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 […]

J.R.C.G. : Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra)

Justin R. Cruz Gallego, aka Tacoma-based musician known as J.R.C.G. defies a tag to any sort of genre. Listening to his Sub Pop debut Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra) you’re hit in the chest with serious rhythmic and groove intentions. He locks into his Latin roots and lays down some seriously heady percussive trips, but on top […]

Jazz/Psych Freak Outs ensue On Lotus’ Excellent “Synthbuljong”; Debut LP Out 8/30 Via El Paraiso Records

It’s been over 10 years since I first found that magical passageway that led to the door of El Paraiso Records, the Danish record label run and curated by Causa Sui members Jonas Munk and Jakob Skøtt. These two have built a library of sound with El Paraiso Records that is layered in progressive, thoughtful […]

Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu, and Marta Sofia Honer : The Closest Thing To Silence

The best instrumental music takes you out of what you perceive to be your world and opens doors to new ones. It brings the curtain down on reality so that you can expand your mental and emotional horizons. Instrumental music doesn’t need words to guide you somewhere, as the composition built from instruments is the […]

Ivan The Tolerable Trio : Infinite Peace

Oli Heffernan, aka Ivan The Tolerable, isn’t one to chill and take some down time. He’s a musician on a mission, and that mission is to dive into the deep end of the pool and see how far down he can go. Dig deep and explore. His music is a crossroads of heady jams, psychedelic […]

Oneohtrix Point Never : Again

Daniel Lopatin has had quite the creative and artistic arc with his electronic project Oneohtrix Point Never. From the psychedelic beginnings of drone-heavy albums like Betrayed In The Octagon, Russian Mind, and Returnal; to experimenting with grander scopes on R Plus Seven, Garden of Delete, and his most recent record Magic Oneohtrix Point Never. Lopatin […]

Sparklehorse : Bird Machine

When singer/songwriter Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse took his own life back in March of 2010 it was both an absolute shock and sadly not surprising. Linkous struggled with depression and addiction and you heard it in his music. Still, you hope someone as talented and heart-on-sleeve as Linkous would find their way out of the […]

Blake Mills : Jelly Road

Blake Mills could have gone the route of a world famous pop producer. As a producer he’s worked with Alabama Shakes, Fiona Apple, Perfume Genius, Sky Ferreira, and Marcus Mumford. And as a session musician he’s played with Bob Dylan, Weezer, Conor Oberst, Pink, Dixie Chicks, and Lana Del Rey to name just a few. […]

Mandy, Indiana : I’ve Seen A Way

The UK experimental post-punk/dance/noise band Mandy, Indiana is the sound of sexy androids building more sexy androids in a cave that doubles as a rave. Robotic rhythms seem to emerge from grinding machines and screeching gears, while the vocals are less a voice singing than another rhythm instrument. It’s grinding, industrial noise for the dance […]

Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra : Lightning Dreamers

Rob Mazurek makes music that tows the line between chaotic musical abstractions and groove-oriented excursions. Composer, cornetist, and visual artist that came up in the Chicago underground music scene, Mazurek made his name in bands like Chicago Underground, Isotope 217, Black Cube Marriage, as well as his project Exploding Star Orchestra. He locked into the […]