Singles in Review | Issue 19
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 9th August 2015
Alice Glass - “Stillborn” After releasing a trilogy of stunning records together as Crystal Castles, musicians Alice Glass and Ethan Kath parted ways late last year. The immediate (and sexist) assumption was that Ethan was the true creative brawn while Alice’s role was Read more...
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Posted 2:54pm Sunday 2nd August 2015
Rating: 4/5 Chelsea Wolfe is an experimental singer-songwriter from Sacramento, California. Since her 2010 debut, The Grime and the Glow, she has incorporated sounds from the spheres of folk, electronica and heavy metal into her music. Drenched in gothic imagery and hinged upon her haunting Read more...
Interview with Gabriel Griffin
Posted 2:26pm Sunday 26th July 2015
Gabriel Griffin is a local musician and the drummer of the experimental jazz trio, Sewage. His playing style is eclectic, calling to mind percussionists like Zach Hill, Noah Lennox and Brian Chippendale. Critic caught up with Gabriel to discuss drumming, sci-fi and his latest musical Read more...
The Chemical Brothers - Born in the Echoes
Posted 2:23pm Sunday 26th July 2015
Rating: 4/5 Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons occupy a place of honour in the museum of electronic dance music. Alongside acts like Fatboy Slim and The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers defined the rave scene of Europe in the ’90s. Their kaleidoscopic music saw big beats and druggy, euphoric pop Read more...
Son Lux - Bones
Posted 1:48pm Sunday 19th July 2015
Son Lux is the stage name of American composer, Ryan Lott. Appearing in 2008 with his spine-tingling debut album At War with Walls & Mazes, Son Lux quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with. Son Lux’s songs have the deliberate architecture of a classical composer, Read more...
High On Fire - Luminiferous
Posted 1:44pm Sunday 19th July 2015
Rating: 3/5 High On Fire is a heavy metal trio from Oakland, California. The band was formed in 1998 by Matt Pike, the once and future guitarist of pioneering doom metal group, Sleep. High On Fire has since earned itself a reputation for its genre-straddling style and vehement live shows. On its Read more...
Singles in Review | Issue 15
Posted 2:15pm Sunday 12th July 2015
Beach House - “Sparks” Baltimore duo, Beach House, is at the forefront of modern dream pop, a genre built on whispered vocals and shimmering walls of sound. A criticism frequently leveled at the genre is that in striving for its particular kind of gossamer beauty, dream pop Read more...
Muse Drones
Posted 1:20pm Sunday 5th July 2015
Rating: 2/5 Regardless of whether we asked for one, Muse are back with a new album. Believe it or not, Drones is the seventh full-length LP from the English trio. When Muse first emerged in the late nineties, they were just another Radiohead clone. Over the next few years they forged an identity Read more...
Study Tunes
Posted 1:42pm Sunday 24th May 2015
Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works 85–92 Richard D. James’ first record as Aphex Twin has been hailed as “the birthplace and the benchmark of modern electronic music” (Warp). An odyssey of dreamy techno, SAW is the perfect soundtrack to a spell of late-night Read more...
Blur - The Magic Whip
Posted 1:29pm Sunday 24th May 2015
Rating: 4/5 Well folks, it actually happened. Six years after reforming, and twelve since their last studio outing, Blur are back. There are several reasons why this is great news. For one, Blur always represented the more irreverent and artful side of the Britpop era. Though Blur penned some of Read more...
Basti Menkes
Music Editor 2015