Needle Driver is the latest experiment of Brooklyn musician Brandon Seabrook. The hard-to-describe EP seamlessly bridges contemporary classical music, experimental jazz, and mathcore into a nasty instrumental tapestry. The trio even includes some microtonal intervals, spotted in the song “Venwhorerisin'”. The five compositions are too quickly gone, but they provide an endless amount of entertainment while they last: uncommon time signatures, odd harmonies, complex and exhausting melodies, as well as a knack for deranged structures that somehow hold themselves together. Needle Driver goes left and right, up and down, forwards and backwards, and I’m sure it also goes wild … Read more
Category Archives: Mini-Review
Tvivler – Negativ psykologi #3
The punkish hardcore-n-roll quartet Tvivler, from Denmark release their third Negativ psykologi seven-inch tomorrow. I covered their first one in 2015, but since then they released #2 last year – of which I had no word –, and #3 just now! In the same line as #1, the two most recent ones range from ten to fifteen minutes and boast some aggressive neck-breaker tracks. One of the most interesting, however, is “Oprydning”, which is almost entirely a drums and vocals duo, that is until the bass hits a few notes near the end as a sort of … Read more
Breadcrumbs: Jackie Frank Russell III, Omega, The Earth and I, Vincent Jourde & Joffrey Dahonnet, Jiggly, Jyocho, Reflection Nebula, Namibian Tales, and Bingo Bandy Club
Site update: You remember a while ago we switched to writing sets of eight, and then nine mini-reviews, for the sake of covering a wider range of releases, and to be able to share the highest amount of quality releases we could manage? Then, remember how we switched to making solo mini-reviews, because I didn’t think these sets made justice to the best releases we covered? Now, I think it’s time for a sort of middle ground. I often find myself with albums I enjoy but don’t have much to say about, not enough to write a mini-review for them … Read more
Valtozash – Wizard-Bird
The Australian jazz metal fusion orchestra Valtozash is quite a newcomer, when it comes to their young age as a group, but they’ve already made their marks with their 2016 debut album, Iron Maiden Voyage. Barely more than a year later, they’re back with a sophomore release in Wizard-Bird. For those unaware, the ensemble is quite extensive: five saxophone players, three for trumpets, four trombones, and a vibraphonist all play alongside the traditional guitars-bass-drums trio. On top of that, the track from which the album title is taken features the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra! Through musical humour and a … Read more
Archspire – Relentless Mutation
Canadian band Archspire surely needs no introduction. With a single album, they defined themselves as the epitome of their genre and a paragon to strive for. That genre is technical death metal – tech-death for short –, and that album was The Lucid Collective, released in 2014. Earlier this month, the Vancouverites released their new album, under the edgy moniker Relentless Mutation. More than simply a follow-up, it’s actually a step up, as incredible as it sounds from a band already seen as over the top as this one. A while ago now, they teased a drum practice … Read more