Multiple recordings are available featuring Melbourne guitarist Cam Butler with ensembles of varying sizes — in addition to the eleven solo instrumental albums he’s issued, Butler’s also contributed to other artists’ projects — but there’s something undeniably special about one featuring him alone. In that context, his command of the instrument and associated gear is especially apparent, especially when it’s not put to self-indulgent or egoistic ends but instead used to realize the artistic expression for a given piece. It also allows his singular tone to be heard clearly and for the listener to better appreciate the textures he coaxes from his Gibson Les Paul.
Being an album of unaccompanied pieces, Spirits Flying Home is naturally intimate and…
Category: post-rock
If you’re tapped into the right corners of the underground, Winged Wheel are a supergroup. Recruiting a member of Sonic Youth — arguably the greatest experimental rock band of all time, and inarguably one of the most popular — certainly bolsters that designation.
But even before Steve Shelley got behind the kit for 2024’s Big Hotel, the “creatively and geographically scattered collective” was an impressive assemblage of talent. More importantly, the music lives up to the pedigree.
The band began as a remote file-trading operation early in the decade, deep in the dregs of the pandemic. The players: Chicago-based Whitney Johnson, who releases music as Matchess and plays in Circuit Des Yeux; Cory Plump,…
Pullman is a studio-born acoustic supergroup that emerged from Chicago’s post-rock milieu in the late ’90s, uniting Ken “Bundy K.” Brown (Tortoise/ Directions in Music), Curtis Harvey (Rex), Chris Brokaw (Come), and Doug McCombs (Tortoise/Eleventh Dream Day); drummer Tim Barnes later joined, solidifying the group’s core lineup. They debuted on Thrill Jockey with Turnstyles & Junkpiles (1998), a hushed, live-to-2-track collection of interwoven guitars that critics likened to John Fahey, Leo Kottke, and Gastr del Sol. Their follow-up, Viewfinder (2001), expanded the palette with percussion, subtle electric textures, and multi-track layering, while maintaining Pullman’s rustic, cinematic restraint. Across both albums, the band became a touchstone for…
It’s been a year and a half since BASIC first emerged out of a bare bones set up of two guitars (Chris Forsyth and Nick Millevoi) and a drum machine. That early experiment, inspired by the 1984 collaboration between Robert Quine and Fred Maher, put a boxy, machine-drilled framework around open-ended guitar jam. Mikel Patrick Avery tended the rough propulsion of the drum machine, enriching its stutter with additional improvised percussion, while Forsyth and Millevoi slashed away at one another on conventional and baritone guitar. It was, at once, disciplined and free-spirited, and you can see why it appealed to Forsyth. Christian Carey reviewed the full-length debut last year, writing “With a rattling drum pattern, synth lines embellished by bent notes…
Composer/producer Paul Russell (Axes/Tough Glove) returns with Thank You, the fourth album to be released by his Human Pyramids project. Featuring members of Axes, Suicide Bid and Modern Studies, the album was recorded all over the world and mastered by Alan Douches (Sufjan Stevens/Animal Collective).
…The twelve-strong ensemble, anchored by Russell, still pulls out all the stops. Almost every track is a party, with generous servings of brass and strings. Guitar, accordion, marimba, vibraphone and hammered dulcimer fill in the buffet. The music’s propulsive energy keeps the spirts high; the opening track (titled “Shut Down,” since the music stops and restarts in the second half) eases the listener in with…
Changsha, China post-rockers Summer Fades Awayreleased their first album in 2011 and their second in 2012, with an expansive sound that was often compared to that of MONO. But just as the quintet seemed ready to explode to the next level, they disappeared. Thirteen years later they have returned, having gained wisdom and experience while not missing a musical beat. Fittingly, their comeback album is titled Endless.
Much has happened in China in the last thirteen years. The nation has risen in power on the world’s stage, with an acceleration in trade, technology and growth, and the hosting of both the Summer and Winter Olympics. “Ne Jha 2” is the biggest film on earth this year, demonstrating the power of the arts. The phrase “the storms of…
The British collective Snorkel likes to tout a review that once called them the “missing link between krautrock and Lee Scratch Perry.” Sure, why not? Endorsements like that are always a bit tongue-in-cheek. Throughout the 83 minutes and 19 tracks of Past Still Present Tense, it often sounds like someone in the band might be winking at you. These are serious beats, but not too serious.
