New War Trouble In The Air Heavy Machinery Records Last year Sarah Mary Chadwick released an album that she’d recorded on the Melbourne Town Hall Organ – the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. New War had already ticked that box in 2017 when they recorded this new live album. While Chadwick created a grand widescreen soundtrack to her songs, her Melbourne contemporaries … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: New War – Trouble In The Air
Here’s some lush and immersive psychedelia courtesy of London-based musician Tom McConnell who records as Novelty Island. Recorded at the Abbey Road Institute’s studio, ‘The End Of The Whirl’ is an infectious cosmic trip that draws on the pop heavy explorations of The Beatles and more obscure English psych acts. The winning ticket is in the way he blends the hooks with a glam stomp … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Novelty Island – The End Of The Whirl
Australian composer and sound designer Daniel McCagh has just released his debut album Altered States, an immersive and sonically detailed collection of compositions that range from visceral sheets of digital rain to delicate filigrees and textures. He manipulates acoustic instruments to place them in evocative settings where the organic and synthetic sounds become one. It sounds futuristic yet connected to human spirit, blood flow and … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Daniel McCagh – Altered States
Polish composer Michal Jacaszek has just released his new album Music For Film on the Ghostly International label and it’s a wonderfully immersive and contemplative collection of compositions that showcase his amalgamation of ambient, classical, and musique concrete styles. He deploys field recordings, acoustic samples, poetry, and baroque instrumentation to paint pictures, oftentimes melancholic, nostalgic, tragic. ‘November Late’ begins tentatively before slowly morphing, swelling and rising into … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Jacaszek – November Late
Akkor is Turkish electronic composer Üstün Lütfi Yıldırım who has just released his new album Durma, an electroacoustic narrative in a progressive cinematic sound universe through piano, synthesizers, soundscapes and recorded/found noises from Istanbul. The title track is an immersive track that starts shrouded in atmospheric and ominous sonic mist, eventually gaining clarity with micro-percussive elements that give the piece structure and forward motion. Piano … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Akkor – Durma
Senn hails from Dallas, Texas and trades in heavily emotive and visceral electronic compositions. This track, ‘Anew I : A Love Of Peace’ comes from the recently released album Anew and even though the artist says “This is one of the few serene movements of the album. A confrontation with peace within chaos’, it still contains a slow build of discomfort and crushing dissonance under … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Senn – Anew I : A Love Of Peace
MOON DUO OXFORD ART FACTORY 13/02/20 The evolution of Moon Duo has been a slow and steady one over the last decade. Originally starting as a duo of Wooden Shjips guitarist Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada, the pair have retained their minimal aesthetic and core personnel but expanded their live performance to include a drummer and most recently, a stunning light show, by Manchester-based visual … Continue reading LIVE REVIEW: Moon Duo @ OAF, Sydney
Working at the junction of ambient, avant garde jazz and electronica, Ben Neill has just reissued his 1995 album Green Machine, an album that received widespread critical acclaim on its original release on the Astralwerks label. The music on the album is performed on his self designed, electro-acoustic Mutantrumpet, skilfully navigating a netherworld between organic and synthetic composition and playing. This track ‘Auricle’ is the perfect … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Ben Neill – Auricle
New York trio Gold Dime recently released this video for the title track of their new album My House. The sum of their parts but each distinctly carving their own niche in the band’s sound – Andrya Ambro (drums/vocals), Ian Douglas-Moore (bass), John Bohannon (guitar) all play with/off each other in a heavily rhythmic and mantra-like way. There are dense, pummelling sections, punctuated by squalls of … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Gold Dime – My House
Taken from the new album Be Up A Hello, here’s the latest glitchy, electro squelch from the mercurial musician and producer Squarepusher. After a 5 year hiatus that has seen him delve into a range of diverse musical projects, Tom Jenkinson will release his new album on the 31st of January. Fans can enjoy a taster as the double-A side 12” ‘Vortrack’ will be released on … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Squarepusher – Vortrack
Last month, Canadian composer Alaskan Tapes (Brady Kendall) released his new album Views From Sixteen Stories. Check out the title track below, a warm, dream-like, swelling piece of music that rises and falls with a certain weightlessness. There’s sonic depth to it too. Turn up the volume and the richness of the bass tones resonate wonderfully through the track. Hit the Bandcamp link to stream and … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Alaskan Tapes – Views From Sixteen Stories
Michael A. Muller is a co-founder of Balmorhea who have released six albums over the last 13 years. ‘Lower River’ is the title track of his solo album and it’s a wonderfully immersive and hypnotic piece of ambient, droning music that hangs in the air, draped in resonating, melancholic chords. The press releases describes the track as being inspired by his own remote travels throughout … Continue reading Michael A. Muller – Lower River
Doubtful Sounds 