Classical music begins with blood and guts. The first violins were strung with sheep intestines, while early timpanis bore heads made from goatskin. The conservatory-bound spend years blistering, bruising, and contorting themselves, sometimes to the point of permanent damage. On the Francis Bacon-inspired cover of her new album, Noémi Büchi lies splayed out and bloodied on a plastic sheet, a sight that evokes both a cocoon and a Dexter kill room. Büchi, a Swiss-French sound artist and classically trained pianist — the late Romantic period and early modernist periods are her province — titled her new album after the Latin “exuviae.” To Virgil, these were the spoils stripped from an enemy combatant’s body; to a modern-day entomologist, they’re the husks…
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The cover of Tectonic Particles looks like it could be a photo of organic matter shot through a microscope. It suits both the album and the label, Quiet Details, who have a specific vision: each of their releases is meant to elaborate what the phrase “quiet details” as interpreted by the artist. In this case, the artist is Kayla Painter, an eclectic creative with a background in multimedia visual arts in addition to music.
…If Tectonic Particles is put on in the background, a first listen of the opening track “Forest Floor” is like a routine stroll through the woods. A gentle three-note piano theme paves the way. But upon a closer listen, as the sonic lens zooms in, one notices every twig that snaps underfoot and each distant bird call. This is not just…
Good to great singer-songwriters seem to be creeping up on us daily (again!) — artists obviously seem to have a greater need to try and express their personal sensibilities and whatnot as much as they did in the early ‘70s.
Stressing that good or great epithet, we can add to that list Seattle’s Sarabeth Weszely, who took the moniker of Where’s Beth.
Weszely has been around for a few years now and has some early recordings, but Ache Is Cricket in the Night stands officially as her second album and can easily serve as the best possible introduction to a wider audience.
The fact that the album was recorded live in her Seattle home studio might surprise some, as the sound has that perfect studio pitch…
Taracá is the 15th album by 17-time Latin Grammy winner, Uruguayan singer/songwriter Jorge Drexler. His first in four years, it marks his first time recording at home in two decades. Its contents offer a return to root sounds, in particular candombe. Candombe is a drum-based musical style that originated among the enslaved African population of capital Montevideo, and is based on Bantu African drumming. The musical style was racially marginalized and even banned over its existence (as were Brazilian samba and American blues) but survived, evolved, and in the 21st century, thrived. Like the aforementioned styles, candombe is at an ascendant moment in 21st century popular culture. Drexler plays homage to his recently deceased father here; to that end…
Asia are back and roaring in their new, exhilarating line-up! Recorded live on the first of three unforgettable nights at Trading Boundaries in Sussex, in April 2025, this release captures the band performing their iconic 1982 debut album “ASIA” in full, along with a selection of their greatest hits.
Featuring Geoff Downes (keys), Virgil Donati (drums – ex-Planet X), John Mitchell (guitars – Arena, It Bites etc.) and the astonishing Harry Whitley (on bass and vocals), this fresh incarnation of Asia brings both reverence for the classics and a thrilling new energy to the stage. The setlist includes fan favourites like “Heat Of The Moment”, “Only Time Will Tell”, “Sole Survivor”, “One Step Closer” and “Time Again”, alongside video-era…
Last year White Reaper released their latest full-length, Only Slightly Empty. Now the band has released a deluxe version, Only Slightly Expanded, featuring previously unheard b-sides, including “Need,” “Mold,” and “No Counter.”
It took more than getting dropped by their label and losing the rhythm section to put a damper on White Reaper. Their 2025 album Only Slightly Empty has all the elements on board that have made all their other releases such a delight. Listed in order of increasing importance: crisp and clean production, guitars that split the difference between hard rock thunder and power pop chime, charming dude-next-door vocals, and huge hooks. It’s all here and all working perfectly well as the band – now down to a trio – crank through…
Bright Spirit marks the third instalment in a trilogy that began with The Universe Also Collapses (2019) and continued with Unending Ascending (2023). Recorded with long-time collaborator Frank Byng in his South London studio, Bright Spirit sees Gong at their experimental best, more adventurous and more open to the dream than ever.
