Review: Starting life as a side-project of Cave psych-voyager Cooper Crain, Bitchin Bajas have quickly made their presence felt as experts in both inner and outer space-the drone-based and meditative strains of the three releases they've embarked on to date see them following in a lineage of electronic repetition that takes in such visionary figures as Terry Riley, Harmonia and Eno. The tracks on this fourth release function as a pathway to altered states, yet also work beautifully on an ambient level, connecting the dots between the now and the '70s, yet also the earth and the stars.
Review: Boris's Amplifier Worship, first released in 1998 and now reissued by Third Man Records, stands as a monumental testament to the band's uncompromising vision of heavy music. This album showcases their ability to push metal to its extreme boundaries, blending doom-drone, psych-sludge, and unrelenting noise. It's an intense, chaotic, and visceral experience, not for the faint of heart. The remastered version brings new life to this brutal classic, housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket and pressed at Third Man Pressing for a high-quality vinyl experience. Boris's signature sonic landscapes are rich with mythic weight, as tracks shift from slow, crushing doom to explosive bursts of sound. The group's bullish experimentation, combined with their powerful live performances, has earned them a devoted fanbase worldwide. This reissue is essentialia timeless blueprint for Boris's expansive future.
B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition
Plantagnet Street In The Morning (5:04)
Cobbles & Slate (1:18)
Blue Bell Hill (3:17)
Donkey Hill (3:01)
Grafton Terrace (0:42)
Plantagenet Street In The Afternoon (3:54)
Corporation Oaks (3:46)
The Arboretum (3:25)
Ford Street St Mary's (2:36)
A New St Ann's (4:36)
Along The St Ann's Road (4:38)
Abbotsford & Hunger Hill (4:04)
Pebble Dash & Green Grass (2:44)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***
David Boulter returns to Clay Pipe with St Ann's, an evocative tribute to the Nottingham council estate that shaped his early years. Since his Yarmouth LP in 2020 and Lovers Walk in 2021, Boulter has focused on soundtrack work, scoring films like Volkan Uce's Displaced and Gregorio Graziosi's Tinnitus. St Ann's chronicles Boulter's childhood, contrasting the harsh conditions of the old estate with the improved, vibrant new development. The album's subtle use of guitar, double bass, vibraphone, tenor recorder, and field recordings vividly recreates the atmosphere of crumbling Victorian streets and the optimism of the post-1960s renewal. Boulter's narrative delves into personal memories, painting a poignant picture of community transformation. His reflection on moving to a new house with modern amenities, while still attending an old Victorian school being demolished, adds depth to the story. The project was deeply influenced by Boulter's emotional experience of clearing out his family home at the end of 2022. St Ann's is more than a personal memoir; it's a celebration of inner-city renewal and the enduring spirit of community. This album resonates with nostalgia, capturing the key moments of Boulter's formative years.
Review: The press notes with this album are fun if not at all useful and include a tale of hopping into a Chevy convertible at noon, tuning the radio to the storm clouds gathering on the horizon and heading toward a border town on the desert's edge, peyote and dreamcatchers in the trunk, slide guitar and reverb echoing from the backseat. In reality, the sounds of Brokenchord's Sonte Island Tracks are indeed fitting for that fantasy. Lo-fi beats, half-heard melodies, knackered drums. It's intriguing and evocative and could be from the future or a forgotten old 70s classic. Either way, it's great.
Review: David Lynch and Chrystabell's collaboration on the album Cellophane Memories unfolds as a haunting journey into Lynch's surreal musical realm. Directed by Lynch himself, the music video for 'Sublime Eternal Love' sets the stage with Chrystabell's layered vocals, weaving a tapestry of ambient passion. The album, slated for release from Sacred Bones Records, continues to intrigue with its latest single 'The Answers to the Questions,' blending muffled beats and deep guitar tones under Lynch's lyricism of dramatic romance. Lynch's experimental approach to production, described as "passionately ambient" by critics, layers Chrystabell's vocals in an eccentric yet captivating manner. The duo's creative process, marked by spontaneous lyricism and Chrystabell's engineering finesse, yielded ten tracks ranging from the reverb-laden 'Two Lovers Kiss' to the introspective 'Reflections in a Blade.' Their collaboration spans decades, rooted in a shared vision that embraces musical accidents and experimentation to conjure a unique sonic beauty. As the release date approaches, Lynch contemplates additional visual accompaniments, underscoring his deep connection between music and imagery. For fans of Lynch's cinematic ethos and Chrystabell's ethereal vocals, Cellophane Memories promises a profound exploration of love, dreams, and the enigmatic allure of their creative partnership.
