Dusted Magazine Features and Reviews

Eyvind Kang - Visible Breath

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Mason Jones
While Eyvind Kang's name may be familiar to many, it may be more for his work in collaboration with others than for his own work. Sadly more people pay attention to bands like Animal Collective, Mr Bungle and Beck than listen to modern compositions such as Virginal Coordinates and Athlantis ... Read More

Simon H. Fell - Frank & Max: Bass Solos 2001-2011

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by John Eyles
In 1991, double bassist Simon H. Fell released a solo bass cassette on his Bruce's Fingers label, entitled Max . For 20 years it stood in splendid isolation as his only solo recording. Now, he's followed it up with Frank & Max which, despite what the title might imply, does not include any of... Read More

Wounded Lion - IVXLCDM

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Joe Bernardi
Besides being the title of the newest Wounded Lion album, IVXLCDM is an inversion of the year the great fire of London took place. The title's origins are anybody's guess, but taking an established cultural artifact and applying a prankish dream-logic to it is a recurring theme in Wounded Lion's... Read More

Bill Wells - Lemondale

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Jon Dale
In an episode of MTV Europe's This Is Our Music , a series dedicated to experimental and avant-pop musicians from across the globe, Bill Wells spoke about his love of playing slightly out-of-tune pianos: It's maybe more the kind of piano that you would find in somebody's house, or something like... Read More

Cleared - Breaking Day

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Bill Meyer
There's a hell of a lot of history in Cleared's music. When you hear Steven Hess's uncluttered drumbeats looming over Michael Vallera's churning guitar, the instrumental passages of Joy Division and early Echo & The Bunnymen records come to mind. When they shift from one stark groove to another... Read More

Robert Lippok - Redsuperstructure

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Brandon Bussolini
From the mid-'90s through the early 2000s, groups like Mouse on Mars and To Rococo Rot existed on the cusp of post-rock and all things electronic. It's such considered music. Those groups treaded lightly, as if tiptoeing through an unseen semantic minefield. They were on my radar for much of that... Read More

Cardinal - Hymns

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Jon Dale
Hymns , the second album by Richard Davies and Eric Matthews' chamber-pop concept duo Cardinal, was always going to suffer the slings and arrows of a pop-critical furnace that was mostly soiling its nappies when the band's first, self-titled album was released back in 1994. There were, of course... Read More

Alan Wilkinson - Practice

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by John Eyles
This solo album from Alan Wilkinson completes a fine trilogy alongside the Hession/Wilkinson/Fell reunion tour live album and the Simon H Fell solo album. Practice consists of seven solo tracks, two recorded in January 2010 and five in July 2011, the two sessions happening before and after... Read More

Russell Haswell and Florian Hecker - Kanal GENDYN

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Mason Jones
At times, I'm reminded of the differences and similarities between creating visual works and sound works. Is painting a pleasant pastoral scene akin to recording a pop tune, while a Jackson Pollock is similar to, say, Throbbing Gristle? It's obviously not quite so simple, but the analogy can be... Read More

Wire - The Black Session - Paris, 10 May 2011

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Bill Meyer
Wire's first live LP, Document And Eyewitness , was an antagonistic artifact of a band about to implode. Much of it was taken from a gig staged just after the end of the English quartet's sojourn with EMI, which had yielded the immortal triptych of Pink Flag , Chairs Missing , and 154 . They... Read More

Listed: Delay Trees + Fungi Girls

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Dusted Magazine
Delay Trees The august dream-pop of Finnish quartet Delay Trees is carved from the anxieties of early adulthood, frills-free sonic bombast, and a healthy helping of frosty Finnish winters. After playing their first gigs in late 2007, the band released a steady stream of music in Soft... Read More

Listed: Psychic Ills + Liquor Store

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Dusted Magazine
Psychic Ills Third eye warriors Psychic Ills have been blending Eastern vibes and downtown chic since 2003, when the New York band pressed their own 7 and started releasing music through The Social Registry. In 2006, the Village Voice named the group the best psych rock act in the city... Read More

Still Single: Vol. 8, No. 1

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Dusted Magazine
Welcome to 2012. Still Single hasn't published on Dusted since November 2011. This is a HUGE backlog and if you've been following along on the blog, you've read just about all of this already. It's a staggering amount of reviews, and the pile just keeps getting larger. So here you go, two... Read More

Listed: My Brightest Diamond + Benoit and Sergio

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Otis Hart
My Brightest Diamond Shara Worden might be the modern day Marry Poppins. As MBD's multi-instrumentalist mainstay, she wears a heavy cloak of cabaret, pockets stuffed with sugar, but perhaps intertwined with a touch more torment than Ms. Poppins. All Things Will Unwind , Worden's fourth effort... Read More

Listed: Blondes + Emperor X

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Otis Hart
Blondes Zach Steinman and Sam Haar, the Brooklyn-via-Oberlin duo behind Blondes , play the ideal techno for the wee-hours--unsurprisingly, the time at which they typically perform. Since their more contemplative breakout hit "Spanish Fly," Blondes have upped their danceability quotient, as... Read More

Listed: The Fresh and Onlys + The Babies

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Dusted Magazine
The Fresh & Onlys Neo-psych crew The Fresh & Onlys hails from San Francisco, where four-year-old act is at the center of one of the best local rock scenes in the country. Lately, however, the group's individual parts are challenging their sum. Vocalist Tim Cohen released two records in 2011... Read More

Listed: Balaclavas + Jeffrey Brown

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

by Dusted Magazine
Balaclavas Post-punk outfit Balaclavas never seem to tire of inventing sound. The Houston trio released their sophomore LP Snake People earlier this fall. Despite the daunting challenge to follow up their highly regarded debut, it, like Roman Holiday , sails on Chaz Patranella's sea of... Read More

2011: Otis Hart

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST

by Otis Hart
Press play to hear some of Otis's favorite music of 2011 while you read: 20. Zed Bias Biasonic Hotsauce - Birth of the Nanocloud (Tru Thoughts) Dave Jones, a.k.a. Zed Bias, personifies Simon Reynolds' hardcore continuum theory explaining the near constant evolution of... Read More

Having a Great Time in New Jersey: Life Changes, Pt. 1

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST

by Doug Mosurock
Stephen and I looked out at the surf from the boardwalk. A rainstorm was misting most people off this thoroughfare, as a bonfire burned on the beach, unattended, for whose benefit we couldn't say. We looked beyond the flames to the rolling tide. Someone's gonna die out there this weekend, he... Read More

2011: Tobias Carroll

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST

by Tobias Carroll
Press play to hear music from Tobias's Top 10 Albums of 2011: Sometimes, when you let an argument stew long enough inside your head, it emerges in stunning clarity when you least expect it. In my case, 2011 came together while listening to Camper Van Beethoven's Our Beloved... Read More