Underground music & arts magazine with a penchant for the more obscure
Words by Grey Malkin The Advisory Circle, AKA Cate Brooks, has been releasing beautiful, sepia-tinted electronic missives for seventeen years now, starting with the influential Mind How You Go EP and progressing onwards via the eerie loveliness of As The Crow Flies to 2018’s multi-layered and cinematic Ways of Seeing. Often utilising or referencing the … Continue reading Album review: The Advisory Circle – Full Circle
Source: Album artwork Words by Grey Malkin NYC/Philadelphia based Elkhorn - Jesse Sheppard and Drew Gardner - are becoming increasingly renowned for their cosmic and widescreen, yet often intimate, guitar symphonies, with their melding of Jack Rose/Robbie Basho style acoustic work with sacred Popol Vuh atmospheres. Previous albums have offered beautiful and sonically adventurous improvisations recorded whilst being … Continue reading Album review: Elkhorn – Distances
Words by Gareth Thompson At a Brazilian music festival in 1966, the audience openly jeered spoony balladeers or complex composers. Sérgio Ricardo was deemed the latter and his number ‘Beto Bom de Bola’ got roundly heckled. Despite the song being critical of Brazil’s dictatorship, its melody and orchestration were too intricate for mass approval. Ricardo … Continue reading Album review: Tim Bernardes – Mil Coisas Invisíveis
Photo credit: Laura Moreau Interview by Brandon Pestano We discuss origins, inspirations, magic and mysteries with visionary musician and artist Lionel Williams of the Los Angeles based celestial-pop band, Vinyl Williams. Their six studio albums: Lemniscate (2012), Into (2015), Brunei (2016), Opal (2018), Azure (2020) and Cosmopolis (2022) have been described as 'retro-futurism', fusing esoteric themes … Continue reading Psyched To Meet You: Vinyl Williams
Swyn Sain (The Sights of Sain) handbook front/back cover Words by Melanie Xulu From the 25th to 28th August, music and arts festival Ara Deg takes place at Neuadd Ogwen, a community arts centre in Bethesda, on the edge of Snowdonia in North Wales. Curated by Gruff Rhys, the festival is a celebration of music … Continue reading Celebrating the Artists behind the Welsh Language Music Scene: Swyn Sain (The Sights of Sain) at Ara Deg
Album artwork Words by Lady Godiva How immersive can a record sleeve be? Gaze into Daisy Rickman's debut album cover and you will get a tantalizing introduction to her work. A moonlit sky and while the first quarter is watching over her, a fairy like character, is spreading daisies all over like spells. At further … Continue reading Album review: Daisy Rickman – Donsya a’n Loryow
Words by Grey Malkin Cardiff’s Marc (Zeuk) Roberts continues his exploration of the wyrd and wonderful corners of both psych folk and baroque pop with Ghost of Clone, an ambitious and highly satisfying book and album pairing that exemplifies Robert’s uniquely creative and distinctive approach. Following on from recent Zeuk missives Crow Spanner and Minutes (where … Continue reading Album review: Marc Roberts – Ghost Of Clone
Source: album artwork Words by Grey Malkin Paul Roland should need no introduction, his position as a major mover in the underground psych scene from the 1980s onwards led fellow traveller Robyn Hitchcock to describe him as ‘the male Kate Bush’, with barque chamber folk albums such as Cabinet of Curiosities and eclectic psych jewels such … Continue reading Album review: Paul Roland & Mick Crossley – Through The Spectral Gate
Interview by Lady Godiva In June, I attended Levitation France in Angers, which is twinned with Austin, TX. It’s a smaller festival that incorporates a good selection of smaller local bands as well as up and coming and well established artists. This year’s edition was set outdoors at Le Chabada and we were mostly blessed … Continue reading Interview: Automatic at Levitation France
Source: album artwork Words by Lady Godiva In a land across the sea lives a troubadour called Woody. His first name is bucolic and his surname is the color of his native Ireland's clover, hard to find a more pastoral moniker. He takes you on a magic carpet over forests, lakes and hamlets to his … Continue reading Album Review: Woody Green – S/T