archived brainwashed reviews
Our Love Will Destroy The World, “Fucking Dracula Clouds” (Blackest Rainbow, 2009)
Our Love Will Destroy The World’s debut full-length (2009’s Stillborn Plague Angels) was a strikingly ugly, cathartic, and demonic affair that seemed to take guitar-based noise to its logical extreme. […]
Richard Skelton, “Landings” (Type, 2009)
Richard Skelton has been quietly amassing a small but deeply devoted following for the last five years with a series of beautifully packaged self-released albums under a constantly changing series […]
Dean McPhee, “Brown Bear” (Hood Faire, 2009)
Dean McPhee’s debut EP takes a divergent path from the current prevailing solo guitar trends, venturing into neither Fahey/Basho-inspired steel guitar virtuosity nor pedal-stomping soundscapes. Instead, Brown Bear quietly captures […]
“Africa Boogaloo: The Latinization of West Africa” (Honest Jon’s, 2009)
One of the best international compilations that I heard this year was Tumbélé, which examined the impact of African music on the Caribbean. Africa Boogalo is its logical counterpoint, providing […]
Black to Comm, “Alphabet 1968” (Type, 2009)
Black to Comm’s Marc Richter is an artist that perpetually seems to be on the verge of releasing an absolute masterwork, always creeping closer and closer but never quite nailing […]
“Tumbélé!: Biguine, Afro & Latin Sounds from the French Caribbean, 1963-74” (Soundway, 2009)
There has certainly been a flood of excellent African and Latin compilations released over the last few years, but Soundway seems to have outdone themselves (and everyone else) with this […]
“Siamese Soul: Thai Pop Spectacular 1960s-1980s Vol. 2” (Sublime Frequencies, 2009)
This follow-up to 2008’s beloved Shadow Music of Thailand ambitiously expands the scope of its predecessor to cover three decades of Thai pop in Sublime Frequencies’ characteristically non-comprehensive and freewheeling […]
“Shadow Music of Thailand” (Sublime Frequencies, 2008)
Now reissued on CD after a very limited vinyl-only release in 2008, this fun and absurd compilation of not-quite-surf may very well be the last (and first?) word on the […]