October 10, 2018

Reviews

Ribbonhead - "I Must Have Peace, And This Is The Only Way" | Album Review

October 10, 2018

Reviews

Ribbonhead - "I Must Have Peace, And This Is The Only Way" | Album Review

To the surprise (and delight) of fans, Ribbonhead sneakily released an EP this week. Engineered and mixed by Dylan Piskula of fellow heavyweight noisemakers DEN, the album was tracked live, and manages to convey the brute force vitality that fans have come to expect.

October 9, 2018

by: Chris Prod

Reviews

Negative Scanner - "Nose Picker" | Album Review

October 9, 2018

by: Chris Prod

Reviews

Negative Scanner - "Nose Picker" | Album Review

Shifting from pulsating staccato beats to driving power chords that deliver the most danceable kind of catharsis (a la Wire), it’s impossible not to be enamored by the hooks that permeate Nose Picker.

October 8, 2018

by: Lydia Pudzianowski

Reviews

David Nance Group - "Peaced And Slightly Pulverized" | Album Review

October 8, 2018

by: Lydia Pudzianowski

Reviews

David Nance Group - "Peaced And Slightly Pulverized" | Album Review

His mastery of what seems like popular music’s entire catalog, back and front, is a common factor in all of his work, and he flexes his muscles again on Peaced and Slightly Pulverized, his third album in as many years.

October 5, 2018

by: Patrick Pilch

Reviews

Fond Han - "Wronked" | Album Review

October 5, 2018

by: Patrick Pilch

Reviews

Fond Han’s liberating sophomore release is a sprawling LP that borrows elements of erratic grindcore and leaky free jazz while lyrically delving into a bleak corner of Baumann’s psyche. Wronked is emotionally dilated and sonically adventurous, an ambitious push toward an experimental rendering of Fond Han’s caustic punk foundation.

October 4, 2018

by: Jeff Laughlin

Reviews

Dustin Wong - "Fluid World Building 101 With Shaman Bambu" | Album Review

October 4, 2018

by: Jeff Laughlin

Reviews

Dustin Wong - "Fluid World Building 101 With Shaman Bambu" | Album Review

The distance between two points is infinity in Dustin Wong’s creation. Not theoretically or ironically, but realistically, the songs on Wong’s newest record, Fluid World Building 101 With Shaman Bambu, augment the shared distance between imagination and actuality.

October 3, 2018

by: Connor McInerney

Reviews

Den-Mate - "Loceke" | Album Review

October 3, 2018

by: Connor McInerney

Reviews

Loceke as a record loses absolutely no momentum from start to finish - both in terms of instrumentation, a mix of tangible and electronic dream pop textures, as well as Hale’s world-building of her perspective.

October 2, 2018

by: Huw Baines

Reviews

Lala Lala - "The Lamb" | Album Review

October 2, 2018

by: Huw Baines

Reviews

The guitars, teeth gritted under the weight of reverb, interlock with skittering drum lines, programmed beats and Lillie West’s vocals, stacking up melodies and counter-melodies that immediately make you want to know more.

September 28, 2018

by: Joe Gutierrez

Reviews

Saturday Night - "Saturday Night" | Album Review

September 28, 2018

by: Joe Gutierrez

Reviews

Saturday Night - "Saturday Night" | Album Review

Saturday Night’s name says it all- this record is ripe for dropping the needle when the weekend dusk washes over the city and the streetlights flicker on. The tunes here are like magnets that’ll yank at your hips, summoning up the spark to boogie ‘round your bedroom.

September 27, 2018

by: joe thomas

Reviews

Eyes of Love - "End Of The Game" | Album Review

September 27, 2018

by: joe thomas

Reviews

Eyes of Love - "End Of The Game" | Album Review

In a world where it feels like ever-diffuse voices are constantly clamoring for space and attention and sifting the worthy from the not becomes an increasingly taxing mental burden, it's precisely this album's reluctance to impose itself that makes it such an inviting and comforting listen.

September 26, 2018

by: Nick Adams

Reviews

The Spirit Of The Beehive - "Hypnic Jerks" | Album Review

September 26, 2018

by: Nick Adams

Reviews

The Spirit Of The Beehive - "Hypnic Jerks" | Album Review

Their latest outing, Hypnic Jerks, is superficially less intimidating than Pleasure Suck, but its atypical construction and erratic shifts make for another riveting and unpredictable journey.

