Review: Stefan Jaworzyn – Drained of Connotation

Review: Stefan Jaworzyn – Drained of Connotation
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If you consider yourself a noise aficionado, then chances are that you know who Stefan Jaworzyn is. Being a once-prominent member in the ’80s UK experimental underground (with contributions in Ascension and Skullflower) before dropping off the grid, Drained of Connotation is Jaworzyn’s official proclamation of rising from his hiatus to resume his atonal passion. … read more

Review: Red Temple Spirits – Self-Titled

Review: Red Temple Spirits – Self-Titled
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Red Temple Spirits have been around for a long time, but you wouldn’t know unless you were already a fan.  … read more

Review: Plankton Wat – Drifter’s Temple

Review: Plankton Wat – Drifter’s Temple
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If an all-instrumental band uses the adjective legendary in cahoots with its description shortly before touting Grateful Dead as an influence, it’s almost guaranteed to sandbag any actual listening experience. Fortunately, Plankton Wat wined and dined my initial shallowness away before the third track. … read more

Review: Mr. Gnome – Heart of a Dark Star
Review: New Bums – Voices in a Rented Room

Review: New Bums – Voices in a Rented Room
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Alt-folk artists typically depend on limited methods of composition when fleshing out their songs. Some focus on telling emblematic stories to carry their creative substance (until another artist tells the same story better) and others fall on the crutch of political critiques (which will immediately filter out non-fans). … read more

Review: NØMADS – Free My Animal

Review: NØMADS – Free My Animal
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NØMADS are a two-piece consisting of bassist Nathan Lithgow (from My Brightest Diamond and Inlets) and drummer Garth Macleavey, both of whom are set on maximizing the most sound with their limited size—and doing it all in a single take of recording. … read more

Review: Minerva Superduty – Self-Titled

Review: Minerva Superduty – Self-Titled
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Minerva Superduty Self-Titled Self-Released Street: 03.09 Minerva Superduty = Lento + Pelican Minerva Superduty is an eccentric instrumental metal band that resides in the faraway Kalamata, Greece. Their new self-titled EP is a succinct yet powerful statement of how solid post-metal contains no geographic boundaries. Sludgy bass rhythms provide a general backbone throughout most of

Review: Man Man – On Oni Pond

Review: Man Man – On Oni Pond
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Man Man is one of those bands that nobody “kinda likes”—you either love it or hate it. We recognize the band for their ability to carve inexplicably aesthetic rhythms with a dynamic of makeshift percussive instruments condensed with frontman Honus Honus’ cathartic squawking.  … read more

Review: Kite Party – Come On Wondering

Review: Kite Party – Come On Wondering
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Kite Party are one of the few recent emo post-hardcore bands to surface from the underground shortly after the genre’s demise. Even though the divide between lovers and loathers of the music probably died with its popularity in the mid 2000s, Come On Wandering has enough stylistic integrity to make music snobs start bickering over Sunny Day Real Estate again. … read more

Review: Japanther – Eat Like Lisa Act Like Bart

Review: Japanther – Eat Like Lisa Act Like Bart
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Japanther are one of those long-running Brooklyn duos who are typically heralded by music snobs for their heavyhandedness in lo-fi synth ostinatos and inability to stay rooted in one particular stylistic element for a whole album’s length. … read more

Review: His Clancyness – Vicious

Review: His Clancyness – Vicious
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His Clancyness is a solo endeavor spawned by the lead singer of little-known Italian indie group, A Classic Education. Within the first 10 minutes of Vicious, Jonathan Clancy easily demonstrates more of a strength within American melancholic bedroom rock than the average college slacker. … read more

Review: Halaska – Mayantology

Review: Halaska – Mayantology
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Let me start off by urging you not to take the band name, album name or any of the track titles at face value. Fortunately, they’re one of the better progressive math-rock outfits I’ve heard in a long time. … read more