Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Meadows – Meadows (sludge metal)

    Meadows – Meadows (sludge metal)

    Meadows play some pretty extreme music. You could make all sorts of comparisons: The Melvins are an obvious point of reference; they also put me in mind of Bongzilla, although they have some fast thrashy passages to go with the slow stoner doom, and a turgidly saturated bass distortion that makes everything as thick as… Read more

  • Monday Musings: Canons and Mainstreams

    Monday Musings: Canons and Mainstreams

    How often does someone say ‘you must listen to/ read/ watch cultural artifact X’? How often is it assumed that you are familiar with a particular album, or does someone express shock that you are unfamiliar with another? This week’s topic concerns the cultural canon, and the idea of a mainstream. Certain artworks or artists… Read more

  • Karda Estra – New Worlds (psychedelic/ progressive/ chamber music)

    Karda Estra – New Worlds (psychedelic/ progressive/ chamber music)

    This album opens with a strummed guitar chord, and an oboe. The oboe is an instrument not often featured in rock, jazz, popular or folk music, and it signals with its presence that we should prepare ourselves for a variety of ‘not often featured’ elements. There are some sounds of rock in here, electric bass,… Read more

  • etokle – The Golden Bear And Other Works LP (drone/ ambient)

    etokle – The Golden Bear And Other Works LP (drone/ ambient)

    Sometimes when you visit my site to read a review you find yourself struggling through some complicated exposition on a rarely considered aspect of experimental music, full of technical terms and pointless intellectual gymnastics. I’m sorry about that. I’m a bit self indulgent sometimes. However, if I suspect that enough of my readers will be… Read more

  • Fit And The Conniptions – Sweet Sister Starlight (blues rock/ folk rock/ singer-songwriter)

    Fit And The Conniptions – Sweet Sister Starlight (blues rock/ folk rock/ singer-songwriter)

    Although I have written elsewhere about the singularity of the song as an artistic form, and the fallacy of regarding it as merely a fusion of music and poetry, it can be observed that most singer-songwriters focus their efforts more on one aspect of their craft than another. Some are principally instrumentalists, some singers, some… Read more

  • VK Lynne – Whiskey Or Water (blues rock/ singer-songwriter)

    VK Lynne – Whiskey Or Water (blues rock/ singer-songwriter)

    VK Lynne plays to the mythical archetype of the strong but vulnerable, hard drinking rock chick: how much of that is VK Lynne the narrator of this sequence of songs, and how much of it is VK Lynne the writer and woman is above my pay grade to speculate, but there’s a powerful sense of… Read more