sketchy. is a generous, insightful record and a welcome return to the grand balancing act of Tune-Yards’ finest work. The music that Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner have made under the name Tune-Yards (once stylized tUnE-yArDs) is born out of a collision of styles…
Having had its world premiere at last year’s Berlinale, Marco Dutra and Caetano Gotardo’s All the Dead Ones (in Portuguese, Todos os Mortos) has now made its U.S. debut as the opening night selection for Film at Lincoln Center and Cinema Tropical’s Neighboring Scenes…
BbyMutha’s surprise EP once again proves that she is a crucial influence in hip hop’s present and (hopefully) future. This past August, BbyMutha released her long-awaited, full-length debut Muthaland, the culmination of many years’ work organically cultivating a passionate internet fanbase via SoundCloud and…
Is 4 Lovers both reminds of DFA’s appeal and evinces the diminishing results when they stray from their template. Death From Above 1979 seem to have found a comfortable groove for themselves over the last few years, releasing three albums since 2014 when the…
Scary Hours 2 isn’t the full album Drake promised, but inspires listeners to keep the faith that whatever he is planning is worth the wait. Last fall, Drake promised that his sixth studio album, Certified Lover Boy, would arrive in January of 2021. But two…
It’s not the best album to come out under the Griselda Records banner, but The Plugs I Met 2 shows Benny the Butcher still can fulfill basic expectations. The COVID pandemic scuttled release plans for untold numbers of musicians and performers, leaving vast expanses…
Funny Face works as genre deconstruction and cinema of a certain geography, but its attempts at explicit commentary are less successful. Tim Sutton is a director at least in part characterized by his pursuit of a sort of Kubrickian auteurism; each successive film markedly…
Shiva Baby thrives as the kind of festival-circuit dramedy that overcomes the genre’s twee stigma thanks to its surprising restraint and refinement. North American film festivals are always stuffed full of movies that look like Shiva Baby — droll indie dramedies, built around topical,…
Totally improbably, MGMT still exists, and not just that, but they also continue to build and better their sound, having released three albums since their full-length debut Oracular Spectacular, each reconceiving and honing what they produced on that iconic 2007 release. It’s a rather…
With Conway the Machine’s growing popularity comes a cynicism about the state of the rap industry that reads more out-of-touch than progressive. “In a class full of F students, the C student will always shine”: A classic bit of Big Ghost faux-wisdom (as extolled…
