Recent posts tagged music
2023
Tri Repetae++ (Autechre)
"Far from being 'inhuman' or 'robotic', as was often charged in the early days, electronic music is thus a profoundly human art."
Church Of Anthrax (John Cale / Terry Riley)
This one-off collaboration between the former Velvet Underground member and a master of mesmeric minimalism yielded a record with only one really standout cut, but what a cut it is.
2021
The Artificers
Something is not "artificial" because of its means of production, but if the act of producing it, in whatever form, goes against your inner convictions.
Independent's Daze
Why is it that the indie scene in music is so much more forgiving of self-production, where the indie scene in literature is less so?
Mutator (Alan Vega)
The first of the posthumous releases from Alan Vega (of Suicide)'s vault, and it's a good 'un.
If You Hum A Few Bars I Can Fake It
Ersatz Vangelis and fake Tangerine Dream, coming up! And maybe something more original after that.
The Downward Spiral (Nine Inch Nails)
A look back at the most deliberately frustrating album ever made for popular consumption.
Machine Gun (Peter Brötzmann)
You know how Woody Guthrie has THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS on his guitar? Peter Brötzmann's reeds should have signs that say THIS MACHINE KILLS, PERIOD.
Superunknown (Soundgarden)
When I'm happy, this record reminds me of what I'm transcending; when I'm not, it reminds me of how to transcend.
2020
The Anatomy Of Addiction (God)
A thunderous fusion of jazz and industrial rock, way out of print but absolutely worth seeking out.
The Process (Skinny Puppy)
"The album that killed Skinny Puppy", an only partly realized concept record about a cult movement, has much to recommend it after 25 years.
The Spirit Of Eden (Talk Talk)
Over thirty years later, a record as jarringly fresh now -- maybe more so now -- than it was when it first undermined everyone's expectations.
May Your Playlists Never Run Dry
Most every story I've written has a soundtrack.
2018
The Answer To Last Week's Puzzle
"Are we so desperate to solve our art?"
2017
IT (Alan Vega)
Alan Vega is dead, and that means there will never be another Suicide album. But it also means there will never be another Alan Vega album, and that matters at least as much to me.
Find Your Voice To Lose Your Voice
"You’re going to find your voice.... The problem is getting rid of it."
Faith Some More Dept.
My books have soundtracks. Faith No More begs to provide one for a book as yet unwritten.
2016
Major Malfunction (Keith Leblanc)
Bonus beats for a world that lives technology rather than just using it.
Power Inc. Vol. 1 + Vol. 2 (Tackhead)
Until we get a Tackhead box set, these two discs will have to do as a source for anthologizing most of the band's best sampler-drum-machine-and-funk moments.
Aoi no Ue (Jōji Yuasa)
The first of a series of records by Edition Omega Point that explores the undeservedly unheard Japanese avant-garde.
Push My Envelope Dept.
"Transgressive" isn't what it used to be. Maybe it never was.
City: Works Of Fiction (Jon Hassell)
Somewhere between Herbie Hancock's electronic pop-jazz of the 1980s and the more omnivorous, open-ended experimentalism of artists like David Byrne or Brian Eno.
None-Hit Wonders Dept.
If I'm in the habit of listening outside my well-worn grooves, nothing is disappointing or distasteful.
2015
The Disintegration Loops (William Basinski)
If there is an award for The Saddest Music In The World, I present it now and forever to William Basinski's Disintegration Loops.
Soliloquy for Lilith (Nurse With Wound)
Those purveyors of sinister whimsy went headfirst into the abyss with this undulating black mirror of a record.