B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition
Love No More (5:34)
Pol In G (2:17)
Opera (Act I) (4:43)
People's Pleasure Park (6:16)
Finding The Sea (3:16)
Otis (4:10)
They Work Every Day (3:55)
Opera (Act II) (2:55)
Homage To Catelonea (2:02)
Requiem Again (3:53)
My Country (2:52)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***
The Durutti Column prove just how fertile the North West England music scene was during the mid-late-1970s and through the 1980s. Taking their name from an anarchist military movement active during the Spanish Civil War, the band was formed by Vini Reilly, who brought together a bunch of players from the nascent punk and post punk scene, and managed to turn heads in the process. One of which was Tony Wilson. One of the first acts to sign to his now-legendary Factory Records, they would remain on the imprint until its demise, by which time the project had become a solo thing for Reilly, whose name was already shorthand for risk taking with bold ideas. Take this record, for example, veering from Southern Mediterranean folk to experimental indie, sample-based rock-opera and more, it still defies expectations.
Review: Efterklang's seventh studio album, Things We Have In Common, closes a musical chapter that began with Altid Sammen and continued through Windflowers. Embracing a simpler, more inclusive approach, the album reflects a gentler harmonic tension and straightforward tonal language. While Altid Sammen explored human community and Windflowers delved into nature, Things We Have In Common centers on collective spirituality and belonging. The album reunites the core trioiMads Brauer, Casper Clausen, and Rasmus Stolbergiwith former member Rune Molgaard, whose spiritual journey has profoundly shaped the album. Molgaard co-wrote seven of the nine tracks, infusing the record with his unique perspective. Featuring contributions from international artists like Zach Condon, Tatu Ronkko, Hector Tosta, and Mabe Fratti, and notable collaborations with Francesco Donadello and the South Denmark Girls' Choir, the album marks Efterklang's 20th anniversary with a rich, evolving soundscape that reflects two decades of artistic growth and reconnection. Come and enjoy one of the most underrated bands of the millennium.
Review: The Canadian post-rock instrumentalists return with a demand for revolution, soundtracked by just shy of 45 minutes of orchestral aggression. As with all of their work, GY!BE convey their ideas articulately through evocative wordless music. The opener, 'Undoing a Luciferian Towers' sets a tone for the album with a monolithic and militaristic march. Passages of feedback open out into anthemic expanse on the three parts of 'Bosses Hang'. 'Fam/Famine' balances between harmonic assonance and dissonance, ramping up the tension before the final triptych 'Anthem Of The State' takes a more optimistic tone, with the movement away from noise providing some glimmers of light in the abyss. 'Luciferian Towers' is an impeccable and polished record, and possibly Godspeed You! Black Emperor's finest to date.
Review: Leeds-based duo Hawthonn express their inspiration from Coil in their artist name (a tribute to the late Jhonn Balance) and it doesn't take long listening to their music to hear that indelible mark on their sound. Earth Mirror marks Layla and Phil Legard's second album for the Ba Da Bing! label out of NYC after 2018's Red Goddess (Of This Men Shall Know Nothing). Weaving a compelling mixture of low, murmuring industrial tones and pastoral folk with an occult twist, the duo move through enveloping, atmospheric spaces. At times Layla Legard's voice cuts through the mist, and elsewhere we reside in instrumental pastures, but the mood remains haunting and evocative from start to finish, not to mention masterfully rendered.
Review: Ever since Los Angeles noise-rock trio HEALTH provided the score to Rockstar Games' Max Payne 3, both their sonic and career paths have veered down a direction that avid early fans still have trouble reconciling. Shifting from predominantly instrumental, spasmodic chaos to a unique form of laser-focused, industrial metalwave; their 2019 opus Vol 4: Slaves Of Fear newly established them as the ultimate electronic act for metal fans. While lockdown led to the Disco 4 collaborative albums, split into two separate volumes and boasting a remarkably dynamic array of features from the likes of alt hip-hop guru JPEGMAFIA, trap-metal phenom Ghostemane, hyperpop absurdist duo 100 Gecs, industrial overlords Nine Inch Nails and even groove metal legends Lamb Of God, their fifth full-length Rat Wars draws on the insidious influence from these more aggressive collaborators while simultaneously offering some of their most vulnerable, melancholic and fragile material to date. Complete with a Godflesh sample, it's rather fitting when considering HEALTH's attempts to marry such disparate yet equally punishing sonics mirrors Justin Broadrick's forays from decades ago. Grinding, mechanical percussion fuses to ethereal, androgynous vocals all drowned within EBM sickliness, whilst unpacking utterly nihilistic worldviews. Imagine Placebo or The Pet Shop Boys writing an album with Ministry, and you may start to have an idea of the war you're heading into...
