Alchemical Americana: Califone – Roots and Crowns (Thrill Jockey)
For their fourth proper full-length, Califone update their scrapmetal Harry Smith alchemical Americana with a bit of exotica, sparkle, and sheen. Califone are, to quote Grand Funk Railroad, an American … Continue reading
Post Punk Classics: Joy Division – Closer (1980) album review
On the 40th anniversary of Ian Curtis’ death, we step inside Joy Division’s sepulchural sophomore album, Closer. Closer is often cited as an early influence on goth. While its true … Continue reading
The Best Dark Ambient Albums of March 2020
The streets are all empty. We are all living in quarantine. We are essentially living inside of a Dark Ambient album now. Now is the perfect time to listen to … Continue reading
Ringo Deathstarr – Ringo Deathstarr album review
On their first album in 5 years, Austin, TX’s Ringo Deathstarr trade in more mainstream shoegaze for more esoteric influences. When My Bloody Valentine were on an indefinite hiatus in … Continue reading
Arrias-Davies-Ullén – Crystalline album review
Crystalline is a group improvisation rooted in tradition yet flowering into new, strange, and unexpected shapes. “New music” – that strange amalgam of classical, free jazz, and improvisation – requires … Continue reading
It’s Happening Again… The Soulless Party – The Black Meadow Archive Volume I album review
It’s happening again… The Brightwater Archives are finally unsealed, unleashing a whole new treasure trove of audio and ephemera surrounding the misty mysterious Black Meadow on the North York Moors. … Continue reading
England’s Dreaming: Craven Faults – Erratics & Uncomformities (The Leaf Label)
On Erratics & Unconformities, enigmatic British synth outfit Craven Faults departs the industrial ruins of Northern England for wilder climes. To say that Britain has been undergoing a ferocious transition … Continue reading
Sounds From Underground: NCHX – B-O-M album review (Plastic Horse)
A compendium of underground electronics, Nochexxx’s fifth LP is a tube journey through acid, techno, electroacoustics, radiophonics, IDM, and bass music. B-O-M opens with the sound of a tube station, … Continue reading
Vinyl Of The Week: I Am A Vowel – IO 12″ review
Technoid trance meets dubby dread on IO from Belgium’s I AM A VOWEL Writing in 1975 on the then-contemporary resurgence of interest in traditional trance music, the New York Times … Continue reading
Jodie Lowther – The Cat Collects album review
Jodie Lowther’s fourth solo album is less an album than a spectral landscape to get lost in, over and over. It’s spellbinding. Imagine, if you will, a flickering curtain of … Continue reading
