Belles: An Experiment in Marathon

by Dæv Tremblay

An idealized visual representation of the rhythms in “Belles”. The vertical axis represents the beats of the composition and the horizontal axis the time at which each note is played inside the rhythmic pattern. Each colour represents a different note in the piece.

Ever since I started visually representing microrhythms, for example in my last post about Marathon, I’ve had the idea of creating rhythms based on visuals, instead of the other way around. For this experiment, I was thinking about the full extent of the Gnawa rhythm going back and forth and overlapping with itself to create this … Read more

May in 187 Albums

by Dæv Tremblay

Wednesday, 1 May

Adventure Time – Volume 1 (soundtrack)

USA
On Cartoon Network Music

Adventure Time – Volume 2 (soundtrack)

USA
On Cartoon Network Music

Adventure Time – Volume 3 (soundtrack)

USA
On Cartoon Network Music

Adventure Time – Volume 4 [EP] (soundtrack)

USA
On Cartoon Network Music

Adventure Time – Volume 5 (soundtrack)

USA
On Cartoon Network Music

… Read more

Monthly Recommendations: May 2019

by Dæv Tremblay

Car Made of Glass – Every Song Is a Good Song (Montgomery Street)

California’s Car Made of Glass is a peculiar thing indeed. Though it started as a sort of emoviolence, grindcore, and noise blend and made plenty of split releases in that style, it reached a crossroads on their debut, Foreign Graffiti. Even though, it seems, the band’s experimental and noise demographics seemed to wax while the rest dwindled as time passed, there is a juncture, a breaking point, that was reached on that album. Some tracks are purely of the former, and some of the latter, and some,

… Read more

Weekly Release Dump

by Dæv Tremblay

Friday, 24 May

Alexi Tuomarila Trio – Sphere (jazz fusion)

Helsinki, Finland
On Edition

Capyac – Baby Make Money [EP] (R&B, funk)

Austin, Texas

Chalice Dungeon – Chalice Dungeon (blackened death metal)

Layton, Utah

Christian Meaas Svendsen with Nakama and Rinzai Zen Center Oslo – New Rituals [3-disc] (world fusion)

Oslo, Norway
On Nakama

Read our review.

Circé – Circé (free jazz, jazz fusion)

Tours, France

… Read more

Kamancello – II: Voyage

by Matt Matheson

Comprising Canadian cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne and Iranian kamanche player Shahriyar Jamshidi, Kamancello is the fruit of collaborative improvisation, with the dynamic skill sets of each player bouncing off each other in unique and enchanting ways. Weinroth-Browne has, in a sense, the more challenging job of delicately balancing low-end rhythmic richness with melodic lead performance and harmonization; Jamshidi, with all his talents, is restricted to the higher range of his kamanche (think Persian violin) and thus contributes almost exclusively higher leads and harmonies. The duo juggles their three modes (kamanche leading, cello leading, dual harmony leads) with precision and aplomb. Coming … Read more