Where have all the philosophers gone? They’re still out there, of course. Intelligence - though seemingly in widespread recession - isn’t extinct: it’s simply multiplied. Gentrified. Found a change of address. Shirked a certain requisite hierarchy and caste. They aren’t called ’Socrates’ and ‘Aristotle’ anymore - demarcated from the modern person by names we’d find…
The ultimate beauty of ambient music (whatever frilly adjectives or microgenric metrics you’d prefer to stylize it by or measure it against) is how all-encompassing it becomes when effectively employed. Far too often, though, more than just the listener is at risk of envelopment. As with all extreme applications of art - and, lest we…
As one half of the remarkable Barn Owl as well as accumulating a sizeable body of work under the banners of Elm, Vallens, and - most recently - his own name, Jon Porras’ last decade was as diverse as it was expansive, exploring drone, psychedelia, post-rock, free-folk, doom metal, and various strains of electronica; Tokonoma…
If your initial impression of Memphis, TN’s Nonconnah is that they sound remarkably like North Carolinian drone institution Lost Trail, pat yourself on the back: although Zachary and Denny Wilkerson Corsa have left both name and place behind, last year’s The Gloom & The Glowing CD-R proves that the fruits of their labour still boast…
The Parlour Trick are the Californian duo of neo-Victorian visionary Meredith Yayanos and Emmy-winning composer Dan Cantrell. Conceived as a solo Yayanos vehicle in the mid-aughts, 2009 saw the project find firm identity as a collaboration with Cantrell whenever the former (then New Zealand-based) visited Oakland. Over three years, the pair expertly hewed their self-described…