Reviews of Music, Movies, Anime & More

A very solid debut from a group that clearly knows their strengths and plays to them consistently from beginning to end.

Pascal Humbert’s cinematic music conjures up images of rundown desert locales and holes-in-the-wall.

Rainstick Orchestra’s music doesn’t quite come together in a way that ultimately satisfies.

The EP comes across as more an experiment, a toss-off than anything else.

Ultimately, only hardcore fans of the band need to pick this up.

Understated, subtle, patiently constructed electronic pop at its finest.

I find it rather troubling and disappointing that Piano Magic’s songs have become this predictable.

The fact that their music still has plenty of its own charm says something to me.

About as perfect a summation of Slowdive’s career as one can find.

Full of examples of why Kranky is one of the most essential — and consistent — labels currently out there in indie-dom.

Max Richter’s compositions possess an arresting and singular beauty.

The music seems designed to keep listeners as uncomfortable as possible, but Gang Gang Dance occasionally finds a solid groove in the chaos.

It’s not so much what Jurado sings but how he sounds doing it. (But what he sings is pretty darn good.)

At times, the album gets a little too relaxed, and Munk and Skott seem to rely a bit too much on the inherent loveliness of their sound palette to keep things interesting.

Because of the album’s truncated recording, it’s pretty raw and unfinished in places, more a work in progress suspended in time than anything else.

Whereas Soulwhirlingsomewhere’s debut was an intensely intimate recording, Everyone Will Evenutally Leave You has a more sombre and distant tone.

The songs are sparse yet warm, like Plaster is inviting me to hear revelations of his deepest anxieties and feelings.

Tales From the Oxygen Den is a pretty solid comp, and is quite inline with the label’s stated goal of respecting the past.

If there’s a heaven, I hope that this is the soundtrack.