Foxy Digitalis
Even in the subterranean cataclysms of Lea Bertucci and Lawrence English’s “Amorphic Foothills,” the sky above ignites with a thunderous fervor. Discordant strings wallow beneath layers of gray, flailing through the air as though they’re being chased by resonant hellfire. “There are moments, traveling through new terrains, that the strange familiar resonates with extra clarity,” […]
“Take My Heart” starts with a pop, Francie Medosch’s unforgettable voice a clawhammer strike right at the core. “Take my heart,” she pleads, “and be kind” over a rickety stew of Dinosour Jr.-esque guitar scrawl and simmering pedal steel. Inside the restrained bombast of earworm verses and an anthemic chorus, melodies flash bright smiles while […]
Hollow sounds are calming. Deep, mutating resonances moving like a slow breath pull us downward into a space of subterranean stillness. Through contact recordings of a highway’s substructure, Lisa Lerkenfeldt finds inward-facing soundworlds in a surprising place. “Shell of a City” is minimalist, but that only heightens its visceral impact as tones have room to […]
Jangling sonic fuses are alight with serrated melodies on the first single from Private Lives’ debut album, Hit Record. Backed by pointed rhythms and propulsive basslines, “Trust In Me” is an unrelenting earworm. Chord progressions buckle into a focused edge, layered through angular structures like zigzagging flames from a plastic flamethrower. Singer Jackie Blenkarn belts out […]
There is not much left to the imagination on the mesmerizing “la línea será.” Isabel Crespo Pardo’s performance bleeds with vulnerability and openness as the singer navigates whimsical arrangements tinged with midnight drama. Fragmentary instrumentation from Afarin Nazarijou,Skyler Hill, and Seajun Kwon create the perfect simmering foundation for Pardo’s inflections. An air of calm determination […]
Feverish streams jostle for position in the obtuse angles of Emily Kuhn’s beguiling “Ghosts of Us.” Melodic silhouettes from Kuhn’s harmon muted trumpet ghost through the pointillist rhythms, filling empty space while weaving through the wake of Erik Skov’s guitar. “I wrote Ghosts of Us when I sat down at the piano after coming home […]
Nora Stanley’s opening, wistful saxophone run clears the smoke lingering in the sonic foothills of “Hawk Hill.” Chord progressions stretch slowly inward, pulling away from the margins and bringing this thoughtful piece into focus. Situated safely in the hollows, the ephemeral melodies flicker above Benny Bock’s foundational keyboard playing as the emotive trailings buoy the […]
Openings appear beneath the sonic expanses of “tiny flames,” the opening piece on missing scenes new album, sturgeon moon/beaver moon. As the final part of a triptych that began with cold moon/worm moon, resolutions are buried in faint, bubbling rhythms and searing drones. Dawn breaks, holding dissonance at bay as distant oscillations creep through mirrored corridors. It […]
From the opening moments of SANAM’s “Ayouha Al-Taiin Fi Al-Mawt,” vocalist Sandy Chamoun spits fire. She recites Paul Chaoul’s poem of the same name with a frenetic energy that infects the entire track. “The track is a description of a hallucinatory state of clarity, from a stream-of-consciousness text by poet Paul Chaoul who raves endlessly […]