Authors: Madelyn Boudreaux
Reviews: Ministry – From Beer to Eternity
I still think Ministry’s best stuff is the ‘80s new wave dreck that they only released so they could get a label deal, but this last hurrah was impossible to pass up. … read more
Review: Wovenhand – Star Treatment
Wovenhand = (Iggy Pop + Southern Death Cult) x Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds … read more
Reviews: Front Line Assembly – Echogenetic
Returning somewhat to their early 1990s sound, but with a detour through dubstep—it’s sort of impossible not to get that particular peanut butter wub in your electronic chocolate these days—Echogenetic is a very workable, even strong bit of electronic industrial/ebm. … read more
Review: The Legendary Pink Dots – The Gethsemane Option
Legendary, indeed. The CD is comprised of seven experimental tracks of dreamy and hypnotic textures (which may signify mystical intent, or may just be what they had—it’s hard to know with this band). … read more
Review: Mick Harvey – Delirium Tremens
Mick Harvey = (Combustible Edison + The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy) x Barry Adamson
… read more
Review: Mick Harvey – Four (Acts of Love)
Not the fourth album, but continuing in the vein of naming by numbers, Mick Harvey’s (Crime and the City Solution, The Birthday Party) latest work is 14 tracks dedicated to that most human of emotions: love. … read more
Review: Lux Interna – there is light in the body,...
The fifth release by Joshua Levi Ian and Kathryn Mary, this beautiful album recapitulates dark neo-folk without dragging along the negatives that subgenre often implies, marrying it to the gothic Americana sound of bands like Munly or Wovenhand (whose keyboardist Jeff Linsenmaier guests here) with touches of 1990s darkwave. … read more
Review: John Cale – Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood
John Cale
Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood
Double Six
Street: 10.01.12
John Cale = Bauhaus + The Velvet Underground x Brian Eno
Stand back, kids … at 70, sporting pink dye in his white hair, legend John Cale (The Velvet Underground and too many others to name) is rockin’, and not in a rockin’ chair, son. This album is chockful of his smooth and unmistakable voice––like the voice Jim Morrison might have grown into––his standard drone and his louche lyrics that rival Leonard Cohen’s for their depth. You don’t so much listen to Nookie Woods as you get grabbed and bodily hauled in for some very shifty adventures, indeed. The opener, “I Wanna Talk 2 U,” a collaboration with hip-hop producer Danger Mouse, explodes out of your speakers. The masterful “Hemmingway” rattles you with its building intensity, while “Face to the Sky” is a gorgeous melding of electronic and organic elements, a swooping, woozy nod to Dali’s Car and Bowie. But lest all this ancient name-dropping makes you think the album is a throwback, worry not: there’s nothing old-fashioned about it. Cale seems committed to moving forward with music, playing around with over-processed autotune on “December Rain,” but he’s not afraid of organic acoustic sounds, as on “Mary.” If you don’t already know Cale, it’s time you met him, and a trip to the Nookie Woods is a fine place to start. –Madelyn Boudreaux … read more
Review: Judy Kang
A comparison to Bjork is not the way to my heart; her music is like listening to a fax machine have a nervous breakdown. … read more
Review: How to Destroy Angels – Welcome Oblivion
With a name referencing an early Coil song and featuring industrial (hair)god Trent Reznor, how could this not be good? … read more