A quick and overdue take: Sleep Stations is the best record From The Mouth of The Sun has ever recorded. There, it is said. Released May 18, which seems like an eternity ago, via the always-illuminating Lost Tribe Sound, the Dag Rosenqvist/Aaron Martin post-classical duo’s new record is, yes, short, just 20 minutes in all….
Review: Cousin Boneless – “Possession”
When they talked about making a transformation, they were talking about an ALL CAPS TRANSFORMATION. On last year’s Revel In The Rubble, the final installment in a “garbage parties” trilogy, Pittsburgh’s Cousin Boneless plied its bizarre and infinitely unique form of freak folk – think a mélange of antique-garde musings, Andrew Bird ambition, and the theatricality…
Review: Various Artists – “The Co-Op Communique, Vol. 4”
The new entry in Introverse Media’s Co-Op Communique series – titled, appropriately, The Co-Op Communique Vol. 4 and available Friday on Bandcamp – goes to great lengths to champion independent artists, and, above all, is nothing if not exhaustive. In a time as saturated with media and background noise as ours, that’s appropriate – and…
Review: Papa M – “Walt’s”
Talk about a teaser! Drag City Records today released “Walt’s,” the first song off a new LP, out Aug. 17, from David Pajo solo project Papa M. And it is a shimmering, devastating little doozy. The song, a slow instrumental meditation for acoustic guitar (the record is billed as a collection for four acoustic guitars),…
Review: Aaron Myers-Brooks – “Multilinear Smatterings”
Pittsburgh-based guitarrorist Aaron Myers-Brooks summons up precision-lined metal shredding and keyboard-thrusted polyrhythms on his excellent, new one-man/one-song instrumental single, “Multilinear Smattering,” out last week on Bandcamp. Now, the entire “single” runs less than two minutes but, that, for a descendent of Orthrelm, is more than enough time to make a hell of a racket. Myers-Brooks,…
Review: Kaada – “Closing Statements”
The new record from the Norwegian composer Kaada is a beautiful thing, immense in scope yet startlingly intimate. But, while it plays on a theme – Death; the record, after all, is called Closing Statements – its songs, taken as a cycle, sometimes feel too content to color within the lines. The LP, out today…
Review: Frog Eyes – “Violet Psalms”
Frog Eyes’ frontman Carey Mercer has said Violet Psalms – the band’s goodbye record, out late last week on Paper Bag – was written and recorded like a debut, “when there’s no expectation that anyone will actually listen.” “The goal was to disorientate,” he added. Frog Eyes has made quite a habit of disorientating listeners…
Review: Dead Cross – S/T EP
Surprise, surprise, indeed. The hardcore-punk super-group Dead Cross dropped an unannounced, four-song EP on the public last week via Ipecac and, for all its distractions, it’s a pretty cool little addendum to last year’s full-length debut of the same name. The record, essentially a 7-inch single with two remixes tagged on, shows how the band…
Review: David Grubbs & Taku Unami – “Failed Celestial Creatures”
From the early notes of “Failed Celestial Creatures” – the meditative, 20-minute-long title track to the unanticipated debut collaboration between guitar-composer David Grubbs and Japanese musician Taku Unami, out Friday via Empty Editions – you get the sense you’re listening to something special. While Unami paints with fuzzy clouds of electronic sound, Grubbs repeats wonderfully…
Review: The Elephant Parallax – “Loam and Sky”
There are two epic songs battling for your attention on Loam and Sky, the new EP from The Elephant Parallax out Friday, and either could launch a fit description of why the record is indispensable. First, there is the opener, “The Conscious.” Though it begins with “Bloody Mary”-style drums and a pixelated, Battles-ish guitar onslaught, what…