frWe've finally made it to the bitter end of 2020, and believe it or not, human beings are still making amazing art in the midst of crisis and a pandemic. After a five-year hiatus, our Album Covers of the Year feature is back with a deep dive of artwork from...
Swathed in the unlikely comfort of warm grey tones, Toronto-based musician Hiroki Tanaka (田中博基) can be seen on the album cover for his debut solo record, Kaigo Kioku Kyoku (介護記憶曲), looking fairly somber in a space accented by Japanese relics and the simple adornments of a lived-in home. Diving deeper,...
LA-based musician and visual artist Vinyl Williams -- born Lionel Williams -- explores ontological realities and connecting nexuses of sound, harmony, digital world-building, and higher consciousness. Tapping into Aldous Huxley’s realm of “mystical insight,” Williams puts it succinctly that, “If you have a vision of the music you love, you...
Music preservation efforts go beyond strictly archival functions. They challenge our understanding of certain genres that have been historically associated with just a few major cities. For individual musicians who have never profited from their work finally, preservation groups can also provide some small restitution — or at least shed...
Beyond Beyond Is Beyond is a record label that has become adept at curating artists for a very specific roster. These artists tend to not have the typical "Brooklyn" sound; what critics usually associate with Brooklyn tends be a trendy "indie" sound, BBiB eschews for a deeper dive into all...
Strangers, Marissa Nadler's second record for Brooklyn-based Scared Bones and seventh overall, mixes elements both familiar and unfamiliar to create an uneven, but often rewarding listen. As with the best of her prior work, the songs that hit still retain the ability to steal your breath. And while...
Eight years into its existence, Northside Festival is determinedly future-minded. Dividing itself into thirds, the NYC festival has two- and three-day stretches dedicated to "innovation" and "content". The other third -- four days worth of music between the East River and Bushwick, pulls in choice marquee names and established artists...
Thousands of years ago, the ancient Greeks would pilgrimage to Eleusis, in Attica, to watch a reenactment of the abduction of Persephone by Hades into the Underworld. These rites, known as the Eleusinian Mysteries, offered the ancient Greeks a tactile connection to the Myths of Demeter and Persephone, as well...
With each passing year, Northside Festival ups the ante, taking over more northern Brooklyn venues and gaining more and more international recognition. Now in its 8th year, the festival added their Innovation track a few years back, which seems like a smart move considering that the tech industry conference economy...
In reviews for Kikagaku Moyo's House in the Tall Grass, some have implied that the Japanese psych folk up-and-comers are simply rehashing old ground. Consider a sentence from Danny Riley of The Quietus, who writes, "The problem comes when artists fail to recognize the elements of their chosen influence that have...
Though such a struggle may have only existed in some people's minds, if there was one between digital and analog music recording and creation, there's no question that digital came out on top without ever even having to dig a trench. Does this make any remaining pockets of resistance akin...
You can't go home again, as the old saying goes -- similar in sentiment to, "You can't step in the same river twice." Life is constantly flowing, shifting, changing shape. Sure, you can go to the building where you were raised. You can revisit your parents, extended family, old friends,...