WAtch Sparkle Teeth Perform “Slack” Live

If you’ve been hanging around here for a bit then you probably know the name Sparkle Teeth. And Dan Kinnaley. I’ve been talking this guy up for a bit now. Dan makes music as Sparkle Teeth. It’s a solo project he really locked into last year during the pandemic(you know, the one we’re still dealing […]

Transatlantic Chill : The Hazy Significance of Billow Observatory

Day three of our jaunt back in time, and the many significant conversations had at Complex Distractions. This week is a “best of” of sorts connected to the amazing record label El Paraiso Records. We revisited talks with drummer/synth wizard/graphic design guru Jakob Skott back in 2014, and yesterday was a chat with Rasmus Rasmussen […]

Vlimmer Returns With New Album Nebenkörper, Out September 24th; Listen To Single “I.P.A.”

Alexander Donat has built a sonic library of brooding darkwave and post-punk over the course of a few years now. Listening to his albums you’re brought into a chilling and urgent world that locks into territory fans of Bauhaus, early Cure, and Killing Joke find much to love in. Donat is so good at making […]

Sounds of the Universe : A Conversation With Astral TV

Today we jump into the Wayback Machine and head to September 15th, 2017, when I had a nice chat with Rasmus Rasmussen and Keith Canisius. Rasmussen is the keyboardist for psych rock titans Causa Sui, as well as recording under the name Aerosol. Keith Canisius releases under his own name, and most recently as Shortwave […]

Music From Way Out: The Interstellar Psych Of Jakob Skott

So for this short 4-day week I’m taking a bit of a break. That doesn’t mean I’m leaving you all high and dry, no sir. Instead, I’m re-posting some some of my favorite interviews of Complex Distractions past. Many of you weren’t around the first couple years I was doing this writing thing, and I’ve […]

Labor Of Love

The true meaning of Labor Day weekend has nothing to do with not laboring because you do that crap all week long. No, laboring doing something you love is perfectly fine. Why? Because I say so, that’s why. For me, I started a Labor Day weekend tradition many Labor Days ago. Maybe in 2014 or […]

Burial Grid’s “4am Knows My Secrets” Is Subtle Melancholy With Anxiety Just Under the Surface

Burial Grid’s Adam Michael Kozak has put together a pretty amazing new album called Shores of Quiddity. It’s a record that came together over the course of 2020, a year filled with both social and personal strife for Kozak. His work has always been a balancing act between light and dark, with a heavy lean […]

Long Story Short : Video Age, Sermons By The Devil, Andy Fosberry, and Pharagonesia

Here’s another ‘Long Story Short’ post. This is where I compress a handful of reviews into one post. Why? Well because there’s too much good music and not enough clones of myself to write expansive reviews for each release. So I’m dropping a paragraph each about some albums I think you should put in your […]

Lisa Bella Donna : Moogmentum

The newest release from synth pioneer Lisa Bella Donna sees her paying tribute to another pioneer, Bob Moog. Lisa Bella Donna pays tribute by making an album of exquisite sonic tastes; a record created with the Moog at the heart of it. Moogmentum is a sonic journey that only requires an open mind and open […]

Deafheaven : Infinite Granite

Ever since their debut album Roads To Judah, Deafheaven have been on a steady incline. Each record outdid the previous in scope, musicality, and artistic depth. Their sound was loud, abrasive, and aggressive, but also extremely melodic and at times melancholy. “Blackgaze” , combining black metal and shoegaze, may be a trite tag but it […]