Rafael Toral’s most recent album, 2024’s Spectral Evolution, consisted of a single 42-minute track, divided into loose, flowing movements, but based on the chord changes of the Gershwin chestnut “I Got Rhythm.” On his follow-up, Traveling Light (October 24), the Portuguese guitarist works smaller, refashioning six jazz standards using his “space instruments”— electronic contraptions of […]
Instrumental music is not for everyone. Still, lots of creative people enjoy it when they seek a vibe but not a vocal that might distract from thought or focused actions–like writing music reviews. I’m writing this one while listening to guitar virtuoso John 5’s latest, Ghost, and while it’s not exactly haunting, it is a […]
Though Boris has been steadily releasing albums since 1996, there will always be a before and after Pink for the band. Formed in Tokyo in 1992, Boris has released 29 studio albums, 14 EPs, and seven live albums since its inception. However, Pink remains their zenith, a sprawling 47-minute masterwork that marries sludge metal with […]
First, we need to note that Tortoise releasing a record with anyone other than Thrill Jockey after a 30-plus-year relationship is a shocker for a group not known for dramatic changes. It’s akin to Autechre abandoning Warp! Anyway, the important thing about Tortoise is that their last two albums before the International Anthem/Nonesuch-reared Touch — […]
The intersection of rock and electronic music has been clusterfucked for years, and it takes extraordinary skills to stand out. Belgium’s Soulwax have been in that nexus for decades. The group’s creative core of David and Stephen Dewaele have gone from generating convincing facsimiles of grunge on their 1996 debut LP Leave the Story Untold […]
Though he began releasing music in the early ’90s, Jeff Tweedy has been a steady, calming force for aging indie fans for the past 20 years. After kicking a painkiller addiction and seemingly moving past the anxiety that fueled early Wilco classics such as Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Tweedy has mainly explored warm, genial […]
Even in our post-genre era, Doja Cat remains hard to pigeonhole. Since hitting superstardom in 2019, her hits have shifted between hip-hop, pop, R&B, Afrobeat, and even indie singer-songwriter. But even with all that, I didn’t expect Vie. In the lead-up, buzz suggested Vie would be a retro pop album. And it is, but let’s […]
The list of “bitchin’” things in music is select: Camaros, summers, pretty lives. Meditative, drone-filled music built on synths, drum machines, and woodwinds usually does not fit the bill. Yet the Chicago trio Bitchin Bajas (possibly named after the late, lamented Subaru coupé utility vehicle) makes a strong case for the bitchin-ness of their aggressively […]
Bleeds, the fifth salvo from this Dead Oceans-signed, Asheville, N.C.-based indie outfit, is truly the best album of 1994. Who thought it would be so compelling to graft country rock idioms to the relentless decibels of British shoegaze and American grunge and then have the whole cyclone spin around a slacker vocalist? Then again, mediocrity […]
Roxy Music released its final album, Avalon, in 1982, capping off a decade that saw the group morph from the shimmering art rock of its debut to something more majestic but wearier. Seven years had passed since the group’s last masterpiece (Siren). The uneven Manifesto (1979) and Flesh + Blood (1980) felt like a group […]