archived brainwashed reviews
Elodie, “Vieux Silence” (Ideologic Organ, 2017)
For their latest album, the duo of Andrew Chalk and Timo van Luijk (Af Ursin) take an unexpected detour from their impressive run of limited self-released albums for an appearance […]
emptyset, “Skin” (Thrill Jockey, 2017)
This latest EP is something of a daring experimental coda to this year’s excellent Borders, as studio wizards James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas attempt to translate their crushing, frequency-saturated onslaught […]
Colleen, “A Flame My Love, A Frequency” (Thrill Jockey, 2017)
Cécile Schott has long been my absolute favorite kind of artist: the kind who thoughtfully and quietly pieces together wonderfully distinctive albums and tends to only surface when she has something […]
Carla dal Forno, “The Garden” (Blackest Ever Black, 2017)
Carla dal Forno’s latest EP is an absolute stunner, distilling her dark pop genius into four perfect gems of dreamy, intimate, haunted, and endearingly ramshackle beauty. Aside from being four […]
Midwife, “Like Author, Like Daughter” (Whited Sepulchre, 2017)
I have to admit that I was legitimately blindsided by this latest project from Sister Grotto’s Madeline Johnston, but I would have been eagerly anticipating it if I had been […]
TALSounds, “Lovesick” (Ba Da Bing, 2017)
Natalie Chami is best known for being one-third of Chicago’s Good Willsmith, but she has also been a prolific solo artist, releasing a slew of cassettes on labels like Hausu […]
Razen, “The Xvoto Reels” (three:four records, 2017)
As a devout fan of drone’s weirder fringes, I was casually aware of Razen before this album, but I had never taken the time to dive particularly deeply into their […]
“Pop Makossa – The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976-1984” (Analog Africa, 2017)
A new Analog Africa compilation is almost always a major event for me, particularly since the general trend is that they seem to get both better and more imaginative with […]