METZ : Up On Gravity Hill

Canada’s METZ arrived in the early 2010s in what seemed like a resurgence in the post-punk community. Along with fellow Canadians Preoccupations(formerly Viet Cong) and the Motor City’s Protomartyr it seemed as if post-punk was getting a 21st century kick in the pants. METZ was the loudest of the three, with singer/guitarist Alex Edkins guitar […]

Mr. Jones’ Takes The Spotlight : Breaking Down Elvin Jones’ ‘Poly-Currents’

There’s plenty of amazing jazz drummers, but for my money one of the most powerful with the most finesse was Elvin Jones. Jones gained notoriety for being part of John Coltrane’s great quartet, along with McCoy Tyner(piano), Jimmy Garrison(bass), and of course Coltrane. Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Philly Joe Jones, Billy Cobham, Rashied Ali, and […]

Zombi : Direct Inject

The prog/synth duo Zombi, which consists of keyboardist/bassist/composer Steve Moore and percussionist/keyboardist AE Paterra, have notched out a very specific sonic corner in electronic music. Influenced/inspired by horror scores and films, as well as 70s prog and more thoughtful metal of the 70s and 80s, these two Pittsburgh-raised musicians have rewired the idea of the […]

The Black Crowes : Happiness Bastards

Sibling rivalry in rock bands is a long-standing tradition in the pantheon of rock and roll. The Kinks, The Jesus Mary Chain, Beach Boys, The Breeders and Oasis are just a few examples where siblings in a band had issues with each other from time to time. Something about that sibling rivalry, it would either […]

Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu, and Marta Sofia Honer : The Closest Thing To Silence

The best instrumental music takes you out of what you perceive to be your world and opens doors to new ones. It brings the curtain down on reality so that you can expand your mental and emotional horizons. Instrumental music doesn’t need words to guide you somewhere, as the composition built from instruments is the […]

zakè : B⁴+3

The latest from ambient sound wizard Zach Frizzell, aka zakè, is the enigmatic and widescreen effort B⁴+3. Originally known as B⁴, a 2023 Zakè Drone Recordings release that was a musical companion to art prints created by Frizzell, zakè felt that he wasn’t yet finished with this record. In fact, in describing that feeling he […]

Ivan The Tolerable Trio : Infinite Peace

Oli Heffernan, aka Ivan The Tolerable, isn’t one to chill and take some down time. He’s a musician on a mission, and that mission is to dive into the deep end of the pool and see how far down he can go. Dig deep and explore. His music is a crossroads of heady jams, psychedelic […]

Idles : Tangk

Idles started out as this punk/pub hybrid of a band. You could hear the sound they were heading towards on their first two records, Brutalism(2017) and Joy as an Act of Resistance(2018), but the Bristol band were still finding themselves. It wasn’t until Ultra Mono(2020) that the post-punk stomp and singer Joe Talbot’s barking militant […]

The Hologram People : Isola Dei Morti Viventi

I first came across The Hologram People via their excellent long player Village of the Snake God. That Library of the Occult release was nothing short of brilliant; LSD-laced music freakouts that combined 70s funk, acid folk, and just the right amount of psychedelia to get you wondering what reality you’re currently existing in. There […]

36 : Reality Engine

Dennis Huddleston, aka electronic artist 36, makes electronic music in the grand tradition of trailblazers like Edgar Froese, Klaus Schulze, and Jean-Michel Jarre. And what I mean by that is 36 works on grand scales, building crystalline sound worlds where one gets lost for a bit. Where some ambient feels like slow motion cloud formation […]