Troy MicheauThough it may be poor form, I’m going to start this review with my one unrelenting frustration with Martin Gore’s new solo album MG: every song is just too damn short. Seriously, these tracks are incredible, and they just beg you to get...
Zeb LarsonAmassing rare and forgotten music is a peculiar sort of hobby — one that slowly transforms into an addiction. It’s not that I don’t love mainstream music. It’s just that the thrill of listening to some forgotten gem that...
Jason SimpsonEvery record is an island. An artist’s statements shouldn’t always be judged on trends, the label they’re on, or what other people are doing. Perhaps they shouldn’t even be judged against that artist’s own work...
Folklorists like to romanticize blues music as being a pure expression of culture, but recorded blues music was carefully marketed to its intended audience from its very beginning. As early as the 1920s, music aimed at African-Americans was labeled...
When asked about the influence of late ’70s and early ’80s electronic music on his own record, A Period of Review, Seattle ambient pioneer and head of the Palace Of Lights label Kerry Leimer told The Ransom Note: What interests me most...
Vee Hua 華婷婷Drawing obvious inspiration from timelessness and less obvious inspiration from Aleister Crowley’s Thoth tarot deck, director Vinyl Williams takes Dub Thompson’s “No Time” and turns it into a multi-level philosophical...
An appropriate follow-up to our feature on Experimental Music on Children’s TV, Nor-Cal powerhouse Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs leads listeners into similar notalgic territories with the music video for “Water Fountain”. With the...
"I think exposing kids to as much shit as possible is really important, just so they know it exists. If you only ate apples, and only got your kid apples, then their favorite fruit would be apples. But that's just because they haven't gripped a...