Reviews
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eve
zakè & Benoît Pioulard ~ eve While I’m not exactly what you’d call a “believer,” let alone a practicing anything, I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, and like many Americans I have many positive associations with Christmastime. I’ve always especially loved Christmas Eve: The Feast of the Seven Fishes, Midnight Mass, and the general…
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COMPILATION ALBUMS
My ten contributions to ACL’s 40 Best Compilation Albums (part one, part two) Angola Soundtrack – The Unique Sound Of Luanda 1968-1976 (Analog Africa, 2010) A friend passed me the three-volume Buda Musique compilations a few years before this came out, igniting a deep love for Angolan music. While I had some grounding in Brazilian music…
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Down On Darkened Meetings
Low key yet lyrical melodies balance on the cusp between accessible and weird, at turns mournful and celebratory. Untitled tracks allow the listener to project whatever they’re feeling onto this music. And despite being informed that all sounds come from electric and acoustic guitars, there remains an ambiguity to the sound sources that makes room…
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Steve Roden ~ Flower & Water
This review was originally published in late 2014 on A CLOSER LISTEN. Since Steve Roden (1964-2023) passed away yesterday, I’ve been listening to his music nonstop, and re-reading my interview with him from 2013, which I’ve just republished on Substack. I realized I never added this review to my personal site, so here it is.…
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Christopher Tignor / Slow Six / Redhooker / Wires.Under.Tension
Christopher Tignor is set to release his latest album, The Art of Surrender, out later this month on Western Vinyl. I recently saw him perform in Montreal, which motivated me to gather some Tignor-related features I contributed to TSB many years ago. I have really vivid memories of listening to Nor’easter on my fire escape in…
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Do Make Say Think ~ The Other Truths
When Do Make Say Think first emerged in the late nineties, a comparison to Tortoise was quickly made and haunted them for quite awhile afterward. Though the influence of the Chicago group was undeniable, DMST also had more going for them than riding the wake of Tortoise-influenced instrumental bands. With their dual drummers, prominent bass…
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The Drift ~ Memory Drawings
Memory Drawings, the second LP by San Francisco’s The Drift, delivers memorable songs, each offering a distinct impression. Originally a Lazarus/Tarentel side-project, The Drift have slowly evolved into an original and compelling full-time group of their own. The guitar playing of founding member Danny Grody (Tarentel) works well with trumpet of Jeff J. Jacobs, and…
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KING VISION ULTRA ~ SHOOK WORLD (hosted by Algiers)
One of the motifs that unifies SHOOK WORLD, a collaborative album produced by GENG PTP aka KING VISION ULTRA, is the use of field-recordings of trains. This is partly a call back to beginning of Nas‘ Illmatic, cementing a connection with hip hop history. The title SHOOK WORLD also can’t help but recall Mobb Deep’s classic…
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ACL 2022: Sound Propositions
Every time I’ve tried to sit down and write my end of year column I’ve found myself trying to write a full review for each record on my list. And that’s basically what the following lists are; records I would have written about if I had the time (or if someone were paying me). But…
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Francesco Gregoretti ~ Solid Layers, Deafening Shapes
Many of my favorite artists trained as architects, while many of my favorite composers had their origins in the rhythm section. I can’t help but try to find some commonality in this. Architects must strike a balance between being practical and imaginative, understanding both business and art, responding to real-world limitations and concerns which make…
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Enrico Coniglio ~ Songs from Ruined Days
Enrico Coniglio is a Venetian sound artist, creating pieces out of washed-out drones and ambient guitar loops while integrating them into field recordings. With a background in urban planning, his work explores the aural identity of place in a very sophisticated, if subjective, manner. His latest work is Songs from Ruined Days, a long form recording that…
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In C Remixed
Originally published at TSB in May 2010 Long time readers of this site might know that I am an enthusiastic fan of Steve Riech, and that I wrote a piece for The Silent Ballet shortly after our launch on Reich@70, the 2006 celebration of the composer’s seventieth birthday. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the Grand Valley State University New Music…
Sound Propositions 