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Music

'What a Fantastic Death Abyss': David Bowie's 'Outside' at 25

David Bowie's Outside signaled the end of him as a slick pop star and his reintroduction as a ragged-edged arty agitator.
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Music

Coldplay: Kaleidoscope EP

This is Coldplay in 2017, saying "hi" to the mainstream by pandering to pop, and actually managing to do a not-half-bad job of it.

Interviews

Dark Blue-Grey With Neon Pink Flashes: An Interview With Jon Hopkins

Transcendent electronic musician Jon Hopkins reflects on two decades of composition and collaboration and hints at what’s on the horizon.

A. Noah Harrison
Music

Cluster: 1971-1981

A formative and furtive period for the Krautrock duo is the focus of the blessed box set Cluster: 1971-1981.

Music

Brian Eno - "The Ship" (Singles Going Steady)

Brian Eno delivers a breathtaking 21-minute epic that sounds like an out of body experience.

Music

Harmonia: Complete Works

Brian Eno loved them, and probably would not have made those beloved Bowie albums the same way without them.

Music

A Travelogue of Jon Hassell's 'Fourth World' Journey Into the Mystical

Fourth Word truly is a world unto itself, a vision of avant-garde experimentation that influenced numerous composers in its wake.

Jason Gross
Music

Jon Hassell and Brian Eno: Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics

It doesn't matter who played or who produced. It doesn't matter if it's "classical" or "ambient". And it certainly doesn't matter that it was released in 1980. Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics is still an album unlike any other.

Music

The Best Album Re-Issues of 2014

The music world saw reissues from all over the genre map, spanning classic rock titans to electronic music legends.

Books

David Bowie's Affective Relationship With the Remarkable, Schizophrenic City of Berlin

Tobias Rüther’s exploration of Bowie’s artistic and personal development in mid-'70s Berlin offers few cogent insights and a confusing timeline of an artist in a city.

Music

Brian Eno and Karl Hyde: Someday World

Two naturally complementary collaborators make half of an OK album and half of what could have been one of the best records of the year.

Music

Owen Pallett: In Conflict

With Brian Eno and the FILMHarmonic Orchestra Prague in tow, In Conflict proves to be Owen Pallett's most confident artistic expression thus far.

Music

Damon Albarn: Everyday Robots

Even if you think that Damon Albarn has done it all by this point in time, Everyday Robots is a new gold standard in contemporary pop songwriting.

Music

Peter Gabriel: And I'll Scratch Yours

Peter Gabriel waits three years for his back to be scratched, and the wait wasn't necessarily worth it.

Music

Dido: Girl Who Got Away

Returning with her fourth album after a four-and-a-half-year absence, Dido fails to make good on her promises to reinvent her sound.

Music

Counterbalance No. 107: Roxy Music's 'For Your Pleasure'

I bought you mail order, my plain wrapper baby. Your skin is like vinyl, the perfect companion. You're the 107th most acclaimed album of all time. Roxy Music's 1973 classic is this week's Counterbalance.

Music

Brian Eno: LUX

Pause for a moment and appreciate Brian Eno's latest solo record. You have to experience it as though you were lying down watching clouds pass overhead.

Music

Roxy Music: The Complete Studio Recordings

If you haven’t heard a lot of Roxy Music but you love glam, prog or new wave, this collection is a great introduction to a band that took on all those genres simultaneously and influenced an entire generation of musicians.

Music

Icebreaker with B.J. Cole - Apollo

A surprisingly worthy reimagining of Brian Eno's minimalist masterpiece.

Music

Counterbalance No. 89: David Bowie's 'Low'

In this week's Counterbalance, David Bowie takes up a new career in a new town. The result is the gift of sound and vision... and the 89th Most Acclaimed Album of All Time.

Music

Tin Man: Vienna Blue

Johannes Auvinen, aka Tin Man, fashions an album about his relationship with his adopted home. It's complicated.

Music

Bonobo: Black Sands Remixed

The British producer's slickly curated remix album for his near-great 2010 full-length has a serious lack of imagination.

Music

Various Artists: The Total Groovy

Buzzcock Pete Shelley's label reissues its entire three album run with a bonus disc. Sometimes, there's even real music.

Music

Brian Eno & Rick Holland: Panic of Looking

From the sessions that brought you Drums Between the Bells comes more frustratingly aloof music and poetry from Eno and Holland.

Music

U2: Achtung Baby (20th Anniversary Edition)

Say goodbye to the pious conscience of rock, enter the Fly: U2's daring sonic reinvention resulted in the artistic pinnacle of its career. Twenty years later, are remastered commemorative editions enough to tempt you into obtaining a record you should already own?

Music

Astrid Williamson: Pulse

The wispy-voiced Scottish singer-songwriter delivers her fifth solo album, an ambient slow burner with moments of brilliance.

Music

Daft Punk Is Playing at Your House: 10 Essential Dance-Rock Albums

Today, the intersection of dance music and rock music seems only natural. However, the process has been in the making for decades, and this list provides an introduction to ten of the best albums this genre combination has to offer.

Music

Brian Eno: Drums Between the Bells

This hybrid of music and poetry is frustratingly detached, adding color to absent ideas. It's safe to say that your spine will probably not shiver.

Music

Counterbalance No. 38: U2's 'The Joshua Tree'

In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum. Counterbalance wrestled with the album and the album was overcome. U2's The Joshua Tree is next on the Great List—Klinger and Mendelsohn have a listen.

Music

Counterbalance No. 35: Talking Heads - Remain in Light

Facts all come with points of view, like the fact that Talking Heads’ 1980 Afro-funk opus is the 35th Greatest Album of All Time. Counterbalance gives Remain in Light a listen—don’t you miss it. (Some of you people just about missed it.)

Music

Anna Calvi: Anna Calvi

Don't bother reading this review. Just go out and buy the record. Y'all should probably put some clothes on first, though.

Music

Brian Eno: Small Craft on a Milk Sea

The equally venerable Brian Eno and Warp Records come together for the first time, and the electronic music pioneer manages yet another astonishingly immersive creation.

Music

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: Brian Eno

While Eno’s reputation is certainly secure, the true measure of pop culture relevance is being linked by six degrees or less to that other bastion of prolificacy, Kevin Bacon.

Books

The Recording Studio Becomes a Musical Instrument in Its Own Right in 'The Producer as Composer'

As Virgil Moorefield describes the process of sampling and detailing the typical studio set-up of an act like the Chemical Brothers, he shows us that the soundboard is not an easy instrument to master.

Music

Verse-Chorus-Verse: The Mutant Blues of Devo and James Blood Ulmer

Artist/producer PC Muñoz mines for gems and grills the greats.

Music

Harmonia and Eno '76: Tracks and Traces

Not a whole lot of supergroups can boast this kind of willed civil synergy, but not a whole lot of supergroups called themselves Harmonia either.


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