Album review: Bixiga 70 – Quebra-Cabeça
Quebra-Cabeça is challenging music that requires, and rewards, close listening and careful attention. While it may seem intimidating and relentless, multiple listens open up a…
Author: Harrison Murray
Not Reely Dead: A Guide to Cassette Tapes
Remember cassettes? If not today, you will soon. The format, maligned by elitists and audiophiles in its own time as a cheaper, second-string alternative to…
Album review: Frank Zappa – We’re Only in It for the Money
A technical landmark and a vicious piece of satire, but not an easy listen. Genre: Psychedelic rock/free jazz/doo-wop/avant-garde Country: United States Release date: March 4,…
Album review: Manilla Road – Crystal Logic
A lot of white people, when they become acquainted with non-white music, remark on how “happy” or “carefree” it is. But I prefer to flip…
Album Review: Jupiter and Okwess – Kin Sonic
For all its poverty and deprivation, the Congo, as a land whose people are largely considered worthless to the global market, offers the musicians who…
Sleeve City Goes to the LEAF Festival
It was Subaru mating season. Tom and I stepped out of the car to find ourselves absolutely surrounded by Subarus, new and old, and not…
The Album is Dead, Long Live the Album?
The music album is dead. We’ve heard this refrain before, from Rolling Stone, from the lords of Silicon Valley, from legions of analysts, journalists, investors,…
Album review: Dream Theater – Images and Words
A taxidermy of dead music so well-done you’ll almost forget it’s dead. Genre: Neo-progressive rock/metal Country: United States Release date: July 7, 1992 (reissued 2013)…
Album review: Gryphon – Red Queen to Gryphon Three
Intriguing, beguiling, often beautiful—but is beautiful good enough? Genre: Progressive rock/contemporary classical Country: United Kingdom Release date: December 1974 Label: Bell Records Format: 12” vinyl…
Album review: King Crimson – Red
Despite the usual narratives about “raw” music, it is in fact the very technical proficiency that King Crimson bring to their instruments that gives Red…