Brendan Byrnes – Realism (Split-Notes)

Brendan Byrnes is back, everyone! Rejoice! Realism is Brendan’s fourth microtonal album, and it’s in a similar synth-pop vein as its predecessor, Neutral Paradise. Brendan’s and label Split-Notes’s aim to produce wide-appeal microtonal music is strong and clear on this record, where great care is put into making the uninitiated comfortable. Whether or not you have a history with microtonal music, this is an album all must listen.

Dumb Waiter – Tsk

Virginia-based jazz-meets-math rock quartet Dumb Waiter provides us with the successor to the amazing Heck EP. What to ask, except for more… Read more

Errata – Many People Are Unenthusiastic about Your Work (Gilded)

Errata is the experimental jazz trio of guitarist Ishmael Ali, bassist Eli Namay, and percussionist Bill Harris. Many People Are Unenthusiastic about Your Work is the group’s debut album, out on Gilded Records, and it shows the incredible proficiency of each musician, composer, and improviser of the band. Indeed, the songs range from composition to improvisation, and it’s not always easy to tell which is which, which is always a great sign of success in my opinion. The album is a bewildering and fascinating listen of noisy, heavy, chaotic jazz.… Read more

Bolt Gun – Begotten (Art as Catharsis)

“Ambient noise black doom” is the tag that best describes what you’re about to hear. Although, not all at once. Begotten is a carefully constructed piece that ranges indeed from ambient music all the way to blackened doom metal and harsh noise, but the arrangement and choice of sounds on this album are downright otherworldly. It may take ages for a song to truly kick in, if it even does so, but all the buildup gives way to such a cathartic explosion it’s difficult to put words on! It’s a soundtrack to grief, … Read more

Serpents of Pakhanhba – Serpents of Pakhangba

Serpents of Pakhangba is the latest project of multi-instrumentalist and composer Vishal J Singh, of Amogh Symphony fame. This new quartet errs into the sounds of avant-prog, noise rock, and free jazz, and the coalescing result of this bizarre amalgamation is truly more than the sum of its parts. The album comes out late May!

James George Thirlwell & Simon Steensland – Oscillospira (Ipecac)

The last I heard of Steensland he just released 25 Years of Minimum R&B, which is absolutely fantastic! Now, joined by composer JG Thirlwell, he appears on Oscillospira… Read more

Tyshawn Sorey – Unfiltered (Pi)

Unfortunately, Unfiltered is unavailable for online streaming, so here’s a video of Tyshawn drumming instead.

Tyshawn Sorey is a genius drummer and composer from New York, and nowhere is it clearer than on Unfiltered. The album consists of a single piece over two hours in length, split for obvious reason into three parts on disc. “Unfiltered” is an enterprise of pharaonic scale, played by a sextet of legendary musicians, including vibraphonist Sasha Berliner, whom we covered in the past. It’s a composition that takes inspirations from all across the board, from the spiritual … Read more