The desolate American plains. All quiet, apart from the meandering wind and calmly flowing water. Maybe... a little too quiet. You've been out here for days, with only your horse to keep you company. As tumbleweeds blow by, you feel your mind grow delirious.

Being a traveller ain't easy.

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True Vine - ... read more

Heaven, the ideal world. It will never be true, but it's nice to dream.

Earth, the real world. It is cruel and twisted, but only if you pay too much attention.

When these worlds collide, the product is symbolised by this album.

A united world of Yin and Yang.

This music is the product of pure pain and sorrow, drowned within metric tons of anguished reverb to the point of being near unrecognisable. It's... it's just horrible and agonising pain. There's nothing else to say about it.

Favourite tracks: i want to be with you, ★ you dance like the june sky
Album cover: 9/10

Lying down on the seafloor, face up. Tall, thin towers of kelp and small colourful fish swishing around in the corners of your vision. The lightshow of the waters' surface dancing on the sand. Secluded serenity.

Album cover: 7/10

This album feels slimy, grimy and sludgy. Stinky, rotten and smelly. It's an incredible unique piece of music, and honestly shouldn't even be called black metal, but I'd have no idea what other term to use. I have truly heard nothing like it before.

Favourite tracks: Primo Vere, ★ L'Adeiu Au Soleil
Album cover: 9/10

Pr.
Embo beach. An incredibly important and magical place to me. It was my last night staying there, and I was standing on the veranda looking out to the North Sea with Norway directly in front of me. My headphones were on, and I was listening.

All that follows really did happen tonight.

Part I
The water was choppy, the clouds were thick, and the wind was cold and strong. I felt unsafe, like the sea could swallow me up at any time, even from the distance I was situated at. I felt terrified. ... read more

One of the most heartwrenchingly beautiful and bittersweet things I have ever heard. I am still on the verge of tears while writing this. The last song especially just blew me to smithereens, what an absolute tearflower of a track. Incredible album.

Please listen to this if you love albums like Pink Moon and Magnolia Electric Co. It's a similar masterpiece, just as powerful and emotional, but incredibly overlooked.

Favourite tracks: Kiss Another Day Goodbye, Life and Times on the Beach, ★ ... read more

A baby, who was horrifically disfigured at birth and forced into society as an unrecognisable Elephant "Man". She has since recovered and become a woman, but the past she had and the past she didn't have still haunt her greatly to this day.

Who knows what may happen to her.

Every member of the band is so tight and instrumentally talented, the lyrics are great, it's so groovy and eargasmic, some of the songs are really beautiful, it all just has this crazy aroma to it that I love so much. It's an album of pure feel, and no album has never made me feel this way before.

Favourite tracks: Teeth Like God's Shoeshine, Lounge (Closing Time), Truckers Atlas, Styrofoam Boots / It's All Nice On Ice Alright
(I can't pick one)
Album cover: 8/10

Sitting uncomfortably with a headache in a torn leather chair, your eyes fixated on an abstract painting of various shapes and fiery colours, inside a hot, sweaty & muggy room.

At first, the chaos was ugly. It didn't sound good at all, and it made me feel both greatly overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time.

But, eventually... I found peace, in the eye of the storm.

This album's rating would be much higher from me if it weren't for the production. A lot of the ideas here are absolutely incredible, but they just don't sound that good 😭 Although, I did get a bit used to it towards the end. Ah well, she still needs to work on that mixing, the voice especially is very loud and flat over the rest sometimes

Also, the intro and outro tracks were genuinely some of my favourites. "Orð Hjartans" even reminded me a bit of "Look At Me Go" ... read more

Oh, my! The traditional jazz pop and bossa nova instrumentals are beautiful, her voice is deep and seductive, the vibe is immaculate, the occasional orchestral elements make me feel like I'm in a 1940s Walt Disney movie... my god, it's incredible.

This woman has so much more potential to uncover, and I can't wait to see it. She is clearly one of our generation's biggest talents. Bravo!

Favourite tracks: While You Were Sleeping, ★ California and Me, From the Start, Bewitched
Album cover: 8/10

The piano sends me to another place... a place of tranquility, void of worry and responsibility. It's over in a flash, and then the voices start to play. From there, it's not as transcendental, but it's still quite nice.

After all, this was the birth of a new genre. Amateurism was to be expected.

Favourite track: 1/1
Album cover: 9/10

Cold steel and hard plastic. Concrete walls, concrete floors, corrugated metal roof. One bright white buzzing strip light.

I'm locked in.

...

My mind is getting foggy.

Hey, let's go! Hey, let's go! I'm happy as can be!
Let's go walking, you and me - Ready, set, come on, let's go!
Over the hill, across the field, through the tunnel we'll go;
We'll run across the bridge, and down the bumpy, gravel road!
Right beneath the spider's web.. Ready, set, let's go!

My Neighbour Totoro is my number one favourite movie of all time. It's absolutely chock-full of life, magic, joy, wonder and innocence. And this soundtrack ... read more

I. "Dunkelheit" - "Absence of light"
The storm is now in its full onset. The howling wind and the violent rustling of leaves fill your entire sonic periphery. Your strength siphons as the Northern Gods punish you for your past, and the chill of the winter air viciously bites your skin like a feeding pack of wolves.
You cannot push on for much longer.

II. "Jesus' Tod" - "The death of Jesus"
You may be seeing things... but there is a figure, atop the ... read more

⚡WILCO⚡ | ... | ☹️💿

👌😏 ☹️ | 👉⚡ | ⚡😬⚡

⚡SCHMILCO⚡ | ⚡🎵💿 | 🎵😁💃🎵

It's a crime that this album only has a 76 user score. 12 London-based musicians have teamed up to form a one-off group, and made a giant 50th-anniversary tribute to one of the greatest jazz albums of all time, Bitches Brew, and it unironically ended up being almost as good as the album it was celebrating. What an experience. Literally one of the best albums of the year, y'all are sleeping on this

Favourite tracks: ★ London Brew / Trainlines, Raven Flies Low

Kyema [continuous existence]
The tired river flows its final year.
There is true peace.

Kailasha [silver mountain]
The tired river runs shallow, and the dry season begins.
There is not true peace.

Koumé [small plum]
The tired river is reduced to its final drops.
There is true peace in fear.