Steven Wilson has long been one of the most distinguished and adventurous, yet heavily scrutinized, artists in modern art/progressive rock. Be it the harsher trajectory of Porcupine Tree’s 2000s output, the avant-garde nature of 2012’s Storm Corrosion, or the unpredictability… Read More
You’d be forgiven if you never foresaw Detlef Weinrich and Emmanuelle Parrenin teaming up. The former is a Dusseldorf DJ known for his machine-like krautrock grooves; the latter is a French harpist and hurdy-gurdyist who made a name among cratediggers… Read More
Reviewing music built primarily on instrumental ambience and drone is a Rorschach Test. Ambiguous responses may or may not reveal something about the imagery flowing through an individual’s head. Any interpretation is unscientific and does not reveal a single common… Read More
Austrian indie-pop duo Leyya have played some of the world’s best festivals, including the Reeperbahn Festival, Primavera, Iceland Airwaves, and SXSW. Their catchy music has had more than 20 million listens on Spotify, and those clever hooks have wormed their… Read More
In 2008, Chinese journalist Yang Jisheng published Tombstone, a now-definitive account of how Mao’s ill-considered plan to industrialize the nation failed to bring about the intended Great Leap Forward and instead caused the Great Famine. Jisheng—a former reporter for state… Read More
“I think the idea of the leather jacket-wearing, womanizing, drug-fuelled rock star should be burned,” Charlie Steen, the frontman for London’s Shame, told The Guardian back in 2018. It was just a few days before their debut, Songs of Praise… Read More
One of the first sequences in the documentary series City So Real shows the mayoral candidates in Chicago marching in the 2018 Bud Billiken Parade, a celebration for the start of the back-to-school season in the storied Black neighborhood of… Read More
Balothizer – Cretan Smash (Louvana) <a href=”https://balothizer.bandcamp.com/album/cretan-smash”>Cretan Smash by Balothizer</a> Full disclosure: I’m cheating a bit. Balothizer’s Cretan Smash was released back in November, but the album is such a gem that it deserves everyone’s attention. Three factors make this… Read More
Kevin Godley has been a vital part of some of the most innovative music of the last six decades. As a quarter of the original lineup of 10CC, he had hits worldwide but jumped ship with his long-time creative partner,… Read More
German actress Nina Hoss’ lengthy collaboration with German director Christian Petzold, from Wolfsburg (2003) to Phoenix (2014), saw the pair become inseparable. The characters she played showed the diversity of her onscreen presence, with her talent for conveying nuance in… Read More