Macie Stewart, Lia Kohl, and Whitney Johnson. (Credit: Leah Wendzinski) All but one of the song titles on Body Sound, the debut album from experimental string trio Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart, line […]
Tinariwen Goes Back to Basics
Tinariwen. (Credit: Marie Planeille) It’s easy to forget that Tinariwen broke through before labels and curators Awesome Tapes from Africa and Sahel Sounds introduced American audiences to similar artists. Yes, Ali Farka Touré may have […]
Jason P. Woodbury & the Nightbird Singing Quartet Journey to the End of the Night
Jason P. Woodbury. (Credit: Mario Vega) The cover of the self-titled debut from Jason P. Woodbury & the Nightbird Singing Quartet speaks volumes: It’s modeled on the indelible design of Vintage Contemporaries, a 1980s publishing […]
Flying Lotus Packs Big Excitement Into Brief ‘Big Mama’
(photo: Matt Lief Anderson) Steven Ellison keeps it moving. Ever since his first two albums as Flying Lotus — 2006’s 1983 and 2008’s Los Angeles — he’s produced great quantities of mercurial, glancing funk that’s […]
The More You Ignore Him, The Closer He Gets: Morrissey Returns With New Album ‘Make-Up Is a Lie’
The More You Ignore Him, The Closer He Gets: Morrissey Returns With New Album ‘Make-Up Is a Lie’ Make-Up Is a Lie, Morrissey’s first album in six years, isn’t going to earn the former Smiths […]
Kim Gordon Is Captivating, Commanding On ‘PLAY ME’
Kim Gordon (photo: Moni Haworth). A funny thing happened on the way to reviewing Kim Gordon’s third solo record. Because of the somewhat treacherous DSP this reviewer endures, the protected stream was crippled by digital […]
Shabaka Picks Up the Sax and Drops Some Beats
Shabaka. (Credit: Joseph Ouechen) In the early days of 2023, Shabaka Hutchings announced he’d be putting down his saxophone. This meant curtains or an indefinite hiatus for his celebrated jazz bands Sons of Kemet and […]
Squeeze Tackle Teenage Rock Opera On ‘Trixies’
Squeeze (photo: Dean Chalkley). Music fans love the story of “the lost album” — the one project that got abandoned or crushed by the business. Now, more than 50 years into their career, British pub-pop […]
Bill Callahan Confronts Mortality and Legacy on ‘My Days of 58’
Bill Callahan performs live during a concert at the Admiralspalast on October 8, 2019, in Berlin, Germany. (Credit: Frank Hoensch/Redferns) In many ways, My Days of 58 feels like just another latter-day Bill Callahan album. […]
Mitski Makes Something out of ‘Nothing’
Mitski. (Credit: Lexie Alley) Typically, when a publicist sends you an advance copy of an album, it’s accompanied by anecdotes from the musician as context for your first listen. For Mitski’s latest, though, I was […]
Anushka Makes a Confident First Impression With “My Valentine”
Sixteen-year-old independent artist Anushka released her first official single on February 13, perfectly timed ahead of Valentine’s Day. The release doesn’t feel accidental. It feels considered. Rather than simply dropping a love song in February, […]
Shane Parish Unplugs Autechre
Shane Parish. (Credit: Courtney Chappell) “Beats per minute” is not a concept that fingerstyle guitarists usually have to worry about. The world of instrumental solo acoustic guitar, rooted in the blues, modernized by John Fahey […]