Disc Reviews

by Max Ink Staff Writers


Raw Poetic - Space Beyond The Solar System

Raw Poetic - Space Beyond The Solar System

Raw Poetic

Album Title: Space Beyond The Solar System
By John Noyd
Posted: Dec 2022
Label: 22nd Century Sound
(391) Page Views

Lobbed hip-hop dropped into seamless electric soul and funkified be-bop, “Space,” places woke flow into cinematic galaxies, polishing cosmic holograms into immaculate packages wrapped with satin, packed in class and fueled by cool. Be it laidback catalysts into inner space or skyrocket topics sampling outer space, Raw Poetic and musical partner Damu the Fudgemunk condense prime sentient memories, rising horizon vibes and polynomial tonality. Lit in soothing collusions between spiraling rhymes, spoon-fed grooves and stone-cold truths, the duo’s world-building skills fire up beautifully tuneful empires warming eclectic, collaborative sound-baths with Irreversible Entanglements’ bassist Luke Stewart and saxophonist Archie Shepp sitting in on a few sonic dips. Tag-teaming themes, merging breezy beats into tasty breaks, “Space,” synthesizes celestial scenarios, piggy-backing astral psychedelics onto phat pragmatic fact-checks.

Raw Poetic Online
WebsiteFacebookWiki


Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork

Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork

Dry Cleaning

Album Title: Stumpwork
By John Noyd
Posted: Oct 2022
Label: 4AD
(544) Page Views

While Dry Cleaning’s overall style hasn’t deviated from last year’s stunning, “New Long Leg,” the subtle evolution in textures and rhythms inside the intriguingly beleaguered, “Stumpwork,” deems repeated eavesdropping as the ear is tugged from casual trickling intricacy to sudden trudging floods. Lurking and skirting in playful disdain, Florence Shaw’s slow, droll vocals walk atop brittle skittish grooves with an uncaring flair for dispatched facts cooing over brackish alt-jazz backing lacquered in acrid factories. Riveting atmospheric criminal noir swerves and lurches in hypnotic oscillations as Lewis Maynard’s bass and Tom Dowse’s guitar pilfer off-kilter thrills in wobbly lobs and Pavlovian salvos, groping unfolding foreboding while slashing cinematic aftershocks with sweaty machetes and rumbling bludgeoning, a coiled electric cobra woven deep inside Nick Buxton’s stimulating rhythms.

Dry Cleaning Online
WebsiteFacebookWiki


Dehd - Blue Skies

Dehd - Blue Skies

Dehd

Album Title: Blue Skies
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2022
Label: Fat Possum
(555) Page Views

Chicago’s upbeat three-piece Dehd shoots from the hip and say what they mean in unvarnished pardons and pounding shout-outs built from the ground up, stitching tasty basement greaser-rock onto lovelorn pop-punk rumbles. Honest, unadulterated songs whose succinct pitches and skeletal melodies stick around long after the record ends, “Skies,” relies on unpretentious friendliness, common problems and universal worries, connecting sensitive ends to streamlined means with gritty simplicity and daring sincerity. Cleansing benders sending headstrong throngs into last-chance dance-offs, the trio’s tribal tempos and lo-fi anthem shorthand finds joy in misery, trust in frustration and palatable salvation in cathartic martyrdom; a bonding call and response for tag-team dreamers shaking off life’s rat-race shackles. Dehd hit Madison’s Majestic Theater Wednesday, Sept 21st along with wonky word-spitter EXUM.

Dehd Online
WebsiteWiki


The Soft Hills - Viva Chi Vede

The Soft Hills - Viva Chi Vede

The Soft Hills

Album Title: Viva Chi Vede
By John Noyd
Posted: Jul 2022
Label: Black Spring Records
(802) Page Views

An Italian phrase meaning alive to see, The Soft Hill’s latest laser-guided escapades envision brain-teasing mazes padded in fragile astral magic. Dreamy bleeding synthesizers sprinkled over twilight pining melts into sublime sunshine, tender expressions rendered with a touch of twang layered in crackling static floating over heavenly havens, The Soft Hills’ yielding, congealing fieldtrips conjure microcosmic odysseys whose surreal charades offer lighthouse fog melancholy alongside jaunty polyrhythmic mischief.  Navigating psychic spaces in a soothing confluence of frail alien transmissions, vagrant pedal steel and unwavering folk-pop sincerity, “Viva,” asks only a moment before capturing the long last in the might have been; a translucent infusion of witty sympathy, luminous despair and cool absolution. Good-natured and well-meaning, the album’s weathered effervescence envelopes the groovy with the moody.

