Trembling Bells are a band with a dense knowledge of the living traditions buried in our folk past. Abandoned Love takes on those traditions fearlessly, and with a sky-wide smile.
ReviewsAuthor Matt Poacher
Pausal – Lapses
Pausal are duo from the Hampshire wilds, and have been around in one form or another for 5 or so years. Lapses is their first full length release and is a warm exploration of the wide upper reaches.
Wooden Shjips – Vol. 2
Wooden Shjips’ sound is an archaic snub-nosed fuzzy roar that sounds older than its antecedents – The Doors, The Stooges, The Grateful Dead, Suicide – and Vol. 2, which collects a bunch of extra-album material and live tracks from the last couple of years, sounds exactly as you’d expect. Which is no bad thing really…
Nicholas Szczepanik – The Chiasmus
Nicholas Szczepanik’s The Chiasmus is a towering album of huge soundscapes and measureless metallic drones. A huge statement of intent it is ambitious, poignant and profound.
Valgeir Sigurðsson – Draumalandið
As a stand alone venture Valgeir Sigurðsson’s Draumalandið is a strong piece of work, and as part of the larger film project it is simply outstanding.
The Moving Dawn Orchestra – Dials EP
Dials, the debut EP from Iambic²’s Guy Andrews, is at turns warm and enveloping and icy and elegiac – and always quietly powerful.
Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me
Have One On Me is wild and flighty and self-obsessed enough to convince the doubters but it’s yet more evidence that Joanna Newsom is a singular talent – one we should be glad to have around.
Cluster – Qua
Qua is kosmiche legends Cluster’s first studio album for 15 years. It’s an oddly blank experience. Matt Poacher listens.
Jack Rose – Luck in the Valley
Luck in the Valley is a posthumous release as Jack Rose died at the horribly early age of 38 in December of last year. It befits his stature that this, his last record, is for the most part a raucous, joyous clatter . The beer tent is this way…
Teeth of the Sea – Hypnoticon EP
Hypnoticon, the immense new EP from Teeth of the Sea, takes the space rock elements of their debut album and sends them skywards. Who knew dressing as Brian Blessed in silver wings could be so inspirational?
Robert A.A. Lowe & Rose Lazar – Eclipses
Robert A.A. Lowe (he of 90 Day Men, Lichens, OM and TV On The Radio) now, in tandem with Rose Lazar (who provides the odd, Deerhoof-like artwork), is making this quietly meditative hyper-real kosmiche music. And sounding right at home.
Chicago Underground Duo – Boca Negra
Boca Negra – named after the mouth of the volcano Tiede on Tenerife – is the Chicago Underground Duo’s 5th album continues their quietly dazzling exploration of jazz improv themes and studio electronics.
