Review: Crystal Quartez — ‘Causal Loop’
Listening to Causal Loop feels serendipitously larger amid the current pandemic and with so many unknowns, a welcomed salve.
Read moreListening to Causal Loop feels serendipitously larger amid the current pandemic and with so many unknowns, a welcomed salve.
Read morePossibly her most steamy affair yet, SassyBlack continues to find news ways of making sparse melodies and production cosmically outsized and crafted, with a keen roll of intimacy amid the various channels and liftoffs she has patented and sourced all on her own. A goddess in the truest sense.
Read morePart of a Larger Conversation’s lush vignettes work intentionally as a unified whole or disintegrated into flickering mysteries. Whether Conversations receives proper attention or is just splashed, as another puddle while community adjusts is understandable; these are strange times, but Shallow Water is deeper than the name suggests.
Read moreEamon understands you’re busy and while he’ll certainly remind you of a handful of recordings from yesteryear he doesn’t sound like many other contemporaries. Amid the influences abounds the wonderment of someone making work of sounding classic without being overtly nostalgic.
Read moreBarton’s hunger to record a diverse cast of musicians, instruments, and arrangements was tremendous and five decades vast. The cuts offered on Architect of the Northwest Sound reveal Barton’s touch and attention to craftsmanship. This comp proves to be something of a primer. Endearing layout, inviting photos, inquiring liner notes strike noteworthy from beginning to end. Wanting to research a little deeper is simply an extension of the Barton legacy.
Read moreStrangely removed from the cultural zeitgeists, Dreamin’ Wild somehow channels the past and future with its anchored yacht-pop, soul-jammed, bedroom power rock sparklers that sound good enough to take anywhere and everywhere. May it never need rediscovering.
Read moreMagnitude of Extinction reframes the cold harsh winter winds with skirts of mottled sun and endless sky. Azoth has crafted boundless beauty within metal’s most misunderstood style.
Read moreLocation Services emerge as holders of profound narratives. Reincorporate captures Location Services’ gifted fluidity, rattles of light and shaded reflections, and percussive heart jabs necessary for forward progression. And yes, it should’ve topped year-end lists for 2019.
Read moreLike all of Geographic North’s experimentally gifted recordings, Behold Killers proceeds with nearly all art modalities in mind. Ahmed’s visions, reprises, and sound architecting eclipse and return to the neutralizing trio of color and geometric forms adorning this bewitching release.
Read moreAs revitalizing as it is searching, Thompson’s Echo Earth carries an unremitting gentleness, constantly buzzing with charmed outlooks and reminders, channeling the stretch of house, IDM and pensive nostalgia drifting through his ambient soundscapes.
Read moreAlbum ender, “Estamos Aí” might be the most famous of Ferreira’s compositions and Politzer carries her ensemble into a well laid out stage, showcasing dexterity and communication as their magnetic playing belongs close to the bossa nova greats.
Read moreWhere Language Ends is both a longing for and embrace of music’s role and conduit for our collective human experiences. Here, Menche seems capable and willing to provide as a guide into our next evolutionary phase.
Read moreMorgan’s twelfth record maintains a low vapor, moisture light approach to the mirages we want to see and the one’s created in spite of it. The work expresses emotion, channeling nonrepresentational qualities in both visual art and music. Morgan beautifully parallels melancholy, motion, stasis, mass, as Equivalents wanders into an immersive, volume of soft sempiternal feeling.
Read moreCape Disappointment warns listeners. Consider the monochromatic weight of horror-flick red and black type overwhelming the distant lighthouse. At times, isolated and towering, Semer’s style is as powerful as the crush of ocean waves during a night storm. However, just like the water’s reflective and illuminative qualities, Semer’s deeper parallels and college of hard-knock tales reveal Semer’s debut and metaphors as anything but a disappointment.
Read moreOn Both of Those Things, Martin has crafted an indelible Side A. Each of the five songs could stand alone, yet hearing them collectively, pivoting or enveloping the previous, garners the best bounty. Martin’s inclusion of talented players on this nearly missed EP soars above previous climbed heights. Here’s hoping his follow up isn’t six years in the making.
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