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2022 May 22
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2021 Apr 25
Sky is Alright
Sky is Alright

Sky is Alright is the intercontinental duo of Rishi Neal Arora, best known as one of the lead guitarists of Los Angeles post-rock stalwarts, Signal Hill, and Chris Gregory, a Los Angeles-based drummer and high school friend of Arora. Since moving to London, Arora has broadened his reach beyond the melodic instrumental colouring of his […]



2021 Apr 4
Face, Place, Race: Images of Australia

“A major public site and project like Federation Square presents complex problems. It must be for the people of Melbourne, broadly defined. It must act as a bridge between the past and the present—honouring the history of the site and the existing fabric of the city—and act as a gateway to the city of the […]



2021 Apr 4
Pastiche and parody

“Jameson identifies postmodern culture with stylistic pastiche, describing pastiche as a practice of mimicry that lacks the satirical impulse of parody, whereas Hutcheon sees parody as a quintessential trait of postmodernism. Discuss the difference between these two perspectives on pastiche/parody in relation to any text that employs techniques of imitation or ‘sampling’ of other texts.” […]



2021 Apr 4
The Book of Daniel: An analysis

“Linda Hutcheon argues that postmodernist writing is typified by what she calls ‘historiographic metafiction’, an intermixture of metafiction (which draws attention to the fictionality and constructedness of a text) and historiography (or history-writing). To what ends, and with what effects, does Doctorow employ this seemingly contradictory intermixture in The Book of Daniel?” E. L. Doctorow’s […]



2021 Apr 4
Romper Stomper: An analysis

“Focusing on a particular novel or film, discuss fictional representations of migrant and/or ethnic identity in Australia. What kinds of migrant and/or ethnic identities are being created by writers and how are they being negotiated and expressed?” Geoffrey Wright’s Romper Stomper, released in 1992, is a brutal portrayal of racism embodied in a fictional neo-Nazi […]



2021 Apr 4
Migrant nation: where do I come in?

After a relatively short history, the Vietnamese population in Australia today bears the integration characteristics of a mature migrant group (Jakubowicz, 2004). In the span of less than four decades, the population has grown from negligible to one of the largest non-English speaking migrant groups in Australia (Mellor, 2006: 634). From the early refugees of […]



2021 Apr 4
In Treatment: An analysis

Choose a text and conduct a textual analysis drawing on theories of textual analysis such as semiotics, genre, ideology or discourse analysis As texts continually evolve every day, it is necessary that the categorisation of such texts be subject to similar evolution in order for genre theory remains relevant. The traditional view of genre being […]



2021 Apr 4
Australia and America, and the treatment of their indigenous peoples

“Both Australia and America are founded on the expropriation of indigenous peoples. What are the key differences in the policies adopted and how can we explain these?” The United States and Australia have both witnessed turbulent histories involving issues of land in relation to the rights of the indigenous peoples. To compare the differences between […]



2021 Apr 4
Wreaths
Like Sparks from Throats Falling

Earlier this year, I had a bit of a gibe at Seattle post-rock outfit Post Harbor for generic and predictable patterns in the presentation elements of their work. Admittedly, it may have come across as perhaps an ostensibly below-the-belt kind of criticism, the sort of criticism decried for its lack of relevance in drawing a […]



2021 Apr 4
William Basinski
92982

“The presence and circulation of a representation…tells us nothing about what it is for its users. We must first analyse its manipulation by users who are not its makers. Only then can we gauge the similarity between the production of the image and the secondary production hidden in the process of its utilisation.” This is […]



2021 Apr 4
Vessels
White Fields and Open Devices

White Fields and Open Devices is the debut longplayer from Vessels. Much like a lot of their contemporary colleagues, the UK five-piece resort to the nebulous “experimental rock” tag to describe their sound, a term that really encompasses something different for each crew, and for Vessels, it means a bit of everything. Like, literally. Vessels […]



