Mingus was rooted in tradition, infused with a sporadic creativity that could never be pinned down. His reverence matched his mind for experimentation, but neither could overcome his volatile vulnerability. His intuition guided his life as much as it governed his music & that trait is what makes his work so profoundly locked down in the composition & yet the feeling is unmistakably alive in the moment. His compositions are crafted with exquisite detail & yet given reign to his ... read more

If someone asked me why Disquiet by The Necks is my favorite album of the year, I would say that it fully embraces a type of aesthetic that I've recently come around to falling in love with. One where, the experience is geared towards the specific detail of its color and texture and how each element interacts within the same space and unfolds overtime. Shifting the goal from anything conceptual or dependent on a narrative in favor of being deeply present inside of a sonic environment. One ... read more

Glenn Branca is at the top of my list of musical artists to dive deep into.

I love how dedicated he is to the idea of composition, I don't share his feelings, especially in how they reflect his feelings towards free improvisation. But the benefit of his position remains clear. Hallucination City is astounding for its viscerally encompassing sonics, your ears will be pushed to their limits in terms of the sheer force of sound being outputted. The music itself goes way beyond that, from a ... read more

It's time to fully dive into the big 4 of Miles Davis's OG quintet.
Starting off with "Steamin.." and my god it's great!
Smokey hard bop, with all the finesse & lustful yearning of a midnight walk in the city.
Also...one of the hardest album covers of all time!

The warm rays of rebirth dance within mist covered black holes. Converge have covered the topic of depression before but never has the synthesis between finding new life being complicated by the never-ending battle with yourself been delivered with such honesty. As much as this may be the most hopeful Converge album, with acceptance being a major running theme. The band finds even more ways to hammer home the point that depression is a lifelong struggle. The calls for collective strength end ... read more

A brilliant album in the many ways Tillman uses his acid tongue for both absurdist black humor & deeply resonate ponderings on the human condition & the encroaching influence of the internet onto culture, himself and art. It's hard to know what to really say rn, it speaks so boldly of itself and at some point, if you're not with it, it boils down to a subjective lack of attachment to a great piece of art. The instrumentation pairs fantastically with all of the expansive ... read more

Everybody gets so caught up deliberating superficial questions about how Misty didn't burst out an entirely new sound for this record that they miss how he tuned his songwriting into the dissociative whiplash of his mental breakdown. Mixing his pop, folk and rock sensibilities into a track list that switches from sobering sadness to exuberant mania in an instant. Songs are concise & value the intimacy of small touches to elevate what is on the surface a run of the mill musical toolbox. ... read more

A false impression of a time that never existed, Father John Misty takes a tour down the black hole of nostalgia's gaze, grasping onto the broken promises of a love songs glitz and glamor. Each song longs for a romanticized image of the past, a dream girl, a woman in trouble...one could imagine. A mirage hypnotizes our time and attention, unable to face the hollow repetitions being masked and sold as the new "here and now." Tillman decides to chase ghosts of the past; a ... read more

The Purpose of Art: Grapple the Self, Never A Means to an End, Ponderance; The Crown Jewel

Scott Walker is a storyteller, not a shock jock.

An absurd trip down the rabbit hole of one of music's most inimitable figures. Ever since the release of Tilt, Walker has built an entirely new artistic identity for himself. Slowly his baroque pop records of old etched away to reveal an avant-garde legend. Three albums tell the story of this latter period and on the third and final installment of ... read more

The Title Speaks for Itself

There truly was no going back for Coltrane & his calling to the avant-garde by early 1965, if Love Supreme was the graceful sendoff then Transition is where dawn's first light breaks from the sky, and what a way to plant the flag...

The title track opens up by taking a perfectly balanced piece of post-bop structure and taking it to its absolute limits by a quartet who have developed telepathic communication and a shared intensity in their creative will ... read more

It's All Fun & Games until a bitch wants to cut loose

Death Grips trades in the reigns of conventional songwriting & gives in to a pure stream of consciousness surveyed across the vast landscape of experimental electronics and in doing so they were able to create an impeccable flow from track to track, feeling more in line with a suite than an 8 track album. Granted a loose & fluid state of total freedom. Songs bend & break into completely different textures, layers & ... read more

A Transition Made Apparent

I love how you can hear the raw creative urgency screaming out of each musician. Assembling who are now seen as some of the most creatively gifted inspired players in rock; desperate to break open new barriers and the outcome is a tortured suite, one born of the band's roots in classics and fantasies, now seen through the lens of a dark & strange push into the world of the avant garde. Just tremendous on all fronts is this emotional odyssey.

A frenzy sputtered across lines of pitch and frequency, achieving a razors edge of white noise. Lightning Bolt handles tension and release in a very special way that offers much more than "OMG SO LOUD SO FAST SO CRAZY!!!!" they allow you a lot more time to sit inside of these textures and with a range of amplitude, so while I wouldn't say these tracks start off soft it is worthwhile to note how they utilize time to make the high caliber thrills all the more punishing, while ... read more

"You Chase a Shadow that Will Fade Out as Pain"

The twisted scores of self-loathing's incandescent light. Pain & depression being depicted as swirling loose ends of drums and guitar; climaxes' stop short just as often as they reach a punishing conclusion, the only consistent assurance is the immediacy of explosiveness & dread. Clouds being a perfect analogy, one can purge themselves of intentionally thinking about their faults, old pains & the ones that still ... read more

It's taken many years and multiple attempts to get on this album's wavelength and I'm so happy to say I've finally gotten there.

Out to Lunch is a splendorous miracle and there's nothing else quite like it.
A perfect mixture of post-bop & avant-garde jazz, Dolphy formed a paradox between written material & natural spontaneity, accomplishing his wish of making the two halves blend together seamlessly as they deepen the interplay between the band alongside the ... read more

Universal Metamorphosis
The acceptance of moving on in life.
The sting of the past & the uncertainty of what it means for the future, marking our journey ahead, to the end.
Marrying the universal need for a social & sacred love with the comfort in abandoning pure freedom.

Rebirth’s Self Actualization.
Become the earth, the water, the air. Breathe in & release yourself, prepared to face a self imposed darkness.
You won’t return soaked in the blood of the lamb;
Life's holy grail, a cold winters breeze.

“Judged, silent Earth (soil)
Through the cracks of the heavy clouds
Rays of Light Embrace

Simply flow and sink
Flow to the rivers like an arrow
Overflowing light embraces
The rainbow tells the spreading of the water
From afar the ... read more

This strikes a personal chord.

“A cloud hangs over me,
marks every move
Deep in the memory,
what once was love”

An echoed despondency. A sincere clarity haunts me.
We all know there’s a part of us capable of violating our most cherished principles. It can shatter & betray our image to all.
All it needs are the right circumstances.
This doesn’t define us. .
What we fail to realize are the effects of justified consequences.
Existing outside your ability to convey ... read more

There is a fabulous twist on established structures here, as the group plays within the lines to maximum effect. Grasping at a rising effect only to pull back & recenter the focus onto echo's & silences. Exploring whatever facets they can find within these big tones. Lytton takes a step back & really pulls through when he's needed to with some jagged textures that really make the chaotic sections really pop. Barry Guy is just something else man, truly the most expressive ... read more

An enthralling ride; made up of a soothing approach towards tension & release. Each song suffocates you in the immediacy of the moment, at the same time, echoing an insatiable drive towards triumph; this combination of sonic priorities instills all of the emotion within the heavy envelopment of its expansive & crunchy textures. An emotional core that flows out from the epicenter of the album's atmosphere. From the most open ended to the most visceral of material here; that ... read more