By David C. Obenour on November 16, 2012

Committed psych, folk and early metal music crate-diggers could probably reference a vast and rich collection of LPs from the ’60s and ’70s that Eternal Tapestry’s work fits nicely alongside. For those of us outside that dusty and bespectacled record-fair-attending subset, know that Eternal Tapestry have brought together a wicked batch of psych-rock boogie that keeps you reeling from start to finish. Words like “cosmic,” “organic” and “jam” can get thrown around a lot and with good reason. A World Out of Time is inspired by the live show, so the jams come in and out like waves crashing against the inner ear of your mind. There’s also a painting of a space station on the cover. By now you...

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By Paula Mejia on November 15, 2012

Jim Jarmusch’s cult-acclaimed film work, heavily drenched with atmosphere and carefully crafting a milieu in the stead of a traditional plot, always retains a prevalent musician’s sensibility. Unsurprisingly, his musical collaboration with Dutch lute player and minimalist composer Jozef Van Wissem is as cerebral and dramatic as you’d expect. Loaded with dissonance and drones, the entrancing “Flowing Light of the Godhead,” in particular, exemplifies Jarmusch’s ability to create textured guitarlines billowing with white noise. Title track “Mystery of Heaven” washes over with an eerie tranquility as the listener passes as a transient into Jarmusch’s profound world, somewhere in the strange...

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By Kurt Orzeck on November 15, 2012

If Malcolm Gladwell happens to need more case subjects to test his “10,000-Hour Rule,” Guided by Voices get the indie-rock vote hands-down. All of us (including frontman Robert Pollard) have lost count of how many records the Dayton legends have released. But Bears is their third this year alone, a fact that is stunning in its own right. And for a band that was never expected to return as recently as a few years ago, that’s Woody Allen–level good. Bears opens with the rollicking “King Arthur the Red,” probably the best GBV track of 2012. But then they rush off the stage and retreat to a back room. “Dome Rust” is a dead ringer for a dusted-off demo, while the droney “Skin to Skin Combat”...

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By Clare R. Lopez on November 14, 2012

Over the years, Sarah Assbring, better known as El Perro Del Mar, has shaped both love and loss into the sound of sweet melancholy. Yet her latest album, Pale Fire, tempers the saccharine by adopting a coat of frost. Setting the stage for the following songs, the title track opens the record with a crisp horn holding out a few steady notes. Before long, Assbring softly chants conflicting emotions, singing, “Never grow tired of this pale, pale fire/Never get out of this pale, pale fire,” which merges with ever blooming and retracting layers of icy electronics. While 2009’s Love Is Not Pop is delicately laced with melodic beats, this record boldly wields them with a ’90s bent from the...

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By Adam Pollock on November 14, 2012

The master minimalist may have outdone himself. Eno’s composition, presented in four parts all named, minimally, “Lux,” and delineated as “1,” “2,” “3” and “4,” add up to an hour-plus slow-moving soundscape of piano, loops and keyboards that oftentimes borders on the ephemeral. Information about the release is just as nominal; Lux “evolved from artwork housed in the Great Gallery of the Palace of Venaria in Turin, Italy,” but doesn’t specify which pieces, or how said tunes evolved. The history of musicians influenced by other art forms is certainly significant, and the leading disciple of that mindset could arguably be frequent Eno collaborator David Bowie, but where Bowie wore his...

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By Daniel Kohn on November 13, 2012

The indie-psych sounds of Writer, the brainchild of brothers James and Andy Ralph, can be deceiving. On Brotherface, an ambitious debut that was recorded on a four-track, the duo experiment with a varying degree of lo-fi, while crafting a collection of songs that they can call their own. Fuzzy guitars give “Swamp Fire Lake” and “Cash for Gold” the type of menacing intensity that would be at home in a horror film or, at the very least, on a Crazy Horse album. It’s when they decide to take things down a notch, like on the crunchy, Pinkerton-sounding “Hot Days” and “Miss Mermaid,” that the Ralphs are at their most melodic and harmonious best. However, louder doesn’t necessarily sound better,...

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By Paula Mejia on November 13, 2012

The Babies create indie folk tunes that are, on the surface, sweet. Yet where Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone and Woods’ Kevin Morby display a refined talent is in having their most morbid thoughts still shimmer with a youthful glow. Fuzzy while never saccharine, Our House on the Hill dispels any notion of a sophomore slump. With the entrance of bassist Brian Schleyer, and solid, plucky guitarlines, the result is a sumptuous follow-up, particularly with “Get Lost,” while “Slow Walkin” hits as a rambling soundtrack to aimless highway drives. Reaching outward from their traditional garage-folk vibe, “That Boy” forays with down-home riffs and country licks, while “Baby” reverberates with a...

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By Tamara Vallejos on November 13, 2012

On Clinic’s 2010 record, Bubblegum, Liverpool’s surgical-mask-wearing foursome took its frenetic post-punk into new, relatively subdued territory. That laidback aesthetic is again present on Clinic’s latest, Free Reign, but it’s morphed into something significantly trippier, and infinitely more seductive. Each of the record’s nine tracks casts a uniquely hypnotic spell that transports us into varying landscapes; “Cosmic Radiation,” with its groovy, pulsating jazz foundation, sends us onto a sprawling, free-floating journey to the edges of space and back, while “King Kong” takes us into dark, smoky rooms, where each flash of a strobe light uncovers a deliciously illicit deed. Common...

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By Gianna Hughes on November 12, 2012

Although Dirty Projectors released Swing Lo Magellan earlier this year, the band has already returned with an EP centered around one of the LP's most resonant tracks, "About to Die." The four-song EP cannot only be viewed as an extension of Swing Lo Magellan, but as a thematic examination of "About to Die." In comparison, the EP is not as polished as its full-length companion, but it can be viewed as a peek into David Longstreth's process—the female harmonies are mostly absent from this EP—or merely as another solid collection of songs by Dirty Projectors. Either way, the band has proved time and time again that their innovation knows no bounds.

About to Die opens with its title track,...

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By Gianna Hughes on November 12, 2012

The Soft Moon’s sophomore album Zeroes is an experimentation in industrial sound that doesn’t fully hit the mark. At times, you are able to lose yourself to the layering of apocalyptic sound. And at others, you can become distracted by the urgency of the synthesizers, droning vocals or anxiety-laden tones. Surely, you will need to witness Zeroes in a live setting to fully experience the sensory effects Luis Vasquez was aiming to encapsulate. 

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