Review: Genesis's And Then There Were Three is a pivotal album in the band's history, marking their transition to a trio following Steve Hackett's departure. Released in 1978, the album showcased a blend of progressive rock roots with shorter, more concise songs, reflecting a response to the changing music scene and indicating the future path on which the band would travel. Lead single 'Follow You Follow Me' became a chart-topping success, propelling the album to platinum status in the US and the LP's sound, despite being dominated by Tony Banks' keyboards and Mike Rutherford's guitar work, signalled a departure from their earlier style but retained the band's signature sound. Critics praised the album's strong, confident compositions, noting tracks like 'Ballad of Big' and 'Down and Out' and despite initial scepticism about their ability to continue as a trio, Genesis proved their resilience and their musical depth remains clear on this 2024 reissue.
Review: Adding to the seemingly endless pile of reissues/retrospectives that focus on anything remotely related to COUM Transmissions or Throbbing Gristle, here comes 'Dreams Less Suite', which is a compilation album made up entirely of Hafler Trio and Genesis P-Orridge's unused film soundtracks, live shows and versions. Describable perhaps as 'dream noise', this album somehow straddles both the grating and the serene, quickly hopping between everything from industrial techno to glassy hell sounsdcapes.
Review: It's a shame that Geneva Jacuzzi doesn't come out with her own releases more often, as we've been big fans of her work - and her voice, of course - ever since her first releases began to emerge around 2008. She's back with a bang on Seattle's Medical Records, home to some of the finest synth pop and coldwave of the last five years alongside the likes of Minimal Wave, kicking things off with the deliciously danceable kicks of the title track, "Technophelia". More playful moments like "Casket" "Cannibal Babies" are frequent and full of life, but we're really into the darker, broodier cuts such as "God Maker", "Ark Of The Zombies", or even the fantastic "Squid Hunter". Tipped!
Review: Gesaffelstein's fourth album, GAMMA, marks a departure from his previous work, embracing camp over cool. With influences ranging from seventies electro-punk to synth-pop, the album is a riot of overdriven synth-pop and vintage rock'n'roll. Singer Yan Wagner's oily baritone adds depth, channeling Dave Gahan's toughness with a humorous twist. The album's eccentricity shines through in Wagner's deranged lyrics and unpredictable delivery, injecting humor and unpredictability into the mix. Tracks like 'The Urge' and 'Hysteria' showcase Gesaffelstein's knack for crafting sharp hooks and infectious grooves. Clocking in at concise lengths, each track contributes to the album's charm, focusing on thrusting hips and sharpened hooks rather than lofty concepts. GAMMA is a refreshing departure from Gesaffelstein's previous sound and a exciting new direction.
Review: Following the extraordinary mainstream success of jazz legend Stan Getz's bossa nova era, he dropped this album produce by Creed Taylor. To this day, Sweet Rain stands out as an exceptional straight-ahead jazz album and it features an impressive young band including pianist Chick Corea, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Grady Tate. The album radiates vibrant energy that inspired Getz to reach new expressive heights and Verve's Acoustic Sounds Series presents this classic with analog tape transfers and remastered 180-gram vinyl, all packaged in deluxe gatefold format.
Review: The plainspoken title Previously Unheard Recordings was given to Stan Getz and Bill Evans' six-track set of rarities back in 1974. The result of a recording session completed over ten years earlier in 1963, all the pieces heard here shine bright lights on the pianist and saxophonist's synergistic powers, and come backed by auxiliary instrumental incantations from two bassists, Ron Carter and Richard Davis, as well as drumming by Elvin Jones. Emblematic of the cool jazz style, the overgirding mood is one of time-lapsed delight and lightness of being, but yet which is not fearful of life's downer moments; this loyalty to jazz's complexity of mood can be heard all the way from 'Night And Day' or the closing 'Grandfather's Waltz'.
Review: Back in 1994, legendary tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders joined forces with celebrated "gnawa" musician Maleem Mahmoud Ghania and producer Bill Laswell for an album of far-sighted jazz experiments. For some reason "The Trance Of Seven Colors" was never released on vinyl at the time, meaning that this double LP reissue is a genuine first. The set itself still sounds as fresh and otherworldly as it did back in the 1990s, offering a unique and otherworldly fusion of traditional Moroccan instrumentation, vocals and rhythms, freestyle jazz improvisations and cosmic production from the effervescent Laswell. We can't think of many other albums that are quite like it, which is high praise indeed.
Review: Serving as the follow up to 2022's critically acclaimed and super cheesy by design stadium-goth opus Impera, Swedish rock occultists Ghost make their grand return with sixth full-length Skeleta. The vision of Tobias Forge, renowned for his charismatic vocal cadence and immense range, but more so for his undertaking of different characters and monikers for each album cycle, the Papa Emeritus IV delving into empirical fallacies on their previous outing has been usurped by Papa V Perpetua, who promises to deliver his band of Nameless Ghouls' "most unflinchingly introspective work to date" while showcasing "distinct individual emotional vistas", touching on "demonic possessions" and the allure of succumbing to "dark forces". In other words, expect mammoth riffs, epic refrains, large doses of overt theatricality verging on camp, and on-the-nose song titles such as 'Satanized'.
