Category: Sound

Without music, life would be a mistake. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Orbital: Wonky

11/04/2012

'boredom, indifference, embarrassment and even disgust', Codex Europa reviews Orbital's Wonky In August 1993 I saw Orbital give a memorable show in a tent at the Deptford Free Festival....

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I Break Horses [Live]

11/04/2012

I Break Horses, Scala. Sunday 1st April The Scala is packed, we can just about see the band as they appear in silhouette.  From Sweden, I Break Horses, are Maria Linden (keyboard and vocals) and...

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Two Wings: Love’s Spring

06/04/2012

Such a challenging album is Love's Spring by Two Wings, and yet how very rewarding. It's enough to prompt the staunchest pragmatist to Confucius/Yoda pronouncements. Drivel on the nature of...

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The Walls of St Pauls by Kailas Elmer 2013

MB + ICS: Vir.uz

05/04/2012

'a phenomenal portrait of the human soul', MB + ICS: Vir.uz...

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Ufomammut: Oro: Opus Primum

04/04/2012

Italian three-piece Ufomammut are not an easy band to classify. Their Last.fm wiki entry helpfully describes their music as "Psychedelic sludge", which sounds a bit too much like the...

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2:54 Secret Gig: Review

02/04/2012

2:54, Secret Headline gig at the Queen of Hoxton, with History of Apple Pie and Deaf Club. Crammed into the small dimly lit venue at the Queen of Hoxton, we embark on a secret gig into the world of...

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bill drummond grafitti

Bill Drummond podcasts Damascus in London

31/03/2012

Bill Drummond's Damascus (2012) in London art-music project twisted the rules of internet-age event management....

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Into the Unknown: The Fall

30/03/2012

Regular Trebuchet column Into the Unknown takes a rare look back, and picks The Fall's 'Reformation' for closer scrutiny. Reformation Omnipresent, the veterans, the journeymen of British...

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Electric Deluxe Releases [Techno]

28/03/2012

Codex Europa reviews a series of techno releases on Speedy J's Electric Deluxe imprint Speedy J's Electric Deluxe is a reliable label that continues to issue a steady flow of thoughtful,...

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Bang On!: [Sic]

26/03/2012

And, like many gobby kids with a sharp wit and an audience, he gets carried away at times. 'Picking fatties with big racks/ to lick their piss flaps/ like Johnny Vegas in drag' flies past, sexist and...

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Skint and Demoralised: Live [Review]

22/03/2012

A Northern poet first and foremost, the wheels of Matt Abbott's vehicle go round and round. Trebuchet Magazine reports on Skint and Demoralised live. "If you reveal your secrets to the wind,...

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Maya Jane Coles: DJ Kicks

17/03/2012

Whoop! Funky vibes all round are coming through my Grados. Sixteen years into its long reign as Mixmag's 'most important DJ-mix series ever', DJ Kicks continues to do what it has always...

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Elfin Saddle: Devastates

16/03/2012

I love it when music fascinates me. It's a rare, almost extinct occurrence nowadays, having had my ears sanded down and numbed by years of exposure to the ever-expanding, if not broadening,...

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Decibels: The Lesser [single]

09/03/2012

There's a touch of the schoolboy band about Decibels, mainly from the promotional onesheet in which they  describe  themselves as '5 misfits, finding each other in the woods around...

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Giorgio Gigli & Obtane: Review

01/03/2012

Giorgio Gigli & Obtane: A Sad Wandering Dreamer Trapped In Contemporary Memory Architectures Sometimes techno titles are totally irrelevant to the sounds and some producers even prefer simply to...

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Evy Jane: Sayso and Ohso (+Remixes)

27/02/2012

I know the sexualisation of R&B has been overdone to a point where it has become sexually gratifying, big arses and jiggly tits sitting and dancing on Hummers, where the amount of fuel one can...

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Karnataka, Live: Bristol

23/02/2012

The celtic progressive rock band Karnataka have had something of a turbulent history. They established a growing reputation in the early 00s with the albums The Storm and Delicate Flame of Desire,...

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Proxima: Formal Junction/Grunge

20/02/2012

Is Proxima the real product of the lost generation of western European youth? The western Europe that, having drank 10 cans of Tennants Super, thinking it can take on the developing world as a fourth...

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Dadub: Way to Moksha EP

13/02/2012

Dadub is a duo of Daniele Antezza and Giovanni Conti, one of whose inspirations is Lee Scratch Perry. This dub sensibility helps them sculpt impressive new forms from techno and electronica...

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Speech Debelle: Freedom of Speech

12/02/2012

Calling upon Kwes to produce, Big Dada apply a sonic approach to Speech Debelle's return album that, even this early in the producer's career, tends towards formulaic. It's there right at...

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Into the Unknown: Omar S

09/02/2012

Omar S – 'Here’s your trance now dance' We’re here again and it’s another song of the month on dance music. I’m guessing about half have been that way over the...

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Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands: Muses and Bones

03/02/2012

“Where's your will to be weird?” ― Jim Morrison Crystal it seems, holds a better hand than most when it comes to music, playing a bewildering amount of instruments; accordion,...

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Colours: Drip Haze EP

01/02/2012

Amongst the many overstretched suspensions of disbelief that Trainspotting foisted upon the world at large, one of them was the wild-eyed, car-leaping, elegantly loquacious Scottish heroin addict. As...

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Ringo Starr 2012: Album Review

27/01/2012

Whilst in no way meaning to damn with faint praise (it's Ringo Starr, who would wish him ill?), there is little on Ringo 2012 that is deserving of great praise either. Nor does there really have...

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Straylings: Live Review

26/01/2012

The Straylings are getting it right, but the kindling stayed wet. The constant churn of styles in the bitter quest for hipness has delivered another pleasure: Straylings. They have pedigree and...

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Raffertie: Mass Appeal

25/01/2012

Continuing to pick and choose from dance music's ever-expanding past for seams of inspiration, Raffertie's single most endearing talent as a musician is that he references without trapping...

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Sturqen: Praga

21/01/2012

Some artists have such an innovative and distinctive sound that they define a whole area of sonic activity. The recently mothballed Finnish duo Pan Sonic will always be associated with raw analogue...

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Errors: Have Some Faith in Magic

20/01/2012

'we had the idea to put vocals in the music a while ago but we always intended that they should be treated as another instrument. We’ve used them in a way that sits really...

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Eyvind Kang: The Narrow Garden

19/01/2012

The fine folded pressures of the lidless eye. Renowned through his collaborations with John Zorn, Mike Patton, and Trey Spruance, Eyvind Kang has become the go-to violin guy for a certain strain of...

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Plaster: Platforms

18/01/2012

Plaster is a duo of Gianclaudio Hashem Moniri and Giuseppe Carlini founded in Rome in 2008 with two previous album and EP releases on the Ukrainian label Kvitnu. The press release states that they...

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