Lost Silence is a phrase that brings some sort-of melancholic comfort to me.

To be lost is to be found beforehand. An object, person, place, something has been known about, but it is not in sight. You yearn for its presence once more, and you’re constantly looking for a hint of its whereabouts.

Silence is… vacancy. To quote a certain short man who hates trumpets (if you know, you know, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha7smLPz2GY), “[Silence] serves as the foundation of ... read more

that’s my fucking childhood right there

There’s absolutely nothing comparable to the feeling of weightlessness.

Some time ago, I was watching a few works of Swiss filmmaker Georges Schwizgebel. During the 20th century, he created these brief and beautiful vignettes of short films. Cascades of color wash across the screen as abstract shapes take on appearances of trees, rooms, animals, and humanoids. The tangible feelings of his films are akin to that of dream sequences or lost memories, an endless waking daydream that ... read more

Bowing Down to Our Robotic Overlords - "Raw Data Feel" by Everything Everything

Everything Everything aren’t just anything. They really are everything, at least on their newest musical venture Raw Data Feel.

Exhibiting a tight concept about the troubling future of humankind, the record makes the listener feel like they’re on a dance floor at an apocalypse party. Everybody around you knows the dark fate of the human race, but there’s a nostalgic, bittersweet sense ... read more

Reviewing the music of Julius Eastman is a hard thing to do, let me tell ya.

There are extremely easy ways to categorize Eastman on the surface.
“Boring, too long.”
“Cool ideas here and there, but not much substance.”
“I can appreciate this, but I won’t be listening to it again.”
“Oh, a huge grouping of some sick minimalism work. Thanks for finding this!”

But, no. Alas, I think if you’d like to describe Eastman to anybody, these few ... read more

“Friends That Break Your Heart” Will Break Yours Too

VIDEO REVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7jWhwf9a8E
James Blake’s 2019 record “Assume Form” was the album that got me into listening to new music. It still holds quite a significance with me, being one of my favorite records of 2019, and one of my favorite albums of all time. And even then, James Blake has become one of my favorite artists as well.

Upon the announcement of his 2021 record “Friends ... read more

Low's Newest Release "Hey What" Will Leave You with a Bare Bones Sensation.

Something lays in the glitchy landscape. It’s a fuzzy, inconceivable blob of polygons, completely untouched by human sight. We know something is there, but we are so apprehensive that we become numb to the fear. Low’s “Hey What” evokes just that: an incomprehensible fear.

And yes, that was just my reaction. “Hey… what?”

Low’s last work, “Double ... read more

Last night, I awoke to my father screaming my name.

With a cup of mugwort tea and honey in hand, I read a chapter of House of Leaves before nodding off to sleep for the night…

My legs feel like they’re floating up, independent from the rest of my body. Slowly, gradually, chasing the ceiling to nowhere. Am I dreaming this feeling, or is something pulling them to the heavens? I will never know for sure. The next moment will stick with me forever.

My father screams my name from ... read more

“The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” ~L.P. Hartley

Guess what? No, I still haven’t gotten over my obsession with the best ska band of all time, Streetlight Manifesto. And no, I still haven’t gotten my retainer to fit on my teeth, mostly because I haven’t worn the damn thing in roughly eight months. What I’m about to tell you, is totally mind-blowing. It’s something that not even the highest authorities in the world know ... read more

VIDEO REVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuFAR4AbzpM
Is this Weezer’s most mature record to date? Absolutely!

“OK Human” sees the once hailed power pop group take on the chamber pop menace of a genre. It’s been nearly two years since they’ve released “The Black Album”, which was a mixed bag to say the least. The same year, they released a covers record, which I ended up enjoying a bit. It seems to me that Weezer are becoming one of the most ... read more

It feels like it has been one million days since it has rained in Tucson.

I'm cooped up in my room with a mug of smooth hot tea in hand, listening to Peter Gabriel's self-titled debut on vinyl. All of a sudden, I hear the dreary, dark smatterings of rain drops on my window.

I run to the front door and look out onto the street. Sure enough, the sky has broken this evening, petrichor sweeping through the damp air and sticking to the outside of the clear glass window. Is this a metaphorical ... read more

Today is the 20th anniversary of The Caretaker's "A Stairway to the Stars".
It is also my two year anniversary of joining AOTY.

So, there's a single question I've been pondering over the past couple weeks. It hasn't been pondered in the heat of an existential crisis or fit of sadness, just something that I've been toiling with for a while. When it comes to the question at hand, I'm most certainly not the only person who thinks it, visualizes it, or dreams it. The entire human race, ... read more

Welcome to the new year. I'm happy you're here, and so is Ken M.

Ken M's prior studio project "Climb", while it did have its emotional potency in essence, didn't have the intense calibre of instrumentation, performance, and delivery that I was looking for in a project with such heart and soul. The closer "Fear" is just one of those tracks that grips you to the core, despite its lo-fi/DIY mood. The record really feels like you're taking a deep dive into the head of the ... read more

What sticks out to you when you’ve found something you have yet to hear? Is it the cover art? The anticipation of what it might sound like? Or is it the brutal vagueness weighing you down to the point of exhaustion? Well, I found myself here, in this pit of uncertainty, going into Fire Man’s debut EP, “Overcoming the Cycle of Sun Collapse”.

Piquing my interest just as Lil Darkie did a year ago today, releasing a project on New Years Day has its positives and negatives. ... read more

As the sun beat down on the skin of the crooked man, the underside of his very being billowed with rage, angst, and the sudden urge to burn something or bite off somebody’s ear.

It was a sweltering, smoggy Atlanta morning. The air felt alive as every bustling person and speeding car zoomed through the dense particles of the sticky environment. I sat at the bus stop on MLK Jr. and Ted Turner, where I could almost taste the coffee from the lingering scents of the shop a couple steps ... read more

"Starmaker" is a record from this year that I've always had a hard time familiarizing myself with, whether it be because of the genre itself, or the fact that it's hard to pick apart, thematically. Whatever the case, it has to be one of my favorite country albums of all time.

Honey Harper's fragility is immensely gripping on this humble grouping of tracks, and that fragility is only heightened by the sheer brilliance of his vocal tone. He's a lonely lost soul clinging to the opaque ... read more

Let me start with this: I absolutely love Drain Gang!! The aesthetic each of their records create is divine, other-worldly, and alien to most of my tastes, filling a void I never knew I had. The most popular member of this collective is none other than Bladee, the somewhat hated Swedish rapper turned hyperpop artist who always seemed to get the raw end of the deal.

Against literally all of the odds, 2020 has been his year, with Bladee releasing a total of three albums spanning the same icy, ... read more

Why, yes! I do think enjoy this just as much as its predecessor, "Folklore"!
I wish I could tell you why, yet again... here goes nothing.

Well I do declare, Taylor sure caught us all off-guard this year, sharing TWO (count 'em) TWO folk-oriented albums over the course of just a couple months. The level of maturity really stacks up from her previous efforts, providing that immersive, personal, hometown feel that, most of the time, follows the standard folk aesthetic.

These melodies ... read more

Man, what a legend!

The spaceman himself Kid Cudi is back with a truly standout record in his discography. Even though its the third installment of his "Man on the Moon" series, the artist feels rejuvenated with a new sense of wisdom, power, and seldom curiosity in genre. For a man just so inspiring and inquisitive, he really knows where to hit your good spot.

This record calls to those who have been long time fans, those who have been banging "Erase Me" since its release. ... read more