Hælos have the ability to dig deep into core, universal themes like love, faith, and loss, and on their second album, 'Any Random Kindness', the band have decided to focus their gaze outwards, addressing themes ranging from the destruction of the planet to the emptiness and loneliness of social media. The band have also chosen to broaden […]
"Ambient music... creeps in, then situates its listener in its sonic world: background music that lodges itself in the front of perception... Thoughts come. Stimulated, my mind wanders. I remain still" - the Quietus says in it's review of 'Anthology Of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon', made by former Ramones and Suicide producer, […]
We needn’t raise technology to be a “monster.” 'PROTO' is a love song to the capacity for machine-made music to be full of life - artist Holly Herndon wrote about her amazing new album which she made with help from a artificial intelligence she named Spawn. She explains in an interview with the Vice: "We wanted to […]
"With an arsenal of synthesizers, drum machine, sparse electric guitar, and a skeptic’s pen, he builds a plodding dystopian story of living death stoked by internet anti-reality, big pharma conspiracy, and environmental apocalypse" - Pitchfork reviews new album by minimalist folk singer-songwriter A.A. Bondy. 'Enderness' is his first in eight years, and PopMatters discusses the […]
"With 'I: Voice', Warforged aim to explode away from obscurity with perhaps the most unpretentiously progressive death metal releases of recent times, taking inspiration from deathcore to tech-death and beyond" - Invisible Oranges reviews debut album by Chicago black-death metal quintet Warforged. Angry Metal Guy is equally enthusiastic: "With time and a little trimming this arboraceous […]
Brooklyn Vegan's choice of best new indie-rock albums for the week: dreamy, baroque psych-folk Death and Vanilla; inventive, fun and funky arty trio Doomsquad; garage rock with soul The Mystery Lights; jangly, manic post-punk pop Pottery; dark, sexy synth music by Missions; and heartfelt guitar pop by Mammoth Penguins.
Each track on second album by Chicago-based poet, singer, activist, and teacher is named after a cultural icon who inspired Woods and shaped her identity as an artist and individual. "'Legacy! Legacy!' dapples in R&B, funk, rap, jazz, and even some electronica", and is "a beacon for a type of self-empowerment informed by the predecessors who […]
"On 'Young Enough', Charly Bliss have brightened and broadened their sound, adding new clarity and texture without sacrificing any of the full-speed-ahead immediacy that they had on 'Guppy'... The melodic intensity never lets up over the course of 40-or-so minutes. It’s a fun record to an almost exhausting degree" - Stereogum reviews Brooklyn power-pop band's second album; […]
"While you can find great singing in just about every genre that includes the human voice, there's something about straightforward pop that sometimes feels more like a singers' genre than its cousins" - PopMatters says in it's review of Norwegian singer Sigrid's debut 'Sucker Punch' (listen at YouTube). Just across the border there's Swedish singer, […]
Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan died last year, in the middle of making of band's new album, leaving all her taped vocals on a disc drive. 'In The End' is out now, and Consequence of Sound says it's a "lovely final statement, one that honors their shared legacy as unlikely alternative rock giants". The Skinny calls […]
"You can hear a band pushing past their boundaries with striking results" - Guardian's Alexis Petridis says of his Album of the Week choice, Vampire Weekend's 'Father of the Bride'. "The lyrics occasionally suggest that the musical restlessness is meant to mirror the uncertainty of the world in 2019, but ultimately 'Father of the Bride' […]
"Electronic music can echo genuine emotional experiences - often by combining the organic and the synthetic. In the case of Model Man, their heartfelt, often profoundly beautiful electronic music, features the piano as its beating heart with all the arterial electronics and ventricular beats coursing from it" - PopMatters reviews new album by UK band. […]
Folk-rock quartet Big Thief have a new album 'U.F.O.F.' out on Friday, and it's Stereogum's pick for this week's Album of the Week. At the basis of the album stands "lead songwriter Adrianne Lenker now widely regarded as one of the most technically skilled and lyrically incisive musicians to emerge over the past five years. […]
"She draws from Armenian folk performances, classical choral music, and improvisatory jazz, only to defy all expectations for every single one of these genres" PopMatters reviews avant-garde folk by Armenian singer Areni Agbabian. "The key to Areni Agbabian's success on 'Bloom is' a purity of emotion; passion laid bare".
