December 6, 2015: Fonzi Thornton is standing onstage at the Kennedy Center. The Queen of Soul holds court at the piano. It’s the ultimate manifestation of a lifelong dream. As a teenager, Thornton sang Aretha Franklin songs while strolling through… Read More
20. Black Curse – Endless Wound (Sepulchral Voice) In 2015 members of acclaimed acts Primitive Man, Khemmis, and Blood Incantation discussed their love for the early days of extreme metal. That was the time when the lines between black and… Read More
We tend to think of beauty and harshness, sensitivity and anger as opposites. While it’s understandable that language hews towards a dichotomous model for sorting our day-to-day experiences, music allows us to touch on sensations that aren’t so easily pinned… Read More
There are some who confer beatitude – or, at the very least, that quality that the Argentine fabulist Jorge Luis Borges called everness – simply by touch. In Christian iconography, the Lactation of St Bernard is a miracle experienced by… Read More
15. DJ Cactuar – Bolsonaro Obaluaê [Independent] We naturally take comfort in the familiar. Likewise, we often turn away from forms and concepts we cannot easily identify. But for some, these curiosities just as well may draw us in. It’s why Bolsonaro… Read More
Sometimes, a book aims such a blow to the guts I have to put it down and come back to it after a few deep breaths. Kiss Myself Goodbye:The Many Lives of Aunt Munca (Bloomsbury) is Ferdinand Mount’s account of… Read More
“The idea was to create electronic music with the ethos and trappings of what Gram Parsons called ‘Cosmic American music.’” That’s how experimental musician Jordan Reyes describes the inspiration behind his latest album, Sand Like Stardust, released 20 November on… Read More
The first time we meet the character of William Shakespeare in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series, he is striking a deal with Morpheus, the eponymous sandman, master of dreams and prince of stories. Morpheus agrees to give the young Shakespeare… Read More
Frank Zappa was many things: a counter-cultural icon of the 1960s, a shredding guitar virtuoso, a creator of bracingly cynical and satirical rock music, a composer of orchestral music, and a political pundit and activist. Alex Winter’s new documentary, titled… Read More
20. The Sweater Set – Fly on the Wall [Independent] Recorded with a live audience of 50 lucky fans—something that would be nearly unthinkable at the time of this piece’s publication—Fly on the Wall is cleverly named as such after its attendees.… Read More