Foxy Digitalis
There are few people alive that can blow a horn with the power and technical proficiency of Roscoe Mitchell. He is a true force of nature; an absolute titan. Joined up again with drummer Mike Reed on this recording from 2015, the duo are on fire from beginning to end on this 37-minute performance. They […]
I still remember the first time I heard Pauline Anna Strom’s Trans-Millenia Consort album and being completely mesmerized. It was in the late ‘00s or early ‘10s when kosmische-tinged synthesizer music was anywhere and everywhere, but as soon as “Emerald Pool” gently flowed through my speakers, I knew I was hearing something different, something special. […]
Yosuke Fujita (aka FUJI||||||||||TA) crafts haunting allegories. The instrument maker and sound artist unearths gentle, fragile tones that are cryptic in their illusory simplicity. Fujita recorded tsu tsu in an abandoned tunnel and the resonance imbues the recordings with ghostly reverb, “hiru” sounding like eternal music that he’s tapped into and pulled from the black […]
Bright mornings and the hope of a new day ahead open Son of Buzzi’s delightful Fluss. Solo acoustic guitar workouts sound effortless on “Die Reise,” yet the piece is a journey with unexpected turns along the way. Something in the way he plays is transfixing. Field recordings and sound collage add to the lushness. Fluss […]
‘Drifting’ is the word I keep coming back to as I sail through Jayve Montgomery and Nick Turner’s Sounds Passing Through Circumstances. Duets for mellotron and flute and saxophone (with effects) that are weightless under starlit night skies as you watch your frozen breath float into the crisp, cold air. Montgomery and Turner are in […]
When I heard this was a new dawn from Frank Baugh (Sparkling Wide Pressure, etc), I was excited but unsure of what to expect. Over the years, Sparkling Wide Pressure has been an evolving, always-pushing-forward kind of project. But I also get it – sometimes you need a fresh start or have ideas you want […]
There’s not much peace and quiet in my life these days. Opportunities to experience silence are few and far between, so I’ve ended up on the other side where I need music I can just crank up to drown everything out. Duo Damage Vol. 1: Live in Portland has been an expert-level savior the past […]
I love this line for VSDQ’s description of Transgression!!!: “Donald Miller, guitar icon known for destroying worlds in the great Borbetomagus, takes the listener on an unexpected journey…” Most of my life, and this past year in particular, the idea of creating worlds with sound and sonic agency (big recommendation of Brandon Labelle’s book) have […]
This surprising, cool album from members of heavy psychers Burnt Hills reminds me of something I would have ordered out of the back of Thrasher magazine in the mid-90s. Musically it churns along with jagged guitar riffs and driving rhythms, getting skyward at times (the psych-infused “Ensenada”) and also dying in the groove lines at […]