Home

Album Review: Ape School – Ape School (Counter)

apeschoolApe School – The Underground.mp3
MP3: Ape School – The Underground from Demo (2003)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: Ape School – My Intention (Yppah Remix)

A recent conversation with Michael Johnson of Philadelphia-based solo project Ape School revealed a frustrating truth: tastes, and therefore influences, are now running in ever-shortening duration.

In a feature article about his new self-titled release in Remix where he was asked cite his top ten biggest influences — a list which contained works by David Bowie, Scott Walker, and the Flaming Lips — Johnson’s was met with slack-jawed bemusement by the editors. Funny, as these works have traditionally been considered fairly standard fare for such inventories. So what’s a self-described “Todd Rundgren-ripoff” destined for in this day and age, especially when his most recent work is released by the subsidiary of a label that’s primarily known for its drum and bass pedigree?

The cut-out bin, apparently. Read the rest…

Album Review: Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us (Graveface)

black-moth-cover-eating-usReviewing a Black Moth Super Rainbow record is ultimately kind of a ridiculous proposition.  After all, this is a band that essentially puts out the same record over and over, release after release (Pitchfork, in fact, leveled this very criticism at the band in a recent review).  In the hands of many bands, this would most definitely be a bad thing…but criticisms like that just don’t work here. So, the news is: this is more of the same.

And I, for one, certainly couldn’t be happier.

Read the rest…

Album Review: Against the Intentional – Joseph Hammer’s Dynasty Suites (Melon Expander)

joseph-hammer

Everyone welcome our newest contributor, Matt Byars. Matt runs West Main Development, who released the transcendent Nathan Bell @ 2640.

Photo credit: Angeline Evans

Anyone who has ever looked for inspiration knows that looking for it is the last way to find it.

When do moments of inspiration actually arrive? Usually when we’re ill-prepared to meet them: in the shower, in the car on the way to work, the dark of the movie theater.

Creating these situations artificially, thus allowing these moments to find you rather than the other way around, is the premise of many improvisational and “experimental” musics; LA-based experimental mainstay Joseph Hammer is one of the most compelling practitioners of this approach.

Read the rest…