Heavy-hearted in the Midwest since 2011
Reviews of albums, shows, songs and the like.
Sydney, Australia’s Shady Nasty are noisy as hell and that’s a very good thing. For a three-piece they sound more like a small army of shrieking phantoms soundtracked by war drums and tortured six strings. Singer/guitarist Kevin Stathis condemns and seethes more than he sings. His jagged riffs are matched only by his jagged vocals. […]
Read More Shady Nasty : Bad PostureThe Glasgow electronic wizard J Gorecki, musically known as Fragile X, is all about moving us. Taking us on a journey thru his music. Many of us walk the path of mundanity in our daily lives; clocking in and clocking out, paying bills, cleaning up, and even talking about the same things and never deviating […]
Read More Fragile X : Late 03 : HylozoicThe pop duo Tennis, which consists of couple Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley, have always had a knack for pristine pop sounds. From breezy sunburnt pop of their debut Cape Dory to more 70s singer/songwriter fare of Young & Old to the more synth/dream pop fare of Yours Conditionally, the main thru line in the […]
Read More Tennis : SwimmerIt feels like Kevin Parker has finally found the perfect balance between the scrappy psych rock Tame Impala and the more nuanced, pop-inflected Tame Impala we’ve been hearing since 2015s Currents. Parker has never made it a secret that he had much loftier goals than just making his debut Innerspeaker over and over again. Even […]
Read More Tame Impala : The Slow RushOne of the great pleasures in life for me is to drop into a Jack Tatum(aka Wild Nothing) album and just get lost in his 80s-tinged dream pop. I dropped in with 2012s Nocturne and have been a major fan of Wild Nothing ever since. Tatum is all about the hook and the grandeur of […]
Read More Wild Nothing : Laughing GasNorwegian three piece Kanaan showed up at the end of 2018 with the intense and forward-thinking Windborne. Combining elements of post-rock, Krautrock, and even art rock, these three young musicians made a fine addition to the El Paraiso Records roster. Their music swayed from melancholy doom to breezy and ethereal soundscapes, giving their sound a […]
Read More Kanaan : Odense SessionsAre you familiar at all with Grief Thief Records? No? Well let me tell you you’re missing out. Grief Thief is home base for musicians Gene Priest and Derek Jones, the duo that make up the electronic band Cemetery Gates. Cemetery Gates is a project filled with 80s electronic vibes(Depeche Mode, OMD, NIN) as well […]
Read More Cemetery Gates : Blood Brothers Original SoundtrackMark Burford’s work as Field Lines Cartographer feels more like digging for fossils or mapping out new galaxies than just sitting and listening to an album. He creates a vast and strange musical landscape that is somewhere between meditative bliss and a frightening science fiction discovery. Songs slowly spread over time frames that cover from […]
Read More Field Lines Cartographer : The Ferric LandscapeListening to Ross Goldstein’s newest album Timoka is like walking through some ancient cathedral. A glacial palace filled with corridors that go on for miles, with window views of the Milky Way. The music feels like a soundtrack to something vast, beautiful, and undefinable. Using only a digital mellotron(and the sound of his cat Gretchen), […]
Read More Ross Goldstein : TimokaSteve Moore elicits so much dread and grandeur in the film scores he creates. His work in the independent horror/sci fi/thriller film world can’t really be touched. Along side composers like Wojciech Golczewski, Kreng, Ben Lovett, and Theodore Shapirio to name a few, Moore has the magic touch that can make a low budget film […]
Read More Steve Moore : Bliss Original Motion Picture Soundtrack