Track/Video : Guitarist/Producer Gitkin previews new album ‘Golden Age’ with the rocking global grooves of ‘The One’.
Since the days of Dick, Duane and Hank the twang has never settled on a single sound, it’s been the vehicle for numerous destinations. Link Wray took the rockabilly to hard rock route, Man or Astroman surfed sci-fi, Huevos Rancheros headed for punk rock and Khruangbin continue along the soul-funk highway. US Guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and …
Track/Video : MPB new wave mover Dora Morelenbaum previews incoming album with the lush and lyrical ‘Essa Confusão’.
The jet-stream of MPB may stretch right back to the sixties but it keeps powering onwards with singer/songwriter Dora Morelenbaum right there at the epicentre of this latest surge. She’s an artist steeped in a weighty musical heritage with parents, composer Jacques and vocalist Paula, having CVs which include work with Tom Jobin, Gal Costa …
Album Review: WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN –’No More Apocalypse Father’: A probing, poetic and profound alt-rock record of today.
While much contemporary music of today seems required to focus on the ‘me’ some artists continue to probe wider into the things that ‘we’ do collectively, the injustices, the inhumanities, the inequalities. Since co-founding the seminal Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the agit post rock assembly Thee Silver Mount Zion, Efrim Manuel Menuck has been …
Album Review: Citron Citron – ‘Maréeternelle’ : more distinct and deceptive electronic pop from the Genevan duo.
What flavour of pop are Genevan duo Citron Citron, avant- arty- absurdist- alt, lo fi -leftfield- chamber- surreal, synth – electro – experimental – no-wave or bits of all these thrown in at random and rising to the top at different times? No matter, more important things about Citron Citron can be said: the musical …
Album Review: Michael Scott Dawson – ‘The Tinnitus Chorus’ : A poignant and moving ambient statement crafted through collaboration.
Saskatchewan sound artist and producer Michael Scott Dawson is someone who’s both artistically prolific and restless. A stalwart for the Torontonian We Are Busy Bodies label, he’s released three solo albums plus two other records as a lead member of post-rock minimalists Peace Flag Ensemble, and all since 2020. But Dawson’s momentum has been cruelly …
Album Reviews : Daniel García Trio – ‘’Wonderland’ : an exceptional, tight-knit jazz piano trio that keeps its mind open.
The piano trio is such an established form of jazz expressionism that it can be tricky to broaden the scope and keep the messages fresh. In recent times the classic Mehldau/Grenadier/Ballard trio broke new ground with their inspirational interpretations, Phronesis brought dynamic experimentalism to the party and Go Go Penguin thrilled through their strident dance …
Album Review: Federico Balducci & fourthousandblackbirds –‘Succulent Succubus’ : probing and powerful philosophical-drone music bursting with ideas.
Writing about any music released via the defiantly unconventional Difficult Art and Music imprint should not be a straightforward undertaking and maybe the task exposes the gaping flaws in the reviewing game. What is good, why compare, what is shallow, why is this deep and who says so? All a reviewer really does is say …
Track: LA vocalist/composer Sharada Shashidhar announces new album ‘Soft Echoes’ with the succulent, sensitive title track.
You may have been lucky to have caught a glimpse of LA based vocalist/composer/producer Sharada Shashidhar’s debut EP ‘Rahu’ a few years ago. Here was a musician bringing something different to the future soul arena. Yes there were those spikey beats, intricately collaged electronics and no limits influences, but the vocal delivery eased away from …
Album Review: Belong – ‘Realistic IX’: The illusive ambient-shoegaze duo return, their deceptive power undiminished.
Things may come and things may go but the shoegaze dance still unravels. Thirty years on from a time when Catherine Wheel were possibly the most important thing in the world to a small herd of droopy fringed teenagers, some of the scene’s more prominent pioneers have been having another moment. Ride have heaved themselves …
Album Review: Passepartout Duo And Inoyama Land – ‘Radio Yugawara’ : A sublime collaboration delivers a fresh and fulfilling ambient statement.
Living with music, living through music, living inside music are descriptions which could all get thrown around when trying to capture Passepartout Duo’s relationship with their sound art. The sonic partnership between pianist Nicoletta Favari and percussionist Christopher Salvito which began in 2015, thrives on constant travel, seeking out new collaborations as well as inspirational …