Review XLR8R February 23, 2010 Link As owner of Bristol’s Rooted Records shop and founder of the Punch Drunk label, Tom Ford (a.k.a. Peverelist) doesn’t have trouble staying current. But the dubstep producer’s full-length debut, named after the inventor of the artificial heart valve, incorporates futurist techno vibes into his dub vibrations and low-end rhythms. […]
Music Reviews XLR8R February 2 Link Boogie revivalist and long-haired LA electro visionary Damon Riddick (a.k.a. Dam-Funk) wants to make music that lets your hair blow in the wind—a difficult task, but his massive Toeachizown offers just that kind of soothing experience. Full of retro-futurist ’80s funk filled with smeared keyboard melodies and dirty beats, […]
Music Review XLR8R October 2009 Link Chilean producer Matias Aguayo (formerly of Closer Musik) has created a dark carnival of an album on Ay Ay Ay, a restrained event with sustained creepiness underlying the celebration. Filled with thudding drums and melodies constructed from vocal tics, tones, whispers, and asides, it plumbs disorienting depths—imagine an Audion […]
Music Review XLR8R October 14, 2009 Link Part of the millennial hip-hop avant garde that included groups like dälek and Company Flow, Anti-Pop Consortium paired Earl Blaze’s dystopian, mechanical beats with a trio of steely, free-associating MCs who crammed complex wordplay into three-minute tracks. It wasn’t always a formula for laughs, but on their last […]
Music Review XLR8R September 2009 Link 8.0 Filled with buoyant beats, 8-bit shoot-outs, and pastel-funky melodies, Mary Anne Hobbs’ latest compilation contains everything you’d expect from the British tastemaker’s broadcast, minus her ecstatic voiceovers. Connecting different strata of bass music, Hobbs showcases some of its more colorful, glittering strains, including Gemmy’s “Rainbow Road” and Nosaj […]
Music Review XLR8R September 2009 Link 7.0 Dubby musical explorations don’t require a full payload of bass. Nudge isn’t strictly dub by any means, but the group’s slow-burning electro-acoustic tracks often have that billowy feel associated with shacks-turned-studios in Jamaica. On their fourth album, the band plays with ambient sound and space and abuses delay […]
Music Review XLR8R August 2009 Link 7.0 The rock aesthetes in Sian Alice Group have a fetish for tones and textures, from electronic pulses and Velvets-like riffs to scratched guitar strings, which they tweak, layer, and slowly fade throughout their songs. Much of the London group’s sparse music floats by effortlessly without much rhythmic variation, […]
Music Review XLR8R July 2009 Link 7.5 It’s been a more than a decade since Oneida dropped its debut, but this Brooklyn collective’s unshackled, invigorating psychedelic rock has only become more vital, splitting into sections both refined and carefree. Rated O—a triple album, the second in a planned triptych—seemingly begs for quality control. Oneida’s jams […]
Music Review XLR8R June 2009 Link 7.0 Retrofitting the results of jam sessions and distilling them into bracing minimal beats, Marco Freivogel and Ingo Gansera create lively, long-form riffs on techno. In Cars We Rust doesn’t meddle with jazz or big beat, instead trafficking in cold, metallic shades of sound and crisp percussion. “It’s Happening […]
Music Review XLR8R May 2009 Link 9.0 The term of the moment is “wonky,” but when it comes to Alexander Nut’s superb blend of urban beats, it’s all about soul, swing, and a distinctly contemporary kind of swagger. The mix starts off in the sunshine poolside, glowing under the warm rays exuded by tracks like […]