And dreams are central here. Not just as lyrical imagery, but as a way of thinking – where psychedelia, love, and the thin membrane between worlds feed into the music. The opener, ‘Dream Of Mine’, unfurls like a transmission from the in-between, its mid-section blooming into harmonies and an angular melody that feels like a key turning in a long-awaited lock. Frontman Kavus Torabi describes it as a moment everything…
Legendary saxophonist Don Dietrich and his powerhouse cellist daughter Camille Dietrich collide in Live Bahdu, a fierce musical union that music critic Byron Coley hails as “sheer wailing sonic pleasure.” Don, an untamed force who has spent over forty years shaping the explosive core of Borbetomagus, unleashes a volatile, lung-shaking roar, an unyielding take no prisoners wall of sound.
Camille answers with her own ferocity, channeling raw, electric intensity through the disciplined edge of her classical training, wielding her cello with the instinctive wildness of someone raised inside the storm of improvisation.
Together, they don’t just play-they engulf. Their sound floods a room, swallowing the air, saturating the senses, and leaving audiences…
Country music fans will tell you, there’s country music, and there’s Texas country music. They are not the same thing. Just because someone’s from the Lone Star state doesn’t make one a Texas country artist. Defining just what Texas music is can be difficult. It is characterized more by what it is not, almost more than what it is (grittier than Nashville production, populated by self-described outlaws, more honky-tonk danceable than ballad driven, etc.).
Because Texas music contains elements of pop (Buddy Holly), rock (ZZ Top), folk (Nanci Griffiths), gospel (Beyoncé), R&B (Leon Bridges), blues (Stevie Ray Vaughn), jazz (Lyle Lovett), ad infinitum, it’s hard to find a unifying principal that binds all of these artists together other…
…Just 24, Natalie Del Carmen has already released two albums, a couple of singles, and an EP. She hails from Los Angeles, where she returned to after gaining a Bachelor’s degree in Music (with a songwriting focus) from the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston.
This explains her talent for wordplay in exploring themes of adulthood, self-discovery, and personal growth, wrapped in a series of glorious tunes. Her debut, Bloodline, was possibly a more simplistic album lyrically (most of which was written when del Carmen was in her teens and much more influenced by ‘pop’ music). That album came out in March 2023 and received a positive reception from critics and fans alike, who noted her voice and her way with a tune. An EP entitled…
French flautist, saxophonist and composer Jocelyn Mienniel presents a cross-cultural collaboration built upon improvisation and self-imposed limits. Bringing together musicians from five continents, Mienniel and company gave themselves just four hours to experiment together around pre-agreed frameworks before performing the results live that same evening.
Delicate kora, flute, voice, strings and tinkling hand bells coalesce on opener ‘Alalake’, which slowly evolves in hypnotic spirals. The upbeat ‘Hojdaren’ skips and dances, underpinned by some beautiful violin, while ‘Zerberb’ pulses with shuffling beats and swirling percussion. ‘Takamba’ evokes the music of the Andes, filtered through a West African lens. This is wonderfully…
With Figures of Glass (Piano Etudes – Edits), Vanessa Wagner offers a renewed listening perspective on Philip Glass’s Piano Etudes, shaping a curated selection of edited versions drawn from her acclaimed recording of the complete cycle. These edits do not alter the substance of the works; rather, they refine the perception of time, revealing the emotional force of the music with renewed clarity.
