Help, I've fallen down a rabbit hole and now I can't stop listening to obscure dungeon synth artists. I don't know how I got here, and I sure as hell don't know how to leave.

I don't really know what exactly it is that has gripped me so much with this genre. Used to be that albums like these bored the hell out of me, sounding like some old-school video game or hidden gem B-horror movie soundtrack, but there's just something about the minimalism that manages to keep me invested nowadays. ... read more

Good to see Loop Zoop have matured enough to become Dash.

Honestly not surprised, disappointed, or anything. Listening to this, I've been left completely emotionless. It's not like these guys have even done anything particularly interesting. They're just jumping from beloved classic rock band to beloved classic rock band one after the other and expecting people to suddenly warm up to them because they can imitate Rush just as well as they can imitate Zeppelin. It's not exciting, it's not ... read more

Zappa's most ambitious album, robbed of its rightful place amongst his major classics and forgotten thanks to it not releasing in full until after his death.

When I initially came across Läther, I have to admit, I groaned in frustration. I mean, Zappa's posthumous releases are enough of a slog as it is, with numerous box sets that, for some stupid, unjustifiable reason, I forced myself to sit through despite their ridiculous run times, and those that aren't bloated being throwaway demos ... read more

I see all this Islands slander, and I just have to shake my head. Clearly everyone is too scared to accept the true King Crimson masterpiece.

Gonna be honest, I wasn't planning on reviewing this just yet, but my internet has been shit all night, leaving me with nothing but whatever I own on vinyl to listen to, so I'm gonna just review this album that I've been meaning to rewrite for a long while now. So if this review ends up being shit, I may end up rewriting it yet again at some point, but ... read more

The fourth album from The Araby Bazaar, this time with a new guitarist, definitely feels like a perfection of their indie rock sound.

More than any other album they've released so far, this album feels a lot fuller, which is most likely thanks to the new guitarist. Right from the opener, I just found myself being captivated by the energy of this thing much quicker than any of their other albums. And even though I've loved every record that I've heard so far, and I'd probably describe all of ... read more

Music fans shocked as beloved rock group, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, release the second part of a double album and it predictably sounds like the second part of a double album.

Honestly, no idea what y'all were expecting here. I mean, I know that part of King Gizz's is that they are that one band that you could never really predict what they'd do next, and them doing exactly what you knew they would do can be disappointing, but goddamn, this really isn't that bad. Actually, it's far ... read more

Swans revisited part 8/22

The EP that nobody really wanted and, in the grand scheme of things, really doesn't matter. In 1986, to go along with the Greed/Holy Money double album, they also released two EP's, the first being the brilliant Time Is Money (Bastard), and now A Screw, the one that everyone likes to forget about because of how inessential it is.

I'll try to keep this one short. Well actually, it's going to be short regardless of whether or not I want it to be or not, because there's ... read more

Swans revisited part 5/22

Damn man, I can't believe Swans would sell out like this.

After three unrelentingly brutal albums released one after the other, what's the next possible step the band could have taken? Why, an industrial dance song, of course! Y'know, two genres that really shouldn't work well at all! But wait, how the fuck is it so good?

Yeah, the title track on this thing is very commonly noted as the best song Swans would make while they were still doing industrial music, and for ... read more

Quite possibly the Bootleg Series album I was most excited to listen to. The Basement Tapes album released in the '70s is still easily one of my all-time favourite Dylan albums, even if it isn't his most meaningful, nor is it exactly flawless. But goddamn it, it just shows prime Dylan at his most carefree, and The Band have always managed to help bring nothing but great things to Dylan's music, so I have no issue with saying that it's easily a top five Dylan album for me. So six-and-a-half ... read more

"What happened to this song? We were doing so well." - Me mishearing the lyrics to the first song.

Topographic Oceans... Far and away the most polarizing release by them. You either see this as one of the all-time great '70s prog albums, or you see it as easily one of the worst albums from any of the classic prog bands you can think of. And while I am more inclined to fall into the former, good god, it really is difficult to truly justify this album being as unbelievably long as it ... read more

The first Yes album that matters.

