#3502 The Field - Infinite Moment

2.5/5 atmospheric and patient, which can go a long way. But not sparse enough to work as nothing, not focused enough to work as something. Did not cause thought or feeling.

#3501 Czar and Scott Allen - Soul Provider EP

3.5/5 the horn samples give a nice breezy contrast to the otherwise overdark drum and bass sound. got a good soulful feel, though some of the samples give me an uncomfortable case of the Mobys

#3500 Interpol - Marauder

3.5/5 That first song's a killer, that perfect rolling beat, that insistent energy - about as catchy as Interpol gets. The Rover's good fun too. When its at its best, this is Interpol's most straightforwardly enjoyable album. But they don't have an album's-worth of hooks in the clip, and without the dark magic of their early stuff it gets a bit lifeless by the end

#3498 Kuniyuki Takahashi - Feather World

4/5 an album united by patience, repetition, groove, and otherwise unbeholden. Interflows of space disco, jazz, ambient electronic, polyrhythmic getdown, accoustic folk

#3497 Corridor - Supermercado

3.5/5 brittle-to-breaking guitars chug and chime along to the lazy motorik and its all rather enjoyable to the post-post-punk lover, even if it never really goes for the throat (and plays all the more formless if you don't understand the French

#3496 Yasuaki Shimizu - IQ 179

4/5 see! This is why albums matter! There's songs on here so packed with enough crooning, saxes, and guitars that you'd call it as schlock. But the rest is so weird, alternately chopped to pieces, spare and breathful, repetitively nightmarish, endlessly neon, until it all melts into a pop-art experimental synthwave prophecy. I'm not sure I even like any of the weird songs on their own (title track in particular is a dud), but the combined effect is so hypnotic and strange that it's an enthralling listen.

#3495 Susumu Yokota - Symbol

4/5 we sample so many things, but not classical, not like this. girl talk for the erudite-adjacent, these little flickers of familiarity, looped and crossed across. overly intellectual and yet. right novel this, lush, pulling across time, soft and seductive

#3494 Daft Punk - BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix 1997

4/5

Listen here!

Never feel totally comfortable listing mixes etc here, but this is a gudn. That flow, and extra props to those old school turntable moves, making something more out of seconds of sounds, slamming those sliders. Praise to true scientists

#3493 Andy McKee - Art of Motion

3/5 dexterity incarnate, with all the feel and flow you can pull from one instrument with two hands, words where there are none. And god, whatever happens on that closer; devastating, unforgettable.

Though. Look. I get that this is the Andy show, and it's all about what he can do with just his guitar, and a certain crowd will appreciate the purity. But imagine what this could do if it would deign to spread from solo showiness, with a little bit of backing, say, with some William Tyler synths. This is a showcase, and sure, duly impressed, but solo jerkoffery can only go so far when it comes to actually reaching people (again, that last track aside, due respect

#3492 Chon - Grow

2.5/5 a coworker was so sure that I'd like this that I'm a little sad I mostly don't. Hitchy, unexpected, mathy - too planned, too screws-tight precise in a way that leaves too little room for feel or feeling, like music designed by a clever-but-soulless computer and put to midi, Dananananakroyd without the urgency and heart

#3491 Terumasa Hino - Kimiko

2.5/5 man i know nothing about jazz, and dudes can play, but it all feels a bit showy and solo-forward without any real chemistry or transcendence

#3490 Montero - The Loving Gaze

3/5 god, when it hits it hits, sweeping and overwhelmingly beautiful. but messy, uneven in general, crutchsomely experimental. And save yourself, because once you associate this with Ben Montero's beautiful/cloying/cute/nightmarish comics it all has a twee stink on it that undercuts any attempts at connection, an insidious one-third blindered irony that's hard to get past. And maybe that's on me, but this kind of weird pillowed awe just doesn't meet me halfway

#3489 Mariah - Utakata No Hibi

4/5 a slippery beastie. a part repeating, but that part might be rather strange. a hitched beat you're not too comfortable with, but that it worms its way in with repetition, and then a sea of horns and adornments and variations. sounding very live, with a backbone of machine intention. method of creation very unclear, intriguing. as intimate and detached and disorienting as its cover art. man, japan in the 80s.

#3488 Brian Eno and Kevin Shields - The Weight of History / Only Once Away My Son

3/5 a rich, fleetingly epic pile of moans and drones that never escapes the atmosphere, sounding like an enjoyable, larksome dalliance more than anything approaching the sum of the parts

#3487 Tycho - Weather

3/5 I admire that Tycho made the 3rd album turn. I'm not sure that whispy vocals were the right shift, and I'm not sure that Saint Sinner was the right choice, too affected and effortful for a sound that sounded otherwise chiseled from crystal. The ratio's not right, sounding like Saint Sinner album featuring Tycho, which, eh. Their core sound's still nice enough, and I dig the swing, but it's a miss

#3486 Susumu Yokota - Sakura

4/5
god that second track, predicting tycho's wanderous grace by a decade. Followed by endless experiments in texture, repetition, progression. a hard recommend for anyone interested in interesting ambient angles. I dont remember how I came across this list but its on point

#3485 Yasuaki Shimizu - Kakashi

4.5/5
The creativity is staggering. Pop ditties, Broken Social washes, repetitive experiments, melting sunrise proto-synthwave. A confabulation of traditional Japanese sounds and burgeoning electronics from '82 that we're just now catching up to. The best weird thing I've come across in years

#3484 Matt Martians - The Last Party

2.5/5 possible victim of being next to Al Green on the docket. so anonymous, sludgy, detuned, detached. how'm i supposed to care when you don't care?

#3483 Al Green - Gets Next to You

4.5/5 Green's unassailable, here still rough around the edges and all the more thrilling for it. Production's raw, those horns fighting for their love, organs pushing through. They don't make em like this anymore

#3482 The Men - Hated: 2008-2011

4/5 The Men are one of the best rock bands of the decade, and here they stretch their claim back. A rhythm section capable of motorik perfection paired with a werewolf nightmare willingness to go for the throat -- we get more of the latter here, with flashes of the Jekyll poet that gave us Oscillation. Raw power driven past intellect, thrilling history

#3481 Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss - Synthwaves

3/5 busy, endless plinking on offset paces that obscure the lines between measures, fitting the water/rain theme. clever, dense - more intellectual than I'd like, but at least it delivers on that axis, plenty to tent your fingers to

#3480 Remember - The City is My Friend

2.5/5 the kind of generic arpegio loopchaining you get doodling around on your laptop once a week. with that evocative title and cover art I expected something more soulful, capturing some sense of disorientation or loneliness. oh well

#3479 Move D - Kuntststoff

2.5/5 by the numbers, old school, as workmanlike as that geometric chair on the cover, finely made, no heart or hooks

#3478 Nonkeen - The Gamble

3.5/5 Nils Frahm continues to blow me away, such a soft, emotional touch to his playing, here with some friends bringing lively, textured backing. Fragile, temporary music, with a live feel for better or worse: some songs just kind of wander off into the night

#3477 Folllakzoid - II

3.5/5 the kind of superdense krauty jams I'm always a sucker for