2021 Apr 4
Various
Fabrique 2001-2009

While I’ve always shamelessly proclaimed Melbourne as the hub of all things progressively countercultural, exemplified by its flourishing network of avant-garde musicians and independent labels, wrapped in the expressionistic DIY custom of fringe venues and warehouse stages, I’ve always felt that undertone of envy not being able to also claim Brisbane’s Room40, arguably Australia’s foremost […]



2021 Apr 4
Tortoise
Beacons of Ancestorship

In a day and age when the distributive means of Web 2.0 allow anyone and everyone to dilute a once-upon-a-time esteemed, rangebound pool of musical talent, it takes veteran collective like Tortoise to come out and prove that there is still such thing as bona fide musicianship; a visibly pure, stunningly elite mastery of the […]



2021 Apr 4
Tobias Hellkvist
Evolutions

Tobias Hellkvist is one of Sweden’s best kept secrets. Despite his relative newness and consequent limited exposure, one could be forgiven for mistaking the maturity in Hellkvist’s music as indicative of greater longevity than the reality of his time suggests. Eagerly ploughing his way through with two lovely solo full-length releases and a couple of […]



2021 Apr 4
Tim Hecker
An Imaginary Country

It’s an ambitious task to establish such scope for a musician’s sound to fill, especially when the sound comes from the most parsimonious of sources. Tim Hecker has titled his sixth studio album An Imaginary Country, conjuring a foundation of imagery on a scale that demands epic. The notion of ‘country’ is a curious one; […]



2021 Apr 4
The Dead Sea
The Dead Sea

Sydney three-piece, The Dead Sea, were formed by vocalist, guitarist and video artist Tim Bruniges, bassist David Trumpmanis , and drummer Nick Kennedy—the latter two musicians involved with other Sydney-based projects such as Big Heavy Stuff, Bluebottle Kiss, The Cops, and Sarah Blasko. While I will apologise for the preceding emboldened list of namedropped artists […]



2021 Apr 4
The Beautiful Schizophonic
Erotikon

In a wilfully poetic description sanctifying the laptop as a memory device, Jorge Mantas summarises his computer-generated music as “romantic drone music for modern lovers”. Hailing from the historic Portuguese city of Évora and performing under the moniker of The Beautiful Schizophonic, Mantas provides plenty of supporting evidence for his mission statement on Erotikon, an […]



2021 Apr 2
Sumner McKane
Nanook

Nanook is a concept album originally recorded by The Sumner McKane Group as a film score to Nanook of the North, a 1922 silent documentary about an Inuk (Inuit) family sin the Canadian arctic. To accommodate the time constraints of a CD, the record itself is a truncated 55-minute version of the full 80 minute […]



2021 Apr 2
Solo Andata
Solo Andata

Solo Andata is Italian for ‘one way’. Apparently, this is a pertinent fact, otherwise you wouldn’t be seeing it on every possible press release or critical writing piece that divulges the skinny on this humble but curious Australian duo. Living apart in on opposite sides of the country, Perth-based Paul Fiocco and Melbourne-based Kane Ikin […]



2021 Apr 2
Sleep Whale
Houseboat

Sleep Whale are making quite a splash at their Western Vinyl residence. The four-piece, already much beloved back home in north Texas, are priming to turn some heads with their debut full-length, Houseboat. With Texas powerhouse John Congleton lending a hand at the mixing board, the band have quickly moved on to follow up their […]



2021 Apr 2
Seaworthy
1897

Seaworthy is the project of Sydney’s Cameron Webb. 1897 is the second longplayer after Map in Hand in 2006. It belongs on 12k. It is heavy on minimalist guitar textures and re-recorded installations of field recordings. It was recorded at the site of a hundred year old decommissioned ammunitions bunker. The longplayer is named after […]



2021 Apr 2
Sam Moss
The Moon Tears it Down

Many kids dream of growing up to become a famous rock star. Or a pop star. Sam Moss dreamed of becoming a famous clarinettist like Benny Goodman. Every clarinettist who I’ve ever met (two in total) insist that their instrument of choice “reels in all the bitches” (apologies, female readers, for the misogyny). Assuming that […]



