Silver Apples : Clinging To A Dream

I have to be honest, besides a vague awareness of the name I wasn’t all that familiar with Silver Apples. I knew they were instrumental in pushing electronic music into the ears of folks that would go on to revolutionize the genre. Experimental electronic, Krautrock, motorik beats, and the whole German electronic music scene of […]

Morgan Delt : Phase Zero

The first thing that hits you on Morgan Delt’s excellent Sub Pop debut Phase Zero is the breezy, island sway of “I Don’t Wanna See What’s Happening Outside”. Vocalsjust shy of a whisper cascade along a mellow, shuffling rhythm with wobbling guitars, synths, and a prominent proper meaty bass line holding it all together. It […]

Stranger Things Soundtrack Volume One : Original Music by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein

I can’t remember the last time something enthralled the public’s eyes and ears like Netflix’ Stranger Things has. Maybe the Macarena? Or the Blue Collar Comedy Tour? The Pam and Tommy Lee sex tape? Regardless, none of those things lived up to the hype that preceded them, except for Stranger Things. This is a show that […]

Of Montreal : Innocence Reaches

Kevin Barnes has played many roles in his nearly 20 year music career. There was the folksy pop guy, the jilted lover, the struggling husband and father, the party monster, the transvestite hooker, the avante garde composer, and the rock and roll warrior. But the role Barnes plays best is Kevin Barnes. The guy that’s […]

Simon Belmont Blues

I remember it like it was yesterday(or maybe last week.) I spent a week at my uncle Mark’s house in the summer of 1987. I went straight from the last day of school to his place where we’d hang out, eat junk food, and play video games. What I didn’t know was that my older […]

“She’ll Kill You”

In just a mere two minutes and change the track “She’ll Kill You” from the upcoming volume one of the Stranger Things S/T pulls you from your daily grind and puts you into some other realm. It’s full and dense synth cavalcade washes over you and fills your ears with a pulsating melancholy that’s part Night Flights and […]

For The Love Of Kevin Barnes : A Few Words On Of Montreal’s Svengali

I’m sitting in my living room after a couple beers and maybe a shot or two of Johnnie Walker Red and I’m on my second spin of the new Of Montreal long player Innocence Reaches. I’m once again in awe of the mighty and ADD-afflicted Kevin Barnes. This album seems to encapsulate all that is Kevin […]

MSTRKRFT : Operator

So let me start out by saying I’m not an aficionado when it comes to electronica. I’m really just an outsider looking in that finds himself drawn to the beats and noisy synths. I feel EDM, techno, and house music like I feel jazz, hip hop, and classical music; that is to say I feel […]

Cliff Martinez : The Neon Demon S/T

I think the first movie soundtrack that made a real impact on me was The Exorcist. Nope, it wasn’t Star Wars, Superman, or Raiders of the Lost Ark. Hell, it wasn’t even Halloween. The first one that made a visceral impact on me was “Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield from The Exorcist S/T. As a […]

Family Values : Revisiting ‘Sukierae’

I guess on some level the idea of a father and son collaboration has been romanticized in my head. I can’t help but think how cool it would be to play in a band with my son(or daughter for that matter.) A collaboration between father and child just seems like that perfect connection of heredity, […]