Blurr Thrower – Les Voûtes (Les Acteurs de l’ombre)

Let me start this review with two albums that were released some time ago and which I haven’t talked about, but which have consistently come up in my listening queue. The first of which is French atmospheric black metal band Blurr Thrower‘s Les Voûtes. This album is strong on emotions. Their West Coast style suits them very well, and you just feel an immense leap in your chest with every chord change. For this alone, Les Voûtes shines above most other albums, and it’s the reason why, I think, … Read more

Giant Claw – Mirror Guide (Orange Milk)

It’s not the first time I mention Giant Claw here, and that’s for a good reason. Giant Claw is the moniker of Keith Rankin himself playing with keyboard and digital percussion pad. With this very minimalistic yet versatile instrumentation, Keith is able to craft and perform amazing psychedelic journeys. On Mirror Guide, this takes the form of an almost-electroacoustic thematic suite filled with rubato and expression. It’s truly something and you should go in ready to be taken away!

Fucked Up – Year of the Horse (Tank Crimes)

Fucked Up is … Read more

Gian Slater – Grey Is Ground (Biophilia)

The experienced singer-songwriter Gian Slater just released her new opus: Grey Is Ground. On this album, Gian brings complex and atmospheric synth pop songs that hit a certain balance between complexity, with its odd-time grooves, metric modulations, and harmonic progressions, and relatability, thanks to Gian’s soaring melodies and general sense of composition, which turns emotion into music, which is in turn switched back to emotion in our brain. It’s an elegant and brilliantly written album that will appeal to all avant-garde pop fans.

Yautja – The Lurch (Relapse)

You know Yautja. … Read more

Victory over the Sun – Nowherer

While Victory over the Sun‘s previous album was great—read our review for proof—it wasn’t microtonal. That’s one thing Vivian Tylinska wanted to correct with Nowherer, an avant-garde, hectic, and eclectic black metal masterpiece. All written in 17 notes per octave—a relatively popular xeharmonic system—the album stands proud in all its weird glory. Of course, it reminds me of Agonanist—review here!—who also released a 17-tone black metal album recently, but the similarities stop there. VOTS’s album seems to intentionally forgo conventions and expectations, and it works marvellously to … Read more

Abacaxi – Mainstream Desire (Collectif Coax)

Their previous album was quite something already, and the experimental, noisy, electro-jazz trio Abacaxi is back with a sorter but no less challenging and outstanding release in Mainstream Desire. The band’s creative output is marked by unorthodox rhythms and irregular harmonic and melodic ideas, and the two long-form songs on display have room enough to showcase their weird and original composition skills. So be sure to give this one a go!

秋葉龍 – Swans Dance, Roses Bloom like Mad

Japanese guitarist 秋葉龍 just released his debut album, the seventies-inspired progressive rock masterpiece—yes! masterpiece!—… Read more