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I thought I could never get around reviewing this album. A bit as if it was beyond my reach... But a couple of hours ago, I really don’t know why, I felt I had to do it. It was just something that had to be done. For this album shouldn’t be left to the sole appreciation of Keiji Haino or Kan Mikami’s fans. It deserves to be exposed to a much wider crowd.
So Austria is not only about Tosca, Pita, Fennesz and Abigor ? Wow, shocking... Granted, Fetish 69 has not much in common with those acts. Doesn’t prevent them from being interesting...
My interest in improv music is quite new. I do not intend to pose as an expert of the genre. However, I am not going to pass the review of this album on to the hands of better connoisseurs: this album is too good for me to refuse the chance I have to share my thoughts on it...
Here is what happens when musicians genuinely have fun recording an album but decide to stay away from the pseudo-intelligent little jokes for an inner-circle elite. Kind Kind is a CD full of humour and great music. Thanks whoever, we won’t have to hear an awful-sounding voice saying things meant to make you laugh...
Ah, label samplers… Some are cool, some are not. Some feature tracks known by everybody, some feature unreleased tunes. This one is DA SHIT, let me be very clear from the start! A must, oh yeah!
Sometimes, being an MC is not enough… Herbest Moon is the music created by one of Japan’s best rappers, Boss the MC, and his friend Wa-Chall. Hiphop with dub and reggae influences. Expect some funk too...
”Composers” don’t create music, they only redistribute vibrations that would be occurring anyway, regardless of anyone’s intentions says Eyvind Kang in his essay Music Suffers. This is a relatively common theory that I heard in different forms from several composers, but to me it seems some people are much better in redistributing the vibrations than others. Kang is surely one who is pretty good at it and on this disc he’s even better than usual.
What happens when the DJ of the best Japanese hiphop band releases a solo CD ? You expect an instrumental hiphop album that will be compared to DJ Krush. O.N.O is happy to wrongfoot these preconceived notions...
Before becoming the truly innovative force they have turned to be on their most recent releases, Tha Blue Herb have released a first album that had a much more straightforward vibe. This album is Stilling, still dreaming.
Better late than never, I finally got around reviewing Personal Journals. Released last year, it is one of the best hiphop albums of 2002. Released on Anticon, of course...
It is funny how one can sometimes feel as one with an artist’s music. It is my case with the music of Tujiko Noriko. I might not understand it the way she sees her music, but I still feel connected to the sounds. Having that in mind, you can well imagine how thrilled I was by the release of her new album, just 8 months after the previous one...
Oren Ambarchi is commonly associated with experimental guitar-music. He has worked with Fennesz, John Zorn, Keith Rowe and Otomo Yoshihide to name but a few. If you pick up his latest project, Sun, you’re in for a surprise...
After a serie of recordings on which he acted as a (re-)interpreter, Ekkehard Ehlers releases an album full of his own compositions. Intriguing and demanding, Politik braucht keinen Feind is not easy to grasp.
Birds are usually beautiful, majestuous, light and they fly with much grace. Pelicans are birds (more precisely: large web-footed fish-eating birds with a very large bill and distensible gular pouch) but ain’t very graceful and look kinda odd. However they fly. The band certainly don’t. They will more likely fall from a seven storey building and crush anything that is below than taking off. But that is the way I like them.
Ah, what a long and evolving history one can find behind hardcore... From the primitive rawness of Black Flag or Minor Threat to the more sophisticated aspects of some of the bands belonging to the current class. The people behind White Circle Crime Club have taken a similar path, having all started in old-school bands before moving on to a much more melodic music.
At first an instrumental band, Giardini di Mirò have little by little incorporated more and more vocals in their music. Punk ... not diet, their 2nd full-length is a real masterpiece of beautifully written pop songs. But do not mistake pop with easy...
For months, I stayed far far away from French music. In the last couple of weeks, I caught up with a few of the musicians from the country of cheese and wine that as a thief as president (second only to the presidente del consiglio Silvio Berlusconi). Davide Balula and M83 released great albums, it is less the case with BOULDER dDASH, although it remains quite enjoyable.
This galaxy is sometimes called the "Southern Pinwheel". It forms a small physical group with the peculiar radio galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) and the unusual galaxy NGC 5253 in Centaurus. R. Brent Tully also lists the following smaller and fainter presumable (or possible) members of this group: NGC 4945, NGC 5102, NGC 5164, NGC 5408, ESO 381-20 (MCG-6-28-017; 1243-33), ESO 324-24 (MCG-6-30-003; 1324-41), ESO 444-84 (MCG-5-32-000; 1334-27), ESO 325-11 (1342-41), and ESO 383-87 (MCG-6-30-025; 1346-35).
After being schooled as a classical piano player, keyboardplayer Rob Burger studied improvisation with jazz-giants like Max Roach and Archie Shepp. He got interested in Hammond organ and accordion and the traditions coming with those instruments.
About 15 years ago there was a worldmusic program on Dutch radio that I listened to each week. I recorded it and selected the good stuff on tapes. I was not always aware of what I recorded because not all songs were announced. Even if it was, a Dutch presenter trying to pronounce the titles in whatever exotic language didn’t make things easier and there was no internet to publish a playlist on. When I heard an mp3 from the Dengue Fever CD a little bell rang in my head.
Some people might think of Buckethead as some oddball that makes ‘comedymusic’. This album might come as surprise to these people because the masked guitarist shows a sensitive and romantic side of himself, never been on display as extensively as on his latest offering Electric Tears.
Thine were formed in '95 by singer Alan Gaunt and guitarist Paul Groundwell and after a couple of succesfull demo's the band signed in '97 with 'local' label Peaceville. Their first album on the label was called A Town Like This and in 2002 they released the underrated In Therapy.
The attention Tomahawk got after the release of their self-titled debut album (reviewed here) was amazing. I went to see them live in Amsterdam and the place was packed.
Blur is my latest musical obession, after obtaining most of their back-catalogue in the last three months, they also released a brilliant new album: Think Tank. I've never really gotten into Blur because frankly, I never knew much about their music. I had the impression they've been doing the same thing as Oasis: releasing crap album after crap album. But obviously I was very wrong.