• Music

    Various Artists – Blackford Hill: Transmissions / Volume One

    January 2, 2022 - By 

    Welcome to the first proper release promotion of 2022, and it’s quite a lovely way to begin the year.  Blackford Hill is a record company out of Edinburgh, Scotland, and they offer up a compilation of ethereal independent music from bands like Ultramarine, Emily Scott, Kate Carr, Jake Tilson and a host of others, providing 31 tracks. From the Blackford Hill Bandcamp site: The prospect from Blackford Hill is wide-ranging and far-reaching. This recently established label, curated by designer/publisher Simon Lewin, is based in Edinburgh and shares its name with a prominent topographical feature of that city. This compilation, ‘Transmissions…

  • Music

    Alif – Aynama​-​Rtama

    December 26, 2021 - By 

    I trust you, my friends, had a lovely Gregorian-Calendar Boxing Day. I spent mine listening to a Lebanese experimental band called Alif. At least as the liner notes on their Bandcamp site explain, it looks to be a collaboration between Lebanese and Egyptian musicians, and features the talents of the following musicians: Khyam Allami (Oud) Tamer Abu Ghazaleh (Vocals/Buzuq) Bashar Farran (Bass) Maurice Louca (Keys/Electronics) Khaled Yassine (Drums/Percussion) The music is so rich and complex that I’m having a bit of trouble putting to words how to describe it, but the best crack I can give at the moment is…

  • Music

    Sufjan Stevens – Songs for Christmas

    December 24, 2021 - By 

    Sufjan Stevens released this album in 2006, and it manages to hold up well.  He does a fine job interpreting classic Christmas tunes that are charming, sometimes irreverent and silly, but it makes a fine listen as we prepare for the coming of the Savior of the Universe this snowy evening.

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    Tindersticks – No Treasure But Hope

    December 20, 2021 - By 

    What a beautifully bleak, baroque piece of pop-music.  You don’t hear too much of the Tindersticks‘ soul-inflected sound on this album,  What you get, instead, is music that pulls from folk, goth (yes, if you can believe it), and even hints of work from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.  The orchestration is deep, Stuart A. Staples‘ voice is filled with pathos, and as heartbreaking as the songs feel, it makes for a glorious listen.

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    Circuit des Yeux – -io

    October 23, 2021 - By 

    The name Circuit des Yeux has come across the laptop several times over the past year, and each review and interview (see this one at The Quietus) raved about her work, so I decided to give it a listen.  It was, undoubtedly, a rewarding experience. Haley Fohr is the singer and the Yeux in question.  With a four-octave voice and the most lush production values I’ve heard out of an album that isn’t ethereal or prog rock, I have to say that this left me floored.  It is as if Fohr has the husky, dusky voice of a female Scott…

  • Music

    Rapt – None Of This Will Matter

    October 2, 2021 - By 

    This Z Tapes release left me floored.  Rapt are a folk band out of London who have an ethereal sound which reminded me of musicians like Nick Drake fronting a band on 4AD.  Think, perhaps, of a more airy-sounding This Mortal Coil gone neofolk. The sound is folky without being stale, and adding elements like shoegaze and dreampop make for a rich, rewarding listen.  I really like this.

  • Music

    Align In Time – On A Spiral

    August 31, 2021 - By 

    This release came out in 2020, and Align In Time’s John Boles sent this to me during a time I was flooded by a wave of emails that I’m still, after all this time, going through. Align In Time are an American post-rock band out of Providence, Rhode Island.  The band’s sound reminds me of impressive post-rock bands like Caspian, We Lost The Sea and other instrumental rock bands.  Surprisingly, I can hear a touch of Fugazi in here as well, at least in some of the guitar playing.  It’s mellow, sumptuously recorded and a generally fine listen.

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    Jonny Martyr – Impossible Space

    August 22, 2021 - By 

    A pleasant surprise out of Edinburgh, Scotland.  Jonny Martyr is a pianist who manages to, “build a world of sound with contemporary classical, electronica, post-rock and serialist influences.”  There is truth in advertising in this release, as each track manages to balance these genres perfectly.  It looks like Martyr has a few albums to his credit, and it’s nice to finally come across his work.  This is quite a warm lake of music to swim in.

  • Music

    Various Artists – Z Tapes Summer 2021

    August 20, 2021 - By 

    Z Tapes is a small-but-mighty label out of Bratislava, Slovakia, who release everything from bedroom pop to properly polished indie music.  They have a massive roster of artists they work with, and also, bucking the current trend for vinyl, offer cassette releases.  There is a lot of appealing music on this comp, but the track that sold me on how good this record was was 動物園 by Stargirl, which you can hear below.