Nuggies Heavy Hit: What an awful band name. This what a band who tours with the Kotton Mouth Kings should call themselves. Instead this Vermont based group is an Avant-garde IMD band. Awesome. The only real joy to be found on this two track EP is when the band is heard laughing and giggling during [...]
Olaf Rupp-Whiteout
Olaf Rupp Whiteout: An album of freely improvised guitar solos. Rupp uses lots of distortion and delay combined with some unusual picking techniques to pull all kinds of strange sounds out of his guitar. Technically Rupp can’t be faulted, he is as fast and precise as they come, and is willing to explore new techniques. [...]
Jandek-Manhattan Tuesday
Jandek Manhattan Tuesday: Acoustic bass and drums mix with electric guitar, synthesizer, and Jandek’s unique droning voice to shape an intriguing listen. The music flows along with a jazzy- ambiance, remaining laid back and hypnotic while incorporating a healthy amount of dissonance. Jandek’s voice becomes the focus for extended intervals, the band quiets down, providing [...]
Carl Michael von Hausswolff-Strom
Carl Michael von Hausswolff Strom: An interesting interplay of sine waves with the occasional bump and fuzz to keep things interesting. The sine waves resonate beautifully and can produce several interesting sensation in your skull. Hausswolff does amazing things with very few elements, which speaks volumes of his deep understanding of composition. Rating: 14/15 hums
Greg Malcolm-Leather and Lacy
Greg Malcom Leather and Lacy: Jazz hating multiple guitar playing New Zealand free improv musician does an album worth of soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy’s compositions. Malcolm plays the melodies quite beautifully on a conventionally played guitar on his lap. For the backing parts Lacey sets up guitars hanging by him and at his feet. He [...]
AMM-Ambient 4: Isolationism
AMM Ambient 4:Isolationism: A unique mix of free jazz, modern classical, and electronic music. This disk is completely improvised, and is extremely pleasant to listen to considering its atonal nature. Piano drums and cello, are augmented by Keith Rowe’s prepared guitar. Rowe plays the guitar by lay it out in front of him and manipulating [...]
Fantomas-Delirium Cordia
Fantomas Delirium Cordia: Dark ambient music, filled with drills moans and other assorted vaguely medical sounds. Really good reading music which would also function as an excellent soundtrack. An interesting disk to listen to intently once in awhile. Rating: 12/15 creepy sounds
Keith Rowe / Keith Rowe & Taku Unami-Keith Rowe and Taku Unami / Keith Rowe
Keith Rowe / Keith Rowe & Taku Unami Keith Rowe and Taku Unami / Keith Rowe: Beeps blurps and scrapes. A very interesting very minimalist release. A cool listen, but only when you’re in the mood for it. 13/15: weird things to play a guitar with
Angus MacLise-Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda
Angus MacLise Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda: Equal parts avant-garde drone, indian classical, and psychedelic. MacLise and his collaborators create trance inducing music with eerie chanted vocals and random explosions of sound and intense percussion. The poor recording quality, negatively effects the music in a big way. On many tracks several instruments will barely be audible. [...]
Ikue Mori-Myrninerest
Ikue Mori Myrninerest: Short phrases produced by acoustic instruments, and be Mori’s laptop computer flit in and out of silence. An interesting collection of her works that held my interest for the most part, but theres no real distinguishing features between most of the tracks. For better or worse its an albums worth of cool [...]
