Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Alun Vaughan – The Kindness Of Strangers (solo bass)

    Alun Vaughan – The Kindness Of Strangers (solo bass)

    The long standing association between the solo bass release and a meaningless display of rippling technical muscularity is thankfully receding into history. It’s reasonable that it should have come about: to play something that is more agile and melodic than the traditional low thump of a bassline requires rather more application on a bass than… Read more

  • Big Block 454 – Bells & Proclamations (folk-funk/ psychedelic rock)

    Big Block 454 – Bells & Proclamations (folk-funk/ psychedelic rock)

    Big Block 454, named for a 1970 Chevrolet engine, are one of the oddest bands I’ve encountered in a while. They are creatively out there, full of weird sounds and transgressive stylistic collisions, and yet they are, to me at least, accessible, pleasing, and decidedly danceable. Apparently they’ve been around a long while: well, it’s… Read more

  • Monday Musings: What’s The Use Of Critical Theory?

    Monday Musings: What’s The Use Of Critical Theory?

    I pay a certain amount of attention to critical theory, which is to say, I think about the ins and outs of what I do, as someone who makes statements in one medium that are responses to someone else’s statements in another. I also mean that I read what some other people have said on Read more

  • Knifeworld – Dear Lord, No Deal (psychedelic rock)

    Knifeworld – Dear Lord, No Deal (psychedelic rock)

    Kavus Torabi, Cardiacs guitarist, among many other things, originally pursued Knifeworld as a solo endeavour, but this EP marks the beginning of the project’s recorded life as a six piece band with a permanent membership. The initial release, Buried Alone: Tales of Crushing Defeat, had a particular sound, and a coherent one, from which this… Read more

  • Archangel – Project Rave (8-bit/ IDM/ techno)

    Archangel – Project Rave (8-bit/ IDM/ techno)

    It’s unclear how much of this album might have been created using the genuinely simple digital resources it seems to utilise, and how much use was made of rather more sophisticated plugins standing in for them, but either way, there’s a lot more processing than would be permissible on purist chiptunes (i.e. some). The 8-bit… Read more

  • Marley Butler – Procras The Sample (ambient/ electronica)

    Marley Butler – Procras The Sample (ambient/ electronica)

    Marley Butler had something to do; but, he also had a new software sampler he’d downloaded for free. The something didn’t get done: but he did record this EP, which strikes me as some pretty darn constructive procrastination. Each tune was written, recorded and mixed in a single evening, and two of them were embellished… Read more