100 words music reviews
Stellar Drifting is an assured work that channels upbeat pads and delicate tones through a sonic optimism that never crosses over into naivety. That composure is largely due to Fitzgerald’s experience as both an electronic music lover, expounder, and as a Black Market Records employee: the guy knows his stuff. There are moments, as on […]
This record sounds as though it was made by a band of sparrows, who enrolled in music school, microdosed on psychedelics and met at the studio. ‘Let’s Turn It Into Sound’ swoops, glides, but also reflects, stands still, chirps. It is winding and unpredictable, eschewing long, ascending passages for enterprising left turns. The pop tones […]
Passively seeing beauty in the green of the countryside is easy; seeking beauty in the city is another matter. The former involves letting nature wash over the eyes, while the latter forces a squint through the cracks of a seemingly seamless metallic sheen. On their second full-length album, The Remote Viewer scrunched up beats as […]
No Rules Sandy’s most experimental moment comes with its closer: it’s a light, swaying acoustic track with strong vocals cloaked in a kind of timidness. The song is beautiful, but written with a stock palette. It is experimental because it is how the project, filled with sharp, quietly innovative arpeggios, chooses to say farewell. With […]
In 1980, a young Austrian named Konrad Becker accentuated electronic capability amidst the tonal constraints of ‘Western music’. A year later, he acted in Das Boot. Becker is now a lecturer, among many, many other things. A single lecture of his will cast most mainline documentaries to the realm of the rudimentary. Monotonprodukt 02 conveys […]
Long-time Hyperdub artist and Manthe Ribane collaborator, Okzharp, releases an EP of pummelling dance tunes. There’s a small degree of soul missing in the cuts: one that came through with the unpredictability of 2018’s Closer Apart. Outside the Ride is at its most eloquent in the industrial fabrics, where an expressive maximalism takes place. It’s […]
On a fascinating collaboration, Joe Armon-Jones and Mala play with their lighter sides without sacrificing the undercutting darkness of dub. It’s central pitfall is that it works with the odds: the stakes are low and the payoff is expected. But it would be rude to say too much more—this is a gently titillating listening experience […]
Like any great artistic display, ‘Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be’ is perpetually unfolding, now into its third decade. The record’s acidic, demanding experience persists and each listen will provoke fresh revelations on its enduring scientific logic. Max Tundra is less concerned with an unknown, distant land and more with the life going […]
‘Sons Of’ would look magnificent over anything from shuffling film of microscopic plant cells to stock footage of a helicopter drifting through the Tokyo skyline. It corresponds gracefully to all forms of experience, material or immaterial, with an understanding glow. In doing so, it implies a nature to dance and a dance to nature. There’s […]
100 words music reviews 