Foxy Digitalis
Saint Abdullah’s track record is impeccable. Every release is memorable in its own way, combining disparate sounds and ideas into new forms of expression, sweeping listeners off course like it’s nothing. Last year’s In God’s Image remains a touchstone, an epic achievement of caustic, contemplative rage. Following up the recent To Live A La West […]
Bastian Void’s Topia is my favorite missive from the project so far. Topia is an alternative reality where the neon never fades and the golden skyways go past the horizon. On “Poly’s Hallway,” synthesizers percolate in a rhythmic maze as pads drift and swell effortlessly above the cybernetic city. Beguiling animations built with rudimentary architecture and vivid hues bring […]
As ½ of the swirling duo of psychedelic electronic profligacy, Sculpture, Dan Hayhurst has created some of the strangest, and most wonderful, webs of sound imaginable. His recent solo album, Counters, is an extension of that theme in the way it disturbs the universal flow and pretty much dissolves everything it touches into bubbling sonic goop. […]
It’s been an excellent autumn for those, like myself, who have an appreciation for Robbie Lee’s unique sound worlds. As part of a trio with James Ilgenfritz and Brian Chase, Loss & Gain was released by Infrequent Seams this month, and now Relative Pitch gives us the spectacular Prismatist. “Duskfallen” opens the album and showcases Lee’s spellbinding ability […]
Ben Pritchard’s latest album, Up in Air, has a vulnerability woven through its lyrical threads and plaintive guitar melodies. Joined by Otto Willberg on bass and Sholto Dobie on table organ, a familiarity emerges from the opening, understated romp of “Glow Line,” reminding us of a place we’ve been before even if the light and the […]
When I first heard Luke Stewart’s Works For Upright Bass and Amplifier Vol. 1 a couple years ago, it took me a while to really get my head around it. The work he creates in this context is not only cathartic but deeply introspective as well. Tonal movements find empty spaces to scythe the air at full […]
We’ve got something a little different today in MOWRI’s anthemic “Prevent Your Choke.” Culled from a deep well of influences and inspirations, the track is a blast furnace, scorching all in its path, a wake-up call stretched across hypnotic beats and haunted ethereal soundscapes. Horror-soaked visuals back up the incredible choreography and dancing from Quetz […]
Few instrument combos do it for me as much as drums and saxophone. Something about the tonal clash and raucous energy that often infuses these duos hits me right in the sweet spot. Cloud Nothings’ Dylan Baldi and Jayson Gerycz lay down a stream of fire on “Hairstreak,” the first taste from their new album Roadsided […]
With 2022 looming on the horizon, Room 40 is starting the year off with two massive editions. First, the album+book from Mike Cooper, and also this recording and monograph from Steve Roden’s exceptional Oionos, created for the exhibition The Grand Promenade in Athens, Greece. Roden worked with Dimitris Pikionis’s Church of St. Dimitris Loumbardiardis. His piece […]