Missionary Work : The Ash tree

There’s something stately and haunting about Missionary Work’s new album The Ash Tree. Renato Montenegro has built an ornate castle of sound that is part parlor music, baroque Gothic, and classical music from beyond the grave. Music to accompany M.R. James’ tale of the same name, the harpsichord melodies intertwine with haunting synth and regal […]

Candlebox : Wolves

Candlebox hit the scene with their self-titled debut in 1993. A hard rock four-piece coming out of the over-saturated Seattle music scene that was still reeling from the great grunge takeover of 1991. Candlebox stood apart from their hometown’s contemporaries in that they made straight up alternative rock that veered closer to Janes Addiction than […]

Steve Moore : Gone World

Steve Moore has kept pretty busy despite a slow time for working musicians. Starting last year with a killer track on the Portals comp via Behind The Sky, Zombi’s excellent 2020, a series of covers this year under the ‘Zombi and Friends’ moniker, the collab album Liminial Migration with Bluetech, a new Zombi ep earlier […]

Camp Of Wolves : Green Timbers

The first time I heard David Salisbury’s musical project Camp Of Wolves was the album Granite Creek(out in January on Soundtracking The Void.)The music on that album entrances; baroque electronic that whispers melodies through circuits and sound manipulation. Salisbury makes music that sounds of his surroundings, which is the dense forests and intimidating countryside of […]

UNE : Spomenik

The latest release from Spun Out Of Control is from the electronic duo UNE. UNE is Mark Radcliffe & Paul S. Langley, Radcliffe a broadcaster and Langley an electronic musician. They have made three albums together, with their latest, Spomenik, being their debut with SOOC. With their latest release, Radcliffe and Langley go largely instrumental […]

Filth & Majesty : Who Killed Friday Night

I like intricately-layered prog metal as much as the next Peart-worshipping rock and roll poindexter. I was a sadsack teenage outcast reading Vonnegut and Philip K Dick while getting lost in albums like 2112, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, and Helloween’s Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I and II. But before I started […]

A Place To Bury Strangers : Hologram

A Place To Bury Strangers have the distinct honor of being named the loudest band in New York. I think that’s an understatement as they could easily be the loudest band in the universe if Mogwai were to go acoustic. Either way, if you throw on any one of APTBS five studio albums you’d quickly […]

Ty Segall : Harmonizer

Ty Segall is a hard artist to keep up with. Just as you’re memorizing track orders on the newest album he’s already released a new one, either under his own name or with any one of his many side projects/collaborations. I’m not complaining(okay, maybe I am), but it’s as if he can’t stop and soak […]

Music From Way Out: The Interstellar Psych Of Jakob Skott

So for this short 4-day week I’m taking a bit of a break. That doesn’t mean I’m leaving you all high and dry, no sir. Instead, I’m re-posting some some of my favorite interviews of Complex Distractions past. Many of you weren’t around the first couple years I was doing this writing thing, and I’ve […]

Long Story Short : Video Age, Sermons By The Devil, Andy Fosberry, and Pharagonesia

Here’s another ‘Long Story Short’ post. This is where I compress a handful of reviews into one post. Why? Well because there’s too much good music and not enough clones of myself to write expansive reviews for each release. So I’m dropping a paragraph each about some albums I think you should put in your […]