Review Pitchfork March 26, 2010 Link 6.1 As a teenager in Kiel, Germany in the early 90s, Ulrich Schnauss discovered bands like Ride and My Bloody Valentine by tuning in to British armed forces radio. “As soon as I put the headphones on,” he says, “the world seemed to be a nicer place.” Nearly 20 […]
Review Pitchfork March 22, 2010 Link 6.9 Georgia Anne Muldrow’s latest album, Kings Ballad, was supposedly crafted against the backdrop of Barack Obama’s early days in office. And just as Obama is, for better or worse, an inspiring figure whose influence isn’t quite in sync with his accomplishments, Muldrow can sometimes come across as an […]
Review Pitchfork March 22, 2010 Link 7.2 After more than two decades of recording together as Autechre, Sean Booth and Rob Brown can still create the aural equivalent of whiplash if they want to, or showcase a deep knowledge of dance music. The production duo’s energetic 12-hour online radio broadcast from earlier this month– joyfully […]
Review Pitchfork March 16, 2010 Link 7.8 You can only be the dark horse once. The Besnard Lakes may have been a (mostly) unknown quantity when they broke out to a wider audience in 2007, but they were also insiders of sorts– guitarist/vocalist Jace Lasek had done production work with Montreal heavyweights Wolf Parade and […]
Review Pitchfork March 11, 2010 Link Casey Dienel doesn’t stay put for very long. The singer’s last full length with White Hinterland, 2008’s Phylactery Factory, swayed to brushed drums, dainty piano, and perky vocals. Later that year, she created prickly, sophisticated art-lounge on the Luniculaire EP, a collection of originals and covers all sung in […]
Review Pitchfork February 5, 2010 Link 7.1 Finding patterns in Madlib’s rambling yet brilliant production work can be difficult, but on his new In Search of Stoney Jackson album, he doesn’t take long to zero-in on some recurring themes. An obscure sample ushers in “Chittlins & Pepsi”, a stick-to-your guts blend of flashy soul and […]
Interview Pitchfork January 18, 2010 Link Kieran Hebden describes his recent stint as a monthly resident at London’s Plastic People club as inspirational. Coming from him, it doesn’t sound like the typical DJ platitude. With the night to himself and an enthusiastic crowd open to anything from highlife to Art Blakey or Carl Craig, it […]
Music Review Pitchfork January 18, 2010 Link Independence is thrilling, but after those first tentative or defiant steps towards freedom, the urge to look back and survey the situation you just left can be hard to resist. That seemingly contradictory perspective, looking both forward and backwards, was at play when Rjd2 wrote The Colossus. His […]
Music Review Pitchfork January 6, 2010 Link The cobbled-together beast from Greek mythology known as a chimera should be a recognizable concept for fans of electronic music, a genre that has evolved via the repurposing, re-contextualizing, and splicing together of sounds and samples. The instrumental, electro-acoustic Austrian trio Radian has spent more than a decade […]
Feature Pitchfork December 18, 2009 Link 18. Atlas Sound Logos [Kranky] While it has plenty of watery drips and washed-out backdrops, Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound project can also be very blunt. Like his work with Deerhunter, he places gothic horror side-by-side with gorgeous guitar riffs and sonic textures, a disarming combination. But Logos makes it […]