Features
Making music: a Taxing process?
Blues and Rock-influenced unit Tax The Heat drop in to discuss new album ‘Change Your Position’ (read more)
songwriting
Sound
The dissonant tritone thing is very particular: Vovoid (Interview)
Vovoid’s Denis ‘Snake’ Bélanger shares some nuggets (of wisdom) at Camden’s Underworld (read more)
Sound
Make Better Music 74 : Collaboration
The ability to listen, appreciate, evaluate and contribute towards a fellow-musician’s creativity is a high order skill and the rewards often completely justify the effort. (read more)
Sound
Make Better Music 72 : Music Theory
Music theory is way of labelling sounds and ideas in a way that highlights the relationships between them (read more)
Sound
Gallon Drunk : The Soul of the Hour
Gallon Drunk have never sounded so together nor so accomplished. The result of such symbiosis is seven tracks of intense mood and impressive groove. (read more)
Sound
The Presence LDN : Interview
I won’t use a computer to make music ever again. Those things lead to a shiny but soulless place in the heart. (read more)
Sound
We’re masochists (Imperial Teen)
‘We’re not in a gay band, we’re just in a band. On the other hand we’re not NOT in a gay band, I just think ‘who cares?” Imperial Teen interview. (read more)
Sound
The Beat Instrumental
Without sung text the listener was invited to create an entire narrative based on only the title and the music itself. You had to do a little (imaginative) work. (read more)
News
Wait for the Drop. Anticipation and Music
The auditory cortex performs a role beyond just processing sound. Rather, this area of the brain appears to be activated during other activities that require learning and thought, such as confirming expectations of receiving a reward. (read more)
Sound
Luna Rossa : Interview
‘The Sleeping Pills & Lullabies title was an idea of mine. It was the idea of two different ways of falling asleep…’ (read more)
Sound
Douglas Dare : Seven Hours [EP]
Devoid of histrionics, of ’emotional’ treatments, and of cloying sentimentality. Dare’s presentation of the songs is instead factual, crisp and resigned. (read more)
Sound
The Levellers (Simon Friend) : Interview
‘Certainly I think we’ve been ignored. Or not even ignored – shunned’ – Simon Friend of The Levellers makes up for some lost media attention. (read more)
Sound
Randall Dunn Interview
I don’t think that the world has become a horrible place. I think that we should be more aware of now rather than some idea of the future. (read more)
Sound
Mick Harvey Interview: Part 2
In part 2 of his interview, Mick Harvey talks about Nick Cave, murder and PJ Harvey. (read more)
Sound
Mick Harvey Interview: Part 1
In part 1 of his interview, Mick Harvey talks about Australia, love songs, religion, songwriting and the new album (read more)
Sound
Make Better Music 70 : Time
There is no aural analog of the photograph or still frame from a film. Sound is, at its core, inherently a time-dependent phenomenon. (read more)
News
Why We Buy Music
A study reveals what happens in our brain when we decide to purchase a piece of music when we hear it for the first time (read more)
Sound
The Icarus Line on Giant Drag
Joe Cardamone of the Icarus Line talks about producing the 2013 release by Giant Drag – Waking Up is Hard to Do. (read more)
Society
No Score Draw : How Movie Music Fails Us [Final Part]
‘Art is not made by committee’ SWP concludes his series on the art of the soundtrack (read more)
Art
Make Better Music 69: On Sound
“It is common for us to be in situations where we can not see (or at least vision is severely restricted) but exceedingly uncommon to be in situations where we can not hear” (read more)
Society
No Score Draw : How Movie Music Fails Us [Pt 3]
If you want sublime original music you don’t ask a god-given talent to appropriate and subtly re-arrange a track by Enya. (read more)
Sound
King of Drone : Aidan Baker Interview
More than a feeling : Trebuchet interviews eclectic drone maestro Aidan Baker about a bunch of random stuff that we wanted to know. (read more)
Sound
Benoit Pioulard : Hymnal
Mechanisms for the reordering of memory and forward living. Benoit Pioulard : Hymnal. Released 4th March on Kranky (read more)
Society
Counterpoint : Reich Bach at Ya!
The truth of music in 2013 is that we don’t really need a masterpiece right now.
We need a higher grade of ordinary. (read more)
News
Melvins Announce London May Shows
Melvins performing live Lysol & Houdini at London Brixton Electric on Sunday 19 May and playing Bullhead & Stoner Witch at the same venue on Monday 20 May (read more)
News
Early music lessons boost brain development
Montreal researchers find that music lessons before age 7 create stronger connections in the brain (read more)
Sound
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds : Her Majesty’s Theatre
Review: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Performing Push the Sky Away. Her Majesty’s Theatre, London. Feb 10th 2013 (read more)
Society
I have not gone out of my way to mythologise myself, but… [Michael Finnissy]
ince the late 60’s Michael Finnissy has been composing classical work that challenges, shakes and agitates the listener from complacency. The scope of his work is remarkable in its rejection of laissez faire assumptions (read more)
News
Benoit Pioulard new album March 4th
Hymnal is the fourth kranky album by Thomas Meluch under his musical alias Benoit Pioulard, following Précis (2006), Temper (2008) and Lasted (2010). It was written and recorded throughout a year spent in southeastern England and on the European mainland, during which the ubiquity of religious iconography and grandiose cathedrals became an unexpected muse. (read more)
Sound
Charlotte Sometimes: Interview
After four albums, dropped deals, reality television, a rare jaw disease that almost crippled her singing career, and a few lost loves, Charlotte has proven there is no plan B. (read more)