experimental
Album Review : Champagne Dub – ‘Rainbow’ : Space-dub and cosmic grooves with a distinct kick.
There are ‘drummers’ and there are ‘more than drummers’. ‘Drummers’ play the drums very well as they move from gig to gig, band to band, session to session. ‘More than drummers’ can also do this but they naturally do the ‘more’. Composing, producing, band leading, improvising, collaborating and beyond, think Charles Hayward or Jim White …
Track/Video: A statement of scale and integrity – Montreal ensemble FYEAR preview the dramatic ‘Pt.1 Trajectory’ from upcoming debut album.
So the presser says “FYEAR interrogates our present and future post-capitalist polycrisis“. Any creative project aiming to probe into that vortex would require scale, focus, finesse and integrity, which are exactly the qualities that this Montreal convened collective possess. Led by composer/ saxophonist Jason Sharp and poet/novelist Kaie Kellough, FYEAR have been sculpting their resonant …
Album Review: Kirin J Callinan’s Flamboyance, Vulnerability, and Innovation Displayed in Newly Released Album ‘If I Could Sing’ + Tour Dates
The much-anticipated album, ‘If I Could Sing‘, by the iconic Australian artist Kirin J Callinan, is officially out today. Crafted amidst the diverse landscapes of Sydney, Los Angeles, and a remote coastal batch in New Zealand during the isolating times of the pandemic, this release marks a deeply personal journey for Callinan. The collection of …
Track/Video : Heavy doom protagonists The Body & Dis Fig preview new collaborative album with the explosive ‘Dissent, Shame’.
‘Collabs’ – are they anything more than product placement these days? Well in some worlds driven less by the algorithm, collaboration still has a meaning and a purpose. Step forward the indispensable Thrill Jockey Records and news of an incoming album ‘Orchards of a Futile Heaven’ due 23rd Feb, from the artistic coupling of The …
Track/Video : Singer/composer Erika Angell previews the intense ‘One’ from her bold new album ‘The Obsession With Her Voice’.
Wow this could be cathartic and courageous. As the catalyst to fire her debut solo album Swedish born now Montreal based vocalist, composer and producer Erika Angell reaches deep into her childhood memories and the first time she sang, aged four. ‘The Obsession With Her Voice’ will be released through Constellation on 8th March and …
Album Review: Nino Gvilia – ‘Nicole’ EP : Delicate songs for desperate times.
You may have noticed a couple of quirky tunes drifting out from the home of Hive Mind Records at the back end of ’23. Delivered by ‘new’ singer songwriter Nino Gvilia, the tracks drifted illusively between the tropes of bedroom pop, eastern European folk and lo-fi experimentalism but with a real sense of purpose. These …
Album Review : iPhupho L’ka Biko- ‘Azania’ : introducing a significant South African jazz collective destined to reach out further.
Another piece of vinyl community service here from the We Are Busy Bodies team, sharing out the treasures of South African jazz to a wider listenership. This time though it’s not about resurrecting a long-lost classic from the golden seventies, ‘Azania’ by iPhupho L’ka Biko is the vinyl debut by a band that are now …
Album Review: Dustin Wong & Ari Liloia – ‘Guided To The Panoramic Merge’: delivering a box of folktronica delights and intricate sound-crafting.
There’s several reasons why you really shouldn’t let the release of ‘Guided To The Panoramic Merge’ pass you by as the year fades out. First it’s the inaugural collaboration between erstwhile post rock guitarist of significance and more recently electronic sound-scaper, Dustin Wong and emerging folktronica voice Ari Liloia. Secondly it’s on A Red Thread, …
Album Review : John Garner – ‘Movie Night’ : Re-imagining the soundtrack through an improviser’s lens.
That most singular of labels, Lewes based Difficult Art And Music consistently end the year with a flourish. They capped 2022 with their three volume cassette release ‘Bivouac Of the Avant Garde’, a fulsome resume of the experimental, leftfield scene from those on the inside. Now to round off 2023, the final release from the …
Album Review : Lea Bertucci – Of Shadow and Substance : Pushing through electro -acoustic boundaries and shifting our perspectives.
For over a decade of releases and live performance Lea Bertucci has drawn on the shapes, sounds and possibilities of the clarinet, saxophone, strings, vibraphone and harp to create long form, experimental music that challenges, intrigues and entrances. This dedication means the New York based sound artist dances to the left of the leftfield, in …