When I hear music that confuses me, I commit to listening to it. Electronic dance music was the exception, though. Dance music confused the hell out of me, but I fought it. I fought it hard. For years, I refused to dig in and try to understand it. I ranted about turntables not being instruments and DJs not being musicians…. Read more »
We were restless. We were young and passionate and starving for great music, music with an edge, music that expressed the turmoil of how we felt. It was 1991 and it was a difficult time to love rock. Hard rock was dominated by bands like Warrant and Extreme and Tesla, bands who could sell out arenas but were devoid of… Read more »
I am rooted in songs filled with drive and urgency and yearning. I stray into other worlds—worlds filled with opera singers and dub basslines and experimental noises—but inevitably I hear an album filled with driving rhythms and urgent melodies and yearning lyrics, and I am drawn in and taken back to my roots. Loney Dear’s songs have drawn me in… Read more »
Two things immediately strike me about Rune Reilly Kölsch’s set for Fabric. First, Kölsch’s compositions rest upon thick beds of harmony that take me back to my earliest experiences with electronic music, when I was a high school heavy metal fan trying to understand the sonic landscapes of Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre. Second, his rhythms feel boundless, weaving in… Read more »
Modern Nature – How to Live I recently wrote a review of a song called “Owls” by Combo Qazam. When I posted it, I reached out to Stefan, the guy who runs Tiny Room, their label. Turns out Stefan is also in Combo Qazam and he sent me a great email and told me about Modern Nature, his favorite band… Read more »
“Owls” explodes out of the speakers and rushes into your ears. The whole thing moves at about 190 beats per minute. It is exhilarating, yet there is a sense that everything will go terribly wrong if you blink at the incorrect moment. This sounds the way it feels to drive at 100 mph. The intro unfolds over the first minute… Read more »
I sometimes wonder what would happen if reviewers didn’t receive press kits. It’s a question that re-emerges as I read about Loraine James and encounter phrases like “genre-bending IDM” and “paint portraits of Blackness, queerness and loneliness.” I don’t know what genre-bending IDM sounds like. What I hear in Reflection is a thoughtful and emotional record that builds on the… Read more »
Every genre of music defines an early set of rules, devolves into a chaotic sense of anarchy, then finds its way to a new set of rules. Look at rock. Early rock and roll followed rules largely inherited from country and R&B. The British Invasion initially stuck with those rules, but by about 1966, the Beatles and the Stones were… Read more »
It’s tough to make a great mix tape. Great mix tapes require knowledge and thoughtfulness and love. You need to dig deep, not only into the crate but into what you know about the person who’ll be listening. The flow of the mix is important, but so is the selection of songs and artists and genres. When you make a… Read more »
Some records are made for late nights in dimly lit rooms, sultry soundtracks for caresses that last forever. Yet when you revisit those records in daylight, you find words filled with hurt and longing. Sensational is one of those slow and sexy albums that is so much more than slow and sexy. Dig deep and the lyrics explore the countless… Read more »