2021 Apr 1
Rone
Spanish Breakfast

Rone is the moniker of Erwan Castex, French filmmaker-cum-disc-jockey-slash-producer who is on the expressway to making a name for himself in his native Parisian underground electronic scene. Commanding a variety of electronic textures and stylings that he amply demonstrates on an enticing debut, Castex removes himself from the eminent house scene which has become synonymous […]



2021 Apr 1
Post Harbor
They Can’t Hurt You If You Don’t Believe In Them

Upon inspecting the website of Post Harbor, I couldn’t help but wonder if post-rock culture—not necessarily music or content—might quickly be approaching what the point of satire. Without levelling my observation specifically at this Seattle five-piece, the names, titles, artwork and packaging all seem to signify a kind of stylistic trend, separate from the music. […]



2021 Apr 1
Pale Amber Glow
Rivers and Dust

It’s always fun to watch a musician grow, starting from their roots as they dabble with a range of styles in a succession of early releases, trying to find what fits before finally settling comfort-wise for what they feel to be right. It’s like the stock scene from any given generic film where a character […]



2021 Apr 1
Oriin
All. Things. Are. Numbers.

Texan instrumental four-piece Oriin aren’t afraid to drink from the same fountain as many of their local predecessors. And why should they be? It is a fountain that has served many artists well, and continues to thrive as an audience pleaser. To be bold with your compositions is a tough and nebulous ambition. New entrants […]



2021 Apr 1
NQ
Inscription

NQ is the alias of Nils Quak, an electronic artist from Cologne, Germany, who like many of his contemporaries wields the potent processing forces in the unlikeliest of musical instruments: the laptop. After a period of label drifting, Quak now resides at Sheffield-based electronica-focused Audiobulb where it hosts his new work, Inscriptions. Quak is partial […]



2021 Apr 1
Nils Frahm
The Bells

Nils Frahm is playing a game of resistance. So easily do experimental pianists, constrained by the finite sonic range and dynamic scale of their instrument, get lumped into some sort of sub-classification based on the seemingly inexhaustible precedents. Berlin composer-pianist Frahm is unwilling to settle for any particular school. His touch is fluid and eclectic, […]



2021 Apr 1
Various
New Weird Australia, Volume Five

The New Weird Australia, a bi-monthly compilation voicing and honouring the hidden segments amongst Australian experimental musicians and sound artists, has had its share of taste tests here at The Silent Ballet. Sydney-sider Marcus Whale covered the first volume, and Calvin Young had a crack at the next, before batting it right back to another […]



2021 Apr 1
Mono
Hymn to the Immortal Wind

In our critique of music, us human beings with our natural predispositions and biases attached, will be inclined to take into account more things than, ideally, the single album at hand based on a list of fixed, standardised criteria. If only life was that easy. When does an artist need to be tried against their […]



2021 Apr 1
Momus
Joemus

Scotsman Nick Currie is a busy man. Outside his prolific, twenty plus year career as a singer-songwriter under pseudonym Momus, Currie also previously wrote Wired, contributed to a myriad of other publications and maintains a popular blog. Joemus, reference to the collaboration with fellow Scotsman, Joe Howe, breakcore extraordinaire, sits at no shorter than Currie’s […]



2021 Apr 1
Minamo
Documental

For a collective that have been around and kicking for well over a decade, Minamo have done well to slip under the radar. The Tokyo natives, considering the modest litter of releases backing them across several experimental labels, have inevitably and appropriately traipsed into the the realm of Brisbane-based Room40 to house their latest release. […]



2021 Apr 1
The Photographic
Pictures of a Changing World

The Photographic are the duo of Jamey See Tai and Chad Blevins, from Louisville, Kentucky. Colonel Sanders references aside, the grand scale of their fierily executed pieces makes me suspicious that they employ far more hands than just those of their lonesome selves. The more likely scenario is that they simply work with a shitload […]



