The Hard Quartet : The Hard Quartet

I think the majority of folks coming across the new music project The Hard Quartet would scoff at it being called a “supergroup”. But those with their heads in the world of early 90s college/alternative rock would think the label apropos. The band – which consists of Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, Chavez and Superwolve’s Matt Sweeney, […]

The Smile : Cutouts

The Smile -the Radiohead side project of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood- shouldn’t work as well as it does. Like Yorke’s solo albums and Greenwood’s film scores they are great listening experiences, but we’re always waiting for them to get back together with their Radiohead counterparts and give us another masterpiece. Since 2022 Yorke and […]

Justin Sweatt : North Texas Electric

Justin Sweatt has been making forward-thinking electronic music for well over a decade. He first began making electronic music as Xander Harris, releasing a collection of classic electronic music that ranged from darkly illuminated techno to hazy ambient to 80s-inspired synth pop with a touch of 70s German electronic pioneers for good measure. But then […]

The Cure (Finally)Return With ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, Out 11/1; Listen To “Alone”

It’s been 16 long years since The Cure released an album. 4:13 Dream dropped in 2008, and while not an awful album it was disappointing. There were great songs there, but they seemed to have been muddled in murky production and a somewhat lack of focus on the part of The Cure’s leader/front man/songwriter Robert […]

Jonas Munk Returns With ‘Mirror Phase’, Out 10/25; Listen to Album Opener “Dawn Layer”

Jonas Munk has long been a master of mood-heavy electronics; be it with his past project Manual, his masterful ambient collaborations with Ulrich Schnauss and Billow Observatory, and of course his solo work like Pan and Absorb Fabric Cascade. He knows the instruments like he knows the backs of his hands, and he uses guitars […]

Black Wick : \\VIDEO//|\\DRONED//

I get a lot of invites from labels to check out their latest releases. I check out as many as I can given the volume, plus the fact that I have a pretty jam packed life outside of writing about music. But the main reason I started doing this back in late 2011 was because […]

Repeated Viewing : Strip Their Flesh + The Artefact

Ahh, the double feature. There’s nothing quite like pairing up a couple horror movies for a sleazy horror marathon. The first double feature I can remember seeing was at the Warsaw Drive-In when I was probably 4-years old. For some unknown reason my parents thought it’d be a good idea to pack me and my […]

Peel Dream Magazine : Rose Main Reading Room

Peel Dream Magazine is what I would call intellectual pop. The L.A.-based band has effortlessly swayed through Krautrock, shoegaze, twee pop, and dream pop throughout their four full-length albums. Each one saw sonic expansion and a deeper connection to storytelling via band leader and songwriter Joseph Stevens. Stevens incorporates everything from early 90s college rock […]

Max Richter : In A Landscape

Sadly there are few modern classical composers that can sustain a career that isn’t buoyed by film, television, and video game score work. The late Johann Johannsson was working towards that. The great Hans Zimmer is another, but he first established himself in film work. Danny Elfman pretty much sticks to film and TV, besides […]

David Gilmour : Luck and Strange

David Gilmour is known as much for his crystalline guitar tone and soulful vocals as he is for being the guy that replaced Syd Barrett in Pink Floyd back in the 60s. Of course his main gig over the last 50+ years is hard to overshadow, but Gilmour brought a grounded, bluesy component to Pink […]