Alone 1980 : Blood From The Black Gate

As soon as the opening salvo “The Night The Screaming Began” on Alone 1980s brand new LP Blood From The Black Gate starts up you know what you’re getting into. From the buzzsaw synths to the banshee howl to the menacing rhythmic pull the ride has begun, and there’s no refunds. Touches of Pentagram Home […]

Franz Ferdinand : The Human Fear

Scottish post-punkers Franz Ferdinand hit at just the right time back in the early 2000s. They emerged out of the early 2000s post-punk/dance punk revival which included The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Killers, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, and a slew of other bands that dissipated into a cloud of unrealized dreams. Franz Ferdinand stood out […]

Chris Alexander : Body Double

The latest to drop from the great Library of the Occult is a sweet treat for all you lovers of 80s slashers, sleaze, and sweaty exploitative art. Canadian filmmaker and composer Chris Alexander has offered up Body Double, a sweat-drenched slab of sleazy 80s film score work. While not a re-imagining of DePalma’s great 80s […]

Cate Brooks’ ‘Prismatics’

I love the fact that no matter how much music you think you know about, or how vast your knowledge is there’s always something new to you just around the corner. I’ll go months not discovering anything new(or new to me), and then all of a sudden like a “Eureka!” moment something new hits my […]

Out Of/Into : Motion I

Jazz quintet Out Of/Into – formerly known as The Blue Note Quintet – makes it perfectly clear that there are some exciting things happening in the world of jazz still. Following in the footsteps of the giants of jazz that came before, the band that consists of pianist Gerald Clayton, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Joel Ross, drummer Kendrick […]

A Place To Bury Strangers : Synthesizer

Coming into a new album from Oliver Ackermann’s A Place To Bury Strangers you pretty much know that it’s going to be loud, abrasive, and sprinkled with melodic ear worms under all the aural debauchery. Ackermann is a bit of a sound wizard, creating effects boxes with his Death By Audio effects company. His effects […]

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet : The Way Out of Easy

Jeff Parker is one of those unsuspecting musical geniuses. He’s been a figure in the Chicago underground music scene for years, having played in Tortoise, Chicago Underground Quartet, Chicago Underground Trio, and Isotope 217 to name a few. He’s also worked with Makaya McCraven, Rob Mazurek, Joshua Abrams and Hamid Drake. That doesn’t include his […]

Billow Observatory Return With New Track “Systol Nightshade”; New Album Coming In 2025

The last full-length album from the ambient/shoegaze duo Billow Observatory(Jonas Munk and Jason Kolb) was 2022’s excellent Stareside, which was a culmination of what these two musicians had been working towards since their self-titled debut in 2012. Munk coming from Denmark and with plenty of work under his belt as guitarist for Causa Sui; not […]

Terrorlord : Unreleased Beats 2001

Christopher Ashley didn’t start out making 80s-tinged melodic electronic music. In the 90s he was in the noise rock bands Murder Weapon, followed by Index For Potential Suicide. These were bands that dealt loud, pummeling music that often left crowds bloodied and breathless after shows. While Ashley was still in the midst of cacophonic waves […]

Sermons By The Devil : Exorcismo Electrónico

Tom Hall works in the hardware world when it comes to making music as Sermons By The Devil. The New Jersey-based musician/composer builds sonic meditations with patch cords, blinking lights, and stacks of old school pedals and tactile keys and synths. His music feels organic, like running your hands through sand and the feel of […]