Album: OREN AMBARCHI - In The Pendulum’s Embrace (Touch 78 2007)

Sydney born guitarist Oren Ambarchi has recently toured with Sunn O))), as well as releasing an album with Greg Anderson of the band and Hungarian metal singer Attila Csihar under the moniker Burial Chamber Trio. In The Pendulum’s Embrace is a long way from ear-splitting drone metal, but it does share certain characteristics. The pace [...]

Album: BJ NILSEN - The Short Night (Touch 75 2007)

Gradually I’m catching up on some of the releases from last year that were high on my “to hear” list. The Short Night came out last September and is one of those CDs that has built up a strong reputation largely through good old fashioned word of mouth recommendations. Monorail in Glasgow say that they [...]

Gig: Galchen / RememberRemember/ Konx-Om-Pax (Mono, Glasgow, 29/1/08)

Many years ago, when I first saw Autechre at Manchester’s Roadhouse (it must have been around 1995), they insisted that all the stage lights be turned off when they came on. The result was two barely discernable figures in the gloom – the ultimate in invisibility on stage. Or so I thought. Sound and animation [...]

Opposition - 1980s Alternative Culture Exhibition, London

Time to blow my trumpet a little.
There’s an exhibition called Opposition that opened today (Saturday 26th) at the Comme Des Garcons shop in Dover Street Market in the West End of London. Among the exhibits are some copies of Turtle Breeder fanzine of which I was co-editor (and shamefully, totally responsible for the charmingly incompetent [...]

In Praise Of Trance

When it comes to fashionability, Trance is down there with mullet haircuts and line dancing – about as unhip as you can get. It has a reputation of being as cheesy as a roomful of over-ripe brie, and as predictable as a rainy day in Glasgow. With its fairly high tempo, identikit synth arpeggios and [...]

Album: SUPERSILENT - 8 (Rune Grammofon RCD2067 2007)

It’s taken a while for me to get around to reviewing this – it’s been out since September. Mind you, Supersilent themselves are never in a particular hurry to get things out. Their modus operandi seems to be to record quickly, but mix and release at leisure. All the music on 8 was recorded over [...]

Song of the day: CAN - Deadlock (1970)

Can’s 1970 album Soundtracks is often overlooked – and if it is discussed, it’s usually the fourteen minute meisterwerk “Mother Sky” which gets all the attention. The first three tracks on the album were all used on the soundtrack of a largely forgotten West German heist movie called Deadlock. The film was produced and directed [...]

TV Review - Pop On Trial (BBC4)

BBC4’s Pop season is proving to be fairly enjoyable, with the three part Pop Britannia documentary series, and all manner of resurrected shows and films from the archives. One of the lynchpins of the season is Pop On Trial - a series of five shows chaired by Stuart Maconie that each examine a particular decade, before [...]