Kanaan : Odense Sessions

Norwegian three piece Kanaan showed up at the end of 2018 with the intense and forward-thinking Windborne. Combining elements of post-rock, Krautrock, and even art rock, these three young musicians made a fine addition to the El Paraiso Records roster. Their music swayed from melancholy doom to breezy and ethereal soundscapes, giving their sound a […]

Lizard Portals And Laughing To The End Of The World

Last Friday my wife and I drove two and a half hours north to Grand Rapids, MI to see Marc Maron and Dean Delray perform at the Fountain Street Church. It was an overcast drive thru tree-covered hills and various small towns that acted as landscape along our drive on 131. Michigan wears overcast days […]

Cemetery Gates : Blood Brothers Original Soundtrack

Are you familiar at all with Grief Thief Records? No? Well let me tell you you’re missing out. Grief Thief is home base for musicians Gene Priest and Derek Jones, the duo that make up the electronic band Cemetery Gates. Cemetery Gates is a project filled with 80s electronic vibes(Depeche Mode, OMD, NIN) as well […]

Field Lines Cartographer : The Ferric Landscape

Mark Burford’s work as Field Lines Cartographer feels more like digging for fossils or mapping out new galaxies than just sitting and listening to an album. He creates a vast and strange musical landscape that is somewhere between meditative bliss and a frightening science fiction discovery. Songs slowly spread over time frames that cover from […]

Segall + Chippendale = Wasted Shirt

It took me many years to get into Ty Segall. I never really heard what everyone else did about the guy. I thought he was pretty prolific, and I gave him credit for being a good songwriter, but for the most part the fuzzed-up garage rock/noise pop trip he was on didn’t do it for […]

Ross Goldstein : Timoka

Listening to Ross Goldstein’s newest album Timoka is like walking through some ancient cathedral. A glacial palace filled with corridors that go on for miles, with window views of the Milky Way. The music feels like a soundtrack to something vast, beautiful, and undefinable. Using only a digital mellotron(and the sound of his cat Gretchen), […]

Steve Moore : Bliss Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Steve Moore elicits so much dread and grandeur in the film scores he creates. His work in the independent horror/sci fi/thriller film world can’t really be touched. Along side composers like Wojciech Golczewski, Kreng, Ben Lovett, and Theodore Shapirio to name a few, Moore has the magic touch that can make a low budget film […]

Subtle But Disturbing : Dreams, Nightmares, and the Sonic World of Rory Mohon

Rory Mohon may not be an artist you’re familiar with, but just one listen to his 2018 album Darkly Dreaming and you’ll know why he should be. Mohon writes dark electro music that feels cinematic. It sounds ready for the big screen, but I’ll stop short of saying “imagined soundtrack”. Yes, his songs are cinematic […]

Can You Hear Me Now?

A three day weekend is a weekend to rejoice. Fit in extra movies to watch, places to hit up, and fun meals to plan. More time for records, playing guitar in the studio, and hanging out with the family. They’re those weekends that really make you appreciate an extra paid day away from the 9 […]

Andy Shauf : The Neon Skyline

Andy Shauf is the kind of songwriter that puts you into his world with just the strum of his guitar or a melodic turn of phrase. He pulls from the magical well of classic 70s-era songwriters like Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, and Cat Stevens, but with the sonic wizardry of Jon Brion. There’s a gentle […]

Complex Distractions