2021 Apr 1
Balmorhea
Rivers Arms

Enough can be said about this Austin group just by the looking at the reception of their debut longplayer. Music crafted in the most organic sense, far removing it from the prominent post-rock sound with which Austin has long been associated. Balmorhea face a similar battle between the self-released debut and full-length, label-distributed sophomore, to […]



2021 Apr 1
Underlapper
Red Spring

Eclecticism is a word with which Underlapper want themselves to be synonymous. Flirting with an array of emotive folktronic instrumental, the Sydney six-piece seem to be bounded by nothing but the challenge of evoking as much life in music as possible in the most subtle possible ways while sporting an eclectic range of instrumentation. Testament […]



2021 Apr 1
Trans Am
Sex Change

Let me just start off by making it clear that I am a huge Trans Am fan, and while it would usually be more appropriate and logical, for a review to come from an objective point of view, I will instead spend the next couple of paragraphs highlighting why we must all buy Sex Change. […]



2021 Apr 1
Thisquietarmy
Echotone

In order for a record to be good, it has to be long. In order for a record to be good, it has to be rich with wall-to-wall instrumentation and melody. In order for a record to be good, we need to be able to make sense of it, understand exactly where it’s going, how […]



2021 Apr 1
The Severely Departed
The Severely Departed

There’s an article on Wikipedia that’s dedicated to the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry—the East Coast predominantly made up of New York artists. Suffice to say, if there was an East Coast-West Coast post-rock rivalry, the East Coast would have its nuts fed back to it (given that New York was also given the role […]



2021 Apr 1
Steinbrüchel
Basis

Ralph Steinbrüchel is one of those people hellbent on obscuring the boundary between ‘musician’ and ‘sound artist’. Tiny Braille-like dots and dashes, acting like music box pins, taking up the tiniest fraction of a completely white surface acts as the official Steinbrüchel website, a clear indication of the literal nature with which this musician has […]



2021 Apr 1
Solaire
…And Then I Strapped Explosives To My Body

We can all conclude that Explosions in the Sky are one of this decade’s most influential groups of the guitar-driven post-rock aesthetic. Reviewers make comparisons ad nauseum, and it’s no surprise really—Explosions’ emotive, accessible, mood-constructed pieces are so universally desirable and broad that imitation is inevitable, not unlike Sigur Rós. You could probably say the string of clone […]



2021 Apr 1
The Sea and Cake
Everybody

The Sea and Cake prove that supergroups aren’t always short-lived affairs, now on their seventh studio album. The crem de la crem of the Chicago independent scene are now pumping every jangly experimental alt-pop bone in their body on their seventh studio album, Everybody. By now, their style is unmistakable, their ability to flaunt their […]



2021 Apr 1
Sam Amidon
All is Well

Sam Amidon sees himself amongst indeed some fine company on Iceland’s Bedroom Community label. His presence stands as an anomaly, however—instead of following his Bedroom peers, including Melbourne-born Ben Frost or Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurdsson, also the figure with the production wand on this record, in their highly textured drone and ambient pursuits, Amidon has […]



2021 Apr 1
Post Harbor
They Can’t Hurt You If You Don’t Believe In Them

Upon inspecting the website of Post Harbor, I couldn’t help but wonder if post-rock culture—not necessarily music or content—might quickly be approaching what the point of satire. Without levelling my observation specifically at this Seattle five-piece, the names, titles, artwork and packaging all seem to signify a kind of stylistic trend, separate from the music. […]



2021 Apr 1
Panther Attack
Sharp Moments

Emotionally stirring music has always been what I considered to be a cop-out when it came to music, particularly instrumental where the often driver of the emotion, the voice, is not present. Although it is very difficult to say that a type of music is “emotionless,” some forms of music can be less emotional than […]



2021 Apr 1
MØN
MØN

There is a school of post-rock created by the Constellation outfits that I like to call the ‘gloomy-droney-gothic-strings’ movement. Godspeed You! Black Emperor (and all begotten acts) were the only group of the so-called “Big Five” to feature strings as a predominant instrument, and they did it in a solemn fashion that conjured a melancholic […]



