http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3513069730/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=1543649322/transparent=true/Slate grey and beautifully so, ‘Blacked Out Passages’ hums into life like a sun rising in a sky choked with perspective-flattening monochrome cloud. Employing longform drone, field-recordings, subtle guitar bubblings, and ambient electronic noise they create an opaque, mysterious and lustrous mist of sound; fog-choked sleepscapes for the deepest of dream dives. The shivering and… Continue reading Lost Trail – Blacked Out Passages (Visceral Media Records) / Live at Glenwood Coffee & Books, Greensboro, North Carolina, 04/11/2014 (no label)
Various Artists – For Syria (Linear Obsessional)
Made in reaction to the ongoing disaster in Syria and hoping to make a beneficial ripple in the misery, is this great compilation album from Linear Obsessional. The artists all donated work for free; the sounds they created are never less than fascinating.Bruce Hamilton’s ‘Mohika’ is a meditatively sparse piano rumination.Iris Garrelfs adorns Viv Corringham’s… Continue reading Various Artists – For Syria (Linear Obsessional)
The Electric Dog Show (Howlround / Gyratory System / Quimper) – Wed 7th May 2014 – Power Lunches, Dalston, London
This second edition of The Electric Dog Show, run by Soft Bodies Records, was held in the basement of Dalston’s Power Lunches bar was a synesthetic delight, combing a varied band line-up with colourful projected film accompaniment, the artists performing in a hazy fog of strange film fragments.Quimper made electro odd-pop with fidgety rhythms. Nocturnal and weirdly… Continue reading The Electric Dog Show (Howlround / Gyratory System / Quimper) – Wed 7th May 2014 – Power Lunches, Dalston, London
LOUP – Modern Heretic EP (Gaffer Records)
https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=866000823/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=2299557604/transparent=true/LOUP are a duo of Clément Edouard and Sheik Anorak employing drums and saxophone with electronics in a mind-scrouring EP for Gaffer Records label. ‘Modern Heretic’ ranges from stop-start death grind dynamics and dark stormy layered drone on the title track to the free-fuzz-jazz of ‘Drums Unit 2’, and the obliquely funky judderscape of frantic… Continue reading LOUP – Modern Heretic EP (Gaffer Records)
April Larson – The Second Throne (Soft Bodies)
http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1007786605/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=1015314548/transparent=true/Dry and husked, flakes of sound detaching and crumbling into nothing over sighing solar winds of drone; April Larson’s new album for Soft Bodies records is as excellent as her previous releases and may be her best work yet. ‘The Second Throne’ is electronica tactile and roughly textured, ghostly and haunted like Leyland Kirby’s spectral… Continue reading April Larson – The Second Throne (Soft Bodies)
King Ayisoba / Zea / Howie Reeve – Wed 9th April – Café Oto, Dalston, London
King Ayisoba A trio of solo performances united in their passion and brilliance, if not in style, illuminated the Café Oto for a memorable show. Howie Reeve Howie Reeve was an avuncular presence, opening with a joke about the Uncle Bonmee ghost-audience caused by the glare of spots–lights… Continue reading King Ayisoba / Zea / Howie Reeve – Wed 9th April – Café Oto, Dalston, London
Howlround – Secret Songs of Savalama (The Fog Signals)
http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2991880863/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/t=2/transparent=true/This incredible audio excavation is the work of Howlround, a sextet comprising four machines and two masters of sonic séance. The Spanish House, a ruined customs building on the banks of the river Sava in Belgrade became the site of a beautiful and eerie divination of lost activity and evacuated space; the degraded structure was… Continue reading Howlround – Secret Songs of Savalama (The Fog Signals)
Sikora / O’Hara / Lacey – Arbour (Fort Evil Fruit)
Cover art by James McCaul http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1105309579/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/t=3/transparent=true/This trio of Catherine Sikora (tenor sax), Colm O’Hara (trombone), and David Lacey (drums and percussion) have made a gripping piece of music with ‘Arbour’. Its 39 minutes are deeply absorbing; the interaction between the instruments is heated and full of threat, each stalking the other, no player… Continue reading Sikora / O’Hara / Lacey – Arbour (Fort Evil Fruit)
Dirty Knobs – I Want to Live Inside the Sun (Xero Music)
http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=264563652/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/t=1/transparent=true/‘I Want to Live Inside the Sun’ is an album made in reaction to the extreme cold of Minnesota in the early months of this year; it contemplates the immensity and creative violence of our nearest star; Zac Bentz (a.k.a. Dirty Knobs) imagined himself floating within touching distance, somehow unconsumed.This sound of this roaring synth set… Continue reading Dirty Knobs – I Want to Live Inside the Sun (Xero Music)
Ears For Eyes 