Luis Vasquez : A Body Of Errors

Luis Vasquez uses art to express his creativity, but also his internal world. With his long-running project The Soft Moon, Vasquez uses post-punk angst and darkwave doom and gloom to paint us jagged visions of the human experience. If that sounds like a drag, it’s not. Musically Vasquez builds pulsating soundscapes, pop industrial rhythms with […]

Camp Of Wolves : Granite Creek

The new album from David Salisbury’s electronic project Camp Of Wolves is heavy, man. Not in a d-tuned guitar and screamo vocals heavy, but the kind of heavy that hits you when you least expect it driving to work, or staring out at the sea. A monolithic melancholy that touches your cheek when some great […]

Deafheaven : 10 Years Gone

Deafheaven have reshaped what it is and what it can be to be a metal band over the last decade. Seamlessly combining elements of black metal, post-rock, thrash, shoegaze, and even dream pop throughout each of their releases, the California 5-piece somehow make switching gears from Burzum and Slayer to Wilco and Explosions in The […]

SOMAFREE INSTITUTE : Vertical Helix Scan(2020)

SOMAFREE INSTITUTE is a drum/synth trio out of Seattle, Washington that lock into dark, heady sci-fi grooves, taking the listener on a deep space journey that is part dystopian soundtrack and part electro-prog freakout. The band, which consists of Andrew Crawshaw(Synthesizers & Programming), Justin Thomas Kleine(Synthesizers), and Tim Call(Drums), creates a dizzying sonic dread that […]

Steve Moore : VFW Soundtrack

Ever since I heard Steve Moore’s score for The Guest I firmly believe that he is the secret ingredient to a truly great cinematic experience. Moore won me over of course as synth/bass wizard in the horror prog duo Zombi, but when I first saw The Guest and became enamored with that score it felt […]

Alone 1980 : Night Lights

The latest from Sweden’s Alone 1980 isn’t short on dread and Gothic doom. It seems to dig into the macabre and things that go bump in the night in a visceral and melancholy way. Given what we saw in the US just last week in the nation’s capital, I think this is the soundtrack we […]

Delicate Steve : The Christmas Album

Delicate Steve(aka Steve Marion) is one of the best young guitarists working today. A eloquent mix of Ry Cooder, Santos and Johnny, and George Harrison, Delicate Steve makes his guitar sing in place of his voice, creating an often engaging and haunting sound. On Delicate Steve’s The Christmas Album the standards are covered in a […]

The War On Drugs : Live Drugs

I never thought I’d look back on live shows as if they’re something from the past. Something that doesn’t exist anymore, so we have to live those experiences through live albums. Well if 2020 has taught me anything it’s that nothing is forever, folks. Thankfully there are some truly great live albums that exist. Albums […]

The Bird and the Bee : Put up the Lights

The Bird and the Bee, which consists of duo Inara George(Bird) and Greg Kurstin(Bee), has made a career out of making smooth, jazzy pop records that are sublime, serene, and just this side of cosmically joyful. Imagine Stevie Wonder, The Cardigans, and Broadcast came together and drank one too many martinis and reimagined Frank Sinatra […]

Monochrome Echo : Moonkeeper

Listening to Monochrome Echo’s new album Moonkeeper I’m reminded of simpler times. Times when dystopian science fiction films didn’t have to have dread-inducing scores filled with ominous synth and hellscape ambient tones. A time when touches of light and elements of electro pop could cleanse the mental palate after someone is twisted into a pretzel […]