Review: Rite Here Rite Now, directed by GHOST's Tobias Forge and Alex Ross Perry, is an ambitious blend of live concert footage and narrative storytelling, picking up the threads of the band's Chapters series. This feature-length film captures GHOST's electrifying performances from their sold-out shows at Los Angeles's Kia Forum, coupled with a fictional narrative that delves deep into the band's mythos. The film promises a unique cinematic experience that melds the raw energy of live music with engaging plot elements, designed to both entertain and engage GHOST's fans into a deeper understanding of the band's artistic vision. This soundtrack to the film sets a new standard in the rock cinema genre, aiming to engage not just GHOST's dedicated followers but also lovers of innovative film-making and rock spectacle.
Review: Building on the success of their A New Kind of Love album back in 2022, Ghost Funk Orchestra ventures further into the realms of film music, exotica, and psychedelic surf rock with new record A Trip To The Moon.' It was written with the aim of creating a richly layered and collaged listening experience with myriad elements waiting to be discovered with each new spin, and they have certainly achieved that. Featuring fuzzy guitars drenched in spring reverb and horns arranged in a studio big band style, it offers a blend of garage rock attitude and big compositions with influences like Eddie Palmieri and Dusty Springfield to be found within. It also features real recorded transmissions from the Apollo moon missions weaved throughout the tracks as a tale is told of a woman left stranded on Earth by her cosmonaut partner.
Review: French-Canadians Margaux Sauve and Louis-Etienne Santais are Ghostly Kisses the internationally acclaimed pop pairing that has got a hardcore following of fans all over the globe. They impressed with their debut album Heaven not that long ago and now return with Darkroom, which focuses on the feelings we all had during the pandemic of loneliness. Both artists set up in separate rooms during the writing process and sent snippets to each other to only finalise when they eventually met up which they think ensured they brought "more depth" to their process.
Review: Quebec City-based singer/songwriter Margaux Suave and collaborator/producer Louis-Etienne Santais earned plenty of praise for their first album as Ghostly Kisses, 2022's Heaven, Wait. It framed the project as a new iteration of dream-pop, with the pair drawing inspiration from melancholic synth-pop, downtempo, hazy indie-pop and lo-fi soul. Sophomore set Darkroom continues in this vein while subtly expanding the pair's sonic horizons. Throughout, they shuffle attractively between string-laden trip-hop ('There Is No More Space'), dreamy two-step pop ('Golden Eyes'), slow-motion, Balearic-tinged synth-pop ('Lonesome Hero'), twinkling deep house-pop ('Calm Down') and orchestrated ambient pop ('Silver Screen').
Review: Dark Entries are reusing two albums from Philadelphia-based experimental duo The Ghostwriters. their debut as well as this follow-up, Objects in Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear from 1981. Formed by the late Buchla innovator Charles Cohen and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Cain in 1971, the duo initially performed as Anomali before evolving into The Ghostwriters. Their work is a mix of improvisation and composition and it always stood out for its unique electroacoustic sound shaped through collaborations with visual artists and choreographers. Objects in Mirrors delivers eight minimalist tracks to get stuck into from the chaotic groove of 'Fix It in the Mix' to the ethereal "Moon Chant.' This remastered edition includes photos, and liner notes, and will donate proceeds to SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse).
Review: Texan producer Gi Gi has been quietly doing his thing for some time, serving up limited and self-released albums that blend chopped, screwed and heavily manipulated samples with dusty instrumentation and nods to vintage trip-hop, Balearic soundscapes and ambient experimentalism. Dreamliner, officially his fourth studio album, dials down the samples - at least in comparison to the dense collages of found sounds and familiar snippets of old - in favour of a warming, heady and intoxicating palette of sounds, rhythms and sonics rooted in kosmiche, stoned trip-hop, the sparkling sound worlds of Global Communication, folktronica and densely layered ambient. If you're a little anxious about the state of the world and seeking calming, meditative music in which to lose yourself, look no further.
Review: The Jakarta label out of Germany serves up constantly high quality beats from across the hip hop and downtempo spectrum. Gianni Brezzo is a jazz affiliated bandana studio project helmed by Cologne-based producer & creative maestro Marvin Horsch and their new long player 'Tutto Passa' was made in homage to and respect of Italian culture. Horsch spent time researching Italian composers of the 60s and 70s before staring work on the record and it show sin the lush melodies, sweeping synth sounds and Library music vibes of this most exquisite record of instrumental chill.
Review: Beth Gibbons releases her debut solo album Lives Outgrown. Notably containing ten songs that were in total written over the course of ten years, the overarching mood is one of saying farewell and musing on the bittersweetness of loss. The English singer and notable Portishead member's solo efforts often operate with this affect, but Gibbons' latest is of special import, given the length of time over which these songs were crafted and occasionally performed over the years. As demonstrated by lead track 'Floating On A Moment', the palette is soft and reflective, hitting only the softest dynamic notes, as Gibbons sings of unique lifetime journeys and a dealt-with sense of friends suffering being left behind.
