New album 'Immanent Fire' by singer-songwriter Emily Jane White "takes on the dark state of the world that we’re currently living in, but it does it in poetic and metaphoric ways, not in an overtly literal fashion, which makes it more instantly timeless", Brooklyn Vegan says in an enthusiastic short review. "The dark themes are […]
Dustin O'Halloran and Adam Wiltzie got together as a musical duo in Germany, work from Brussells now and their new release (they worked for TV, movies and theatre), studio album 'The Undivided Fifth' is "a rich tapestry of complex electronic and neoclassical textures with layers of rich orchestration and analogue synths", PopMatters says. It's an […]
London experimental beatmaking duo TNGHT have this week released their first EP in seven years and second overall, 'TNGHT II'. It's eight songs are avant-guard and serious, as well as entertaining and funny. Listen to it below. II by TNGHT
'I Made A Place' is the first proper album of new Bonnie “Prince” Billy songs in eight years, and the latest Stereogum's choice for Album of the Week. Sonically - "the songs on 'I Made A Place' are quiet and ruminative, and they’re pretty deeply rooted in old-timey folk music", and lyrically "Oldham has always been great at […]
"An expansive and rich listening experience, full of wandering basslines and disorientating rhythms" - the Quietus says about London dream-pop sextet's new album. "As the album persists the prominence of vocal melodies dissipates, leaving open the previously subtle magnificence of the production running throughout... Its stunning sounds ring out with astounding clarity".
German electronic producer Oval published his new EP 'Eksploio' for Thrill Jockey, a label known more for heavier, guitar-oriented music, but they probably saw a kindred spirit in Oval, as his music tends to teeter on the edge of chaos. PopMatters says 'Eksploio' is "playful chaos, a celebration of everything experimental synthesizer programming can be, and […]
"Adept with delay and other effects pedals, and know a good hook and driving beat when they hear it" - Brooklyn Vegan says about debut album 'Dream Noise' by Capitol. It's actually dream-pop, BV says, "just a bit like The National with more of a Cure obsession", and "they’ve also just got some excellent pop […]
New York rapper Wiki "still sounds fresh, and still sounds hungry" on his second proper album 'OOFIE', Brooklyn Vegan says. It features his frequent collaborators Your Old Droog, Princess Nokia, Lansky Jones of World’s Fair, and R&B singer Duendita, but it's the main man Wiki's thing - "a gripping storyteller and a deft rhymer, and […]
"Okereke’s writing on ‘2042’ feels like his boldest to date. This is a vital touchstone in documenting the lives of those who must negotiate multi-faceted racial and sexual identities against a backdrop of continuing division. It’s the social commentary that makes this experimental album feel vital and unifying" - NME says in a review of Kele […]
'Tak Zakalyalas’ Stal' ('Thus the Steel Was Tempered') is new album by St Petersburg's art-electro band Shortparis, one of the most brilliant and exciting live bands. The record, on the other hand, is "very, very highly polished and subject to a long period of refinement and recasting. Every beat, blurp, crash and cadence of the record […]
He is frontman of Winterpills, but this year Philip B. Price returns with his first solo album in over a decade, 'Bone Almanac', 8 November. PopMatters says it "frequently recalls American primitive guitar (John Fahey et al.) and British folk giants such as John Martyn" and what makes it different is Price's "pure, singular voice […]
American band Federale named themselves after the first film ever scored by Italian composer Ennio Morricone. All Music says Federale's "music pays homage to many of Morricone's hallmarks, like reverb-drenched guitars, whistling, shuffling rhythms, and otherworldly vocals that could be mistaken for the cries of distant animals". Their new album 'No Justice', out this week, […]
The Illinois screamo threesome Frail Body released their new album 'A Brief Memoriam' last week on Deathwish, a good genre-defined album.
Mumbai-based producer and composer Sandunes recorded her new EP between Berlin, London and Mumbai, trying to explore “repetitive occurrences that we’re happy to call coincidences”. The Quietus says the music of '11:11' - "lifts you, but lightly so – surrounding you and elevating you... Sanya has once again created flourishing sounds brushing with a gentle and […]
"A rollercoaster of emotions throughout" and "a wonderful record" - The Line of Best Fit says in a review of second album by the London rap duo Krept & Konan, 'Revenge is Sweet'. The other critics like it too: "Almost feels like a compilation full of singles – quite a few tracks are Top 10 contenders" - Clash Music; […]
"My hope is that they find you here, on the blurred edge between reality and dreams, in the half-awake place where the familiar merges with the unknown" - Paris-based indie-folk singer-songwriter Flora Hibberd told PopMatters about her EP 'The Absentee'. Indie30 says it's a "stirring and satisfying debut by any measure, one of conviction and […]
"At seven tracks that clock in at 15 and a half minutes, 'Feet of Clay' is by far Earl’s shortest project yet, but it doesn’t feel incomplete" - Brooklyn Vegan writes about Earl Sweatshirt's new album 'Feet of Clay'. It's experimental and simple - "just stream-of-consciousness delivery from Earl, who packs in threats, boasts, sentimentality, fun references".