2021 Mar 24
Social networking and the music industry

How do social networking sites extend the possibilities of the music industry? Evaluate these possibilities in relation to the elimination of previous entry barriers and the establishment of new ones. Introduction: There is no denying the impact the Internet has had on the music industry. It has dramatically transformed the relationship between listeners and artists, […]



2021 Mar 24
Cultural identities and the role of the media

“What role do the media play in the politics of cultural difference and representation?” The role of the media in defining the cultural identities of nations is paramount. The media are the key constituent in the drive towards globalisation. The term globalisation itself is nebulous. Essentially, it deals with the gradual merging of nations around […]



2021 Mar 24
National identity

How do the media contribute to maintaining a sense of national identity? The media have a profound role in shaping what we perceive as our own society, in contrast to the rest of the world. Golding and Murdock define the media as “major institutions in the economic and political fabric of our societies” which “create […]



2021 Mar 18
Mogwai
Mogwai Young Team

“Cause this music can put a human being in a trance like state and deprive it for the sneaking feeling of existing. ‘Cause music is bigger than words and wider than pictures. If someone said that Mogwai are the stars, I would not object. If the stars had a sound, it would sound like this…” […]



2021 Mar 18
Manual
Lost Days, Open Skies And Streaming Tides

Ambient electronic artists seem to always be emphatic on vast and breathtaking imagery. What better region to originate from than the geographically rich of Scandinavia. While I do realise that Norway has arguably the sexiest fjords of all the Kingdoms, Odense, Denmark native Jonas Munk, better known as Manual, challenges the geographical landscape with his […]



2021 Mar 18
Kill the Zodiac
Retreival System

I love Google. I mean, who can resist that plain, uncluttered homepage? The fact that it’s found a place in the Oxford English Dictionary says enough of its cultural impact. I also love my iPod. That thing certainly did favours for Apple Computer, didn’t it? And what about IKEA furniture. I’m like Edward Norton in Fight […]



2021 Mar 18
Joy Wants Eternity
You Who Pretend to Sleep

Powerful music renders imagery. Hidden beneath the dexterity of instrumental music sits emotion; somewhere within emotion sit symbols, and amongst this diverse ocean of thought, there are symbols which clash. There are some things in post-rock we can’t deny having mentally visualised at least once: lights illuminating darkness, night skies glittered with stars, and horizons; […]



2021 Mar 18
Japancakes
Loveless

The only way in which we’re able to compare such vastly unrelated albums is through criteria that focuses on how well they satisfy their intentions. Loveless has on endless number of occasions been said to be the ‘epitome’ of the shoegazing genre, not only paving the way for so many groups later on but reinventing […]



2021 Mar 18
Isol / Zypce
Sima

I’ve always admired musicians who stay true to their native tongue in music, refusing to pander to the vast English language inclined nature of popular music where awkward translation loses the effective of lyrical content. The inability to understand the lyrics has its little perks, in that now we can enjoy the instrumentalised nature of […]



2021 Mar 18
Hidria Spacefolk
Symetria

Some records have no other purpose but to try to make you want to move. This veteran Finnish progressive rock crew, Hidria Spacefolk, are self-contained within their name. If one were ever abducted by Finnish aliens (how extraterrestrial life has Earthling nationality, I don’t know), this is probably what we’d hear on the spaceship. Well […]



2021 Mar 18
Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd
After The Night Falls / Before The Day Breaks

Experimental music theorises that the definition of “music” can be challenged. Music is said to be “sound organised in time”, the key word being organised. Ergo, experimental music, to challenge this, must be somehow disorganised. It must arranged in a manner which takes the ideal notion of music well outside its comfort zone and into a place where […]



2021 Mar 18
Flap
A Poor Story

With a strong presence in the global instrumental scene, Italy has proven that it is more than just pasta and a mean-arse national football team. Hailing from the town of Montagnana located in the Boot’s north, Flap add their name to this ever-growing list, with a sound dabbling heavily in the guitars-for-clean-melodies school that lies […]



