CLOUD TANGLE – Kinds Of Sadness (False Peak / 4000 Records 2020)* Le vaporose armonie in bassa fedeltà dell’Ep casalingo “Pocket” (2017) avevano già lasciato intravedere le variegate potenzialità espressive di Amber Ramsay, fin da allora proiettate ben oltre la dimensione della “cameretta”, dalla quale dispensava suadenti cartoline sotto l’alias Cloud Tangle. La crescita della…

[streaming] Red Red Eyes – Where Has Everybody Gone?

Taken from “A Girl And A Gun: Lockdown”, a coda of the collection of new interpretations of James Bond movies songs, published as a celebration of the music of 007 by WIAIWYA (name your price download here). From the label: “These are unprecedented times.  Sometimes it feels like some evil mastermind, hell bent on world…

WINDY AND CARL – Allegiance And Conviction (Kranky, 2020) Ogni lavoro di Windy Weber e Carl Hultgren è circondato da un’aura di magia, oltre che di attesa da parte degli affezionati del duo-culto del Michigan, che da ormai quasi trent’anni continua ad attraversare psichedelia, space-rock, shoegaze e drone sognanti. Tale premessa è come non mai…

MONTEVALE – Figure And Ground (Oscarson, 2020)* È una storia, personale e artistica, decisamente particolare quella che unisce Ahlie Schaubel e Thomas Sattig: lei musicista attiva nell’underground tedesco degli anni Novanta, in ambito rock e post-punk, lui filosofo che accanto ai propri studi accademici coltivava la passione per la composizione di partiture per pianoforte e…

HILARY WOODS – Birthmarks (Sacred Bones, 2020) Protagonista di un debutto dal fascino etereo ed oscuro (“Colt”, 2018), Hilary Woods vi dà seguito con un lavoro concepito nei due anni intercorsi dalla pubblicazione del predecessore, nel corso dei quali ha attraversato le esperienze della gravidanza e della maternità. Proprio al tema della nascita è dedicato,…

[video of the week] Drab City – Working For The Men

Taken from the debut album “Good Songs for Bad People” out on June 12th on Bella Union Records. A heady air of dislocation envelops Drab City’s debut album, where songs of innocence and experience merge with dub, hip-hop, dream-pop and jazzy soundtrack vibes to intoxicating effect. Drab City are fixated on social alienation, violent revenge,…

YANI MARTINELLI – Astral (Fox Food, 2020) La grande sensibilità della cassette-label inglese Fox Food per le voci femminili (Dana Gavanski, Captain, Cade) offre un pur limitato crisma di ufficialità alla nuova raccolta di canzoni di Yani Martinelli, cantautrice spagnola di nascita venezuelana. Nei suoi lavori, a partire da “Bubble Station” (2012), Yani ha sempre…

[streaming] Windy & Carl – Crossing Over

Taken from the album “Allegiance and Conviction”, available March 27th 2020 via Kranky Records. Windy & Carl return with a new album, their first since 2012 “We Will Always Be“. Cited as “A leading light of the Michigan space-rock scene” by Allmusic, the minimalist group formed in 1993 around the core husband-and-wife duo of guitarist…

[streaming] Northwest – The Day

Taken from the second Northwest album, out now and available as free/name your price download via https://thisisnorthwest.bandcamp.com/album/ii. Northwest are an experimental-pop duo based in London, formed by spanish multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Ignacio Simón and visual artist, producer and singer Mariuca García-Lomas. Their music explores different genres, from contemporary classical music and avant-garde electronica to…

[streaming] Squirrel Flower – Headlights

Squirrel Flower – the moniker of Ella O’Connor Williams – announces I Was Born Swimming, her debut album, out January 31st on Full Time Hobby (Polyvinyl in the US). The album’s title was inspired by Williams’ birth on August 11th 1996 – the hottest day of the year – born still inside a translucent caul…

[streaming] Fassine – Limbs

New single by Fassine, just out on Trapped Animal Records & Cargo Records. Cinematic pop creators Fassine return with ‘Limbs’, a typically dramatic and chaotic single that sees the London trio chart heavier, more aggressive waters. With previous acclaim and support from the likes of The Guardian, The Independent, Giles Peterson, Clashand more, Fassine bring…

[video of the week] Hanging Valleys – The Shining Mountain

Taken from “Behind The Backs Of Houses”, new album by Hanging Valleys out February 28th, 2020 via Pedro Y El Lobo. Directed by French photographer, Corentin Schieb, the idea for the video was to have a formless visual instead of a narrative. The result is a collage of images, textures and rhythms, put together in…

[streaming] Hamerkop – We Can Wing

Hamerkop is a pair of Baltimore-based sound nerds: Annabel Alpers, the composer, singer and instrumentalist formerly of New Zealand’s Bachelorette, and Adam Cooke, a Baltimorean drummer/ audio engineer with credits that include Beach House, Wye Oak and Future Islands. Together, they have created a song-cycle that contrasts the often-mundane (yet often satisfying) everyday world with…

SPARROWS – Berries (Flau, 2019) Oltre che metà del duo synth-pop Crystal e recente artefice del progetto idm Saco & Uno, Ryota Miyake coltiva una vena pop sognante e giocosa. Nella sua seconda prova sotto l’alias Sparrows, l’artista giapponese dà libero sfogo al suo eclettismo, collezionando una varietà di piccole “bacche” dal gusto agrodolce, anche…

RUBY HAUNT – The Middle Of Nowhere (Self Released, 2019) Lo scorcio crepuscolare dell’immagine allegata all’edizione digitale nella quale è licenziato “The Middle Of Nowhere”, insieme al suo stesso titolo, lascia già presagire molto del contenuto delle dieci nuove canzoni che costituiscono il terzo lavoro di Ruby Haunt, duo californiano formato da Wyatt Ininns e…

[streaming] Foxes In Fiction – Rush To Spark

Taken from “Trillium Killer”, releases October 18th 2019 via Orchid Tapes. Foxes in Fiction is the musical project of Warren Hildebrand, a Canadian-American singer-songwriter based in Queens, New York. He released his first album “Swung from the Branches” in 2010 on Orchid Tapes. http://foxesinfiction.ca/

MADDER ROSE – To Be Beautiful (Trome, 2019) Desta sempre una certa impressione trovarsi in presenza di un nuovo lavoro di una band assente dalle scene da vent’anni, sia quando si tratta di una tra quelle che hanno impresso la propria impronta nella temperie musicale degli anni Novanta, sia quando il ritorno in questione appartiene…

[video of the week] Sungaze – This River

Track taken from “Light in All of It”, out via Whited Sepulchre Records. Sungaze is a Cincinnati-based three-piece band whose deeply studied and emotionally resonant sound floats between the effervescent sheen of early 90’s Shoegaze and the hypnotic, sunbaked drone of modern psych. Sungaze formed after guitarist Ian Hilvert’s metal band dissolved. While initially started…