Adriane Pontecorvo

2 weeks ago | popmatters.com | Adriane Pontecorvo

Another Place ATO Too often, dub is used as a superficial shorthand for slowed-down, chilled-out, reverb-laden instrumental bonus tracks. I tend to encounter “dub versions” of songs tacked onto the ends of albums like musical petit fours, which can come across as a tropicalist trope with broad appeal; who doesn’t like a breezy beat, after all?

1 month ago | popmatters.com | Adriane Pontecorvo

Taba RVNG Intl. Producer, performer, and composer Satomimagae’s new album Taba is a work of emergence. On it, she steps out of the introverted depths of pandemic isolation, moving more directly through the gauzy layers of sound she builds. The chrysalis is left behind, the wilder world open before her. It’s a journey gently taken. Taba never moves with too heavy a tread, but it covers a lot of new ground and sees her embrace the uneven with grace.

1 month ago | popmatters.com | Adriane Pontecorvo

Tết 41 Mute Modular synthesist and composer JakoJako’s new album Tết 41 begins looking outward. Opening track “Xin chào” (Vietnamese for “hello”) is a compilation of field recordings that convey a gently jubilant feeling: an ensemble of lively percussion plays in the distance, bamboo flute and zither sway to a much slower rhythm somewhere to the right, and voices of all ages and pitches fill the sonic ground.

1 month ago | popmatters.com | Adriane Pontecorvo

In Between PKMusik Rarely is “beautiful” the most accurate or informative descriptor for anything, especially music. Even so, something is striking about In Between, the latest work from singer and composer Elana Sasson, that is hard to describe any other way. Sound, sentiment, and intent all work in exquisite aesthetic and affective concert here, the layering of these aspects giving the album multiple dimensions that are sincerely beautiful from start to finish.

1 month ago | popmatters.com | Adriane Pontecorvo

December/Sedimonthole Brabant Road Five years ago, duo Thaba emerged onto the global stage with cool electrosoul on Eyes Rest Their Feet. It was a bittersweet moment. Mere months before this debut, lead vocalist Khusi Seremane–half of Thaba, at the time–passed away after long-term health problems, leaving producer Gabriel Cyr with a host of unfinished pieces beyond the first album.