Patrick Sisson - Writer, Journalist, Cultural Documentarian, Music Lover

Category: Earplug

Interview Earplug October 2008 It seems like Morgan Geist should be happy. After all, a bar mitzvah is a big deal for any parent, and the producer’s label, Environ, just became a man. But, after 13 years at the helm, Geist seems to be souring on the industry that’s brought acclaim to his label, his […]

Interview Earplug October 2008 Planes of bright green figures on an Atari-like landscape of oscillating lines, vectors, and grids — these are the sorts of images that accompany performances by San Francisco’s Tussle. It’s an appropriate set of visuals for a band that creates taut, bewitching rhythms. And, with a recent series of personnel shifts […]

Music Review Earplug October 2008 As a sample on his new album suggests, Berlin-via-Montreal producer Deadbeat is adept at stripping his sleek rhythms and solid bass lines to “the skeleton of the music.” Though his sounds are indeed massive, his music doesn’t just fill out a room; it animates the space, laying down hypnotic dub […]

Music Review Earplug October 2008 Like his work with psych-tinged noiseniks Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tobacco’s solo debut evokes nostalgia for nostalgic sounds — in this case, the warm acid tones and fuzzy analog mysticism of Boards of Canada. The signifiers are there — warbly flutes, folksy backdrops, and backspun sound effects — but rather […]

Music Review Earplug September 2008 Alias-heavy, stylistically omnivorous producer Madlib jumps between beats and styles like a blunted lothario hopping beds. While artists with such ADD-driven inclinations are often dismissed as radio-dial wanderers, WLIB:AM King of the Wigflip‘s silly, non-sequitur vocals coalesce into an inarguably glorious, if intentionally messy, transmission. A collage of R&B, soul, […]

Music Review Earplug September 2008 On his “official” debut, Koushik mines ’60s psych and folk, producing staggered beats and melodies that are at once hazy and refracted, like sunspots on a camera lens. Partly shaped by Koushik’s voice, the mood is also dictated by the album’s overall pace — deliberate, contemplative beats occasionally bunch up […]

Interview Earplug September 2008 A lot has happened since Tricky dropped twisted, shape-shifting trip-hop classic Maxinquaye in 1995. Now a daddy with a teenage daughter by vocalist and former collaborator Martina Topley-Bird, the Bristol-bred artist (born Adrian Thaws) is taking great pains to remain animated and kinetic as he enters middle age. Named after the […]

Music Review Earplug September 2008 Relentless and righteous as hell, TV on the Radio soar through Dear Science, retreating from the buzzing, hotwired rock of Return to Cookie Mountain for a wide swath of lush hymns and muscular tracks. Made for confusing times, the record tends to look outward, not inward, and sounds more crisp, […]

Music Review Earplug August 2008 Like water trickling through outstretched fingers, the found-sound melodies of Brooklyn duo High Places suggest escape. Warm, rippling, reverb-heavy beats bump into each other, bending and bowing like waves on a pool filled with pebbles. Dropping in the wake of a scattered series of 7-inches and a compilation, the group’s […]

Interview Earplug July 2008 Opening with the sampled sound of Godzilla’s piercing roar, LA-bred producer and DJ Flying Lotus lit up the crowd at Slovakia’s recent Wilsonic Festival, confidently barreling through a set that segued between original compositions, Madlib joints, MF Doom rhymes, and even dubstep from Burial. Like the shifting, restless music on his […]