Seventh album from Carlos Niño, the Los Angeles polymath, enlists trusted friends to mould another astral, Afro-futuristic suite of unrelenting beauty which teeters at the edge of New Age and spiritual jazz. From his formative years as a teenage radio spinner to the present day as a multi-disciplinary behemoth and founder of Dublab Radio, the extravagantly bearded composer, … [Read more...] about Carlos Niño & Friends: Actual Presence – Review
Romare: Home – Album Review
Romare releases his third full-length for Ninja Tune, seeing the producer draw a line in the sand between the sample sorcery of previous releases and a new era of organic, happy-sad dance. The London-born electronic auteur Archie Fairhurst aka Romare ignited ripples of acclaim in 2015 with his scene-setting, border-defying debut album, Projections, a deftly curated tapestry … [Read more...] about Romare: Home – Album Review
Mike Polizze: Long Lost Solace Find – Review
Solo debut by erstwhile Purling Hiss frontman Mike Polizze flexes his folk-pop chops on an ineffably melodic set that radiates the swampy languor of a late summer jam. On Long Lost Solace Find, the former Purling Hiss and Birds of Maya singer-songwriter and guitarist Mike Polizze hunkers down with old pal Kurt Vile and War On Drugs henchman Jeff Zeigler for a breezy, … [Read more...] about Mike Polizze: Long Lost Solace Find – Review
Trevor Powers: Capricorn – Review
Idaho singer-songwriter Trevor Powers, formerly known as Youth Lagoon, strikes out with a sun-dappled ambient reverie born from adversity. Between 2010 and 2016, Trevor Powers traded under the Youth Lagoon alias as a critically acclaimed purveyor of lo-fi bedroom pop, a scratchy psychedelia which inhabited a liminal space between dream-pop, chill-wave and … [Read more...] about Trevor Powers: Capricorn – Review
Max Richter: Voices – Review
A decade in the making, the prolific composer’s timely new project draws upon readings of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and snippets of global found sound to fashion an absorbing and heartfelt soundscape steeped in a profound humanity. Max Richter, the million-selling poster boy for post-minimalism, is well versed in lacing socio-political commentary into his … [Read more...] about Max Richter: Voices – Review
Kamaal Williams: Wu Hen – Review
Peckham’s spearhead of the London-based jazz revival Kamaal Williams conjures fiery intensity and cosmic menace in a breathless and unassailable concoction of past-present-future jazz that flows like poetry in motion. On his new album, the keyboardist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Henry ‘Kamaal’ Williams slips back into the sleek retro-futurist territory informing … [Read more...] about Kamaal Williams: Wu Hen – Review