jazz-rock
Album Review: Malady – Toinen Toista
Finnish prog band Malady’s self-titled debut for Svart Records back in 2015 marked them out as someone to watch out for, marrying hard hard and prog rock with jazz and folk, but follow up ‘Toinen Toista’ manages to push things one step further. It keeps the vintage, classic Finnish (heralded by the likes of Wigwam) …
A buyers’ guide to Steely Dan 1972-1980
I disagree with Steely Dan. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like them. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that during the period of 1972 – 1980, they released some of the finest albums of that era, and in Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had one of the finest songwriting duos to …
Not Forgotten: Steely Dan – Countdown to Ecstasy
Countdown To Ecstasy was an album that I initially struggled with. After the radio-friendly songs of their debut, Steely Dan decided to stretch things further, cut a set of longer than average songs (only two tracks on the entire album clock in at under five minutes) and put an increasing amount of focus on the …
Not Forgotten: Steely Dan – Can’t Buy a Thrill
Steely Dan are one of those acts who are spoken of in hushed tones. Be it their studio perfectionism, their increasingly deft blending of rock and jazz as their career progressed, or their smart arse lyrics, Steely Dan are a band beloved by those who take music very seriously indeed. For many Steely Dan fans, …
Not Forgotten – Steely Dan – Katy Lied
The general consensus seems to be that Katy Lied is Becker and Fagen’s least favourite Steely Dan album, because it didn’t match their levels of studio perfectionism that they had achieved on their other albums. As it turns out that is exactly the reason that it is my favourite Steely Dan album. I’m a rock …
See: King Krule releases new video for A Lizard State
King Krule videos have always nosedived into the surreal. ‘Rock Bottom’ s visual accompaniment transfigured the desolation-induced lyrics into a beautifully contorted mess of Lynchian, Kafkaesque and beat generation reference work, with sparse industrial landscapes, cockroach wallpapers, black lodge diners, cactus women and a pack of brutish ‘city boys’ summoning a real sense of dread, …