September 25, 2018

by: Colin Vallee

Reviews

Bangladeafy - "Ribboncutter" | Album Review

September 25, 2018

by: Colin Vallee

Reviews

Bangladeafy - "Ribboncutter" | Album Review

Ribboncutter is a furious departure from their last outing, the fantastic Narcopalma, featuring more deep, foggy synths, creating a series of songs that feel like early aught’s techno beats suffering from a withdrawal.

September 24, 2018

by: Kris Handel

Reviews

Mothers - "Render Another Ugly Method" | Album Review

September 24, 2018

by: Kris Handel

Reviews

Mothers - "Render Another Ugly Method" | Album Review

Leschper maintains distance through the fractured poetry in their lyrics, but this also gives greater freedom to explore thoughts and emotions on a different plane. Render Another Ugly Method’s musical heft adds structure and the chance to explore space and time signatures in different environs.

September 21, 2018

by: Patrick Pilch

Reviews

Human People - "Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears" | Album Review

September 21, 2018

by: Patrick Pilch

Reviews

Human People - "Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears" | Album Review

Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears is a lo-fi punk hodgepodge built on barebones recording techniques, keen songwriting and a band’s remarkable sense of melody.

September 20, 2018

by: Jonathan Bannister

Reviews

Nothing - "Dance On The Blacktop" | Album Review

September 20, 2018

by: Jonathan Bannister

Reviews

Nothing - "Dance On The Blacktop" | Album Review

Dance on the Blacktop is filled with the imagery of everyday life: street names, city landmarks, relationships, city life, family, creativity, late nights, and long days. But these topics are tweaked, shrouded in the darker side of these things.

September 19, 2018

by: Mike LeSuer

Reviews

Idles - "Joy As An Act Of Resistance" | Album Review

September 19, 2018

by: Mike LeSuer

Reviews

Idles - "Joy As An Act Of Resistance" | Album Review

As this backlash to the far-right and its Nazi-adjacent ideologies plays out simultaneously across the pond, IDLES have broken out as the saving grace of politically motivated punk with their radical sophomore triumph, Joy as an Act of Resistance.

September 18, 2018

by: Aly Eleanor

Reviews

Scrunchies - "Stunner" | Album Review

September 18, 2018

by: Aly Eleanor

Reviews

Scrunchies is the punk supergroup that Minneapolis deserves. Consisting of members of Double Grave, Tony Peachka, and Kitten Forever (all great in their own right), the band’s debut, Stunner, is a self-contained wildfire of punk energy.

September 17, 2018

by: nathan springer

Reviews

Ditto - "In Human Terms" [reissue] | Album Review

September 17, 2018

by: nathan springer

Reviews

Ditto - "In Human Terms" [reissue] | Album Review

Written, performed, and mixed by Charles Ditto, In Human Terms was self-released through Charles’ Ditto Records in 1987 and followed by Texas Electric in 1989, after which no further recordings were released.

September 14, 2018

by: Andrew Karpan

Reviews

Low - "Double Negative" | Album Review

September 14, 2018

by: Andrew Karpan

Reviews

It is one of the best albums of the band’s career: their most musically adventurous, a vivid and living sonic sculpture of songs that sequence into and out of each other, that enter and leave like waves beating the sides of a boat in a storm.

September 13, 2018

by: Dalvin Aboagye

Reviews

Ava Luna - "Moon 2" | Album Review

September 13, 2018

by: Dalvin Aboagye

Reviews

After a three-year hiatus, Ava Luna is strolling back into the spotlight with a strong return in the form of their latest LP Moon 2, which sees the Brooklyn-based indie rock group maintaining a stable position in an increasingly diverse and crowded lot of genre-bending acts.

September 12, 2018

by: Kris Handel

Reviews

Carlos Hernandez - "On Folly" | Album Review

September 12, 2018

by: Kris Handel

Reviews

Carlos Hernandez - "On Folly" | Album Review

On this outing Hernandez gets to expound on his own brand of R&B and multi-layered pop in greater depths and fully execute his own vision. Hernandez enlists help from time to time from some friends from the New York music/art scene to flesh everything out and add accompanying harmonies.