Inspired to action by the tumultuous current events in their own back yard, some people in Greece assembled an epic transnational compilation, spanning the European continent and beyond, to benefit the Syrian refugees in the Dodecanese Islands.
Saddle of Southern Darkness is a surprisingly authentic folk recording that seems to have come out of nowhere, and it is certainly one not to be missed before it retreats back into the shadowy woods.
On this second full-length, Sheffield, UK singer/pianist Harker is more personal and soul-searching than on its more whimsical predecessor, 2012’s The Red Room. The result is an album that makes an impact almost immediately.
Ostensibly, the duo’s chemistry is well and clearly still in place, arguably more than ever before, because Between the Earth and Sky is one of their best releases yet.
“A familiar and relaxing trip through the softer side of psychedelic music, painted with warm washes of organ and charmingly accented English.”
Captain Beefheart/Jeff Buckley collaborator and prominent solo/session guitarist, Gary Lucas, rekindles his love of soundtracks with an enthusiastic tribute to the Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor cartoons that so shaped his upbringing.
An album of folk-inspired pop rock, the twelve songs imbue traditional troubadour’s tales with enough hooks to keep the listener humming along.
There’s a distinct *Lynch*ian feel to songs like “Loaded Gun,” proving that the whole EP would make the perfect soundtrack for a smokey, black and white film noir drama.
Swedish duo Animal Daydream offer more ’70s indebted psychedelic soft rock on their latest EP. It’s a candy coated 13 minutes chock full of buttercream thick production and a surprising lack of sticky hooks.
On Wabi-Sabi, Cross Record successfully generate something truly mystical.
The prog rock-rooted EP is predominately keyboard driven in a darkly whimsical manner akin to Peter Gabriel era Genesis.
The Dead C’s Michael Morley answers the criticisms aimed at 2010’s A Republic of Sadness (Ba Da Bing!) by pushing those perceived flaws even further into his new album.
Laraaji and producer Brain Eno expand the notion of “ambient” on Day of Radiance.
Just when you thought you were intimately familiar with every band to grace the CBGB and Max’s Kansas City stages in the late ’70s, another one emerges from the echoes to completely reorient everything you thought you knew.
This third LP places more emphasis on Phil Honey-Jones’s frenzied, feculent guitars, while featuring the six-year-old London band’s most fiery, forceful tunes to date.
“There is a strong attempt to differentiate and grow, instead of relying on the British-inflected folk rock that inhabits their early work. That style is here of course (“Lilac Man”, “The Defender”), along with the gorgeous harmonies this pair weave so effortlessly.”
When Brixton, England’s This Heat delivered their self-titled debut in 1979, few people heard it, but, thanks to radio DJ John Peel, they garnered enough attention to release two more studio recordings before eventually disbanding in 1982.
Cajoled out of self-imposed early retirement by a young Nancy Sinatra, Lee Hazlewood returned with his fourth solo album and first for MGM in 1966.
Deister adeptly mixes beautiful moments with the downright odd, turning the album into a captivating experiment in bipolarity.
Kinetic Tones is a glaring example of the talent of Justin Wright.
If this is what “emo” has become, praise the fucking music gods that these kids really know how to turn their emotions into living, breathing beauty in song. Beauty that can only come from pain and crushing struggle, you hear the tears, joy, depression and hope in every well placed line.
“It is unadorned but charming jangle pop with an obvious debt to the Velvet Underground, and really, what is wrong with that? Astor has a laid back voice with the same timbre as James Hoare, and the two blend together effortlessly.”
The lead single “Breaking Through The Walls” is a strutting, flashy blast of sleazy glam, influenced by bands like Queens of the Stone Age and Arctic Monkeys.
If there is a theme driving Wading The River, it can possibly be said to simply be a love of rock and roll, and a celebration of Stormy Mondays’ influences.
If this single’s A-side is any indication, Atlanta-based quartet Love Letter displays more streamlined focus and ferocity than singer Carrie Hodge’s former band, Parade.
By the time she released her fourth album in October 1965, Françoise Hardy had grown into a full-fledged pop icon.
Osaka, Japan’s premiere ex-pat improvisers, Out of Dust, continue pushing the boundaries of jazz on their sixth release of new material.
There is a wonderful homespun feel to the record, and it plays like a private invitation to a day at his house listening to him sing his little hymns to you and you alone.
In the mid-‘70s, Animals founder and former keyboardist, Alan Price, basked in the glow of his own successful solo career.
“chilly but lush music, refining it to jagged, lacy points of light streamed through the darkness.”
New American Century is a fantastic debut record from a duo whose chemistry has obviously been long cemented.
Burns’ wonderfully poetic lyrics just hang like a ghost over a slowly revolving storm of guitars and pianos playing themselves beneath it, sucking you in against your will.
Not many can do what The Chills make sound so effortless. Silver Bullets was worth the wait.
“Shoegaze is a term that came into general use around 1990 to describe a new breed of UK indie guitar bands inspired by the likes of 4AD Records and My Bloody Valentine. Bands such as Ride, Moose, Lush, Pale Saints, Swervedriver, Slowdive, Catherine Wheel, Chapterhouse, and The Telescopes married dreamy, off-kilter melodies, skewed, heavily effects-laden guitar riffs and psychedelic production values.”
It’s so difficult to stand out from the crowd in indie pop these days, but Joseph Sant has cast himself a defiantly original voice.
Melbourne singer-songwriter Bill Botting captures the hangover of the holiday season in this shambling homespun EP.
“It is perhaps their loudest and boldest album, yet it is populated with intricate patterns and delicate passages linking it all together.”
“a trippy, head-spinning deep dive into the world of dark psychedelia.”
Brooklyn-based psychedelic improvisers, Rhyton, return with a fourth album of mind-expanding spacerock fit for the Winter Solstice.
“a fine, mature album from one of the 60s greatest songwriters, and it’s mighty good to have him back.”
It could be said that Alan Lomax did more for folk music, both at home and abroad, than anyone else.
The entire record has the potential to become a minor lo-fi classic, and for a debut, Sabo’s vision is incredibly concise and focused.
“This outing is three disks and 33 songs chock full of gorgeous dream pop, shoegaze, and atmospheric soundscapes.”
Rise may not be especially unique or original, but its poise, consistency, and drive make it very fetching anyway.
San Francisco’s CommunionUnion59 are back and this time with a little present just in time for the holiday season.
This Paris quartet’s superb 2014 debut EP Our Romance Ghost summoned the ‘90s U.K. Britpop scene so succinctly, it silenced skeptics. But My Electric surpasses it.
This Milan, Italy trio’s claim that their music “[pursues] a classic punk sound” with “alternative rock’s reminiscences” is spot-on.
