Can and Damo Suzuki Shimmer Brightly on ‘Live in Paris 1973’
Part of a recent series of archival releases, Live in Paris 1973 provides an indispensable glimpse of Can and their lead vocalist, Damo Suzuki, at their peak.
experimental rock
Brian Eno’s ‘Here Come the Warm Jets’ After 50 Years
Brian Eno’s approach captured the best of what we wanted from punk, new wave, prog, glam, and classic ’60s pop and channeled their excesses by relying on chance.
‘Walls Have Ears’ Captures Sonic Youth’s Abrasive Adolescence
Drawn from recordings of UK shows in 1985, Walls Have Ears is a wild, unvarnished listen that gets back to the difficult, defiant essence of Sonic Youth.
Animal Hospital’s ‘Shelf Life’ Is Intense, Layered Maximalism
Under the moniker Animal Hospital, Kevin Micka unspools a potent mix of instrumental tension and experimentalism on his first full-length album in three years.
Just ‘Kids’: Lou Barlow and John Davis of the Folk Implosion Return
John Davis and Lou Barlow revisit the song, album, and soundtrack that helped make the Folk Implosion a seminal trip-hop-indebted indie-rock success story.
Gold Dime Make a Torrent of Beautiful Noise on ‘No More Blue Skies’
Gold Dime’s No More Blue Skies can be loud, fast, and urgent but will also disarm you and create a deeply unsettling atmosphere. It’s well worth the wait.
‘The Harmony Codex’: Steven Wilson’s ‘Cinema for the Ears’
“If there was an agenda, it was to not have an agenda at all,” Steven Wilson says of his seventh solo LP, The Harmony Codex, in this extended interview.
Sprain Aim For a Masterpiece on ‘The Lamb As Effigy’
Sprain’s aim at a masterpiece finds an exhaustive, immersive, and ambitious work of post-rock, noise, and poetry that intellectuals will lust after.
Grails Balance Their Scales: The Reckoning of ‘Anches En Maat’
Portland’s experimental post-rock kingpins Grails mark two decades since their debut with a new full-length retrospective LP and chat with PopMatters.
Wilco Play It Too Safe on ‘Cousin’
Wilco can stand out from the roots-informed indie pack, but Cousin shows they are content to go with the flow even as they get back to experimentalism.
The Menacing, Grimy Weirdness of Melvins’ ‘Houdini’ at 30
Once Houdini dropped, all the agonizing over whether Melvins would debase themselves and compromise their sound petered out before we were halfway into “Hooch”.
Revisiting Melvins’ Mid-1990s Makes Claim for Their Sheer Excellence
At the Stake: Complete Atlantic Recordings 1993-1996 gathers the three album run Melvins delivered during their short stint on a major label.