Turbo World - "My Challenger" | Album Review
William Basinski & Janek Schaefer - “ . . . on reflection " | Album Review
“Repetition is the mother of learning” and “the devil is in the details”. These are the maxims William Basinski and Janek Schaefer abide by here. Picking up on piano passages recorded anywhere between 2014 and 2022, the duo explore how weaving passages can create repetition, but small changes can make a big difference in sound.
The Lentils - "Budget Alchemy" | Album Review
Luke Csehak, writer, singer, instrumentalist, and producer of the album Budget Alchemy and the band The Lentils, seems to be having a crisis on the usefulness of language. His fondness for words and his troubles with them (“the words fail every time”) are articulated clearly and strangely throughout the album, proving his point.
Tomberlin - "I Don’t Know Who Needs To Hear This..." | Album Review
Tomberlin has expanded her accompaniment with strings and a rhythm section to reach a new intensity that was not as present on previous recordings. She writes some of the most heart-rendering and emotionally vulnerable lyrics, her words imparted with a hushed tenderness and an underlying strength and determination.
Caution - "Arcola" | Album Review
Though Caution’s members are separated by many States, they’ve produced their first full length album Arcola, packed to the gills with fuzzy distortion and pop chops. The duo touch on their influences of mid-late 80’s noise-pop/shoegaze with a ton of respect while managing to throw in dashes of modern dream-pop.
billy woods - "Aethiopes" | Album Review
From concept to recording, woods calls Aethiopes “one of more symbiotic, feedback-loop processes of making an album that I probably ever had.” He’s right. woods and Preservation’s collaboration is symbiotic in a way that feels ordained; it’s impossible to imagine this album produced in any other way.
MJ Lenderman - "Boat Songs" | Album Review
On his third full length release Boat Songs, Lenderman shows off a strong wit, mixing in pop culture references to his songs, adding a strength and tenderness when called for. This record has a ramshackle and loose feel to it that is warm and welcoming with a bunch of enchanting twists, revealing a bountiful of pleasures within each song.
Jeanines - "Don't Wait For A Sign" | Album Review
While the sound of Jeanines - the duo of Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith - goes deeper than just an emulation of the Sarah Records sound, with Don't Wait For A Sign, the pair latches on to that deep running vein of wistful, melodic pop. It’s the type of music where you have to say what you have to say in two minutes or less.
Crime of Passing - "Crime of Passing" | Album Review
Duster - "Together" | Album Review
Together is new slowcore: heavy, gritty, and more nuanced than its modest low-fidelity predecessors. In today’s musical landscape, recordings like those that first established the genre in the 90s are tired appropriation, and the members of Duster are just too busy to put energy to that. Only a pointed update to form is meaningful.
Guided By Voices - "Crystal Nuns Cathedral" | Album Review
Their 35th full length record Crystal Nuns Cathedral relies on their modern brand of rock and roll with some added quirks as a nod towards their more experimental history. Much like many of their recent albums, the instrumental quality is clearer and more fleshed out. Pollard’s sugary melodies are the centerpoint of each track.
Mister Goblin - "Bunny" | Album Review
Bunny challenges its listeners to rethink their view of the world. The album touches on how mundane life can be, how sad missing loved ones can be, and how frustrating everything around us can feel. Yet it choses instead to focus on how you can address these feelings as a way of finding hope within them.
mBtheLight - "How To Dress Well In The Dark" | Album Review
Broadcast - "Maida Vale Sessions" | Album Review
Maida Vale Sessions is a collection of four live sets recorded at the Maida Vale studios at BBC, truly capturing the magic that was the Birmingham band. A mesmerizing compilation of live songs for veterans and new fans alike, this live record showcases songs all pre-Tender Buttons, showing their progress as a band between 1996 – 2003.
Battle Ave - "I Saw The Egg" | Album Review
Battle Ave are still the mature band they have always been, still making the soothing yet exciting music they are known for. There’s a lot subtlety, but if you listen closely you’ll be amazed by what can be found on I Saw The Egg. They create a welcoming atmosphere of delicacy with the perfect album to relax, brood, or think introspectively to.
The Weather Station - "How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars" | Album Review
How Is It That I Should Look at The Stars thrives on its construction: played in three days in an uninterrupted jam, it gives back the naturalness of a live show, accompanied by lyrics edited in detail. We are accustomed through contemporary culture to seriality, and The Weather Station succeeds to be a point of coherence of her works.
Guerilla Toss - "Famously Alive" | Album Review
Though Famously Alive’s first three songs—also its pre-release singles—hint at a straightforward listen that filters the psych elements of previous album Twisted Crystal through a poppier approach, the rest of the album is anything but, revealing a band whose restlessness provokes ceaseless transformation the moment a new opportunity arises.
Springtime - "Night Raver EP" | Album Review
Springtime is considered a supergroup – and rightfully so. Each of these players is a pillar of their craft, a master at their instrument. Their Night Raver EP may only be three songs, but there’s a lot going on: two very disparate longform opuses and one seven-minute improvisation-adjacent rock song.
Hemlock - "Talk Soon" | Album Review
Talk Soon, Hemlock’s latest self-released album, was recorded in Astoria, Oregon, where Chauffe was living during one year of the pandemic. This work differs from her other projects in its production, collaboration, and fullness. Throughout the seventeen tracks, Chauffe braids in windy field recordings and features a selection of voicemails.