2021 Mar 18
Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate)
When the Sea Became a Giant

A quite update and preface: I actually quite like this record now, and I was completely ignorant of the emo genre it identified with back when I wrote this review, so I’m retracting the whole thing. When song titles have a subtitle that’s parenthesised, it’s fairly wankerish. When a band name has a subtitle that’s […]



2021 Mar 18
Emanuele Errante
Humus

Something that has always drawn me to ambient music has been its schizophrenic make-up. I don’t mean that in the same pejorative sense colleague Zach does, referring to inconsistency or lacking focus and flow. I mean schizophrenic in a far more abstract sense, focusing on its layers and its ability to reveal something additional at […]



2021 Mar 18
Various
DEAD001

Extract from the introductory flyer for the Dead Pilot Records Post-Rock 101 Kit: “Are you tired of trying to find new ways on how to get into post-rock? Are the obscure, often acronymic references bandied around in clique-oriented forums and webzines beginning to prove to be a hindrance to your quest in becoming a gaudy […]



2021 Mar 18
Clione-Index
One Thing Leads to Another

A few weeks after reviewing Ovum’s EPs, I come across Clione-Index, another Japanese band having a go at guitar-driven post-rock. This review is going seem like somewhat of a reiteration of the Ovum review, but it’s hardly my fault as Clione-Index’s debut effort, One Thing Leads to Another, sounds somewhat like a bit of a […]



2021 Mar 17
The blockbuster phenomenon

Thomas Elsaesser suggests that in the blockbuster film ‘everything connects’. Define the blockbuster and investigate its cross media promotion in relation to its ‘horizontal’ (entertainment and leisure cultures) and ‘vertical’ (technological and industrial) links. The blockbuster phenomenon was a result of an epiphany in the entertainment industry in 1975, when Steven Spielberg’s Jaws “forever altered […]



2021 Mar 17
Bumps
Beats, Breaks, Raw Drums

The opening to “Seneca”, from Tortoise’s masterful 2001 release Standards, is loud, chaotic and messy. Whilst the guitars are quite vivid and melodic, it’s the vigorous assault of the dual drum kits which drive the chaos to the point of memorable. I remember a clip of one of Tortoise’s live performances of “Seneca” on Youtube […]



2021 Mar 17
Bitcrush
Epilogue in Waves

From the rather superfluous lengthy “Prologue”, Hammock protrudes visibly as a point of inspiration for Bitcrush, the shimmering, expansive, liberal use of the distortion pedals to pervade the sonic space with reverberation. Besides this, the rock, or rather post-rock, formation is still milked. The end effect places them somewhere between This Will Destroy You and […]



2021 Mar 17
Aughra & Mosh Patrol
Is There Anyone Else Outside?

7/10



2021 Mar 17
Ovum
under the lost sky. ep / joy to the world. ep

Emerging Japanese crew, Ovum, produce more of the commonplace sparse-to-ambient soundscapes left by their native leading post-rock four-piece, Mono. Their pieces, while executed with not quite as much flair or aggression their fellow countrymen, display some very familiar characteristics in their compositions. A progressively loudening stretch of ambience at the beginning of “Like a Hymn” […]



2021 Mar 17
Mahogany Throttle
Traverse

Math rock has always been the rougher, more discordant, less melodic cousin of post-rock. The sounds are often less comforting and more aggressive; more energised and disturbingly danceable. Mahogany Throttle is the ultimate perpetuation of this stereotype. The outfit from Milwauke offer edgy, chaotic, stop-start instrumental rock dramatically familiar to math rock fathers, Don Cabellero. […]



2021 Mar 17
Magyar Posse
Random Avenger

Finnish outfit Magyar Posse’s latest offering, Random Avenger, follow-up to 2004’s Kings of Time, sports the characteristics of a would-be soundtrack for a Middle Eastern period piece. This time around, the Finns strip the pieces of any tacky noise, stray further away from any Godspeed You!-esque climaxes, and also shed some of the eeriness to […]



