archived brainwashed reviews
Rashad Becker, “Traditional Music of Notional Species, Vol. 1” (PAN, 2013)
Rashad Becker is a fairly revered and influential figure in experimental music circles due to his role as the resident mastering genius at Basic Channel’s Dubplates studio. That association is […]
The Dead C, “Armed Courage” (Ba Da Bing, 2013)
There is something endearingly heroic about The Dead C, as they have been gleefully blurring the lines between inspired deconstructionist rock and messy, half-assed indulgence to widespread indifference for almost […]
Alessandro Cortini, “Forse, Volume One” (Important, 2013)
Cortini is best known as a member of Nine Inch Nails and How to Destroy Angels, but his work with Trent Reznor is quite a bit different from this opening […]
“Bambara Mystic Soul: The Raw Sound of Burkina Faso 1974-1979” (Analog Africa, 2013)
Situated right in the middle of West Africa’s musical hotbed (Ghana and Nigeria are close neighbors), the country of Burkina Faso has remained relatively unanthologized thus far, a situation that […]
Legendary Pink Dots, “The Gethsemane Option” (Metropolis, 2013)
To the casual observer, it probably seems like either Edward Ka-Spel or The Legendary Pink Dots release (or re-release) an album just about every other week these days, but there […]
“Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s & ’80s” (Soundway, 2013)
There are certainly a number of fine labels currently trawling record bins in Jamaica, Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia in search of great lost, unheard, or forgotten music, but […]
Thomas Leer & Robert Rental, “The Bridge” (Industrial (1979)/Mute(1992))
Synthpop pioneer Thomas Leer may have flirted with mainstream success in the ’80s as one-half of Act (with Propaganda’s Claudia Brücken), but he definitely traveled in some weirder circles as a […]
Vox Populi!, “Half Dead Ganja Music” (Cthulhu (1987)/Pacific City Sound Visions (2013))
One of the great tragedies of being an experimental music fan is knowing that there was a mountain of great albums released during the cassette underground’s ’80s heyday that I […]