this time as part of the new Orange Milk Split Series. The series is designed to, as the label puts it, “highlight four artists from different regions independently focusing on similar, culturally connected musical strains.”…
Having just heard the full, uncut version of The Smiths’ “How Soon is Now?,” the only criticism I can offer regarding the second single from Leisure’s debut EP is that the band does not hammer their layers of bass-driven, chorused pop into deep repetition. “Gone Again,”…
The desert is limitless in its perspective and treachery, but Riley Reasor translates that infinite sense into playfulness and numerous genre disguises. The singer-songwriter recorded his Tumbleweeds tape in the California version of the desert, and he exits with a case of robust jazz arrangements and…
We’ve had an eye on Warsaw-based cassette imprint Wounded Knife since its inception as a guaranteed distributor of thoughtful experimental music, ranging from caustic drone to free jazz and just about everything in-between, all packaged with tender loving care. Highlights have included mind-melting…
Although his name may not ring immediately ring any bells, Timm Mason has been involved with a surprising amount of modern psych-rock and -folk gems, having recorded with his main band Midday Veil or been involved with the likes of Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Akron/Family, Timba Harris, Wolves in the…
#1 – 11/2/2014 – Canadian producer Lnrdcroy shared a new video for “Sunrise Market” off of his 1080p cassette Much Less Normal; tapes are long gone, incidentally, but the almost hour long album will only set you back $5 Canadian for a digital version. The video comes from enigmatic…
Taavi Tulev is an Estonian experimental electronic composer, field recorder, sound designer… an artist with an interest in context and presentation, which is perhaps a large part of why he seems to be developing a distinct penchant for unusually packaged CDs. In 2013 he released a compact EP of…
Leicester, UK newcomer Samuel Chuku displays a keen ear for a beat and a subtle lyrical dexterity on the self-produced, goofy science guy sampling “We’re Beautiful,” a stand-out track from his breezy debut EP Can’t Complain. Going under the pen name SoulThePoet, Chuku stakes…
In the four years that have passed since Going Places was released it’s become increasingly obvious why that was the point at which Yellow Swans had to end. Both Pete Swanson and Gabriel Saloman were indeed heading somewhere, but their destinations were way too far apart. But while Swanson’s…
I consider myself lucky enough to have worshiped at the spliced tape altar thrown up by Toronto’s Andrew Zukerman for almost a decade now. As half of the jump-cut jester duo known as Gastric Female Reflex, and under many solo guises (Charles Balls, DJ Longhorn Grille, etc.), Zukerman has demonstrated…
