Heavy-hearted in the Midwest since 2011
James McKeown’s electronic music project Hawksmoor goes deep. McKeown’s sound is dense, heady, and pulls from the best that the early German electronic scene had to offer. Combining the warmth of analog via Moogs, Modular synthesis, guitar, and bass with a rhythmic backbone that feels more implied through mood, Hawksmoor makes the kind of music […]
Read More Hawksmoor : Telepathic HeightsI think I really do underestimate the power of a really good hang. I’ve become a much more solitary creature as I’ve gotten older, so much so that the idea of being social gives me anxiety. The preparation, the anticipation, and the fear of how do I remain interested talking for more than a 30 […]
Read More Nothing Like A Good HangQueens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has had a pretty rough decade or more. Starting clear back in the early 2010s with a surgery that nearly killed him, then working his way into a very ugly and public battle with ex-wife Brody Dalle of the Distillers. Add in the death of friend and […]
Read More Queens of the Stone Age : In Times New RomanI slept in till a little after 8 am on Father’s Day. I slept in till a little after 8 am on Saturday as well. It’s kind of out of character for me to sleep in that late. Usually 7:30 am is the latest I’ll sleep in before either the sun fills our bedroom with […]
Read More Father’s Day Walk, Big Bird In A Tower, And Appreciating The Little Things EverydayTrevor Powers’ music project Youth Lagoon started in 2010 and 2011 saw the release of The Year Of Hibernation. The music Powers wrote felt personal, intimate, and at times fragile. His voice was a whisper above barely there; timid, squeaky, and with the feeling that he was reaching deep down for those words. The album […]
Read More Youth Lagoon : Heaven Is A JunkyardThe latest to rise from the crypt over at Library Of The Occult is a curious one. A drone-heavy, haunted Berlin School affair from a project called Horned Relic Self. Not much information about who’s responsible for these haunted sound excursions, but when it’s this good you can forgive a few details missing. Column Of […]
Read More Horned Relic Self : Column Of ShadowI was trying to remember when I first got into Tangerine Dream. I remember the first album I bought from them was Tangram, shortly after I’d bought a turntable in late 2008. I found a copy of Tangram at Half Price Books for $1. It was what I’d call back in the day “The Nice […]
Read More Tangerine Dream DreamsI can tell I’m holding a lot of existential angst in me. It’s coming out in my dreams. Been a bit of a kaleidoscope of internal and external noise – real, imagined, metaphoric – echoing in my head and I haven’t quite let it out. You can tamp it down into a nice, small imagined […]
Read More Just Sad Dreams LatelySwiss-based, UK-born composer Rupert Lally seems to be able to do anything. Now an established author, Lally has been putting out thoughtful and engaging electronic music for some time. I personally discovered him with his releases via the great UK electronic label Spun Out Of Control. Albums like The Prospect, Where The Dark Speaks, Maniac’s […]
Read More Rupert Lally : MultitudesDetroit’s Protomartyr have been leading the way in the modern post-punk movement, starting with their debut album, 2012s No Passion All Technique. Each album improved and evolved the sound, which consisted of jagged guitars, a solid rhythm section, and lead singer Joe Casey’s poetic lyricism delivered in the voice of a soothsayer booming society’s doomed […]
Read More Protomartyr : Formal Growth In The Desert