Tag: Reviews
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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is light around here while I plough through Polaris Music Prize listening obligations, but please accept these slightly outdated reviews for now, plus a mix I just finished last night that I will put up this week.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 […]
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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 […]
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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 – […]
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Cot Damn Fall ’14 Masterpiece No. 3: Clap! Clap!
Clap! Clap!Tayi BebbaBlack AcreReleased Sept. 8 2014 Maybe it was the mysterious nature of the Italy-based producer behind Tayi Bebba, but the phrase ‘cultural appropriation’ is now probably the first thing dance aficionados associate with Clap! Clap!. That’s a shame. Let’s assume for a moment that the person is a white man; is this then […]
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The five best records you missed in August
(Well I don’t actually know if you missed them, for all I know you’ve been bumping Lee Gamble in your jeep at all the cookouts I just don’t get invited to.) James Hoff Blaster PAN I did not know that James Hoff was 1) a “conceptual artist” – scare quotes very much intentional – or […]
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Top 25 Singles of 2014 so far
There have been a lot of records this year in the burgeoning BANG! BOOM! CRASH! subgenre, where the samples and/or drums are so loud they feel like they’re jumping out of your speaker and hitting you in the face, even at low volume. But the best of them remain undeniably musical, and even catchy. Evian […]
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Hidden gems of 2014
Click here to listen to the Soundcloud playlist, featuring tracks from each album Bitchin Bajas Bitchin Bajas Drag City This is the album I wanted Bitchitronics to be. The drones are hypnotic, the strings perfectly calibrated to their purpose, the electronics subtle yet rich. I’ve always been a fan of early drone pioneers like Tony […]