The Soft Hills Online
WebsiteFacebook


Colin Stetson, Billy Martin, Elliot Sharp & Payton MacDonald - Void Patrol

Colin Stetson, Billy Martin, Elliot Sharp & Payton MacDonald - Void Patrol

Colin Stetson, Billy Martin, Elliot Sharp & Payton MacDonald

Album Title: Void Patrol
By John Noyd
Posted: May 2022
Label: Infrequent Seams
(891) Page Views

Time arrested, contested and suggested, “Void Patrol,” blooms in unraveled prog-jazz cocoons, collateral accidents coalescing through communal grooves moving in electronic ripples, saxophone splashes and wood-block waves laying a dark rhythmic undertow bubbling beneath darting catharsis and textured conjecture. Ambient phantoms whose disruptive conjunctions yield strangely logical options teetering between ephemeral genesis and unruly conclusions; Stetson on saxophone, Sharp on strings and electronics, Martin on drums and percussions and MacDonald on keyboard percussion lunge from cunning conundrums to sinister quivering, chasing pacing deviations towards distinct destinations. The experimental quartet culls years of experience with bands as disparate as Arcade Fire and Medeski Martin and Wood to navigate murky curiosity for thirsty excursions through galactic abstractions basking in exploratory detours with casual grace and eerie accuracy.

Colin Stetson, Billy Martin, Elliot Sharp & Payton MacDonald Online
WebsiteFacebook


Porridge Radio - Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky

Porridge Radio - Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky

Porridge Radio

Album Title: Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky
By John Noyd
Posted: May 2022
Label: Secretly Canadian
(2312) Page Views

Visceral, truth-spewing grooves building introspective art-punk mantras into ranting garage-rock anthems, “Waterslide,” rides mystical misery into empathic catastrophes with raw, authentic sentiments defending emotional devotionals stalking haunted contemplations and spouting mouthy outrage brimming in incisive insights. Focused, corrosive, struggling to restrain strenuous contentions, Porridge Radio tunes into life’s terse mercies, punctuating twists and turns in calculated impacts, maiming refrains and struggling couplets. Swirling Wurlitzers slithering in melancholy waltzes and shoegaze guitars launching cauterized onslaughts, the band’s driving force is scored in core values, deep-seated feeling and existential energy. Earthy diversions cruising and perusing wounded crusades centered in impenetrable futility, the British quartet’s latest effort begs in dredged confessions while styled in unwavering obsession, a mesmerizing maelstrom whose subtle culmination drives aggressive messages with smoldering diplomacy. 

Porridge Radio Online
WebsiteFacebookWiki


Diaries of Destruction - Diaries of Destruction

Diaries of Destruction - Diaries of Destruction

Diaries of Destruction

Album Title: Diaries of Destruction
By John Noyd
Posted: May 2022
Label: Curated Doom
(825) Page Views

Sounds surrounding sounds, sounds inside sounds, sounds in raised decays and radiant fades, expansive granular tantrums and immersive dynamic phantoms, “Diaries,” detail Darwinian symphonies teeming with animated organics; semi-tamed industrial mayhem mutating into sonic topological ecologies mating mind-tripping experience to sedimentary evidence, questioning definitions through juxtaposed commotion. Gated mental-states fusing random ambience into laudanum compositions, world-building circuit-benders Elif Yalvaç, Arber and Michael Bearpark conspire to rewire. Supplemented by bassist Bryan Beller, the experimental theorists elevate nature through inclusive collusion and saturated artifice. Approximating without segregating, the project is open to a subliminal infinity supplying a terrifying ecstasy beneath seething frequencies. Environmental sensations compiled from processed electronics, pedalboard distortions and field recordings, the collaboration brims with vigorous synthesis, rocking out to unexpected perceptions and manipulated data.

Diaries of Destruction Online
Website


fanclubwallet - You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

fanclubwallet - You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

fanclubwallet

Album Title: You Have Got To Be Kidding Me
By John Noyd
Posted: Apr 2022
Label: AWAL
(721) Page Views

Thirsty alt-pop curiosity propelling a bright, blithe spirit steering rockin’ hip-hop bottoms under boppy disco tops, “Kidding,” connects kinetic obsessions sprinkled in wit and delivered with a wink, a friendly nod acknowledging an extroverted urgency stepping out from shared honesty into carefree creativity. Refreshing tempo-buoyed textures deftly tethering dancefloor explorations alongside bedroom confessions, fanclubwallet’s lopsided novelty cultivates spacey appealing left-field charm whose classic beat-driven ear-candy empowers sound-salad splashes in New Wave pool-party cool, jacuzzi grooves moving from slinky kickers synched to freak-folk rollercoasters and cyber-tabulated ballads tapping sunny funk with trippy whimsy. Smirks and quirks in percolating verse, Ottawa-based Hannah Judge turns fanclubwallet’s fearless studio-noodled delirium into precocious proposals twisted in blinking synths, pratfall percussion and cyber-coated vocals; stereophonic homilies spawned in spunky contrapuntal clockwork.

