the new backwards
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 […]
Romance, “You Must Remember This (Expanded Edition)” (Ecstatic 2020/2025)
Newly issued on vinyl in remastered and expanded form (and almost instantly sold out), 2020’s You Must Remember This was the mixtape that first introduced this anonymous London-based project to […]
The Humble Bee, “Morning Music” (Cotton Goods (2010)/Dauw (2025)
Newly remastered and reissued for the first time ever, Morning Music was the second handmade release from Craig Tattersall’s solo tape music project. Notably, Tattersall had already been involved in […]
Skullflower, “Draconis” (Cold Spring, 2014)
It is hardly newsworthy to report that a Skullflower album is a blackened, face-melting fusillade of gnarled guitar noise or that it sounds like shoegaze turned occult and murderous, but […]
The Shadow Ring, “Hold Onto I.D.” (Siltbreeze (1997) / Blank Forms (2025))
Newly reissued, this singular 1998 album is billed as arguably being The Shadow Ring’s best-known and most accessible album, but there are a couple of important caveats to that claim. […]
The Shadow Ring, “Wax-Work Echoes” (Corpus Hermeticum (1996) / Blank Forms (2025))
Amusingly, The Shadow Ring’s third album was originally intended to be a collection of outtakes and live recordings for Bruce Russell’s new Corpus Hermeticum label, but a crucial recording from […]
Anadol, “Uzun Havalar” (Kinship (2018)/Pingipung (2019))
This 2018 album was not Anadol’s debut, but it was definitely the first album from the project that actually managed to reach a wide audience (quite deservedly, since it is […]
ssabæ, “azurescens” (Few Crackles, 2022)
This is the third album from an enigmatic and self-described “nebula of friends gathering in studios, meadows and tiny apartments all over France” and fittingly borrows its name from a […]
lilien rosarian, “a day in bel bruit” (Self-Released, 2019)
This self-released 2019 debut from NY-based tape loop artist Lilien Rosarian has become something of an underground cult classic, but there is not a hell of a lot of biographical […]
Nein Rodere, “Form & Feeling” (Horn of Plenty, 2023)
This wonderfully unique and unsettling album is the work of Berlin-based artist David Roeder, who apparently has a background in both painting and psychodynamic art therapy. The latter adds quite […]
the fun years, “baby, it’s cold inside” (Barge (2008)/Keplar (2025))
Newly remastered and reissued, this drolly titled 2008 album is generally regarded to be the jewel of the fun years’ discography, so it is quite a pleasant surprise to have […]
Cucina Povera, “Hilja” (Night School, 2018)
This was the debut album from Glasgow-based voice artist Maria Rossi, who originally hails from Finland. The project’s name translates as “poor kitchen” and is a reference to an Italian […]