Review: Five years after the second life of Death was started with the release of their revelatory 1976 album, "For The Whole World To See", "III" slams the door on the vault with a powerful set of songs that bring equal amounts of rock and ethereal soul-searching, in high-fidelity, rich bottomed, studio-grade sound. Alongside songs from 1975, 1976 and 1980, "III" contains two songs from 1992, as the Hackney brothers reconvened nearly a decade after they'd stopped playing together. The album serves as a companion piece of sorts to the "A Band Called Death" documentary, tracking the band's movement from spiritual young rockers to older and wiser, bruised-but-undefeated brothers, in pure musical terms. David Hackney's visual representation of Death was a triangle, where "spiritual", "mental" and "physical" formed the three angles. With this in mind, "For The Whole World To See" is clearly the physical corner, with its undeniable proto-punk power; "Spiritual-Mental-Physical" explores the mental axis, with Death working through some of their influences including The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and even ELO in their practice space. "III" is the spiritual end of the portrait, bookended by the dreamlike rock visions of David Hackney that created and propelled the band called Death.
Review: Californian Jessica Pratt may have been born in the late-eighties, but On Your Own Again, her second album to date, is possessed of a strangely timeless quality, apparently beamed in from some alternate dimension where pastoral atmosphere sashays with ethereal quietude to beguiling effect. Somewhat redolent of the sleight-of-hand of Joni Mitchell and the otherworldly subtleties of Karen Dalton, Pratt's small-hours serenades are mostly comprised of merely her guitar and voice - and recorded all-analogue to four track - yet it's testimony to her talents that these simple ingredients weave a delicate spell over the course of these nine songs that is little short of mesmerising.
Review: For all her otherworldly talents, even hardcore fans of Joanna Newsom will likely be relieved to hear that 'Divers' marks a very slight move back from the artistic brink compared to 2010's 'Have One On Me', an exhausting triple-album embarrassment of riches which few ever made it though in one go. Yet there's no hint of compromise on the deliriously thrilling 'Divers', despite its slightly more concise approach - the elegant yet baroque wordplay, ornate and innovative arrangements and Newsom's unique voice are all present and correct - yet more, these emotive and engaging ditties may mark the most accessible thing this iconoclastic and mercurial artist has thus far summoned from the ether.
Review: Ty Segall, one of the leading lights and most hard-working artists of America's west coast garage scene, perfectly balances quality and quantity with 'Freedom's Goblin', his tenth studio album under his own name (include his live records, aliases and collaborations, and the total body of work effectively doubles). Having seemingly ditched the songwriting rules he had set himself on previous albums, 'Freedom's Goblin' sees Ty Segall at his most explosive and full-throttle, inventively exploring the many avenues of sub-genres of rock and psychedelia. Consisting of 19 ironclad songs that clock in at nearly eighty minutes, this is an expansive and exhilarating album that never becomes tiring. The wild combination of flawless production (co-engineered by the legendary Nirvana producer Steve Albini) and Segall's balance of raw power and melodic sensibility, makes 'Freedom's Goblin' another astoundingly high-calibre addition to an already colossal catalogue.
Review: There's something uniquely Japanese and slightly off-kilter about the pop-making prowess of Eiko Ishibashi, a singer-songwriter, improvisational drummer, pianist and all-round experimentalist that counts Editions Mego and Oren Ambarchi's Black Truffle as labels she has released on. She returns to Drag City, an all time Chicago label famous for records by Pavement and Stereolab to more recently music from Ty Segall and the all-talented John Mulaney. Ishibashi's music here, however, sways from heavy industrial beats to future, funky and avant pop numbers like "Iron Veil". It's a record that will take some getting used to but there's no denying you will get used to it too; if you can keep up with its modernity that comes from way out leftfield.
Review: Mind Maintenance is certainly an appropriate name for this duo. Usually grounded in jazz, here bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Chad Taylor look far beyond the world of cool cats and late night bars, casting their gaze on more organic and earthy tones. Picking up a guimba - perhaps better known to some as the guitar-ish sintir regularly heard in Moroccan music - and mbira, a family of Zimbabwean percussive instruments, the tones are, unsurprisingly, transportive.
Through highly complex but minimalistic arrangements we are taken to places that can only really be described as 'not here'. The repetitive loops of padded beats and chimed melodies seem to go straight for the mind's eye, boring ever deeper into our subconscious and holding on tight once there. Close your eyes and the world in front of you quickly fades, leaving nothing but hypnotic tones that deserve to be heard outside, beneath the stars, by the fire.
Review: Whirlybird is a documentary which demanded a different sort of sound from Ty Segall,. He departs for his usual rock vibe and took on this challenge with an all new vibe. The resulting soundtrack is crafted from a variety of synth sounds, electric keyboards, drums, percussion and saxophones and off course, some of his signature guitars, It is sorry telling instrumental music with a real sense of its own narrative and perfectly frames the film's compulsive themes and images. It stands alone as a fine listen and a great testament to Ty's versatility.
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