Tag Archives: free rock

Margarida Guia & Random Record, Palm, Alta forma, and Nnamdï

by Dæv Tremblay

Margarida Guia & Random Record – Untitled (Do It Youssef!)

As a tribute to activist, actress, composer, and performer Margarida Guia, Do It Youssef! are releasing her performance with Random Record (David Bausseron & Nicolas Chichagnot), recorded in 2012 in Brussels. This fifty-minute psychedelic free rock improvisation is an absolute mind-altering experience, thanks to the wildly creative work of the three musicians involved, and the characteristic narration of Margarida Guia. Drown in the mad world of this improvisation, you won’t regret it!

Palm – Nicks and Grazes (Saddle Creek)


Palm is a band from the future, bringing us avant-garde nu…… Read more

Moteur! – En traits libres

by Dæv Tremblay

The Music

The Words

Moteur! is a French avant-prog band who released its debut self-titled album almost exactly a year ago. En traits libres is their most recent output, and it makes some changes on the basic formula. First of all, the band is now totally instrumental, and I can’t say I miss the vocals of their first opus; moving them out was a wise move. Secondly, the then-trio welcomes Yacine Rabia on bass guitar and becomes a full-fledged quartet! That adds a layer of sound, something that wasn’t really lacking, but that is nonetheless appreciated.

The band favours completely … Read more

Crno dete – Neponovljivo

by Dæv Tremblay

The experimental surf rock duo Crno dete, from Serbia, just released their latest opus: the massive Neponovljivo album. This set is an improvised performance that goes on for about forty minutes; uncut, unedited, and unrepeatable. It has been divided into eight tracks, but the truly uncut version is available as a forty-three-minute single track. The music resembles experimental math rock and post-rock, but the utter flood of reverb on the guitars make me think of surf rock more than anything else, really. From the moment you press play, the guitars and the drums catawompously barge in and don’t stop … Read more

Kurws – Alarm

by Dæv Tremblay

Kurws are a peculiar entity. Alarm is their most recent release, and is almost embarrassingly good. “Nagonka” readily baffles you with its odd polyrhythmic bouncing groove accompanied by saxophone and recording artefacts left in. It’s composition aimed at emulating free improvisation, or is it? It doesn’t matter, the result is the same: Alarm is disconcerting and wild! The Polish quartet certainly continues to experiment with music and push themselves on the brink of cohesion. Thanks to analog tape recording, the texture of the sound is at times very grainy, giving even more consistency to the aural soup we’re served, which, … Read more

Rivener – Rivener

by Dæv Tremblay

The Connecticut free rock duo Rivener sent me a message about their 2016 album, Svengali Gaze, about which I had mixed feelings – a sentiment I still hold. On September first, they released its successor in this self-titled package of about one dodrant-hour long. Here, I feel a stronger sense of vision and unity within the duo, which translates into semi-improvisations serving much more convincing purposes. The songs on Rivener are oddly reminiscent of Omniataxia‘s “Scatterwhite” in their construct and in their final forms. The band definitely borrows a lot from free jazz, but they apply their knowledge … Read more