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 […]

Yeesh : Saw You Up There

It’s always a great feeling to discover a band. You hit play on a new album and instantly feel like you’re connected. You think “This is a band I can grow with. I can’t wait to check out what came before and what will be coming in the future.” I felt that way about the […]

Astral TV : Travelling The Circuits

Astral TV lock into the universe when they create. Their music feels centered on some deeper understanding. A deeper understanding of what? Our connectivity to currents and how they effect us emotionally and psychically. It’s a visceral sound that goes from hazy, circuital beauty to more darker realms of tone and feel. Rasmus Rasmussen and […]

Whitney : Forever Turned Around

Whitney display a knack for the nostalgic. The Chicago band channel music you would’ve heard on the AM dial on a melancholy afternoon drive in 1975. Light-as-air vocals, gentle horns, and a soft rock veneer that brings to mind everything from early Chicago, Eric Carmen, and mid-70s George Harrison. Production that’s tight and songs that […]

Meridian Arc’s ‘Aphantasia’

I do occasionally get overwhelmed with things to write about. It happens. I’m not saying that’s a bad problem to have, though. In fact, in a world of vapid garbage being pumped into our collective veins on a daily basis, having too much great music to sink my metaphorical teeth into is a pretty great […]

Tool : Fear Inoculum

It’s been a long strange trip, but the new Tool album is here. After years of speculation, starts and stops, rumors and allegations, the veteran metal band has returned after 13 years of deafening silence. The result is the mammoth Fear Inoculum. At nearly 90 minutes in length, Tool have re-established their claim as the […]

Oh Baby : The Art of Sleeping Alone

Oh Baby seems to be channeling a thousand 80s nights on their debut EP The Art of Sleeping Alone. Hanging out at the arcade, staring out at a darkened lake with someone you think is the one, being dropped off at an all night skate, or letting it all go at a humid disco. A […]

Jay Som : Anak Ko

Melina Duterte makes beautifully restrained pop music as Jay Som. There’s the intimacy of Sufjan Stevens and Youth Lagoon, but with the adventurous experimentalism of late 80s Adrian Belew, Lindsey Buckingham, and Cocteau Twins. Her first collection of demos and home recordings Turn Into showed great promise, establishing Duterte as an artists to watch. Her […]