Rob Smith’s Jungle Archive Collection 1 and 2
How can we think about music historically without turning it into a museum piece, a beautiful butterfly impaled on a pin? Bristol legend Rob Smith’s new Jungle Archive Collection 1 and Jungle Archive Collection 2 pose this question forcefully.(...)
Escapology, by Kode9
Kode9’s new record, Escapology: Music from Darien, is a strange document, yet all the more compelling for that strangeness.(...)
Folk on Acid, by OOPUS
If you stumbled upon Estonian band OOPUS at a festival, where many different acts are on the schedule, it might take you a few minutes to realize how special they are.(...)
Sounds of Survival: From Ukrainian Underground
Sounds of Survival: From Ukrainian Underground is so consistently good that its social function almost seems extraneous. We should have been listening to this music before we felt it was our democratic duty.(...)
AAI, by Mouse on Mars
AAI, the new album by storied German electronic group Mouse on Mars, is the rare concept album in which form and content are equals.(...)
Acid Arab’s Jdid
Acid Arab’s second album Jdid is a blast. Like its 2016 predecessor Musique de France it draws equally from different electronic dance subgenres of the 1980s and 1990s and a wide range of vocal and instrumental music from North Africa and the Middle East. But this time, the portmanteau aspect of their tracks feels less random. (...)