thepurplemartin

Vineland Trio's sophomore effort encounters some strains of trying to develop their sound while still lacking on a level of cohesion. Not thematically — the atmosphere of this album is much better defined than on Origins — but on a more fundamental, musician-to-musician level. None of the instrumentalists on this album really get the chance to shine like they should, as the intense focus on the sparseness and spaciness of the bigger picture necessitates a limited neutering of ... read more

Aphex Twin’s Syro plays more like improvisational jazz than anything else. A song will come out swinging with a strong groove, which will develop, eventually succumb to entropy, get deconstructed and reconstructed, wander around a bit while the listener forgets that they’re even listening to the same song, and then it’ll suddenly snap into a new section and pull you back in. Every song is a self-contained journey of discovery. What’s crazy about this is that in spite of ... read more

Discovery is pure, uncut bliss, and has been a source of joy my entire life. I’m sure I drove my parents up the wall with how many times I played “One More Time” one more time, and I’m realizing now as I listen and write just how much I owe this album. Not just as a source of enjoyment, but as potentially the number one influence on my production choices when making my own music. There’s so many techniques and details here that I subconsciously imitate, and ... read more

Of all the artists I was exposed to frequently as a kid, Björk took one of the longest to actually click with me as an adult. I guess it makes sense — while Björk is well known by her childlike manner of speaking and appearance (at least back then), her song topics are firmly adult, spanning complex emotions, sexuality, and the quirks of humanity, and then later motherhood, grief, and death — but I’m still surprised that her electronic experimentalism didn’t ... read more