EXCLUSIVE VIDEO PREMIERE: Shelter – “Mercure”

Hailing from Lyon, France, the Shelter quintet crafts high-quality progressive rock fusing jazz elements into a cohesive yet chaotic whole. After their 2017 EP Spetsnaz, they’re back with the single “Mercure”, filmed and recorded live. As explicit by the very first few seconds, the rhythm is an important part of Shelter’s identity, soon followed by the effects-laden trumpet and groovy drums. Obviously, the two guitars in the band play their own important role, bringing in complex harmonies and rhythmic patterns conflicting and complementing each other.

The seven-minute track is, I hope, the first of many more to come. For … Read more

Weekly Release Dump

Saturday, 26 January

Key to Abyss – Beautiful Demons [2-disc] (free jazz)

Vancouver, British Columbia

Light Dweller – Incandescent Crucifix [EP] (atmospheric black metal)

Tempe, Arizona


Sunday, 27

Long Hallways – Close Your Eyes to Travel (post-rock)

Portland, Oregon

Somn – The All​-​Devouring (blackgaze, post-black)

Saint Petersburg, Russia
On Elusive Sound

Read our review.


Monday, 28

Dead Kiwis – Systematic Home Run [EP] (mathcore)

Lyon, France

Read more

Monthly Recommendations: January 2019

New Thread Quartet – Plastic Facts (New Focus Recordings)

Contemporary classical music doesn’t get enough spotlight here (and I vow to change that). Let’s start with New York-based New Thread Quartet, a saxophone tetraphony playing pieces that are, at times, utterly terrifying and powerful; at other times contemplative, meandering, or intriguing. Each track is from a different composer, but they all shine equally on this record.

Review.


Richmond Avant-Improv Collective – Multiplicity (Thirsty Leaves Music)

Known more succinctly as RAIC, the Richmond Avant-Improv Collective is an ensemble made of a great number of musicians. Correspondingly, they also create music from

Read more

Weekly Release Dump

Saturday, 19 January

Tonus – Ear Duration (free jazz)

London, UK

Brian! (Quartet) – Minimum Donation [EP] (experimental rock, avant-garde jazz)

Ithaca, New York


Sunday, 20

Call Us Колос (Kolos) – На связи (Na svjazi) [EP] (post-rock)

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Kelp – Exterior (experimental jazz)

Fukuoka, Japan

Kevin Blanke – In Remembrance of Things That Never Were (avant-garde jazz)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Read more