With this latest release, Snorkel is making up for lost time. The group garnered its first attention with 2008’s Glass Darkly, then followed it up with another acclaimed disc, 2011’s Stop Machine. Fourteen years later, they call Past Still a “retrospective collection” of sorts, implying that it fills the gap on their CV and brings us back up to date.
It’s right there in the name: Thee Reps are passionate about repetition. They hammered the point home on their debut cassette, Minimal Surface. A half-decade later, substantial compositional growth has enabled the NYC-based five-piece to deepen and broaden their approach to music-making.
With Cryptocartography, repetition is now in service to the structure of Thee Reps’ songcraft. They’ve plunged deeper into the sea of iteration and have searched out new waters to explore. Improvisation and chamber music are even more prevalent than before, and the minimalist nests of repetition are even more elaborate. The album’s title alludes to mapping locations that are only rumored to exist; on Cryptocartography Thee Reps’…
Remastered from the original source tapes for the first time, this edition includes the original album, bonus tracks, home and studio demos (from 1978-1980), and early live tracks.
The Durutti Column’s debut album does not have an auspicious origin story. The band whose name it bore had split acrimoniously just before they were supposed to record it. Their guitarist Vini Reilly was so poleaxed by depression that he was virtually unable to leave his house: 12 different attempts were made to section him over the course of 1979. Believing that Reilly was “going to die”, Factory Records boss Tony Wilson intervened, buying him a new guitar, then suggested he visit a studio with the label’s troubled but visionary producer Martin Hannett as “an experiment”.
While the cello might not seem the instrument most naturally suited to the progressive metal genre, its capacity for replicating vocal wail makes it an extremely effective conduit for its extreme emotional expression. On Lifeblood, the long-anticipated follow-up to his solo albums Worlds Within (2020) and Worlds Within Live (2021), renowned Ottawa-based cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne demonstrates how effective the instrument can be when used in a metal context. Augmenting layers of acoustic cello (a 2012 model built by Raymond Schryer) with amplifiers, effects pedals, and on two tracks bass drum, the music exudes visceral fury from start to finish.
As his extensive discography shows, Weinroth-Browne’s a musician of immense range…
When MONO first conceived of a live concert backed by an orchestra, it seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime dream of an event that would require a unique set of circumstances, an enormous crew of like-minded and generous contributors, and a titanic amount of luck. At exactly a decade into their career, it was by far their most ambitious undertaking. They flew from their home country of Japan – where, at the time, they were ironically less acclaimed and accomplished than in the United States and Europe – to New York City, where they assembled an orchestra, secured a historic venue near Lincoln Center, and bet on themselves to pull off a truly unforgettable evening. Not only was the concert a rousing success, but it spawned what has become a defining part of MONO’s…
Bergen-based group Kronstad 23 are the latest trailblazers from northern Scandinavia: a creative force exploring the boundaries of musical genres, including but not limited to: psych rock, jazz, post-rock & scandinavian folk music.
The group of young players follows the footsteps of Motorpsycho, Elephant9 & El Paraiso’s own Lotus, Fra Det Onde & Kanaan, carving out their path through the musical landscape in seemingly effortless ways. One minute you’re floating on cosmic Pharoah Sanders waters, the next you’re ascending on electrified if-Tortoise-played-Allman Brothers-style jamming.
The band describes their approach as: “Sommermørket is an escape from inhumane technology and politics in search of something…
Hyloxolos is the expansive and surprising new psych-rock supergroup featuring Dave Harrington (Darkside), Peter Matthew Bauer (The Walkmen), Dylan Carlson (Earth), avant-garde instrumentalist & drummer Dylan Fujioka (Meatbodies) and Otis Bauer (Trench) on bass.
This album, like the founding of the band itself, was birthed last year over an intense 48 hour period of writing and recording at 64sound in Los Angeles with engineer Tyler Karmen (Bat for Lashes, Devendra Banhart). The massive walls of sound, rolling swells and long, winding passages unfold deliberately, in heavy, kaleidoscopic waves. These six tracks are the sound of an inspired group of strangers cleaving something new out of the ether on arrival. The first notes of…
Animal, Surrender! returns with mathy, complicated grooves. The core duo of Peter Kerlin and Rob Smith continues to concoct oddly rhythmed but intoxicating reveries, but this time adds pipe organist Curt Sydnor to the sinuous mix. This second album continues in that vein, caging ruminative, bass-toned dream sequences in prickly post-modern architectures.
