Review: Upsilon Acrux – Sun Square Dialect

True math! Upsilon Acrux is one of these bands that really mesmerize you, on every listen. Their music is so dense and complex, both harmonically and rhythmically, that it’s difficult to listen to their album, Sun Square Dialect, as background music, while doing other tasks. You might find yourselves trying to keep track of the changing time signatures or just trying to figure out what’s happening, and how it got there! It’s truly music for the brain.

Using two drummers has many advantages and disadvantages, the formers being for the listener, and the latters being more technical, and for … Read more

Review: Marena Whitcher’s Shady Midnight Orchestra – Ghostology

Lost between the realms of opera, jazz, and avant-garde music, Marena Whitcher’s Shady Midnight Orchestra‘s what seems to be debut album Ghostology is a real gem of experimentation in popular music, although what’s left of pop music is so altered in the process that it can barely be called that. However, the avant-pop label seems quite fitting, even more so when followed by the ghost jazz speciality. What is ghost jazz? I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to it.

With an orchestra comprising of many instruments, from glass harp to bass clarinet, and from glockenspiel to “toys”, the … Read more

News: 1st Single from Jaga Jazzist’s New Album

Jaga Jazzist is one of the most interesting collection of musicians. Their list of musicians current and past alone is interesting in itself. We’re going to let the music speak for itself but this is a band to always keep an eye on.

The newest album is called “Starfire” and will be coming out on June 2, 2015.

Here’s the album art for the new album:

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Review: Tigran Hamasyan – Mockroot

The rhythm section on Mockroot: (from left to right) Sam Minaie (bass), Tigran Hamasyan, and Arthur Hnatek (drums)  CREDIT: Maeve Stam

The rhythm section on Mockroot (from left to right), Sam Minaie (bass), Tigran Hamasyan, and Arthur Hnatek (drums)
CREDIT: Maeve Stam

Being a musical genius is hard. Not in the, “Oh, I’m a musical genius, I’m so oppressed, pity me” sense, but rather in the sense that one must live up to the expectations one has created. This is of course not a problem limited to the realm of music; all artists must ultimately struggle with it. If an artist has released material before, their new work is inevitably, and necessarily, put into a particular context. One must walk a … Read more