Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Various Artists – Album Roundup

    Various Artists – Album Roundup

    When we get to the fourth track, ‘Womb’, we learn that Cthulhu Detonator is capable of changing tack. There is still noise, in the sense of forcefully stochastic elements within the timbre of the music, but the principal sound is tonal, sonorous and enveloping. ‘Blinding White Light’ takes a similar approach, as does the mid-section… Read more

  • The Inner Road – Ascension (progressive rock)

    The Inner Road – Ascension (progressive rock)

    Steve Gresswell is a prog auteur of the old school, producing music that is not particularly progressive stylistically, but which makes use of a sophisticated and complex approach to composition and orchestration. I’m familiar with two of his projects, this one, and Coalition, a band with a similar sound that incorporates vocals; in both cases… Read more

  • These Curious Thoughts – Building Mountains From The Ground (roots rock)

    These Curious Thoughts – Building Mountains From The Ground (roots rock)

    The internet is full of interesting long distance collaborations; since everyone got broadband, audio files have been flying back and forth like nobody’s business. Obviously digital music production is most amenable to this approach, but it’s equally feasible for an ensemble recording to be assembled from separate performances in the participants’ own studios/bedrooms/wherevers. Mixing, and… Read more

  • Various Artists – Singles and EPs

    Various Artists – Singles and EPs

    What I know about Alun Vaughan is limited: I reviewed a very nice solo bass performance album of his, and an EP in a similar vein, and I gather he gets up to quite a lot of jazzy malarkey. This short EP bucks that trend just a little bit. The dominant sound is a raw,… Read more

  • Jez Carr, Simon Little & Mike Haughton – Foreground Music, Vol. I (jazz)

    Jez Carr, Simon Little & Mike Haughton – Foreground Music, Vol. I (jazz)

    All that Simon Little, who seems to be the member of this trio with principal responsibility for promoting Foreground Music, Vol. I, has to say about this music on his Bandcamp page is that ‘[i]n November 2012, three musicians came together to play freely improvised music and recorded everything.’ Freedom, it should be noted, is… Read more

  • Luminous Monsters/ Guanoman – We Go Wandering at Night and are Consumed by Fire (drone/ math)

    Luminous Monsters/ Guanoman – We Go Wandering at Night and are Consumed by Fire (drone/ math)

    We Go Wandering at Night and are Consumed by Fire is a split release, split in the same sense as the protagonist of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club’s personality. Both of the projects contributing to this release are the sole work of one musician, although they possess quite distinctive characters; Guanoman is described as a ‘purveyor… Read more