By adam_schragin on Oct 4, 2011 at 11:23am in Reviews
The strange thing about nostalgia is the surprise factor involved. For example, you can account for a certain song you listened to when you were dating a certain person to dredge up certain memories, but sometimes revisiting albums from the past barely stirs a passing thought. And then there's the stuff for which you can't even account - for... Read more
More Articles - Reviews
Various Artists - Radioclit Present: The Sound of Club Secousse
By ourillwills on Nov 12, 2010 at 10:14am in Reviews
It retrospect, it seems natural that Africa would latch onto something like electronic music. The continent has a rich history of dance, and their trademark polyrhythmic percussion has made a significant dent on the styling of everyone from Peter Gabriel to Animal Collective. Radioclit has made it their goal to uncover these secluded scenes,... Read more
Happy Days/Eindig - The First Step Towards Suicide
By NoahBerlatsky on Nov 10, 2010 at 9:47am in Reviews
You expect metal albums to include snippets from horror films. Not this one, though. In fact, this split between American band Happy Days and Danish horde Eindig has to be the first black metal disc to open with a quotation from Mike Nichols’ 2004 infidelity drama Closer.
The sound bite about depression from Happy Days’ “Clinging Onto a Chance... Read more
Antony and the Johnsons - Swanlights
By NoahBerlatsky on Nov 3, 2010 at 8:34am in Reviews
Swanlights is a perfect name for an Antony and the Johnsons album, evoking the graceful mysticism of a natural hybrid world — some great amphibious bird swimming through seas of phosphorescence. It’s a fine image for Antony’s unique, androgynous voice and luxuriously sincere take on that most artificial of genres, the cabaret song.
In fact, the... Read more
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
By michael_keefe on Nov 1, 2010 at 9:12am in Reviews
Most often, pop music deals in clean lines. When geared toward a mainstream audience, a pop song's crisp beat and sharp vocals are pushed to the front of the mix. With indie pop, guitar parts sparkle and jangle, keyboards bounce and bleep, and the singer's typically literate tales of heartbreak are clear (albeit, on average, adenoidal). Though... Read more
Grinderman - Grinderman 2
By michael_keefe on Oct 29, 2010 at 8:33am in Reviews
Lean and hungry noises that come thrashing at you from the rustling brush, snorting and gnashing as they charge. This was the sound of Nick Cave's first band, early '80s post-punk outfit The Birthday Party. He carried much of this approach over to his solo career with backing band The Bad Seeds, whose early discography took the primal darkness of... Read more
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
By NoahBerlatsky on Oct 27, 2010 at 8:29am in Reviews
Sufjan Stevens is that wonder of our age, the sound of standard-issue idiosyncrasy. Indie rock today has distilled the essence of genuine left-field weirdos like Syd Barrett and Brian Wilson into an all-purpose formula for success — twee harmonies, whimsically fractured songwriting, interpolations of radically different genres (folk! electronica... Read more
By ira_brooker on Oct 25, 2010 at 9:40am in Reviews
In critical parlance, “familiar” is often used as a synonym for “pedestrian” or “unoriginal,” but familiarity really needn’t breed contempt. Listening to Chicago trio King Sparrow, for instance, feels familiar in the same way as watching a new movie by your favorite director or ordering a classic dish in a new restaurant. There’s nothing... Read more
Talbot Tagora - Lessons in the Woods or a City
By ira_brooker on Oct 22, 2010 at 9:31am in Reviews
Talbot Tagora takes its name from a defunct European town car mostly remembered for being unmemorable. That’s an odd bar to set for oneself, but it’s not entirely inappropriate. This is a band that seems less concerned with blazing trails than with just making good-quality art rock. Lessons in the Woods or a City might not make it into most... Read more
The Body - All The Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood
By NoahBerlatsky on Oct 20, 2010 at 9:01am in Reviews
For a twelve ton behemoth, doom metal has proven itself to be a surprisingly agile subgenre. Yes, doom must be slow and heavy and also sloooooooooow. But as long as you’re willing to lumber at the requisite pace, you can be as fickle and flighty a crossbreeder as you wish, thunderously flapping like some great bloated butterfly to stick your... Read more
By ira_brooker on Oct 15, 2010 at 8:35am in Reviews
Minnesota’s Cloud Cult seems like the type of band that should be breaking through to a wider audience any day now. Of course, that’s been the case for quite a few years, yet they still remain relatively unknown beyond a fervently devoted fan base. That’s too bad, because Light Chasers only enhances front man Craig Minowa’s status as Wayne Coyne-... Read more
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