Orcutt and Corsano provide an example of what improvisational albums should sound like, even with the production constraints of a pandemic-driven world. One of the most significant challenges in group improvisation is finding the right balance between the individual and the collective. A “free”…
screen time may be considered only a side project for Thurston Moore, but its cinematic and emotional touchstones make the album an important work in the former Sonic Youth frontman’s solo catalog. Uploaded to Bandcamp with practically zero fanfare early in February, screen time is…
2020 proves that Magik Markers are still able to excite nearly two decades into their career. As young upstarts on the American noise scene of the early aughts, Magik Markers first made a name for themselves thanks to their raucous live shows and the dozens…
Simply reading about Horse Lords could never do their music justice. Given their unusual tuning systems, 20th-century classical reference points, and their band members’ assorted avant-garde credentials, it would be easy to assume that access to the Baltimore-based group is closed off to all…
All the Time is both a breezy bit of oddball dance-pop and a rich record that benefits from deeper listening. While Hamilton, Ontario may not seem like the most fertile ground for cultivating an interest in dance music, the city is actually home to a rather…
Protomartyr’s main draw has always been frontman Joe Casey. With all due respect to Greg Ahee’s wonderfully oblique guitarwork, Casey’s gruff sneer and erudite lyrics are what really set the Detroit post-punk band apart from their contemporaries. He kicks off their latest record, Ultimate…
Shutting Down Here represents a clear advancement of O’Rourke’s familiar ideas and is one of richest sonic achievements. In a recent interview, Jim O’Rourke called his latest work, Shutting Down Here, the “most meaningful” album of his career. “It’s almost 100% exactly what I wanted,”…
Homegrown is the rare archival release that actually offers substance rather than just ephemera. In an age where exhuming stacks of demos and alternate mixes has become the norm for so many older acts, Neil Young’s Homegrown — a scrapped studio album from 1975 —…
For a band so insistent on defying any and all principles of behavior, even (or perhaps especially) when it meant sabotaging their own success, it’s perfectly fitting that the Replacements’ best and most quintessential album bears a title so openly flippant in its disregard…
Brian Eno will always be best known for his invention of ambient music (or at least its coinage) and for his work as the producer extraordinaire behind such classics as Remain In Light, The Joshua Tree, and Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy, but the avant garde,…
