Reviews of Music, Movies, Anime & More

In this edition: Pastoral post-rock, bombastic indie-prog, emotional folk-rock, and elegant guitar instrumentals.

Wilderness represents a new benchmark for the dreamwave genre, a record that’s as soulful and sleek as it is synthetic and sinister.

Stripped of his usual pomp, Sufjan’s latest explores his relationship with his troubled mother with grace, compassion, and brutal honesty.

An interesting glimpse of the earlier days of a band currently enjoying a renaissance.

Disasters isn’t just Forster’s most experimental release to date; it’s also one of his best and most emotional.

The sort of downtempo music that’s best listened to when you’re too tired to stay awake but not tired enough to go to bed yet.

Dynamic Stillness is one of the more challenging Steve Roach releases; it’s not without its rewards, but it makes its own demands of the listener.

Regardless of why Luxury released a new album after a decade, I’m glad they did; simply put, Trophies contains the best music I’ve ever heard from them.

Hypnosis is difficult material that takes the listener on a mental journey through surreal and haunting places.

For all of their engineering, programming, and whatnot, it’s to Silver’s credit that these songs never seem sterile or artificial.

Not all of the remixers remain faithful to Makeup and Vanity Set’s sonic aesthetic, and thankfully so.

The sort of meandering instrumental music that makes you yearn for autumn to paint the leaves and bring a sharp edge to the air.

Perturbator’s music can be deeper and more affecting than its “shocking” artwork and cyberpunk themes initially suggest.

Imagine a sci-fi/fantasy amalgam featuring feather-haired space knights soaring through the cosmos on metallic steeds, wielding blades of cyber-mithril and saving maidens from evil nebula dragons.

This is the sound of musical equipment being tortured and pushed to its limits until the envelope isn’t just breached, but rather, punctured, shredded, and burnt to a crisp by the exit velocity.

Mise en Abyme is a fascinating, disturbing, enthralling, unsettling listen, and one of the most accomplished Raison d’être releases to date.

Ceremony doesn’t bring anything new to the shoegaze formula; rather, they take the genre’s hallmarks and just turn them up way past 11.

This may be neo-folk, but don’t expect an album full of nothing but blissed out psych-folk or martial industrial numbers.

A collection of poignant solo piano pieces that’s perfect for looking at faded photographs and thumbing through dusty old books.

The brevity of Amir Abbey’s haunting ambient pieces belies their emotional effect.