archived brainwashed reviews
Zoviet France, “Misfits, Looney Tunes, and Squalid Criminals” (Red Rhino, 1986)
This 1986 album was the beginning of Zoviet France’s Charm, Ceremony, Chance, Prophecy tetralogy and continued the collective’s shift away from harsher textures and lo-fi production towards a cleaner and […]
Pauline Oliveros, “Reverberations: Tape & Electronic Music 1961-1970” (Important, 2012)
This has got to be one of the most improbable, altruistic, and quixotic box sets ever produced, as it compiles 12 albums worth of almost entirely unreleased material from Oliveros’ […]
Deep Listening Band, “Octagonal Polyphony” and “Great Howl at Town Hall” (Important, 2012)
Pauline Oliveros’ best-known and influential work is 1989’s Deep Listening, recorded in a massive, reverberant cistern. In the years since that landmark effort, Pauline has founded The Deep Listening Institute, […]
Daphne Oram, “The Oram Tapes: Volume One” (Young Americans, 2011)
Despite being one of the most visionary and iconoclastic artists to emerge from the early days of electronic music (as well as a rather fascinating and enigmatic person), Daphne Oram […]
Motion Sickness of Time Travel (Spectrum Spools, 2012)
Although my initial enthusiasm for this project has been dampened somewhat by Rachel Evans’ deluge of similar-sounding releases, her ambitious and divergent debut for Editions Mego’s Spectrum Spools imprint demonstrates […]
James Blackshaw, “Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death” (Important, 2012)
As much as I’ve always enjoyed Blackshaw’s work, solo acoustic guitar albums have never quite been my favorite thing and I always wished he would record something else as ambitious […]
Duane Pitre, “Feel Free” (Important, 2012)
Pitre’s latest composition is certainly an impressive and mesmerizing one, but it is quite a daunting challenge to find words to describe quite why it works so well. Built around […]
Black to Comm, “Earth” (De Stijl, 2012)
I can’t remember the last time that I was this wrong-footed and bewildered by an album. Ostensibly, this is a soundtrack for a silent Ho Tzu Nyen film, but it […]