Issues: Issue 302 - February 2014
Review: Talvihorros – Eaten Alive
This album is full of pretty and cute melodies made weird by distortions and reverbs. Almost every single track consisted of me saying, “Oh, hey this is nice” to “Oh wait, weird as fuck” within a five-second time frame. It’s especially prominent in the track “Four Walls,” with consistent clockwork ticking in the background with threatening melodies slowly fading in. … read more
Review: Suffering in Solitude – A Place Apart
Too much time is spent plucking out guitar overtones and delay-heavy arpeggios. These guys have a lot of room to grow, but if you like your metal tinged with shoegaze, you’ll probably enjoy A Place Apart nonetheless. … read more
Review: Snowmine – Dialects
Sounding a bit like an unsigned 4AD band complete with moody, ethereal backgrounds, lush orchestrations and sometimes-coherent-sometimes-not vocals—the Brooklyn quintet certainly distances itself from its contemporaries by creating everything by hand. … read more
Review: Snowflake – We All Grow Toward The Sea
I guess working with douchebag musicians for a living must be rough since all of the songs have a somber tone. The keyboard and guitar work is beautiful and atmospheric while the percussion is almost industrial. … read more
Review: Snowbird – moon
Snowbird = Seabear + Daughter … read more
Review: Snacs – Swim Tape
Snac’s Swim Tape received heaps of praise in 2013 for sending a chilled-out, sample-based beat pastiche of chillwave-meets-nu soul-meets-droning ragas, deep underwater. Josh Abramovici intends you to listen in one 30-minute sitting, a transporting move through stream-of-conscious beat-making. … read more
Review: Skinny Puppy – The Greater Wrong Of The Right...
These dominant industrial figures have always prided themselves on not being “sellouts”—I assure this great achievement was something they thoroughly despised. As with much of their work, the spine is a political point of view, yet there is a profound shift in their creativity and musical expression. … read more
Review: Sherman Baker – Self-Titled
Is it just me (it usually is), or are our soundwaves over-saturated with quiet, reflective singer songwriters, playing the kind of bland folk that attracts men who use mustache combs and apprentice beekeepers? Sherman Baker might quell this problem. … read more
Review: Selaxon Lutberg – Simboli Accidentali
Straight up, this album will be playing when your soul goes through purgatory and wanders wistfully from heaven to hell. Fully ambient music is not my cup of tea, but this is something I’d listen to if I wanted to have a drug-induced, life-changing experience. … read more
Review: Secret Boyfriend – This Is Always Where You’ve Lived
It’s a strange, varied affair, playing like a lost soundtrack to something doomed, yet beautiful. The music ranges from synth-based melody and filtered noise (“Summer Wheels/ Mysterious Fires”), to tape-hiss-laden acoustic ballads. … read more