Even though it wouldn't be until their fourth album, Fragile, that they would fully complete their classic line-up, replacing Tony Kaye on keyboards with the much more renowned Rick Wakeman, The Yes Album is really where they went from being a fairly generic, albeit incredibly talented, psychedelic rock band with some prog elements to the upbeat, futuristic prog masters that they're known as. And while this album still doesn't really hold up as well as what ... read more

Is it weird that I think this album is great but that it also doesn't really deserve that acclaim that it always gets?

Honestly, Apostrophe has always been the one Zappa album that just doesn't scratch the itch for me. Sure, it has some great moments, but a lot of this album is still weak compared to most of his output up to this point. The Yellow Snow suite in particular, showcasing some of his usual immature humor that unfortunately doesn't land quite as well as it does on other albums, is ... read more

We're getting closer to masterpiece territory now...

A complete re-recording of the Araby Bazaar album which I had already considered to be the best they've done yet, but this time all acoustic. And honestly, even though there are still parts that I miss (in particular that extended instrumental section on Bullingdon Boy, although I do actually like this acoustic version better if I'm honest), the album as a whole is surprisingly better. The more stripped-back sound lets the songs breathe ... read more

Before My Bloody Valentine were the masters of shoegaze that we all know them as, they were an average gothic post-punk band with noisy albeit derivative and uninteresting instrumentals and a vocalist who tries his hardest to mimic every good post-punk singer before him but lacks all the personality and charm that made those singers so great.

Honestly, I do have to wonder if this is another debut album that suffers from the "Radiohead effect", where everything released after their ... read more

One of those albums that you can tell with certainty could have been one last masterpiece had Miles been alive to properly complete the album himself. His trumpet playing is fantastic all throughout, proving that even up until the last few months of his life he really was one of the greatest trumpet players to ever live. But the biggest problem with this album instantly removes any and all potential that this could have had, that being Easy Mo Bee on rapping and producing duty. The beats are ... read more

I have come to the realization that I actually really enjoy Miles' '80s output, and now I'm really confused and scared.

I'm gonna be honest, when I started my Miles Davis binge, I was a lot more curious about his widely detested '80s material than all of those classics that I had yet to hear. Maybe it was because I had already heard his three most renowned works when I started and was also familiar with a few other records, but even so, you'd think that I would be a bit more interested in his ... read more

We were right on the verge of greatness...

In terms of technicality and aesthetic, this is objectively Doom's best album yet. And even though I still personally prefer the Black Album, this is still easily up there as one of his best. But I'd be lying if I said I was fully enthralled with what we were given. While I do actually like a lot of this album, with tracks like Anarchy and If easily being some of Doom's best thus far, there's still quite a bit of this album that I find myself not ... read more

Finally getting back to these albums I was recommended a few weeks back, and this was certainly one that I initially had no expectations for whatsoever. I mean, it's very obviously divisive both here and on RYM, and I hadn't heard of this artist before, but after finding out that this is a side-project or something from Yung Lean, it made sense. Though I can't say I was expecting an indie rock album from someone like him at all.

Nectar isn't necessarily a bad album, but I was just hoping for a ... read more

A very decent, though again overly long, tape. The first Hoop Life is undeniably better by a significant margin, so in that regard, this was a disappointment. But then again, we still get a few bangers here and there. Though I have to admit that I'm disappointed that this ends with a two hour long lecture. Needless to say I didn't get through that, but the other 99 tracks definitely had some likeable moments.

I feel weird having one of the highest ratings on an album as polarizing as this one seems to be, but I simply can't deny how amazing this record is to me. This may not be the most perfect thing ever, and some of its biggest problems are undeniably going to be album-destroying to some listeners, but goddamn, this mixture of drone metal and harsh noise is downright immaculate and is seemingly exactly what I've been needing to hear for so long.

As someone who has heard absolutely nothing else ... read more