Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Various Artists – Singles and EPs

    Various Artists – Singles and EPs

    Positive vibes abound on this perfectly formed EP produced by the estimable Rich Huxley, whose main gig Hope And Social sits in exactly the same affective territory; clear-sighted optimism is the order of the day, and because the songs are notably lacking in trite sentiment or spurious closure the effect is genuinely uplifting. The musical… Read more

  • Tom Slatter – Three Rows Of Teeth (avant-prog)

    Tom Slatter – Three Rows Of Teeth (avant-prog)

    Tom Slatter likes steampunk; he likes it enough to have used it as the thematic touchstone for all three of his albums to date. Now steampunk is not a musical style (Abney Park notwithstanding) but a genre of fiction, and a large body of visual culture derived from it. If you want a watertight definition… Read more

  • Monday Musing: A Noise In The East

    Monday Musing: A Noise In The East

    As I write this I’m looking forward to an upcoming Damo Suzuki gig in Colchester. Suzuki spent around three years as vocalist with Can and was recorded with them on four legendary albums. Since 1973 he has been doing his own thing, much of it also involving making music, and much of it very interesting… Read more

  • The Domestics – The G.D.P. E.P. (punk)

    The Domestics – The G.D.P. E.P. (punk)

    When I reviewed The Domestics’ debut release, on a CD in a jewel case, looking like a regular album, I noted that despite clocking in at just over twenty minutes, it seemed to have considerably more to say than most albums, which usually spend in excess of an hour saying it. Well, this eight-and-a-half minute… Read more

  • Monday Musing: The Ideology Of The Album

    Monday Musing: The Ideology Of The Album

    I’ve been wondering about the way that I choose what music to write about, what the reasons for those choices are, and what the consequences of them might be. I feel I’ve been fairly rigorous in examining the way I think and write about specific pieces of music in detail, and I’ve gone to the… Read more

  • Various Artists – Album Roundup

    Various Artists – Album Roundup

    Blood has a bad rep, but it’s honestly a good thing; there’s blood all over Shall We Live Forever? Blood and darkness. The hot blood of life and passion; the welcoming dark of all-night celebration and vodka-induced blindness… I’m pretty certain the answer to the question posed in the title is ‘no, so what are… Read more