The first beats of “Ngavele Ngagaxela” are crisp and bare; the vocals atop them nimble and bold. Such straightforward musical bones are the foundation of Durban-based Phelimuncasi’s signature brand of gqom, a plugged-in musical genre with minimalist aesthetics and high… Read More
When David Byrne, still reedy and diffident as a silver-haired 68-year-old, says to the audience at the beginning of American Utopia, “Thank you for leaving your homes,” the moment is touchingly sincere. After the Broadway show, which this film documents… Read More
Landowner’s second LP, Consultant, is a beautiful bundle of chewed-raw nerves, with intensely geometric post-punk motifs providing the razor to scrape back and forth over them. Vocalist Dan Shaw fronts the western Massachusetts quintet, bizarrely obsessed with cleanliness, mechanics, and… Read More
We are currently living in unusual times. The only sane response is to get strange. The Band of Heathens understand this and have taken things a bit further. Hence their latest record is called Stranger, which contains ten weirdly wonderful… Read More
Music Maker Relief Foundation has announced a new album, Hanging Tree Guitars, out 25 September, which explores America’s history with racism and racial violence. It serves as a companion to a book and museum exhibit of the same name by… Read More
“Quiet Journey” is the new single from Laraaji’s upcoming LP, Moon Piano, out 9 October via All Saints Records. The record is the second in a trilogy of recordings made inside a Brooklyn church and stands in contrast to its… Read More
Guitarist David Lord’s newest LP is Forest Standards Vol. 2 and finds the guitarist teaming with the rhythm section of Jeff Parker (bass, Tortoise) and Chad Taylor (drums, Chicago Underground). Produced by Chris Schlarb (Psychic Temple) at his Big EGO… Read More
It’s hardly by accident that David Lazar mentions legendary character actress Thelma Ritter within the first sentence of this wonderfully incisive, reflective collection of essays about the world of character actors. Ritter appears in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), as… Read More
Rett Madison – “Kerosene” Photo: Courtesy of the artist West Virginia’s Rett Madison possesses a powerful voice laden with emotional heft, and she deploys it masterfully on her latest single, “Kerosene”. The Americana/folk artist’s vocals are rich, capable of immense… Read More
Godcaster’s debut album is a swirling, sloppy mess of guitars, drums, flutes, synths, and apparently whatever else the band had on hand in the Philadelphia basement where Long Haired Locusts was recorded. Their music seems to be equally influenced by… Read More