Review of Bryce Miller’s “City Depths” at Starburst Magazine

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From the cover art, featuring a silhouetted man in a carpark, to the purple-tinged cassette, to the liner notes, Bryce Miller’s imaginary soundtrack, City Depths, is absolutely gorgeous in the way in conveys discomfort. As Miller states in the liner notes, the experience he’s hoping to communicate with this music is ‘a sense of uneasy stillness as the moon casts everything in darkness and shadow.’

Read the full review at Starburst Magazine. Published 12/2/16

Review of Glass Animals’ ‘How to Be A Human Being’ at Modern Vinyl

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While I’ve listened to Glass Animals’ How To Be A Human Being nearly a dozen times — I’m literally listening to it as I write this review — I can’t remember a single thing about it. It’s made absolutely no impression on me in any of those spins, despite trying headphones, sitting in front of the turntable, throwing a digital copy on my iPod and listening to it at work; it’s just mental vapor.

Read the full review at Modern Vinyl. Published 10/3/16

Review of Bryce Miller’s ‘WASP’ at Starburst Magazine

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Bryce Miller’s put together an interesting musical experiment with his release of WASP. He composed all of the music while reading his way through Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy (also known as “The Girl Who …” books). It’s pretty basic ambient music, for the most part, and while it really creates an atmosphere, which accurately reflects the cold world in which the Millennium Trilogy takes place, it’s not anything that really stands out, as one begins listening.

Read the full review at Starburst Magazine. Published 9/21/16

Review of Repeated Viewing’s ‘Frozen Existence’ at Starburst Magazine

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After several years of being a Bandcamp-only release, Repeated Viewing’s Frozen Existencefinds its way to physical release via Lunaris Records. Given that this was one of Alan Sinclair’s first releases as Repeated Viewing, it’s a lot more derivative than his more recent work, but as the score for a Lucio Fulci-esque supernatural gorefest, it certainly works well. Most of Frozen Existence is pretty much atmospherics which really didn’t grab this reviewer too much, but the opening and closing cuts are full on Fabio Frizzi Italo bangers.

Read the full review at Starburst Magazine. Published on 9/20/16

The Perfect John Carpenter LP at Modern Vinyl

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Perfect LP is a feature in which the Modern Vinyl writers take on the tall task of summarizing an artist or band’s career in an LP sized selection of tracks. Bypassing what was the single, what was the “hit” and what fans call for throughout shows, it’s time to decide what makes up the Perfect LP.

The Rules

The selections will total no more than 50 minutes.
The selections are arranged in logical fashion, as in how you’d like to hear them in a real tracklisting.

The Subject

John Carpenter, horror and sci-fi director, is known for iconic films such as Halloween, Escape From New York, and The Thing, but deserves as much credit as a composer and performer, primarily accompanying his visual work. After a lengthy hiatus in both films and music, he returned in 2015 with the release of full length Lost Themes on Sacred Bones. It was a collection of original music, ostensibly composed music for various things, but never used. It was followed up with the release of Lost Themes II earlier this year, as well as a sold-out international concert tour.

Listen to the LP and read my comments at Modern Vinyl. Published 9/19/16

Interview with Chrome Sparks at the Pitch

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In his guise as Chrome Sparks, Jeremy Malvin makes electronic music that is absolutely entrancing. You can dance to it, but calling it dance music would be reductive. He has released a slew of singles, EPs and remixes (of such acts as Fred Falke and the Glitch Mob). After four years, he’s finally poised to release his first full-length, out next year on Counter Records.

Read the full interview at the Pitch. Published 9/16/17

Q&A with Magnus Sellergren of Videogram at Starburst Magazine

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Sweden’s Magnus Sellergren is better known to you as Videogram, composer and maker of synth-driven cult film score homages, such as last year’s fantastic romp through the genres, Pre-Cert. His upcoming album, for Cineploit Records, is a bit more tightly-focused. The Gladiatori dell’ApocaliseEP pays tribute to the likes of The New Barbarians,Mad Max, and Exterminators of the Year 3000, and while a few cuts have that trademark horror disco sound, longtime Videogram fans will discover a whole new side of the musician. We spoke with Sellergren about the direction he’s taken with Gladiatori dell’Apocalise.

Read the Q&A at Starburst Magazine. Published 8/1/16

Review of the ‘Computered Love’ compilation at Modern Vinyl

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The compilations released by Private Records are a solid deep dive into the early electronic dance music and disco of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s Europe. Many of the cuts on their latest, Computered Love, chart a different course than what the label’s best known for though, which is a sort of space disco.

Read the complete review at Modern Vinyl. Published 7/28/16

Review of Repeated Viewing’s “Street Force” cassette at Starburst Magazine

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One of the best aspects of the music Alan Sinclair produces as Repeated Viewing is the fact that, for all of the faux mythologizing regarding his imaginary film scores, they actually tell a story through music. One can create artwork, a backstory, or some semblance of a plot summary, but all of that means nothing without music which could actually soundtrack said scenario.

Read the complete review of Repeated Viewing’s Street Force cassette at Starburst Magazine. Published 7/21/16

Review of SSQ’s “Playback” LP at Modern Vinyl

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For those who know SSQ, they likely only know the ‘80s synth act in terms of two things: either as “the band Stacey Q was in before ‘Two of Hearts’” or “that one band from the Return of the Living Dead soundtrack.” They’re both of those things, but also, something more: a band who had everything working for them, only to never quite make it, despite one well-received video (for “Synthicide”), as well as a slightly more notorious one (for “Screaming in My Pillow”).

Read the complete review of SSQ’s Playback LP at Modern Vinyl. Published 7/19/16