Album: SARASWA - Yana (No label 2007)

Saraswa is the recording name of 25 year old English ex-pat Matthew Smawfield, currently resident in Ankara, Turkey. Due to the nature of his parents’ work, Smawfield spent his formative years in countries as far-flung as India, Indonesia, Fiji and Malawi. There is a definite hint of the influence of those places in his music, [...]

Albums of the year: #28

DEXTRO: Consequence Music
This was actually self-released in 2006 on the 16K label, but it wasn’t until this year that it was picked up by Grønland. Scot Ewan Mackenzie put together a fantastic amalgam of nu-gaze* rock and electronica of the Ulrich Schnauss / Port-Royal school. Boards Of Canada comparisons were lazily made, but these were [...]

A Few Forthcoming Long Players

Not a very long list. As ever, release dates are to be treated with a certain amount of scepticism (especially when it comes to Portishead!) 
BRITISH SEA POWER DO YOU LIKE ROCK MUSIC? ROUGH TRADE 14-Jan
CAT POWER JUKEBOX MATADOR 21-Jan
CHARLOTTEFIELD WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR FAT CAT 21-Jan
PETER BROTZMANN THE FAT IS GONE SMALLTOWN SUPERJAZZ 21-Jan
SUSUMU YOKOTA [...]

Albums of the year: #29

BJÖRK: Volta
I didn’t much care for Medulla, and Drawing Restraint Nine was more of an intellectual exercise than a particularly pleasurable listening experience. Volta, though, is simply a very good set of songs. It’s also the most eclectic album that Björk has done to date.

Song of the day: WILLIAM BASINSKI - Melancholia (2003)

Texas born, but New York based, musican and composer William Basinski specialises in creating music using tape loops, found sounds and shortwave radio. He’s released a number of albums on his own 2062 label, as well as other imprints such as Raster-Noton. The 2003 album Melancholia is a collection of short, untitled pieces. It’s an [...]

Albums of the year: #30

EL-P: I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead
Dense, sonically thick and wordy hiphop of the highest order. Probably El-P’s best solo effort to date. I listen to a lot less hiphop than I used to do - especially new stuff. Most of what I do hear bores me rigid, recycling the same old beats and the same old subject [...]

Albums of the year - preamble

Everyone does it as the year draws to a close and I’m going to be no different. I’ve already put together my top thirty for the year. Premature maybe, but what ever gets released in December? Very little. I reckon that it’s been one of the strongest years for music for a long time. Maybe not [...]

Kraftwerk - BBC Radio 4 Documentary.

I missed this when it was broadcast on Thursday morning. It’s still available on ‘Listen Again’ at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/kraftwerk_robots