Review: Beth Gibbons has never saturated the market with her distinctive approach to singing and songwriting, choosing to leave the power of her contributions to Portishead and solo hanging in the air. That makes Lives Outgrown a truly exciting proposition, some 20 years after her last solo outing and simultaneously unique but naturally leading on from the magical Out of Season. The sonic content is layered differently, less folky and more like art rock embellished with electronics, but the melancholic, wistful melodic makeup feels absolutely rooted in Gibbon's approach throughout the years. This is the CD edition of a very welcome return from a truly unique treasure in British alternative music.
Review: Freddie Gibbs and Madlib's hard hitting sophomore album Bandana has proven a real hit over the last five months. Now though, many fans get what they have been waiting for; an instrumental version that pairs things back to the essential beats. It makes for a record that covers plenty of grind - from sunny day and feel good instrumentals to much rawer, harder hitting beast that arm with attitude even without the explicit vocal deliveries. Plenty of the soulful samples remain in situ to help colour things and make this such a characterful record.
Review: Five years after their collaborative debut, Madlib and Freddie Gibbs reconvene for a follow up that goes even deeper. Madlib is of course a celebrated producer who has worked with some of the best in the game, and Gibbs is a raw street rapper, so it is the differences as much as the similarities between the two that make this such a compelling listen. At times complex and challenging, at others effortless and charming, it's an album stuffed with a myriad of different sounds, styles and references that is hard to categorise but easy to admire.
Review: Stone's Throw has never really made any wrong moves in our opinion, and here the label puts its full force behind a deceptively powerful album. Taking us to places that are deeper than perhaps what the imprint is best known for, this is immersive, hypnotic, otherworldly stuff made from a variety of plugged in machines, analogue and otherwise, including a semi-modular synth. The result is a journey-style collection packed with atmosphere but one that's also painstakingly detailed and textured. Sound waves are rendered almost visible by the movements, drones, tracks and other pieces here, drum and effects machines producing the kind of noises that mesmerise and suck you in further as time passes. Tunes to get lost in, the only remaining question is whether anyone will ever want to return.
Review: Arranger, composer and pianist Gil Evans worked with Miles Davis on two notable albums - Miles Ahead and The Birth of Cool - and also made a fine debut of his own in 1958. A year later he got back in the studio to work on Great Jazz Standards which saw him work with two different ensembles including talents like trumpeter Johnny Coles, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy and clarinetist Budd Johnson amongst more. It is a superb look at some great jazz gems from Bix Beiderbecke's 'Davenport Blues' to a shimmering version of Thelonious Monk's 'Straight No Chaser.' It gets the full remastering treatment for this reissue.
Review: Scott Gilmore's tracks are deceptively pared back. Putting an Arp Odyssey, Yamaha CS-01, Korg DW-8000, Hohner Pianet T, Roland TR 606, Roland SH 101, bamboo alto saxophone, clarinet, electric guitar and electric bass to very good use on this nine track Balearic-downtempo stunner, the tunes are easy to groove with yet subtly complex. They feel simple, but are incredibly detailed. Veering between a kind of synth-y smooth jazz, lounge, lofi electronica and sunset instrumental, Volume 01 is the proof after the promise of Gilmore's 2019 debut, Two Roomed Motel. Second album in and it's quite clear how talented the guy is. We just wish there was more information available for us to get to know him better with.
Review: Shinbangumi is the third LP from multi-instrumentalist Lew, marks a significant evolution for the Southern California artist Ginger Root. Seamlessly blending 70s and 80s influences like Japanese City Pop, Philly Soul, and French Pop, Lew's sound is a sophisticated mix of synth-pop, alt-disco, boogie, and soul. Shinbangumi stands out not only for its musical strength but also for its conceptual narrative, continuing from the 2022 EP Nisemono. Tracks like 'No Problems' and 'Better Than Monday' exhibit Lew's knack for combining catchy melodies with clever production. 'There Was A Time' and 'All Night' highlight his ability to craft both introspective and dance-worthy tunes. 'Only You' delves into true City Pop, while 'Giddy Up' channels the quirky energy of The B-52s and Devo. 'Kaze,' recorded in Tokyo, adds a unique texture inspired by Yellow Magic Orchestra's Harry Hosono. Lew's dedication to his craft and his fans is more than evident here.
Review: Brooklyn-born, New Orleans-based multi-instrumentalist Gitkin delivers a rich fusion of global sounds on Golden Age, his latest ten-track album. Known for his guitar-driven style, Gitkin blends the rhythms of cumbia, North African, and Middle Eastern music, creating a sonic journey that feels both expansive and deeply rooted. As the frontman of The Pimps of Joytime, a staple in the festival circuit, his influence on the soul-funk scene is undeniable. From Bonnaroo to Electric Forest, Gitkin has built a reputation for electrifying live performances. Beyond his own projects, he's produced for artists like Corey Henry, Bernard Purdie and Cedric Burnside, whose Benton County Relic earned a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album. With Golden Age, Gitkin further explores the intersections of global music traditions, weaving his soulful guitar into a captivating tapestry that speaks to his wide-ranging influences.
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