Category: Writing

  • Hiatus Year End Lists

    Hiatus Year End Lists

    This site has been on hiatus since 2019 owing to personal and pandemic reasons, but I have been scribbling year-end lists on napkins anyways, of course… 2018 Best of the restGnod- Chapel Perilous (Rocket Recordings)Acre – Hollow Body (Opal Tapes)Dr Octagon – Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day HorripilationDjrum – Portrait With Firewood (R&S)Animal Collective […]

  • Best Albums of 2017

    Best Albums of 2017

    In the 70s music critics had an edge on the fans – if Richard Meltzer is to be believed, they got free records, invites to parties studded with stars, drugs and other party favours. In 2017 it is becoming increasingly common to not get sent the biggest new releases at all, never mind before they […]

  • The 50 Best Albums of 2016

    The 50 Best Albums of 2016

    In this post: an introduction, reviews of the top 10 albums of the year, a complete top 50 list, and a streaming playlist with a track from every top 50 album save for those not on Spotify. See you in 2017! There were no seismic shifts in the pop landscape in 2016, nor in 2015, […]

  • The Best Albums of 2015

    The Best Albums of 2015

    Note: This was not published at the time but languished in draft. Best Albums of 2015 Best Dance Singles of 2015 Best Dance Labels of 2015

  • Odds and sods: Pixelord, Bitchin’ Bajas

    Odds and sods: Pixelord, Bitchin’ Bajas

    Bitchin’ BajasTransporteurHands In The Dark As I gazed at extortionate collector prices for a copy of Bitchin Bajas’ out-of-print Krausened EP today, it occurred to me how much had changed since then. (And that maybe I should be grateful there are copies to be had.) Transporteur hints at their last, self-titled album, with the group’s […]

  • Jamie XX and other things you already have opinions on

    Jamie XX and other things you already have opinions on

    Jamie XXIn ColourXL The one question I ask myself more than any other when reviewing (well, other than “just how sober do I need to be for this task?”) (Short answer: not very) is, ” what is this music for?” Not strictly in the sense of what it was purpose-built for, but what kind of […]

  • Unsound at Luminato in the Hearn Generating Station

    Unsound at Luminato in the Hearn Generating Station

    Loooook! Rocks! In art, industrial spaces in disrepair are not new. There’s nothing left to wring from either the glory-of-human-progress, man-vs-nature thread, and the globalization-made-this-rubble anti-capitalist critique is so played out, the concept itself ought to be in a museum. And yet, wandering among the enormous hulking I-beams in the decommissioned Hearn Generating Station in […]

  • Rapidly aging reviews: Jam City, Mike Gao, Pearson Sound

    Rapidly aging reviews: Jam City, Mike Gao, Pearson Sound

    Posting is light around here while I plough through Polaris Music Prize listening obligations, but please accept these slightly outdated reviews for now, plus a mix I just finished last night that I will put up this week. I love you and want you to be happy. – Deemo Jam City Dream A Garden Night […]

  • Catching up: Björk, John Carpenter, DJ Clent

    Catching up: Björk, John Carpenter, DJ Clent

    Björk Vulnicura One Little Indian I guess this is Bjork’s breakup record but I always heard, well, all of them as breakup records. All that vocalese and weird phrasing and unprompted high-note-hitting screams angst to these ears. It’s just that on Vulnicura the lyrics match up to the overall mood. You can’t mistake “History of […]

  • The rest of 2014

    The rest of 2014

    One thing I would like to know is whether critics in the pre-digital era used to feel the same sense of angst over the pile of unlistened-to albums at the end of the year that I do now. It’s not just that there may be great records lurking in the unheard – that’s inevitable – […]