[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] After the break-up of Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Erectus Monotone, bassist Jennifer Walker moved on to form Ashley Stove with Ben Barwick and Matt Brown on guitars and Bill Alphin on drums. 4-Finger Moon is full of fast-tempo ballast, with Barwick…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] The members of Ontario’s Tristan Psionic are also the proprietors of the Sonic Unyon label. TPA Flight 028 displays adept playing, memorable songlines, unexpected time changes, and a host of payoff moments. By all definitions, Tristan Psionic flower from the indie…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] A truly collaborative group, Spent — Annie Hayden and Joe Weston (both of Alligator), guitarist John King (Humidifier, a band in which Superchunk’s Jim Wilbur was also a member) and drummer Ed Radich — formed in Jersey City and wore their New Jersey…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] Guitarists Richard Conway Jones and Michael Beard create lulling, non-distorted instrumental music that drifts through a variety of techniques on The Marilyn Decade. The song titles from a poem on the inner sleeve are emblematic of The Marilyn Decade’s intended effect, that being…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] This trio from Champaign, IL encapsulated much of what is called “slowcore” — that is, the use of steady dynamics within tempered songs. Tempos mostly hover in the low numbers, as many notes are hit on the upbeat and instrumental development takes precedence…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] Drone, a New Zealand trio relocated to London, envisions a world of Casios, where the most uncommon sounds can create a new orchestra. Drum machine clicks and distorted keyboard strokes unfold to develop fugues and passages. Even with the occasional female…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] The Autumn Leaves was formed in Minneapolis in 1993 by David Beckey, who brought together ’90s pure-pop aesthetics with a ’60s approach to folk melodies and backup-singer choruses. Treats and Treasures shows an appreciation for jangle guitar (“You Didn’t Say a Word”), Ride-like…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] The melding of Sonic Youth-inspired feedback, thickly strummed guitars and pristine pop which came to be referred to as shoegazer music for the proponents who stood motionless on stage and looked down at their feet (or foot pedals) did not have a more…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] Much like their New York peers in Tower Recordings, Dan Brown, Samara Lubelski and Theo Angel of Hall of Fame view four-track recording as an opportunity for acoustic instrument experimentation. Brown (who first earned his New York underground elite stripes playing…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] This seven-member ensemble from Richmond, Virginia plays soft acoustic songs that owe more to storytelling dynamics than the folk settings in which the instrumentation is usually employed. Mandolins, banjos, organs, a cello and an accordion delicately are combined into a sparse…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] Founded by Sushil Dade of Soup Dragons and former 18 Wheeler David Keenan (and, for a while, including ex-Teenage Fanclub drummer Brendan O’Hare in its ever-changing lineup), Glasgow’s Telstar Ponies fell somewhere between the atmospheric goth of Independent Project Records releases and the…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] Nobody better flew the flag of New York’s indie underground than Azalia Snail. Now relocated to Los Angeles, the self-declared queen of “space folk” — with an arsenal of collaborators (including members of Fly Ashtray, Live Skull and King Missile) —…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] The three members of Danbury, Connecticut’s China Pig play rock with the protracted brutality of Caspar Brötzmann Massaker or the Melvins. Thudding beats, lumbering guitar and mumbled/growling vocals make up marathon-length tracks full of evil intensity and distortion. The plodding tempos…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] As with many one-man bands, Japan’s Color Filter exists mainly as a studio project — in this case, by one Ryuji Tsuneyoshi. Drum machines and loops, guitars and soothing synthesizer sounds sway between atmospheric haze and obscured pop melodics. On Sleep…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] Not since Jennifer Herrema mumbled her way through the first couple of Royal Trux albums has a band extracted such beauty from disjointed chaos. Marcia Bassett’s slurred vocals recall Nico after a few too many drinks, yet she sounds absolutely sublime…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] From the same overamplified home electronics realm as Shizuo and Rancid Hell Spawn, Gerty Farish records Casio noises, screamed vocals and three-chord guitar runs through blaring fuzz. Like its peers, Farish knows a sense of humor is the best way to…
[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramaphone #3 and appears here with permission.] A home-recorded electronics project of New Yorker Lawrence Lui, Dominions occupies the distant spheres of sample concrète cut-ups and electro-pop. The mix is an ominous foray through simple pop progressions and contrasting sound layers. On Pocket Operator, Lui manages to incorporate every perceivable…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] The Azusa Plane, a one-man recording group, offers effects-centric guitar work from the sidelines. Unlike most home work, the music leans toward drifting atmospherics rather than angst-laden pop crooning. Multiple layers of guitar tracks are interspersed with contrasting strains of sound…
[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] Flowchart emerged from Southern Jersey as masters of electronic sounds and the spaces in-between. The duo’s music ranges from lounge-loving pop to abstract waves to sheets of noise, all while maintaining a playfulness that never lets pretension rear its swollen head. Sean O’Neil…
[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramaphone #3 and appears here with permission.] After a small cassette release, South New Jerseyites Doug Larkin, Rich Larkin (who also collaborated on the Science Geek fanzine) and drummer Steve Spatucci released Nurture. The music is good-natured jangly pop, but Doug’s nasal vocals are hesitant and don’t mind dipping into…
