Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Matt Stevens – Lucid (avant-rock)

    Matt Stevens – Lucid (avant-rock)

    Matt Stevens has a particular approach as a solo performer; he gigs on his own, with an acoustic guitar, and he plays instrumental music. He’s a great player, but he doesn’t tackle the challenge of solo performance by throwing a heap of complex technique at the problem; instead, he uses live looping technology to accompany… Read more

  • Various Artists – Album Roundup

    Various Artists – Album Roundup

    In the best tradition of underground music, it’s not entirely clear what Milktoast Music is; probably not a label in the traditional sense. More likely a collective of closely related musical projects, I would imagine. This album includes tracks from four of the six acts listed on their website, with those by Richard Pickman in… Read more

  • Ernesto Schnack – Worldbuilding (acoustic post-rock)

    Ernesto Schnack – Worldbuilding (acoustic post-rock)

    I’m going to begin this review by talking about myself. This is essentially a very bad habit in a critic, and except inasmuch as it is sometimes necessary to lay ones theoretical cards on the table, I try to avoid it. However, in order to explain precisely on what level this album resonates with my… Read more

  • Present – Triskaïdékaphobie (avant-rock)

    Present – Triskaïdékaphobie (avant-rock)

    If there’s one thing reviewing this album has taught me it’s this: always scroll to the end of the email. When I went back to the message in which this was submitted for review, I discovered that I had also received a link for Present’s second album, Le Poison Qui Rend Fou, which was re-released… Read more

  • Various Artists – Album Roundup

    Various Artists – Album Roundup

    Drug Corpse doesn’t have quite the full-core horror content that might be inferred from the cover and the title, but it sets its phasers to dark from the off, and keeps them there. The lyrical themes are as varied as the contributing emcees (of whom there are thirteen in total), but there’s a good mix… Read more

  • Pannón Melankólikusok – Szerelmedért (chamber rock)

    Pannón Melankólikusok – Szerelmedért (chamber rock)

    I don’t know if Christina Domene and Robert Hofmann were a performing duo before they conceived their love of the Hungarian language, and began to set that culture’s poetry to music. That is the agenda around which this project revolves, however, and they certainly chose its name, which translates as ‘Pannonian melancholy’ on that basis.… Read more