• Music

    Kit Sebastian – L’addio / Hayat

    June 22, 2023 - By 

    A brilliant single from the always-impressive Mr. Bongo Records by London-based Kit Sebastian.  From the band’s Bandcamp site: “‘L’addio’ saw the band perfecting their production and orchestration, with strings, horns and double bass, and an Italian synth found in a French dump. The music was greatly influenced by Italian soundtracks and Italian female singers, such as Mina or Rita Pavone. The track announces itself with a break that is guaranteed to get samplers twitching. The tone of the melody and lyrics is heartfelt and aching. It has a beautiful, intimate sadness like the closing scenes to a love affair, and…

  • Music

    Mark Stewart – VS

    April 25, 2023 - By 

    The indie world lost a giant on April 21st with the passing of Mark Stewart.  In his honor, I share a compilation album featuring the crème de la crème of alternative, industrial, reggae and dub music coming out in full force to remix and cut up Stewart’s works.  Featured on this compilation are Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, K.K. Null, Stephen Mallinder and Eric Random among others.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: “VS. is a unique collaborative project helmed by Mark Stewart, a vocalist, producer and songwriter who’s been an anarchic, pioneering figure on the frontiers of Post-Punk, Industrial, Avant-Dub and Electronic…

  • Music

    Phil Tomsett & Aaron Martin – At Sea

    March 24, 2023 - By 

    We have had the pleasure of reviewing the work on cellist Aaron Martin in the past, but it’s nice to see a new release with him collaborating on a project with accordeonist Phil Tomsett which, ironically, began in London.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: “At Sea grew out of my walks along a particular part of the coastline. I took this walk at least once a day and over time built up a relationship with the sea, as if it were a sentient being observing me as much as I was observing it. Here I was trapped on dry land…

  • Music

    Marc Almond – Heart On Snow

    March 17, 2023 - By 

    20 years ago, Marc Almond collaborated with musicians in St. Petersburg and recorded a magnificent album of Russian chanson.  It’s as good as you would expect.  The gems of the album include the title track and Gosudaryunia, penned by Russian rock legend Boris Grebenshchikov. A fine reissue, and I thank my friend Charles for being so kind as to point it out to me.

  • Music

    O Yuki Conjugate – A Tension of Opposites Vols 3 & 4

    March 13, 2023 - By 

    O Yuki Conjugate are among the top-tier post-Industrial/experimental projects of the past 40 years, and it’s been an amazing experience going over their catalog over the past few weeks in my personal collection.  This is archival material and a complement to A Tension of Opposites Vols 1 & 2.  From the band’s Bandcamp site: “Two years after the first two volumes of A Tension of Opposites (ATOO) were issued OYC return to the form they created to house their looser more exploratory works. ATOO allows them to expand their musical horizons and release their music more expediently. The original ATOO…

  • Music

    Sieben – Ten Hymns for Modern Times

    January 13, 2023 - By 

    I had the pleasure of meeting Matt Howden, the mighty Sieben himself, while tour-managing for Sol Invictus in 2000.  His violin playing added an otherworldly element to the music, and he was embarking on his solo career at that point.  After scores of albums under Sieben and his own name, everything culminates in this album.  It’s not so much a neofolk album as much as a combination of psychedelic rock and goth/post-punk, as raw as anything that came out 40 or 50 years ago (how time flies), but modern enough to break ground in any of these genres.  Solid.

  • Music

    Cabaret Voltaire – Dekadrone

    January 11, 2023 - By 

    With the passing of Richard H. Kirk last year and Stephen Mallinder keeping himself busy with his own projects, Cabaret Voltaire will be no more.  This final album, basically with Kirk alone programming the music, is a fifty-minute track that has much more in common with it’s early Industrial past than it does with the techno-funk sound that made them so popular in the 1980s.