Month: September 2021

William Ryan Fritch – Built Upon a Fearful Void

Soundtrack composers don’t seem to need films to cue inspiring, haunting scores anymore.  Take, for example, the new double album by Californian composer William Ryan Fritch. The story that goes along with this fabulous artifact is as impressive as the music is.  We let the label, Lost Tribe Sounds, tell the story below, courtesy of […]

Santiago Fradejas – The Light Through The Springs

The guitar, all by itself, can serve as tool for making a haunting orchestra’s worth of sounds.  My good friend Santiago Fradejas, now resident in Kent, of all places (!) presents a mini-LP’s worth of brooding, swelling, lilting soundscapes.  There is a menacing element tying the album together, as though one was taking a stroll […]

Igra Staklenih Perli – Igra Staklenih Perli

Igra Staklenih Perli were one of the greater monster progressive/psychedelic rock bands to come out of Yugoslavia (the band themselves were Serbian) during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and though some of their work could be seen as taking cues from legendary western groups like Pink Floyd, I hear elements of Can, Hawkwind, Jimi […]

Amid The Ruins 1453 – Dyerwave Trilogy (All Dyerwave Tracks)

Dyerwave is a stand-alone genre sitting inside of synth-wave, which has produced a number of appealing artists who bring 1980s visual imagery and marry it to dystopian visions of the future.  The artist responsible for this release, Amid The Ruins 1453 is a Serbian composer and fellow Orthodox Christian who has expressed admiration for philosopher, […]

[Press] Meticulous Midgets – Music You Need To Hear

Today we were given the honor of being featured by the independent music radio, magazine and record label Meticulous Midgets, who were also kind enough to reference my old blog, A Miscellany of Tasteful Music, in the past.  Meticulous Midgets not only have a fine magazine, but publish some of the best new indie music […]

The Hauchzart Ensemble – Hauchzart Momentum Vol. I

What a remarkable work this is.  The Hauchzart Ensemble includes our dear colleague Wilfried Hanrath, who plays guitar, bass, drums, beats, synth and electronics on this album, along with Matt Getchell, who also provides electronics, synthesizer and beats. This album takes quite a journey, starting off with a track that, if you can believe it, […]

Various Artists – Canary Records: Let’s Add Raki to Wine: Women in Istanbul ca. 1931​-​46

Canary Records are the kings of shellac-era reissues, and this is one of their most fabulous.  It’s a collection of female singers who were active in Turkey’s cultural capital, and Ian Nagoski, musicologist and venerable head of the company, has made these recordings sound as clear as possible, despite being around 90 years old.  Yet […]

The Striking Chamber – Tomás Luis de Victoria: Collected Works

Although there are some phenomenal classical musicians represented on Bandcamp, I didn’t expect to hear any work by the Counter-Reformation-era priest and composer Tomás Luis de Victoria.  This cassette tape, released by The Striking Chamber, came as a pleasant surprise.  It’s only 13 minutes long, and it’s released here as one solitary, slightly over-compressed track, […]

Cabaret Voltaire – Shadow of Fear

Today is a terrible day, as we’re reeling over the loss of Cabaret Voltaire multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Richard H. Kirk.  He was 65 years old. The Cabs were one of the most influential bands of their era, whose work would have serve as inspiration to genres such as Industrial, post-punk, EBM, avant-funk, electro, acid house and techno. The album […]