A warning: If you find the idea of a woman singing breathily over pretty tunes played on harps and chimes likely to bring you out in a rash from the twee, this album is probably not for you. Which would be a shame, as there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on in terms of […]
Author: dogrando
I’m a huge fan of Goldmund’s delicate and intimate piano compositions, but I was blown away by this, Keith Kenniff’s take on 14 songs from the American Civil War. Combining his trademark close-mic piano playing with an unfussy acoustic guitar picking, he makes these very much his own while bringing out the best of the […]
Remember when Ellen Allien was a techno producer? For quite a while now, the original Berlinette’s output has had a pretty tenuous relationship with the genre, or indeed any genre at all, and has been none the worse for that (I’d take Dust over Thrills any day, much as I love Thrills). Still, I was a little […]
The album art for Excavation consists of a painting of a noose-like rope against a blank near-black background. This gives a subtle clue what kind of a musical experience we’re in for. And, indeed, the music is pretty doomtastic: deep deep bass sounds loom out of the speakers, industrial rhythms stutter and spurt, minor chords float […]
There are times when what I really need is to listen to some people playing guitar very slowly, swathed in fuzz and echo, accompanied by a light dusting of percussion which sticks to the top end of the drum-kit, all brushed cymbals. This does the job very nicely. A nice balance of melody and atmospherics, […]
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Atom™: HD (CD, Raster-Noton, April 2013)
I have talked before of the poppy side of Raster-Noton. This record fits that description rather more literally: its glitches are funky, its tracks recognizably songs, and there are real lyrics sung by real people (heavily processed, yes, but then that seems to be normal in today’s autotuned industry). Of course, this is still noted […]
Raymond Scott was a band-leader turned electronic music pioneer and synthesizer inventor. In 1963, he released these three LPs aimed at babies of 1–6, 6–12, and 12–18 months. They were, apparently, not a hit with their target market at the time. Your loss, sixties-babies, because there’s some fantastic stuff here. It was clearly either influential […]
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My Albums Of 2011 (an out of band post)
While prepping my Albums Of 2012, I realized that I’d completely failed to do 2011. So let’s backfill. In alphabetical order: Balam Acab’s bizarre squeaky-voiced psychedelia Wander/Wonder. Byetone’s unashamedly catchy clicks’n’bass monster Symeta. Jóhann Jóhannsson’s gorgeous, nostalgic, and uplifting The Miners’ Hymns. John Tejada’s sublime shuffling techno classic Parabolas. Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer’s endlessly enthralling […]
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My Albums Of 2012 (an out of band post)
It doesn’t do to rush these things, but after giving this weighty matter the care and consideration it undoubtedly deserves, I can finally unveil my Albums Of 2012. In alphabetical order, they are: Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s truly immense art-metal Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! Grouper’s parallel-universe-pop hit A I A Hildur Guðnadóttir’s spellbinding cello-and-chanting live recording Leyfðu Ljósinu […]
Matmos have made something of a name for themselves as purveyors of unusual samples (the liner notes for their 1997 debut Matmos featured such gems as “amplified hair, breathing, bowls of water, Polish trains”) and eye-catching concept albums (2001’s A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure was famously built mostly from the sounds of plastic surgery and […]
dogrando writes about some records 