Despite the new member, Animal, Surrender! still sounds like a duo. The give-and-take between Kerlin and Smith continues to define this outfit’s lurch and stutter and sway. Sydnor, though, hovers in the margins, unleashing long, spooky tremulous tones that heighten the band’s aura of surreality.
The title track, for instance, unspools long, lucid phrases from the higher strings on…
Collaborative albums are a tricky undertaking that can often result in clunky material that tries too hard to appeal to two separate audiences.
In the case of Chat Pile and Hayden Pedigo, however, In the Earth Again showcases a seamless connection of artists that appear to be on polar-opposite ends of the sonic spectrum, while simultaneously showcasing a logical next step in the band’s trajectory.
From the very start, Pedigo’s guitar playing fits right into the Chat Pile universe. Dreamy instrumental opener of “Outside” and onward, his finger-picking style conjures imagery of a dusty, desolate rural American landscape — a familiar concept, both lyrically and sonically, for the band. (Pedigo grew up in the Texas Panhandle,…
First, we need to note that Tortoise releasing a record with anyone other than Thrill Jockey after a 30-plus-year relationship is a shocker for a group not known for dramatic changes. It’s akin to Autechre abandoning Warp! Anyway, the important thing about Tortoise is that their last two albums before the International Anthem/Nonesuch-reared Touch — 2009’s Beacons of Ancestorship and 2016’s The Catastrophist — have been among their most vital and inventive, an unusual trajectory for a group well into their fourth decade.
For all of their cred as post-rock pioneers, Tortoise at this point seems like a casual, part-time project — either that or they spend many meticulous years honing material for their records. But the truth is, all five members stay busy in…
In a musical landscape often chasing the ephemeral, Smote’s sound is unapologetically terrestrial. For principal architect Daniel Foggin, music serves as a direct channel for his daily life as a landscape gardener — a world of soil, stone, and seasons. His latest offering, Songs from the Free House is the most profound expression of this connection yet, an album that feels as if it were excavated from the Northumberland ground itself.
Building on the megalithic drone of previous work, this fifth release for Rocket Recordings sees Smote’s sonic palette significantly expanded. While the mantric, hypnotic heaviness reminiscent of Earth or Om remains the foundation, new textures are woven throughout. Foggin cites the influence of heavy electronic artists like…
Hearing the sound of this big, brash, loud band, one wonders if there are five musicians or only four. The correct answer is two. Since 2014, Finland’s NYOS has been rocking out, creating an illusion of the ears. The combination of guitarist Tom Brooke and drummer Tuomas Kainulainen creates this illusion with reverb and loops, sculpting live jams in the studio until they sound like full-fledged compositions. Honoring its title, Growl is even more upfront and abrasive than its predecessors, the duo delving into dissonance while maintaining its melodic edge.
The album follows a loose arc, from “Get Ready” to “Alright, Goodnight.” One can see these tracks as the beginning and end of a concert, with catalog songs joining the others to lengthen…
Have you been paying attention to Bill Orcutt? For the last dozen-plus years, or since the 2011 release of the splenetic acoustic marvel How the Thing Sings, the San Francisco-based guitarist has been on one of the great creative tears in his chosen instrument’s vaunted history. Whether alone, with a scattered cast of brazen collaborators, or quadrupling his own playing in an astonishing guitar quartet of one, Orcutt has been reshaping the emotional and technical terrain typically associated with instrumental guitar music. He cuts rage with wonder and laces joy with doubt as he splinters melodies and rebuilds them in uncanny new shapes, like a random-number generator that knows exactly what it’s doing. Orcutt’s music sometimes feels like some…
The post-rock supergroup Speed of the Stars has released their long-awaited second album. The band features Steve Kilbey of Australian psych pioneers The Church; Frank Kearns of Irish alt-rockers Cactus World News; singer-songwriter Hugo Race, and Barton Price of 80s Aussie chart stars Models.
Recorded at Puccini Floating Music Academy near Pisa, and produced by Race, While Italy Dreamed…. through Summers of Haze comes nine years after the band’s debut, which was initially a collaboration between Kilbey and Kearns, who had met while touring the US in the mid-80s.
“A few years back I read Hugo Race’s most excellent memoir Road Series about his adventures touring and making music all around…