Brian!, Trevor Dunn, Miriodor, and Oiseaux-Tempête

Brian! – Cataclysmic Engine (Nefarious Industries)


What if you replaced the bassist with a bassoonist? Well, Brian! answered this question in 2010 with their debut EP EEE. Twelve years on, the New York power trio has mastered its peculiar sound and grown more confident, more adventurous, and more certain. With the Cataclysmic Engine, you can hear the idiosyncratic sound of the bassoon, somewhere between electric bass and synthesizer during the riffs and a genuine woodwind instrument during solos. I love this instrument, and I’m really grateful that such a band exists! Be sure to check out this new… Read more

John Zorn, Levi Nice, Atte Aho, and 417.3

John Zorn, played by Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches Smith – Suite for Piano (Tzadik)

Suite for Piano
Official Tzadik website
You have to believe me when it comes to Zorn material, as there’s no official preview of most of his music to be found online. However, Suite for Piano, despite its rather boring title and appearance, is one of his best works recently. First off, this release was inspired by Schönberg and Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and is Zorn’s take on various musical forms for piano—the prelude, the allemande, the scherzo, the menuet, and the gigue to name a few—played by … Read more

Just Mustard, Aronious, Mmulreso, and Íkarus

Just Mustard – Heart Under (Partisan)


Irish post-punk five-piece Just Mustard released their amazing new album earlier this year, back in May. Heart Under is their second album, and it really captures the ideal of the band: dark moody atmospheres, hypnotic rhythms, repeating structures, melancholic vocals, droning bass… With these ingredients, the band is able to do a lot of mileage: the album is just over 45 minutes long, and I wouldn’t like it any shorter! Between shoegaze and industrial, noise rock and trip-hop, that album is going to pull you in, that’s for sure!

Aronious – Irkalla (The Artisan

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Imperial Triumphant, The Callous Daoboys, Schleu, and Jakub Tirco

Imperial Triumphant – Spirit of Ecstasy (Century Media)



Alright, we have to talk about the new Imperial Triumphant. That album is truly something else. Not only does it take avant-garde black metal by storm, comparing favourably to the likes of Thantifaxath, but it does so with style and passion, shining the spotlight on many legendary musicians in the process (including Denis Bélanger, singer of Voïvod)! The music is dirty, oppressive, decadent, jumping from one filthy backstreet to another, and occasionally peeping through the window of an ivory tower to hear some fancy jazz being played at a banquet or … Read more