"The beats here may slap like club beats slap, but the sounds that twist and turn over them are unlike anything else, mixing the energy of punk, the squelch of p-funk, the strut and heat of ballroom house, the future shock of experimental electronica, and the wild, freeform harmolodics of free jazz – not to […]
Ishmael Ensemble's debut album 'A State Of Flow' comes out next week. Guardian says it's "pitched somewhere between astral jazz, burbling electronica, trippy minimalism, psychedelic dub and 20 years of club culture". Listen to song 'Lapwing' here, or an awesome live performance here.
"'Designer' is Harding’s third album, and like the two that preceded it, it’s absolutely gorgeous, at least on a surface level. Her music rests on delicate little details: lightly strummed acoustic guitars, brushed cymbals, softly tapped bongos and xylophones, piano lines that move like ripples across a lake’s surface... Every song has a subtle groove, […]
"The album is a perfectly curated, succinct, and poignant picture of being a woman, and its effectiveness is a result of the full three years she took to perfect it" Consequence of Sound reviews third album by American r'n'b singer Lizzo. 'Cuz I Love You' is "purposefully compact, genre-blending, unifying, reaffirming, devoid of corniness... Lizzo […]
"The simplest songs are often the best, the most relatable and reachable" - PopMatters says about 'Love Lies Bleeding', a song by Rose of the West, Wisconsin-based outfit that released its self-titled debut on 5 April (listen to it here). "The song challenges our basic notions about pop music while giving us hope for the […]
"'Oh My God' is an album of seeking and discovering, of affirming and negating, loss and redemption, of musical and spiritual exploration, tribute and invention, and often of running to stand still in an act of extended meditation. This ambition is both exhilarating and enervating and not everything works, but it is impossible not to […]
If an album isn't that good, there's no point in singling out text about it... unless the text itself is so good, and it makes a good point. That's the case with NME's review of Beyonce's live album 'Lemonade'. They think it isn't really much, but reading their review is a pleasure. Here's a snippet: […]
"Michael O’Neill has pretty much been a ‘those who know, know’ sorta figure, but word of mouth isn’t enough for an album this good" - the Quietus reviews debut album by Mancunian alt-rapper Michael O’Neill. "Sam Weaver, O’Neill himself and electroacoustic musician Danny Saul have combined for something that’ll likely need several listens before you […]
" The Yawpers are a great American rock and roll band and 'Human Question' is one of this year's most accomplished releases" - PopMatters. Enough said? Listen to their song 'No Going Back' here.
"An intelligent approach to their blend of mellow pop and upbeat hip-hop", PopMatters reviews new album by Patagonian vocal trio Fémina, 'Perlas & Conchas'. Judging by the album cover and video for their song 'Resist' (here), they're into (their own) nudity, for now, at least. And in the future "for Fémina, creative possibilities may be […]
"We glimpse the artist at work during her peak—in voice, physicality, and confidence—reimagining and remixing her own catalog, decentering herself to shine a light on her influences and foundations" - Pitchfork reviews Beyoncé's new live album taken last year at Coachella. She has a documentary film, also called 'Homecoming', released simultaneously, Guardian says it shows […]
"Oracle is a project that draws together strings from the past: the best fusion, the coolest modern jazz playing, influences from hip-hop and groove music, and a lyricism that shot through all the great American music... Kendrick Scott is a wonderful consolidator... His music is among the finest of its new kind: a new generation […]
"Their days as supreme psychedelic blasters on 'In The Red' are long gone, and they don’t seem to be coming back. They to now serve as the bedrock for an adventurous, rewarding discography that extends well beyond the band’s original constraints. Wand are in the zone, working as quickly as ever and seemingly discovering new […]
"Funkier, spikier, more percussive and more doof than ever before" - the Quietus reviews the new Chemical Brothers album 'No Geography'. The album is "up there with the controlled chaos and warped psychedelia of their earlier work... With its unifying themes of freedom, unity and attack, channelled via the medium of boom and sirens, it […]
Pivot Gang is a hip hop collective of independent rappers from Chicago, and their debut album 'You Can't Sit With Us' is coming out this week. Consequence of Sound gave it a high score of B+: "It is built up of well-thought-out features and lyrics that are at times witty and others necessarily gruesome. It […]
"The pastoral folk sound of much of the album finds Bibio using the guitar to add subtle shades of color to the songs, giving them real emotional depth and breadth. There is an overarching reliance on melody as he adds another sophisticated layer to his songwriting as he incorporates elements of psychedelia, soul, funk, and […]