fanclubwallet Online
WebsiteFacebook


Frontperson - Parade

Frontperson - Parade

Frontperson

Album Title: Parade
By John Noyd
Posted: Apr 2022
Label: Oscar St Records
(590) Page Views

Casually savvy pop polished in conversational playfulness, The New PornographersKathryn Calder and Mark Andrew Hamilton (aka Woodpigeon), stage sparkling heartache in the devilishly educated, “Parade.” Well-prepared flair paired with smooth musical nuance, the duo’s calm drama is gifted in uplifting riffs tumbling over punchy sunshine harmonies, fond swansongs waxing nostalgic with sunset forget-me-nots digitized in fizzy indie blizzards, plucked from baroque folk and tuned to tender acoustic roominess.  A sensitive blending from multi-talented collaborators trading smart segues between seamless ideas, the entire record breathes in cohesive reprieves, compassionate distractions packing effortless gentleness inside romantic candor to sooth life’s bumpy patches into heavenly getaways blazing with radiant syncopation.  Immaculate practitioners in crafted particulars, Frontperson looks ahead while refining what has passed into something reliably desirable.

Frontperson Online
WebsiteFacebook


Kyle Rightley - The Hum

Kyle Rightley - The Hum

Kyle Rightley

Album Title: The Hum
By John Noyd
Posted: Mar 2022
Label: self-release
(1124) Page Views

Kicking things off with an aspirational Celtic jig melting into explosive folk, tinged with indie-rock, “The Hum,” is hard to summarize. Slide guitar slices to the quick, chamber-pop brass elevates poignant disappointments into elegant hesitation, mandolins swing in heart-wringing sympathy while ambient textures, crisp acoustics, gritty electrics and tasteful arrangements deftly fuse gallivanting dynamics into songs ambidextrous and effervescent. Ascending tensions both supportive and intriguing seize leads and control the flow jumping from miniature synth-rock operas to country-fried lullabies in an amazing display of multi-instrumental skills. Rightley’s perceptive lyrics unify the album’s encyclopedic styles; constantly evolving pondering, morphing meditations and persistent shape-shifting issues connect left-handed turns and expansive gambles to well-charted maps exploring contemporary territories in personalized fictions embodying modern contradictions within solid, accomplished compositions.

Kyle Rightley Online
WebsiteFacebook


Tone of Voice Orchestra - Tone of Voice Orchestra

Tone of Voice Orchestra - Tone of Voice Orchestra

Tone of Voice Orchestra

Album Title: Tone of Voice Orchestra
By John Noyd
Posted: Mar 2022
Label: Stunt Records
(1167) Page Views

A marvelous collaboration between singer-songwriter Trinelise Væring and Danish jazz saxophonist Fredrik Lundin, Tone of Voice Orchestra’s four singers, fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, cittern, saxophones, flutes, two drummers and double bass mix East European folk with North African jazz and Mother Earth Americana for Druid grooves, pagan refrains and snake-charmer barnstormers. Incorporating contemporary fairy tales into real-life delights and blossoming thoughts, ToVO’s celestial messengers address modern problems and universal concerns as meditative drum-circles merge with nurturing self-worth and campfire mirth, a rumbling coven of fertile dervishes manifesting tantric mantras with aspiring choirs, unfolding solos and simmering rhythms patiently weighing hypnotic options. Pastoral stories producing heady flowerbeds stuffed with anthropological solace, the self-titled debut gathers deep-breathing seekers under bright silk-screened skies with yogic motivation and wide-open eyes.

Tone of Voice Orchestra Online
WebsiteFacebook


Destroyer - Labyrinthitis

Destroyer - Labyrinthitis

Destroyer

Album Title: Labyrinthitis
By John Noyd
Posted: Feb 2022
Label: Merge Records
(609) Page Views

Foppish yacht-rock kisses swish in a wicked laissez faire marriage between debonair doomsday soothsayers and groovy arthouse cabaret; “Labyrinthitis,” strides through stylish kaleidoscopes, a stymied primal dance dressed in frisky disco moments and dizzy synthesizer symphonics drawing royal cinematic sympathies. Admonished thoughts caught among casual affirmations and picturesque fiction slink in meandering anthems for castaway candidates, unrestrained language-plays staging mental mazes colored in palpitating pulses, rubbery hustle and aerodynamic glamour. A cabal of the banal twisted into mischievous quips, jaded persuasions and aloof truths, New Pornographer’s Dan Bejar and long-time collaborator John Collins deploy Destroyer’s glossy innuendos in shimmering crescendos rendering moody affluence, party pariahs talking behind your back as digital orchestras swell in chandelier soliloquies glow in smoldering myths, snickering enigmas and divested effigies. 

Destroyer Online
WebsiteFacebookWiki

View More

Viewing Page 2 - of 41

 < 1 2 3 4 >  Last ›