Best of Mathcore 2021


Mathcore is an amazing genre, full of technicality, creativity, and often also humour and weirdness! But, if you’re here, you probably already know that, so let’s go with our top 5!


Number Five: Pacman, the Movie – 2: Eat Lives


Pacman, the Movie comes to us from Houston, Texas, and their second album is truly one that should be on everyone’s mathcore playlist this year. Check it out!


Number Four: Frontierer – Oxidized


The new Frontierer goes hard!


Number Three: Lou Kelly & Friends – Shriek


On Shriek, Lou Kelly and a bunch of guests came together to release … Read more

Best of Math Rock 2021


Math rock is usually characterized by odd-time signatures, but through the years it came to encompass a lot more than that. Now, you can find straight-up alt-rock bands under the math rock tag, and even though I used to be a valiant gatekeeper of the genre, these days are passed. I now fully embrace all kinds of math rock music, be they super rhythmically engaging, or only remotely belonging into math rock territory. I hope you’ll feel the same way as I do about these following albums.


Number Five: 水中スピカ – mEq


There always seems to be a new Japanese … Read more

New Music Video from Oort Smog for “Bright Empty Future”

We’ve recently reviewed the psychedelic Californian jazz-prog duo Oort Smog‘s upcoming masterpiece: Smeared Pulse Transfers. To recapitulate briefly, it’s a brilliant and innovative album that is full of surprises and good times.

Before the album’s release, on the 26th, you can watch this amazing video, directed by Dylan Louis Pecora, for the song “Bright Empty Future”, which you can also listen to on their Bandcamp page. The video uses various techniques in conjunction and superposition with one another, which gives it a pretty surreal feeling—not so far, in fact, from the feeling given by the music, too!

Smeared Read more

Kendall Burks – Waves

The Music

The Words

Kendall Burks is a musician and composer from Littleton, Colorado. Primarily using loops, he creates cinematic soundscapes, atmospheric compositions. That’s not to say that they don’t take centre stage. On Waves, this formula is put to work in a style that amalgamates progressive rock, math rock, indie folk, and world music in a whole that sounds minimalistic, rather than pompous, and that’s utterly delightful.

As the album goes on, you slowly get sucked into its quicksands. The guitar parts usually take the lead, but they are joined by many percussive and rhythmic ideas from other … Read more

Opposite Day – Divide by Nothing

The Music

The Words

Opposite Day are no newcomers to me: I’ve enjoyed my fair share of I Calculate Great and Space Taste Race, Part Zero, their two 2017 releases, but today marks the release of Divide by Nothing, their latest EP, and their best yet.

Art rock, progressive rock, math rock: those are the terms with which you’d best describe the songs here, even though the band has already dabbled in other genres. Here, however, the Texan trio pushes things farther into art territory, especially on “The Only Way to Travel”, a real upbeat, funky, and creative … Read more