Foxy Digitalis
Mike Cooper’s new book and album, Oceans of Milk and Treacle, is a soundtrack for an otherwise silent film. “Tirta Gangga” finds Cooper’s moving guitar treatise situated above the canopy, singing a languid melody with the hypnotic insect chorus. Lamentations for something long lost permeate the slow-moving notes, Cooper guiding each shifting chord down the river […]
Gabie Strong’s new album for Dragon’s Eye Recordings, Wilding Sun, is immersive and sonically dense. Opening track, “Lavender,” is a recording from a recent live performance celebrating an exhibition by artist Pamela Jorden (who also did the cover art for the album) that’s solemn and expressive beneath its washed-out guitar explorations. Strong’s skill in bending familiar […]
Miranda Elliott’s debut as Old Man of the Woods, Votives, is one of this year’s big surprises for me. It’s an album devoid of classification as Elliott’s songs comfortably flit from one style to another, feeling at home within a multitude of sonic spaces, but always carrying an air of vulnerability. Each pop nugget is like […]
Larry Wish has always made me envious with his ability to graft the throwback crooner vibes that permeate his vocal hooks with odd-angled pop excursions. It’s a mix that gets into especially weird zones at times, but it’s never dull and it’s always worth hearing. Releases on Orange Milk, Moon Glyph, OSR Tapes, and others […]
Pieces of the world are falling into the abyss and finding freedom in the process. The darkness is a veil, beyond is a rising sun tickled by flames from the last scraps of a dying landscape. Olivia Block’s new album for Room 40, Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea, digs through the desolate wreckage of […]
Hans-Joachim Roedelius is a radiating force of nature. For half a century, Roedelius has created a universe of spectral sound. Well into his 80s, he continues to inspire, exploring new horizons and pushing his craft further as evidenced by this remarkable, expansive new collaboration, Mind Cinema, with Austin trio Dallas Acid. Director Gregory Gangemi’s stunning video for the […]
A whimsical thread runs through the oddly endearing and catchy “ee-ya,” the second single from Matt Robidoux’s new album, At Dust on Already Dead Tapes. Robidoux’s music has a playful undercurrent that adds surprising colors to his intricate compositions. “ee-ya” finds magic in repetition, with Robidoux repeating the sounds “ee-ya” over and over while warped orchestrations unfold […]
There’s a claustrophobic feeling imperiled in Ian Wellman’s incredible “The Toll On Our Daily Lives.” In the video by Trevor Baker, that claustrophobia is distilled in the way vivid colors fade to a darkened brown, black, and grey palette. Repeating loops rise and fall like the slowing breath of a dying patient where the anxiety […]
Matt LaJoie’s guitar testaments always glisten like light bouncing off a moving stream. They are full of life and adventure, permeated with a generous energy and spirit that is infectious. LaJoie’s latest solo opus, Red Resonant Earth, continues this tradition and “Sprout” is a microcosm for its spreading roots. “Sprout” is the second part of an […]