This music is futuristic in feel; almost old fashioned in its total modernism. There’s nothing here – in spirit at least – that harks back to, or references anything.
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Crystal Stilts – Nature Noir
Morose, slothful, bug eyed and permanently in a state of vegetation on the couch, the tracks have – nevertheless – enough soul and intelligence to warm even the most morose Eeyore in a field full of thistles.
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Cymbals – The Age of Fracture
This LP does what Étienne de Crécy’s music did in the late ’90s, openly identify and celebrate the here and now; or what New Order used to do, sugar coat the grimy, unpalatable stuff, with a bit of dry humour.
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Hospitality – Trouble
So, good, intelligent, fun pop with some startling highlights, mostly in the first half. Worth a listen? Oh for sure, for sure.
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Eraas – Initiation
Well, it can’t entiterely escape sounding like a lot of bands coming out of Brooklyn, so you get that “trademark” adeptness at mixing up 17 Seconds Cure with Suicide and the Dinger beat.
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Fuzz – Fuzz
There’s something appeallingly grubby about the LP, an earthy sound that is suited to skulking round back alleys; you know, morose, a bit chippy but with a hell of a lot of front.
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Nathan Salsburg – Hard For To Win And Can’t Be Won
Homespun is almost a dirty word to use in a review but here I feel it is appropriate as the record does capture the essence of sitting about in your own manor, watching time slip by.
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YCR – Promo Sampler
This promo is like a (doubtless unintentional) Dutch take on those Godspunk compilations from Pumf records in Blackpool (unintentional because I would run naked through the streets of Leiden if anyone says they have all the Pumf compilations in NL)
Stranger Son – Last Days of Butterfly
Those in need of a cuppa and a biscuit had better get one now, as there’s more monochrome psycho drama in store with French Playground, a track which charts the Algerian revolt of the 1950s.
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Apneu – Hard Feelings
This LP should live in the real world of first dates and being sick after a party, and doing your smalls at the laundry, not looking to play out a role as the example of some Simmel-style deconstruction about musical spatiality and society.
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