Slugabed: Inherit the Earth
A collection of solid, well-produced songs does not necessarily make for an enjoyable album.
Mike Schiller
Mike Schiller is a software engineer in Buffalo, NY. He has blogged and written music and video game reviews for PopMatters since 2004, and also spent a couple years editing the Multimedia section. He also spent five years writing regular game reviews for the Raleigh News & Observer, and has had freelance work published at The Escapist and Polygon.
Porter Ray: Watercolor
Porter Ray's rapping on Watercolor is relaxed but quick, a style that emphasizes the intellectual bent to many of his rhymes, but intentionally fails to prepare you for the weight of his message.
The Bug Vs. Earth: Concrete Desert
This is difficult, oppressive music, full of sounds that would rather suffocate than eviscerate. The Bug vs. Earth really feels more like Earth's, and specifically Dylan Carlson's, project, in mood if not instrumentation.
Marc Almond: Hits and Pieces – The Best of Marc Almond and Soft Cell
Hits and Pieces concentrates on the commercially-appealing aspects of Almond's recordings, painting him as the pop star he has always been so reluctant to be.
Vanbot: Siberia
Siberia is an album-length experiment in transferring mood and environment to tape.
‘Electri_City’ Is Missing the Spark
It took a lot of work in the '70s to make music that sounded like it was created entirely by robots. The same could be said for Electri_City.
Pharmakon: Contact
Contact is the rare noise album that strives for connection rather than just confrontation.
Anthrax: For All Kings (7-Inch Box Set)
A set like this is less about the music and more about having something that says, "I am a fan, and this is the proof".
Ed Sheeran: ÷
There are plenty of fine songs here, as long as you can see them through the knobs and faders.
Hecker: A Script for Machine Synthesis
Hecker presents a dissertation told as much through the way it makes the listener feel as what it tells the listener to think.
Earthen Sea: An Act of Love
The streets of San Francisco at night are the inspiration for Earthen Sea's latest.
Toothless: The Pace of the Passing
The Pace of the Passing is a first step for Ed Nash that doesn't completely work but shows the potential for something really special.