2021 Mar 17
Canyons of Static
Canyons of Static

Canyons of Static sounds like it got its band name from one of the seminal works of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I guess, in a way, that is kind of apt for the band, as the music is all about allusions and influences. Each of the pieces allude so strongly to one certain aspect of […]



2021 Mar 17
Loscil
Endless Falls

Vancouver ambient electronic musician Scott Morgan is one of those artists who operates at the margins. I’m not referring to the old economist rhetoric of ‘at the margin’, as in the point of operation that yields allocation efficiency and profit maximisation—I mean dynamically, and structurally, he purposes an assemblage of subtleties to produce a brand […]



2021 Mar 17
Kenneth Kirschner
Filaments and Voids

Longstanding pianist of the 12k family Kenneth Kirschner doesn’t seem to express a massive interest in the proficiency of his instrument of choice, instead focusing his priorities on the subtleties and versatility of sonic texture much like a good majority of his contemporary avant-garde labelmates. From the packaging that depicts a pale, derelict room (an […]



2021 Mar 17
Jatun
Blanket of Ash

Jatun made quite a splash at The Silent Ballet back in early 2007. From a warmly received appearance on a TSB compilation, appearances in media for Nike and Helly Hansen, some encouraging words from Richard White on their self-titled debut, and capped off with Brett Spaceman’s interview filled with promise and optimism, the Portland-based duo […]



2021 Mar 17
I Am Sonic Rain
Between Whales And Feverish Lights

In the first season of The West Wing, deaf actress Marlee Maitlin’s character Joey Lucas, when questioned about why she bothers working tirelessly on the doomed campaign of a candidate for Congress whom she has no genuine faith in, quips something along the lines of “because it’s not like there’s much of a seller’s market […]



2021 Mar 17
High Dependency Unit
Metamathics

Seven years of absence since 2001’s Fire Works, Metamathics marks the return of New Zealand feedback orgy trio, High Dependency Unit. Despite their absence, Metamathics sees little departure from the band’s traditional discrete separation between intense, noise-saturated, fret-abusive numbers and the downtempo, calmer washes of noise ballads. The dominant drone-metallicism and wailing is also relinquished […]



2021 Mar 16
Hammock
Chasing After Shadows… Living With the Ghosts

Despite frequently sneaking into the business end of our prestigious end-of-year lists, Hammock has never been paid its due respect on the review front here at The Silent Ballet. With three full albums and an extended play under their belt, Nashvillians Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson have left an enormous and lasting impression on the ambient instrumental landscape […]



2021 Mar 16
Giuseppe Ielasi
(another) Stunt

Establishing himself as a flagship icon of the contemporary sound art movement, Italian loop-glitch specialist Giuseppe Ielasi is not unfamiliar with the promiscuous activities of a typical sound artist. He flaunts a hefty curriculum vitae of both solo, collaborative and contributive work spanning a variety of labels, and like a lot of his prolific colleagues, […]



2021 Mar 16
Fhenomina
Found a New Store Just Around the Corner

In light of my reputation as a staunch anti-Japanese reviewer within our little community (which if I may say in my defence is purely incidental as I am partial to many Japanese artists), I have tried very hard to rectify this by finally being given that choice assignment that proves I hold no ill will […]



2021 Mar 16
Echoes from Jupiter
Europa

Europa is one of Jupiter’s 63 moons. So is Io. They’re also the names of the debut full-length and EP, respectively, from Quebec City five-piece Echoes From Jupiter. On the exterior, Europa manages to meet all the hallmarks of a post-rock record: profound thematic titles, an erratic track structure teeming with sub-minute fillers, and cold, […]



2021 Mar 16
Corey Fuller
Seas Between

As much as I wish that I could open my review with “Corey Fuller, formerly an NFL defensive back who played for Minnesota Vikings, the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens, is now devoted sound artist who spends his time collecting field recordings for his ambient music,” it was much to my disappointment (but not […]



