EP Review: Jackson Hill- Rabbit Feather

What a strange and beguiling debut from the Raleigh- based ambient musician and producer. Rabbit Feather weaves in and out of speakers. Its trippy strangeness is both unsettling and comforting. There’s a lullaby like fragility to Figment and Whatever Helps You Sleep At Night makes you feel encased in some kind of space PID, untilContinue reading “EP Review: Jackson Hill- Rabbit Feather”

Album Review: Hinako Omori- A Journey…

Inspired by the practice of forest bathing, Japanese artist Hinako Omori’s new album breathes like new buds bursting into life. Created using scientific binaural sounds and more organic processes of field recordings, the album pulses with transcendental shimmering beauty. Tracks like Levitation see Omori’s modular synth patterns resemble chirruping birds, while her voice soars onContinue reading “Album Review: Hinako Omori- A Journey…”

Album Review: Cate Le Bon- Pompeii

Even at her sweetest, Welsh avant-pop artist Cate Le Bon is always wilfully opaque. This, her sixth album, is even murkier than before. There’s nothing as driving here as Mother’s Mother’s Magazines or even Sisters. What there is instead feels like a series of dizzy spells, which seems appropriate for our weird and frightening times.Continue reading “Album Review: Cate Le Bon- Pompeii”

Album Review: Sea Change- Mutual Dreaming

Norwegian producer and singer Ellen A W Sunde has produced yet another elusive, shining sad gem. Mutual Dreaming hits that half awake/half asleep tender spot. Her dreamy, often whispered vocals cast her as sonic somnambulist, and songs like Night Eyes, OK and the title track are like drowning in pixels. It’s elusive, warped and prettyContinue reading “Album Review: Sea Change- Mutual Dreaming”

Album Review: Boris-W

For well over two decades, Japanese experimental doom band Boris have been treading their own path, through line-up and label changes. Too avant-garde for the mainstream, they nonetheless have a loyal fan- base, not least because of working alongside collaborators like Sunn 0))). This, their first album for Sacred Bones, has enough light and shadeContinue reading “Album Review: Boris-W”

Album Review: Sanctuary

A mighty collaboration between the Colombian composer Jose Parody and Grayson Sanders and Leviticus Penner, Sanctuary Vol. 1 and 2 is steeped in the kind of quietude that is neither comforting nor kind, but still incredibly beautiful. Truth is meditative, sparse and features voices that weave in and out drones. Smoke In The Halls isContinue reading “Album Review: Sanctuary”

Album Review: Laura- Mary Carter- Town Called Nothing

Blood Red Shoes frontwoman Laura-Mary Carter has always been a wonderful musician, and her new solo project is equally fascinating, but this time, her post- grunge shredding has been replaced by a country noir mini-album. Town Called Nothing invokes dusty, ominous Westerns, the eerie moment before the showdown. It starts off deceptively pretty, with fineContinue reading “Album Review: Laura- Mary Carter- Town Called Nothing”

Album Review: Holy Other- Lieve

Stockport musician and producer David Ainley has created a wonderful piece of post-ambient beauty here. It invokes the illogical themes of dreams: figures with heads that are never seen, fragmentary buildings, the sense of hazy, unresolved issues. Glitches, sighs and ghostly soundscapes permeate throughout the album. The title track, featuring saxophonist Daniel Thorne, fizzles andContinue reading “Album Review: Holy Other- Lieve”

Album Review: Modern Nature- Island Of Noise

Imagine this. You’re in the Lake District perhaps, or by a boathouse. Take a moment to lie down in the still of the night. Can you hear it? There’s a bàbbling stream. Birds twitter. There’s no Twitter, no social media, no hassles here. Modern Nature have created an album that is sheer bliss, as ifContinue reading “Album Review: Modern Nature- Island Of Noise”

Album Review: Parquet Courts- Sympathy For Life

You could be forgiven for thinking this is just another ebullient, scrappy album from the New York indie stoners, or however we’re stereotyping them this week. After all, the irresistible bounce of Walking At A Downtown Pace seems to personify this, with Max Savage’s rollicking rhythm and their trademark shouty refrain. But album seven isContinue reading “Album Review: Parquet Courts- Sympathy For Life”