Moon Duo : Stars Are The Light

Moon Duo have always had a disco side. Even back in the beginning, their Suicide vibes and psychedelic motorik grooves hinted at simple four-on-the-floor rhythms and dance floor abandon. The driving sound has always been Ripley Johnson’s fuzz guitar, Sanae Yamada’s keys, and their voices melding together into one soothing, melodic drone. With each successive […]

Crystal Myslajek : Cove

There is something quite transcendent and utterly beautiful about Crystal Myslajek’s exquisite Cove. At times light and airy while at other times heavy and foreboding, the album feels like a true work of emotional and artistic depth. Sparse arrangements intertwine and coalesce like chamber music performed for just a handful of onlookers. Life and light […]

Joel Ross : Kingmaker

I find it hard to find “new” jazz artists. Not because there aren’t any worthy of my time and ears, but because I just don’t know where to look. When you have such a vast and expansive search pile as the history of Blue Note, Impulse, and Prestige Records over the last 70 years, getting […]

Lou Rebecca : Restless

There’s something so very exhilarating about Lou Rebecca’s debut full-length Restless. The Parisian starlet shows a knack for writing melodies both seductive and innocent. Rebecca’s voice hangs in the air like a sweet scent, but underneath the innocent swoon is a voracious artist writing songs about heartache and regret. Singing in both French and English, […]

Sex Magick Wizards : Eroto Comatose Lucidity

So imagine a jam session between Miles Davis’ mid-60s quintet, John Coltrane, John Mclaughlin, and Jimi Hendrix on a caffeine buzz and you might get an idea of what sort of voodoo Sex Magick Wizards are concocting. The four-piece from Oslo, Norway, which consists of members Sigrid Aftret, Axel Skalstad, Henrik Sandstad Dalen, and Viktor […]

Bat For Lashes : Lost Girls

Natasha Khan, aka Bat For Lashes, has never been afraid to explore musically. Always working within pop sensibilities, her music is as engaging and urgent as pop music can get. On her latest, the synth pop-inflected Lost Girls, she builds beautifully ornamented pop songs that are as addictive as they are eccentric. Opening track “Lost […]

Blue Tomorrows : Without Color

Blue Tomorrows’ Without Color is a breezy, gentle sway of an album. Songwriter Sarah Nienaber writes songs that feel like running into an old friend after many years have passed. Familiarity and long lost memories abound come rushing back like opening some mental time capsule. Jangly guitar, care-free synths, simple drum rhythms come together to […]

Mr. Eff : Eyes Down

New York, 1981. Times Square was still littered with drug deals, porno theaters, and a general sense post-apocalyptic urban decay. By this point even Travis Bickle had said the hell with it, parked the cab, and moved to the suburbs. The “Big Apple” was indeed rotting to the core. It’d be several years before Giuliani […]

Electric Youth : Memory Emotion

Like many, my first exposure to the Canadian synth pop duo Electric Youth was Nicolas Winding Refn’s dark noir film Drive. Besides the film being instrumental in showing the world just what Refn had up his cinematic sleeve(as well as how well Ryan Gosling could act by saying as little as possible), the soundtrack itself […]

Sankofa : $5,000 Flashlights

There’s nothing quite like experiencing an artist at the height of their powers. Watching them make the magic happen the only way they know how. You wonder each time out if this is as good as it’ll get. Have they reached their pinnacle of creative power? Should I savor this just a little more? Sometimes […]