Review: No prizes for guessing the kind of sonic avenues we're invited to explore here. Less obvious is the fact Kandodo is actually Simon Price, a name many psych lovers will recognise from British heavyweights The Heads - a group that have spent the last few decades bending minds to their will, or at least sound, and opening up third ears with far reaching cosmic tones. Here you can expect similar wormholes to open, but dark matter reigns supreme. Introverted to the point of collapsing in on itself, Theendisinpsyche feels sludgy, deep, heavy and all the things that make us look down and then inside ourselves. With the B-side taken up by 22-minute long epic, 'Swim Into The Sun', you should hopefully know just how intense and inescapable things get - which should only ever be taken as a strong recommendation from us.
Review: San Francisco based noise-rock titans, Kowloon Walled City, return with arguably their strongest output to date in the form of the obliterating, 'Piecework'. Slipping directly into the cavernous cracks between doom and sludge metal, yet approached with a post-hardcore mindset; these hefty pieces convey a despairing ethos not necessarily akin to their brand of trudging anguish. Cathartic, dissonant and emotive, the sum of their discordant parts culminates in a wearisome fusion with plenty of ethereal space left for the arrangements to swell and breathe. Part noise-punk/part sludgy slowcore, few projects within these scenes war with their own dynamism in such fervent fashion.
Review:
Australian improvisational trio The Necks have been putting on superb live performances for decades. This new album is the best capturing of that yet on vinyl with four sub-20-minute pieces across four sides of wax which rather bucks their usual trend of offering up 60-minute arcs. This, their 19th album, is the result of the band all getting together each day to play off the cuff for 20 minutes. Bassist Lloyd Swanton explains of the process that "it's a really nice communal activity to bring us together in focus each day, and some lovely music has resulted from it." He's not wrong.
Review: It's either the most timely re-issue of 2020 or the most inappropriate. Cast your mind back to when everyone's (or at least most people's) favourite Icelandic woodland sprite power-chill-pop oddities released Takk... Back in 2005 it was a symphony of celebratory, life-affirming walls of sound, the ideal score to an Attenborough documentary. Now it feels a little a painfully poignant and emotionally charged sonic memory of a lost world. Fear not, though, like this album, the good days will return again.
In the meantime kick back and remind yourself how good this record is. Not quite on a par with the preceding LP, ( ), which took this unique troupe from obscurity to global stardom by way of soft yet subtly gargantuan harmonious arrangements, here the songwriting and craft is more traditional, and certainly better suited to platforms like radio. Nevertheless, the tracks are no less beguiling, bewitching or intoxicating.
Review: On their seventh album, The Breaks, SUUNS embrace limbo and craft their most emotionally resonant and sonically rich work to date. The Montreal trio of Ben Shemie, Joseph Yarmush, and Liam O'Neill dive deeper into pop instincts than ever before here while also pushing their experimental rock boundaries. With O'Neill at the production helm, they explore loops, synths and MIDI instruments that might well draw to mind Tangerine Dream and certain downtempo trip-hop acts. The album was forged over two years of touring and remote collaboration and blends whispered intimacy with vast soundscapes best exemplified in tracks like 'Doreen' and the superbly adventurous title song.
Review: Australia's Tropical Fuck Storm, featuring Gareth Liddiard, Fiona Kitschin, Erica Dunn, and Lauren Hammel, unveil their debut live album Inflatable Graveyard via Three Lobed Recordings. Captured during their October 22, 2022, performance at Chicago's Lincoln Hall, the album spans 11 tracks from their studio albums A Laughing Death in Meatspace (2018), Braindrops (2019), and Deep States (2021), plus covers of The Stooges' 'Ann' and the Bee Gees' 'Stayin' Alive.' Emerging from the pandemic's forced hiatus, TFS's "Fuck the Rain Away" tour was a burst of pent-up energy. The live recording exudes a raw, unfiltered essence, with tracks like 'You Let My Tyres Down' and 'Chameleon Paint' assuming new, unhinged forms. The encore features a euphoric cover of 'Stayin' Alive,' symbolising resilience amid adversity. Kitschin's cancer battle adds a poignant layer to this explosive live experience, marking Inflatable Graveyard as an essential document of their relentless spirit.
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