After the success of “Group Therapy,” I was excited when I found out that Above & Beyond had come out with a new album called “We Are All We Need.” But instead of being greeted with the skipping trance beats I had come to love from “Group Therapy,” I was instead quietly ushered into the album with dreamy, seafoam...
Four years after their last release, Guster has dropped back into the alternative music scene with their seventh studio album, “Evermotion.” Having produced the record partly under Nettwerk, their independent label, it makes sense that Guster would experiment and create a sound quite different from their earlier discography. While any artist should, indeed, be entitled to a bit of...
The year 2014 was a big year for 21-year-old Meghan Trainor. The newcomer burst onto the scene with her smash hit “All About That Bass,” a retro-styled, upbeat track that quickly rose to the top of the charts. Basking in her newfound success, Trainor decided to enter the New Year with her debut album, “Title.” Full of fun and...
Starbomb seemed to appear out of nowhere last year, releasing a self-titled comedy album that quickly rose the charts on iTunes, and hitting the No. 1 spot on the comedy chart. After a year or so of waiting, the second album for Starbomb has come out, entitled “Player Select”; it is the brainchild of animator and let’s-player Egoraptor (Arin...
After seven years and a handful of disagreements and reconciliations, it seems we’re finally getting “A Better Tomorrow,” what is rumored to be the last Wu-Tang Clan album. Whether it’s arguments over the artistic direction of the crew or people getting short-changed during business agreements, it seems like the Wu isn’t short of controversy. Nonetheless, this aging group of...
I became a fan of Giraffage (aka Charlie Yin) after hearing his track “Music Sounds Better With You” on one of Clothesencounter’s YouTube videos. As hipster as I may sound, I love the underground electronic music world he occupies. I was stoked to hear that his new EP “No Reason” came out about two weeks ago, and it has...
Subgenres on top of subgenres is the name of the game for the ever-so-fickle landscape of electronic music, where it seems as though every new release brings a new classification that would leave even Darwin and Linnaeus in a state of discombobulation. However, a prominent subgenre that has managed to maintain its relevance through the years is trap: an...
Manchester producer and electronic artist Andy Stott has released his anticipated fourth album, “Faith in Strangers,” which features the careful mastering and atmospheric style indicative of his work. Light and airy with a dark, lurid undercurrent, his album marks a step forward for the artist that will please fans and entice newcomers.
The album begins slowly and stays at its...
Ariel Pink has delivered the album Foxygen’s “… And Star Power” should have been. Freed of his backing band Haunted Graffiti (partially responsible for his previous outings, the generally acclaimed “Mature Themes” and “Before Today”), Pink provides a double-sided LP stuffed to the brim with inventive psych-pop and idiosyncratic incursions. “Pom Pom,” his newest solo album, is all unvarnished...
In the spring of 2011, TV on the Radio’s future as a band was uncertain. The group had recently reunited after a yearlong hiatus, and they lost their bassist, Gerard Smith, to lung cancer after the release of their fourth album. With their newest album “Seeds,” the group has shown that the tribulations of their past will not stop...