An iconic poet/musician whose soulful spoken-word style helped give rise to rapping, Gil Scott-Heron presents his second “comeback” album this week — an atmospheric, down-tempo disc of diversity that is produced by XL owner Richard Russell.
Crafting powerful folk abstractions and interwoven, trance-inducing vocal dynamics, Pillars and Tongues issues a new LP and download; metal behemoths Arsis boast more tireless harmonized shredding; dance-pop quintet Hot Chip shines with a diversity of synth sounds; and internationally beloved electronic producers Massive Attack end a seven-year album drought. Read the rest of this entry »
Sage Francis‘ new album features Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron and Wine), Jim Becker and Tim Rutili (Califone), and songwriting by Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), Tim Fite, and members of Calexico, DeVotchKa, and Sparklehorse.
“We specifically sought out songwriters who had never worked with a rapper,” Francis explains. Read the rest of this entry »
Beginning February 4 visitors to the Brooklyn Arts Council Gallery will be able to see Glitch Generation, a group exhibition of artworks based off of mistakes, intentional or not, in the wiring of our brains.
Norway, Iceland, and Italy: it’s an all-international edition of This Week’s Best Albums.
Having transitioned from acoustic jazz to a prog-jazz-fusion outfit, Shining now delivers a gargantuan rock release, capturing a progressive industrial sound unlike anything else.
Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason presents a debut that is sorrowful, forceful, harmonic, and delicate — an album that undoubtedly will make year-end lists in classical circles.
Lastly, Italian cutup artist Økapi pays homage to a potentially fake Krygyz composer with a soothing glitch-lounge effort. Read the rest of this entry »
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The New Orleans Museum of Art kicks off its 2010 Contemporary exhibition January 29 through May 2 with New Orleans artists Quintron and Miss Pussycat. Parallel Universe: Quintron and Miss Pussycat Live at City Park is designed to get audiences acquainted with the artists’ past work while exposing their new work.
We got a sneak peek at the artwork for Freeway & Jake One’s new album, The Stimulus Package (Feb. 16th, Rhymesayers) created by hip hop design star Brent Rollins. Read the rest of this entry »
Guzheng virtuoso Bei Bei and prolific producer Shawn Lee team up to deliver what will be one of the year’s finest albums, a tour through funky down-tempo jams and Kung-Fu flavor that is driven by the tactile beauty of an ancient Chinese instrument.
With its third album, Algernon places greater emphasis on synthesizers and sprawling song structures, but at its core is the combination of accessibility and technicality that has defined bandleader Dave Miller’s style.
And in a great week for releases, the Chicago Underground Duo releases another dichotomy of avant-garde jazz, grooves, and programming, while electronic composer Noah Creshevsky crafts musical patchworks from samples of orchestras, vocalists, pop music, and much more. Read the rest of this entry »
Like countless other works of art, Aaron Lake Smith’s zines were born out of boredom. The author of Big Hands and Unemployment recalls how he got started in writing, in 2004: “I spent a summer living in a moldy garage behind an anarchist collective in Greensboro, North Carolina. All my friends were gone, and I had nothing else to do.” Read the rest of this entry »
Man or Astro-Man? are going to reform, again (they did it twice in 2006) at SXSW this year. They’ll also play a one-off show March 6th at the Bottletree in Birmingham. Read the rest of this entry »
In the time of the recession, cities all over the world have started using empty storefronts as pop-up art galleries. Pop-Up Art Loop is the latest initiative put into place by the Chicago Loop Alliance and features four art galleries, creating partnerships between artists and property owners. Read the rest of this entry »
An iconic poet/musician whose soulful spoken-word style helped give rise to rapping, Gil Scott-Heron presents his second “comeback” album this week — an atmospheric, down-tempo disc of diversity that is produced by XL owner Richard Russell.
