Complex Distractions Presents : Favorite albums of 2021 Part One

Well, we’ve come to another year’s end. Old man 2021 is getting his things in order; making out his Will, signing over his POA to next of Kin, and making things right with all of those he’s wronged. Who has 2021 wronged, you say? Well, we got off to a smashing start on January 6th […]

Lost In The Void : Andi Nixon Talks Deathcount In Silicon Valley And New Music

Grief envelopes you. It holds you in its arms and doesn’t want to let go. It’s not a matter of getting away from it, but walking through it and letting it have it’s way with you. Until you come out the other side of it creating art and moving on can seem to be an […]

Carlton Melton Go Back To where It Started With ‘Live In Point Arena’ 2LP Reissue Preorder

The mighty Carlton Melton have been trailblazers in psych rock since the late 2000s, putting out revelatory rock albums that play with sounds as varied as 60s fuzz guitars, 70s experimental, and ambient textures that encapsulate 50 years of forward-thinking music. But like every great trailblazer, you gotta start somewhere. For the Melton crew it […]

Birthday Boi

Today I turn 48 years old. Two years away from 50. Getting older has never really bothered me. I’ve always felt like an old person in a young person’s body anyways. Not in a Freaky Friday, Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son sort of way, but more in the Benjamin Buttons sort of way. But […]

Kanaan : Earthbound

Norwegian power trio Kanaan have laid some pretty impressive groundwork since their El Paraiso Records debut Windborne at the end of 2018. That album showed some serious musical chops from the young-ish three-piece, coming together with a sound that was both heavy and nuanced. Prog vibes combined with 70s art rock and a healthy dose […]

Finding The Sound : Jonas Munk Talks ‘Altered Light’, Ambient Music, And Collaborations

I feel I owe Jonas Munk a debt of gratitude. Ever since discovering Jonas’ work with Causa Sui, his solo work, as well as the whole of Jonas’ record label he runs with Jakob Skott(Causa Sui drummer, graphic design guru, synth noodler) I’ve found this vast sonic world where I’ve spent a good portion of […]

Paul Riedl : Ambient Mixtape Vol. 3

Musician Paul Riedl has made a name for himself in the death metal scene with his bands Blood Incantation and Spectral Voice. Riding a wave of sonic doom and cosmic psychededlia, Riedl has put his stamp on extreme metal. But when he’s not writing pummeling riffs Riedl is making a different kind of cosmic psychedelia. […]

ThanksGiving, 2021 Edition

It’s been kind of a rough few days, honestly. Started feeling lousy last Wednesday and it’s been an on again, off again party of feeling good and feeling like crap. Puts me in mind of a year ago when we were locked in with Covid over Thanksgiving. Though in a really strange way there was […]

Be Entranced By Garden Gate’s Baroque “The Voyeur”; ‘Blood Mansion’ Out December 3rd

It’s been a busy and fruitful year for electronic label Library of the Occult. What Tom McDowell has done is curate a very distinct and all-encompassing sound world, with many different artistic points of view. From his beginning with the label in July of 2020 McDowell has shared these very distinct and individual artistic points […]

Kyron : Ascending Plume Of Faces

Another stunning album from the always forward-thinking label Library Of The Occult is the recently released Ascending Plume Of Faces by Kyron. In some respects it seems to reside in the same sonic world that LOTO is known for; mysterious, subtle, moody, and engrossing sounds. But Kyron also sounds wholly their own thing; electronics coalesce […]