2021 Mar 16
Clogs
Veil Waltz

In spite of its formative roots traceable back to indie rock royalty, Clogs are still a well-kept secret to many. Often lumped into the same school as Rachel’s, Esmerine and The Books, the four-piece led by Bryce Dessner and Padma Newsome of American powerhouse post-punk outfit The National harvest organic rock and chamber textures to […]



2021 Mar 16
Chihei Hataketyama
Variations

Chihei Hatakeyama was a child of hardcore and thrash metal before the purchase of a Macintosh marked the beginning of a career fascination with electronic music. The Tokyo native, whose art notably constitutes sonic processing and field recordings, bears a CV that name-drops an impressive batch of experimental labels, including the Kranky, Room40, Magic Book, […]



2021 Mar 16
Andrey Kiritchenko
Misterrious

Not knowing how extensive the experimental music scene is at the moment in the Ukraine, the glowing biography of Andrey Kiritchenko on the Nexsound website suggests that he is transforming into it some sort of electro-experimental music sanctuary. His latest longplayer, Misterrious, follows the fairly stock standard school of ambient music primarily based on piano […]



2021 Mar 16
…And Stars Collide
…And Stars Collide

Nottingham’s …And Stars Collide, like a gifted newborn, finds its way through the developmental stage via the influence of surrounding older siblings. Their self-released, self-titled debut EP is a demonstration of the solid mimicry and attainment of ability, but the premature stage in their chronology leaves only their niche the final stage to be found. […]



2021 Mar 14
Audrey
The Fierce and the Longing

From all the composers of the classical era—the Bachs, Mozarts, Beethovens and Chopins—to the modern day—the Davises, Brubecks, Bernsteins and  Morricones —I have to a question to ask: where are all the women? The only one who comes to mind is Wendy Carlos, and even she used to be a dude. While I will try […]



2021 Mar 7
Another piece of late-night magic

Whatever, this is content.



2021 Mar 6
Morning Pages

Motion, not action. These are the terms I’ve come to understand from reading James Clear’s Atomic Habit. I’m stuck in the motion stage of so many things I want to do, and am not taking enough action. I’m dwelling on being a perfectionist and not putting enough energy into simply delivering. I need to stop […]



2021 Mar 6
Arbol and Fibla
Bu San

Retrospective soundtracks are a fascinating notion. If you consider a cinematic work that has just been created, it will naturally settle in some sort of tonal disposition or emotive meaning after any suitable period of time has elapsed. Now, some time down the line as an afterthought, a score is written to accompany the film—no […]



2021 Mar 2
Lithops
Ye Viols!

Ye Viols! Is the fifth release from Lithops, one of the several projects of Jan St. Werner best known as one half of German electronic crew, Mouse on Mars. Before my initial sitting of this record, I hadn’t realised that all the pieces on this compilation of sorts were in fact the sonic accompaniment of […]



2021 Mar 2
Software source code should have different copyright to other works.

Software source code is the building block in software design. It is the language used by software engineers to determine the function, as well as creative identity, of their final products. Like most written works, source code is subject to copyright laws, as this is one of the fundamental ways to protect the creator’s prosperity, […]



2021 Mar 2
New Media and Democratisation

“The prophets of new media forecast widespread democratisation of the world’s media systems. Thus far, the impact of digitalization and convergence on the public sphere has been disappointing.”Drawing on some of the key theoretical perspectives, give your own verdict on the impact of new media as well as comparing and contrasting it with old media. […]



2021 Mar 2
52 Commercial Road
A Wreck Provides (an Excellent Foundation)

52 Commercial Road are a post-rock five-piece from London. Returning with a second full-length effort in A Wreck Provides (an Excellent Foundation), the instrumentalists delivered an exceptional debut self-titled longplayer which they’re now offering for free. Picking up where its predecessor left off, the five-piece sail further and deeper in their endeavour to reign supreme […]