Critics can't agree on how to categorize FKA twigs, but it's simple - it's pop music, a good sort. The same applies to her new album - "It’s a metamorphosis that twigs embodies on 'MAGDALENE', using discipline as a template for her art after undergoing her most public tribulations. While concise in length, 'MAGDALENE' paces FKA twigs through […]
She's a free-jazz guitarist, he plays in Deerhoof, together they "score a frantic fight scene... summon the shapes of acid tracers... flirt with budget psychedelic rock... float through a haunted house... shaping a record that’s surprisingly accessible and emotional for this idiom", Pitchfork writes about the first album by Mary Halvorson and John Dieterich as […]
She's an experimental guitarist with a jazz background, he is a drummer steeped in New York's noise-rock scene, together, Jessica Ackerley and Rick Daniel make up ESSi, post-punk noise band, who's just released their first album. Listening to 'Vital Creatures', it can seem baffling that only two musicians are playing on the album. But the two […]
"'Seeker' is an exciting and treasurable return for Cronin... The LP reveals how wide-ranging and bravely impassioned Cronin remains, allowing him to still rank among the best singer-songwriters out there" - Consequence of Sound writes about Californian's latest album. He wrote the album in Californian mountains, surrounded by forest, which he had to leave early due […]
Experimental New York producer Eartheater on her fourth record changes direction towards a poppier and R&B sound. Leit-motiv of the album is the ending of a relationship and loss, represented by the three states of water: liquid, solid, and gas, which act as different emotional states. Soul Feeder calls 'Trinity' one of the best releases […]
Scottish composer Anne Meredith has a career in experimental classical music (soundtracks, fashion campaigns, etc.), and 'FIBS' is her second album in pop music. It's luxurious and easy-listening, and critics like it: "Fibs is brimming with contrary combinations, irreverent genre-bending and serious innovation" - Guardian; "Wonderful big bang" - Brooklyn Vegan; "The chasms between hulking […]
PopMatters is delighted with a collaborative album by composer and clarinetist Ben Goldberg, and poet Dean Young. Goldberg first wrote songs based on a set of poems by Young and recorded them with an improvising band. Then Goldberg played the tunes for Young (without his knowing which tune matched which poem), inspiring him to write new poems […]
Second album by the Canadian experimental indie-rock is like a "joyful, sad, funny, wise conversation with close, thoughtful friend", Exclaim says. Brooklyn Vegan likes the sonic changes - "more atmospheric and more experimental art-pop directions than ever before. It’s both more complex and more gorgeous sounding". Paste Magazine concludes that "Naggar’s deftness at seamlessly weaving […]
Innercity Ensemble is a Polish supergroup (featuring members of Stara Rzeka, Alameda collective and Kapital), playing free-from improvisational music combining elements from jazz, post-industrial, noise-rock, and electronic. The Quietus describes their fourth album (surprise, surprise!! - it's named 'IV') as "bewitching"; actually it's much simpler than that - ambiental fun. Listen below (it takes a […]
"Frontman Joey Vannucchi wrote, recorded, and produced the whole thing himself in his apartment in Harlem, and they self-released the record" - Brooklyn Vegas says about new album by From Indian Lakes. It's kinda strange, sonically - "instrumentally, it’s still an indie rock record, but synths are the driving force... has an alluring synthy atmosphere […]
Lil Tjay spent multiple two and three-month sentences for robberries, and in 2016, at the age of 15, he was sentenced to one year in a youth detention center. Last week, the New York rap-balladeer, barely 18, released his debut album 'True 2 Myself'. Consequence of Sound compares Tjay to Usher and Justin Bieber - […]
"Complicated music and fun music don’t often go in hand... Battles debunk this fabulously within the first minute of their new album" - NME says in a review of new album by the American experimental rock group. On 'Juice B Crypts' they go into "conceptual weirdness, overflowing with ideas of technology, subservience and infinite loops. […]
"Even when it finally settles back into more comfortable lyrical terrain... the music strays beyond their usual comfort zone: ragged and underpinned by glitchy electronic beats. It suits them out there... Musically, Giants of All Sizes is richer and stranger than anything they’ve released since their commercial breakthrough" - Guardian's Alexis Petridis writes about his […]
