There are two places in the world I am grateful exist: The Netherlands, because it is a superb country and it brought us Van Persie and Robben and boxes with one liter of actual yogurt for less than an euro, and Canterbury, because otherwise the beautiful musical incest that is Canterbury Scene wouldn't exist.

It all began with Archazel/Uriel in the late 60s amplifying their psychedelia with some progressive rock and jazzy tendencies - a bit like The Soft Machine but less jocular and a bit ... read more

A haunting experience. Blackstar is melancholic and wistful but also oddly calm, as if Bowie accepted his sombre and approaching fate.

In my opinion, the title track is his quitessential swansong: a sprawling epic that visits the whirlwind of emotions one has before their fateful end. It starts with one's difficulty of grasping and accepting their mortality, represented by Bowie's frightened and fragile vocals and the supernatural thematics, followed by an attempt of recomforting through ... read more

For the laymen, jazz's a hit or miss. Kind of Blue's quite the example of that.

You see, I don't get the fuss around it. Neither does a lot of people. I, just like my bunch of Kind-of-Blue skeptics, recognize this is the coolest of the coolest-sounding stuff for the cattest of the cats out there and in general an enjoyable chillout jazz record, but that's how far we're willing to compromise. No big stuff that differentiates it from a sea of other cool-sounding jazz releases. We're not to ... read more

No need to beat around the bush, folks. This is it: progressive rock's apex. Everything the genre stands for is represented in Close to the Edge most triumphantly: bombastic synthesizers, jaw-dropping complexity, classical influences, jazzy elements and a good pinch of innovation through a Yes-ish joviality and lightheartedness. If there's a band that can dillute the somewhat demanding nature of progressive rock into a shoreside sunny conversible ride it is Jon Anderson's delicate vocals and ... read more

Barrett's gone and Pink Floyd lost their psychedelic touch by now but they're mature and so is their sound and thus they follow up the groundbreaking Dark Side of the Moon with an even more groundbreaking Wish You Were Here. Their dissimilarity is glaring: DSotM is a collection of loosely linked ideas and psychedelic experiments whereas WYWH is a fluid space rock soap opera about their uneasiness regarding the long lost Syd mate. In here, Pink Floyd flirts with progressive rock much more ... read more

Sensual-sounding and highly reverbed and guitar-oriented rock. When it goes all out glam and loud it sparkles flamboyantly with catchy riffs, outrageous lyrics and passionate vocals- a bit less genderfluid than Christian Death's, but still vividly androgynous -, but when it slows down to emotional ballads it feels rather stale even if that type of song fits the intimate concept of Suede's debut.

The cover is revoltingly ugly - why the hell does that kid looks so weird, and why are the posters so abstractly placed like this is Cubism? - and the music sounds absolutely soulless. It's like Bon Jovi imbued with the worst glam and funk metal got to make this sound as accessible and poppish as possible. The only redeeming aspect here are Nuno Bittencourt's awing solos which combine melody, shredding and exaggerated distortion masterfully and a few of his riffs.

This sort of stuff justifies ... read more

Danny Brown unleashes his inner abyss in the form of an amazing rapping flow, lyricism that fluctuates between vulgar hedonism and existential ponderations, and most notably, a spectacular choice of instrumental, eclectic and enjoyable samples so vivid they sometimes seem to be played by a live band. One of Atrocity Exhibition's best characteristics, as I see it, is that more than often it simply defies the categorization of hip-hop. Can one tell me with a straight face tracks like Ain't it ... read more

Undoubtfully, it requires an amazing dose of skill to capture the gloomy and perverse atmosphere of black metal without needing to appeal to the incessant brutality of thunderous blast beats, tundra-cold power chords, and barely audible demonic shrieks, or black metal in general. To achieve this, Ved Buens Ende ventures further beyond any contemporary extreme metal act of theirs, into territories of technical innovativeness both rhythmical and melodically to achieve a mesmerizing ... read more

Beautiful, cozy, welcoming, soft, a predecessor of chiptune (and of Minecraft's soundtrack - there's no way C418 wasn't influenced by An Ode to African Violet when he made "Cat"), sometimes sounding innocent and others like a beautiful cosmic discoveries, Mort Garson's lovely Plantasia is the one-of-a-kind creation that manages to make cold and lifeless synthesizers and electronic paraphernalia the warmest musical hug I've ever heard. How amusing - the organic life's warmth and ... read more

It is untangible to argue that Meat Puppets' departure from their previous album to this was a bold movement. Fair enough, as frontman, singer and guitarrist Curt Kirkwood himself said, "were so sick of the hardcore thing". They transitioned from an incipiently-country-influenced hardcore, aggressive punk to a chilling all-out jangley cowpunk that emphasizes the cow over punk. The country influences are pristine, as you'd see on tracks such as Swimming Ground, Enchanted Porkfist and, ... read more

You see, Steven Wilson's had it all to make a helluva prog record: the networking (how many prog giants hasn't he played with?), the instruments (he's got a Moog and Jesus, who's got a Moog in 10s? These things cost like 30k), the experience (remastering dozens of prog classics), the ability to conjure moods and melodies of the elder genre, but he doesn't do it well at all in The Raven That blah blah. There's too many sonic homages to great bands of the past, and I say that ephemistically ... read more

American Football is not as insipid as I thought of it. My initial remarks were that, ugh, its emo and teenagey energy was too overbearing for me. It felt like the cliche soundtrack for an American teen movie breakup or longing feelings, despite an admitedly tasty guitars and maidenly technical musicianship. Observations made in a prog rock phase that loathed anything non-pompous, I think, because now I'm digging the riffs, guitar tuning and bittersweet progressions a lot more. Emotional ... read more

Let me begin my journey here by bringing out the big guns, starting with my controversial-yet-somewhat-cliche countercurrent opinion of Spiderland:

"The ambiance is foggy, murky, powerfully built; the storytelling is vivid and impeccable, but the music? Aside from a few moments of glory - the beautiful harmonics of Breadcrumb Trail's into - the music is dragging, boring. Seems like Slint spend 100% of their energy on concept but 0% on music. Had they focused on post-rock elements to the ... read more