Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Saturday Summary 016

    Saturday Summary 016

    I’m not detecting any special, industry shaking trends this week (which doesn’t mean they’re not there, I’m usually the last to know!) However, I have found a fair few interesting links I’d like to share with you. Read more

  • Heavy Ethics – Rhubarb (jazz/ fusion/ prog)

    Heavy Ethics – Rhubarb (jazz/ fusion/ prog)

    It says prog up there at the top, and that’s both a nod to the band’s self-identifications, and because this music is decidedly progressive, although, to be honest, if you’re looking for something that sounds like archetypal prog-rock this will probably sound like jazz to you. It has dissonances aplenty, and frequently hazy tonality, although… Read more

  • Tiny Dragons – You Need To Relax (funk/ rock)

    Tiny Dragons – You Need To Relax (funk/ rock)

    I’m just going to make a list. Imaginative arrangements, sonically creative production, intelligent songwriting, tight, propulsive playing, and a powerful, expressive, cleverly phrased vocal delivery. Rocking out and bringing the funk in equal measure, Tiny Dragons use a vocabulary that is very long established (an equivalent would be Jimi Hendrix borrowing the phraseology of early… Read more

  • Ports Of Call – Fractals (shoegaze/ dreampop)

    Ports Of Call – Fractals (shoegaze/ dreampop)

    Bass and drums provide Fractals with a spare and sturdy scaffold, from which they hang their shimmering banners of translucent, liquid sound. There are vocals, with audible lyrics, but for me they function similarly to the guitars, as a textural element: reverb returns are often separated in the mix from their sources, vocal or instrumental,… Read more

  • Future Gibbon – Begin Tofu Rub (jazz/ fusion)

    Future Gibbon – Begin Tofu Rub (jazz/ fusion)

    The entire fusion/ jazz dichotomy has always been a bit of a spurious one. Sure, there are acts that are very clearly fusion, such as Weather Report, or Tribal Tech, and those that are very obviously acoustic jazz, such as, well, any of the huge variety of famous and unknown, creative and cookie-cutter bands that… Read more

  • Monday Musings: Aesthetics And Meanings, Or How To Value Any Sound

    Monday Musings: Aesthetics And Meanings, Or How To Value Any Sound

    Looking back at the variety of reviews I’ve written in the past few months, variety is the principal thing that strikes me. There are stylistic tendencies, but they have come about through natural enough processes, such as artists who know one another sending me their music to review: as far as my own proclivities are… Read more