reviews of contemporary underground psych, drone, sound art, and electronic/experimental music from the fringes
Drew McDowall, “A Thread, Silvered and Trembling” (Dais, 2024)
For some reason, I slept on this fourth solo album from former Coil/Psychic TV visionary Drew McDowall, but I decided to go back and revisit it after being blown away […]
Vox Populi!, “Sucre De Pastèque” (Unlikely Records (1986)/Dark Entries (2025))
This erratic yet endlessly fascinating group of Parisian iconoclasts has been enjoying a bit of a well-deserved renaissance in recent years, as Spencer Clark’s 2013 reissue of their finest album […]
HAYWARDxDÄLEK (Relapse, 2025)
This excellent and unusual collaboration between septuagenarian This Heat drummer Charles Hayward and Dälek’s Will Brooks was written/improvised over two “feverish” days during a brief 2023 residency in Salford. By […]
Hilary Woods, “Night CRIÚ” (Sacred Bones, 2025)
This latest solo album from this Irish composer/filmmaker is an impressively radical and revelatory reinvention of her sound—especially for me, as I was only previously familiar with Woods’ more dark […]
Paul Jebanasam, “mātr” (Subtext, 2025)
It has been nearly a decade since this Bristol-based composer/sound designer last surfaced with a new album, but that long wait makes sense given his love of grand statements and […]
Clarice Jensen, “In holiday clothing out of the great darkness” (130701/FatCat, 2025)
Borrowing its title from a passage in Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet,” this fourth album from composer Clarice Jensen marks a return to the solo cello fare of her […]
Helena Silva, “Celeste” (Self-Released, 2025)
This debut full-length from Portuguese violinist/composer Helena Silva is a collection of pieces for violin and electronics that first began its life during a 2023 artist residency in Bali. Notably, […]
Saapato, “In Alaska” (AKP Recordings, 2025)
This latest one from upstate New York sound artist Brendan Principato is a collection of site-specific pieces inspired by field recordings made during a 2023 residency with the Alaska Park […]