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Joanne Robertson released her debut album, 2008’s The Lighter, 16 years ago; since then, her voice has frayed at one end and calcified at the other, and it’s never sounded as beautiful and electrifying as it does on Backstage Raver. Shades of every great yearner are collected in her raw, emphatic pipes: Hope Sandoval, Sky Ferreira, Neko Case, Cat Power, so many more; maybe you can’t always make out the words, but you always know what she means.
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Ever wanted to latently drape yourself around your room, yearning for something you felt you were promised? Ever wanted to imagine yourself ruiner of all things pure? Ever wanted to be an “absinthe-dulled odalisque,” reaking havoc on the kingdom? Well, do I have the album for you…
Jan 22, 2024
The former Helium and Ex-Hex frontwoman (she's been in Autoclave and Wild Flag too) has a new solo album out.
I have been a fan of Mary's for so long, I saw Helium way back (I think they were touring with her ex-boyfriend/bandmate's other band, Polvo) and the experience was galvanizing.
This is a song about persevering even after you've lost it all. The string arrangements add a tinge of sadness, like R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming" does. It's the sound of driving across a desert, having lost the people you love and waking to the feeling that your future is a giant, wide-open blank space.
Not all guitar heroes wear capes. And Mary is definitely one of those.
Feb 23, 2024
Jan 25, 2025
Top Recs from @shaad
TME is Iglooghost’s most conventional album and it still makes me fucking crazy – like I’m freebasing nicotine and cocaine at the same time, while on one of those rollercoasters that drops at a 90-degree angle. Part of that disorienting feeling, this time around, comes from textures and sounds I didn’t expect: post-punk drums on “Coral Mimic”; the electro beat on “Nemat0de”. I’m sick to death of “genreless” music; Tidal Memory Exo was a genre unto itself.
Dec 30, 2024
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People hate on Discogs so much, kind of for good reason, but it’s my social media of choice. I’ve become obsessive about cataloguing my records, I love to write up entries for stuff that’s not in the database, and I’m obsessed with the comment section drama. The userbase’s dedication to being totally insane is admirable - these people know the names of specific lathe cutters at pressing plants in the Czech Republic.
Nov 25, 2023
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I heard this record playing in World of Echo, the sick Columbia Road record store whose opening hours are really hard to figure out. This is a jazz record they put out on their in-house label, although that term is a little misleading — “Marble Walls”, my favourite on the EP, which is what made me ask what was playing, is kind of Anna Domino core and there’s breakbeats and stuff too. Tara is from Bristol and her merch is handmade ceramic mugs, which I also find to be incredibly charming.
Nov 25, 2023