Conceived in parallel with Figures of Glass, a hybrid project developed as a duo by Vanessa Wagner and Collectif Scale, the release extends a dialogue between piano and light, sound and space. At the heart of a scenographic installation, Vanessa Wagner interprets Glass’s Etudes by exploring the visual imagination embedded…
In the Unknown (I Will Find You) is drummer, composer, and bandleader Willy Rodriguez‘s second album. This set offers a deeply personal odyssey through loss, memory, and spiritual connection. Rodriguez enlisted tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, who endured a similar period of struggle and loss. He also tapped pianist and keyboardist Leo Genovese in a bass-free trio. Spoken word contributions are by Allan Harris, with sound design by Chris Connors.
Rodriguez has made an impact across creative music culture serving in Mon Laferte’s Grammy-winning Norma band, playing on Mars Volta’s most recent, eponymous album, and releasing his internationally acclaimed debut, Seeing Sound, in 2024. The music and sounds here…
Chris Forsyth leans into the cool jazz aesthetic of his new ensemble at first, but these long pieces morph, over time, into driving, droning grooves. The trio, What Is Now, is made up of the Philadelphia experimental guitarist plus John Moran and Joey Sullivan, the rhythm section from Bark Culture, a vibraphone-forward cool jazz combo centered around Victor Vieira-Branco.
This EP under review includes three extended, improvised tracks, jazzier than Forsyth’s typical grooves, but only intermittently. The title cut is loosely put together, with glancing connections between instruments largely pursuing their own ends. The longest of these cuts, it is also the least boxed in by time signature. It stirs to life in a rumble of drums, abstract stabs…
Crystalpunk might be Chalk’s debut album, but there is an overwhelming sense of finality that accompanies its arrival. For four years, the sonic identity of the Belfast pair has been in constant evolution, steadily sailing from jagged post-punk towards the haven of dance music. Ever since former film students and housemates Ross Cullen (vocals) and Ben Goddard (multi-instrumentalist) decided to go full-throttle with this project in 2021, that transformation has visibly unfolded across their ‘Conditions’ EP trilogy.
Now, they’ve attempted to unlock its final form on Crystalpunk. Somewhat of a halfway house between Nine Inch Nails, Orbital and Idles – who they are supporting this summer – Chalk are not alone in their mission to unify the dancefloor…
The lyrics for Diagonale des Yeux’s debut album were written in the style of an exquisite corpse game, with members Laurène Exposito and Théo Delaunay taking it in turns to patch together ephemeral thoughts and themes in a mix of French, German, English and Spanish. The bizarre, multilingual stories that emerged match the French duo’s ramshackle, home-recorded sound, which features everything from toybox percussion to farmyard sound effects.
Their whimsical approach is anchored in the outsider pop and post-punk of ’80s Europe, which embraced discordant instrumentation and disaffected vocals. These 12 tracks are charmingly lo-fi, built around rudimentary synth and guitar melodies that often careen into…
Mary Ocher’s leftist politics have always been baked into her art. Her first record was called War Songs, and she has continuously interrogated militarism, capitalism, and nationalism across subsequent works, including her 2017 breakthrough, The West Against the People.
Recently, she’s even taken to performing karaoke-style renditions of some of her new repertoire live to avoid using backing tracks or laptops on stage, something she has described as “a wonderful icebreaker” and a “really, really great opportunity to talk about broader political subjects with the audience.”
In short, Ocher is a multi-hyphenate outsider artist who wraps sharp geopolitical reflections in peerless avant-pop packaging, as her latest…
Everyone who proselytises will eventually tell you that the truth sets you free. On her debut album Buck Wild, Indian (Pune-based) artist Karshni splits herself open: sometimes with a surgeon’s meticulousness, sometimes like a violent, rabid cannibal, utterly disinterested in suturing herself back shut, intent on ravaging the person she once was – all in the service of ‘getting real’, both with herself and her listeners.
In the last eight-odd years that she has been making music, Karshni has developed an indie-darling, melancholia laden sound-bed, then abandoned it, floated across collaborations with her peers, lending her voice to records that span the distance between avant-garde hiphop and shoegaze, and now brought herself…