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Music Album Review: John Cale - "Fragments Of A Rainy Season" (8/10)
Ex-Velvet Underground hero John Cale re-releases his 1992 live album with bonus cuts, yielding spectacular rewards. Cale supplies many qualities missing from today’s music, namely grace, chops, finesse and literacy. Playing both piano and some guitar, ... -
Music Album Review: Moon Duo - "Occult Architecture Vol. 1" (8/10)
The Moon Duo hits you hard between the eyes, ears and frontal lobes with an unabashedly psychedelic approach to their dark rock & roll, and every track is a delight. Especially notable is their ... -
Music Album Review: Agnes Obel - "Citizen of Glass" (7.5/10)
On her latest release, Citizen of Glass, Agnes Obel takes the listener into a dreamscape of keyboards, cello and strings, occasional percussion, and the artist’s own beautiful vocals. Her lyrics ... -
Music Album Review: El Perro Del Mar - "Kokoro" (8/10)
Kokoro is absolutely worth a listen, and El Perro Del Mar is absolutely one to watch. The female Swedish pop artist forays into world music, with Chinese zither, various Asian ... -
Music Album Review: Dinosaur Jr. - "Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not" (8/10)
Dinosaur Jr. (for the past three decades) have been running with the ball passed on by the Ramones and Hüsker Dü–great anthemic rock & roll, bathed in loud and distorted guitar tones. Their latest ... -
Music Album Review: Parquet Courts - "Human Performance" (8/10)
The new Human Performance LP offers up some immediately galvanizing guitar-based rock & roll. The vocals are often reminiscent of Jonathan Richman’s, whose first Modern Lovers LP was a protopunk ... -
Album Review: XIXA - "Bloodline" (8/10)
Chicha is a style of electrified Peruvian folk music begun in the ‘60s that frequently had its lilting vocals and rhythms flavored with surf and psychedelic touches. XIXA (from Tucson) ... -
Album Review: Toulouse Engelhardt - "Mind Gardens" (9/10)
An instrumental master, Engelhardt shows off his craft as a world-class 12-string guitarist. Compositions here are by turns elegant, beautiful, meditative, intricate, psychedelic and an overall joy. A few pieces are harmonically and rhythmically complex, and ... -
Album Review: Ty Segall - "Emotional Mugger" (7/10)
Ty Segall approaches the proficiency output of author Stephen King, releasing more material in one year than most artists do in several. One suspects he’s been getting a little bored ... -
Album Review: Baaba Maal - "The Traveller" (7/10)
Veteran Senegalese Afro-pop musician/composer busts out with nine new tracks of his unique vision. Each selection is a gem of slightly different style, from slick to primal, and his arrangements ...
