John Garratt

Oct 2, 2023 | popmatters.com | John Garratt

Sharp DiamondIndependentMiriam Piilonen is a composer, music theory instructor, singer-songwriter, punk saxophonist, and poet. If you are wondering exactly which musical approach best represents her personality, you may be frustrated or intrigued to learn that she gleefully dodges any defining characteristics on her latest release, Sharp Diamond. How the album starts, where it goes, and how it ends all come from very different places, even on a seven-track, 24-minute record.

Sep 28, 2023 | tinyurl.com | John Garratt

For the past 20 years or so, Wilco have primarily been an in-house band. They’ve recorded their music in their studio, served as their producers, and even started putting music out on their label, dBpm Records. If they ever turned to an outside producer, it was someone who usually turned out to be a co-producer of an album alongside either Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone, or the band as a whole.

Sep 26, 2023 | tinyurl.com | John Garratt

Jlin‘s music is nearly impossible to categorize, and the PR team at the Planet Mu label are not about to let you forget it: “Let’s be clear – she’s not EDM, IDM, electronic, footwork or post-footwork. Don’t use those terms to box her in. She’s simply Jlin.”Okay, on the one hand, it’s quite true that the music of composer and DJ Jlin doesn’t fit neatly into any one box.

Sep 21, 2023 | popmatters.com | John Garratt

Distorted RoomsThrill JockeyAustrian experimentalists Radian have quite a unique specialty. They can take various unmusical elements, process them through different studio toys, and stitch them all together in a way that resembles not only pieces of music but music that can sound simultaneously clinical and suspenseful.

Sep 19, 2023 | tinyurl.com | John Garratt

Last Splash (30th Anniversary Original Analog Edition)4ADThis is not the first time the Breeders‘ second album has received the anniversary treatment. Ten years ago, the 4AD label unleashed LSXX, a box set chocked full of rare and out-of-print tracks, including the Head to Toe EP and the in-concert album Live in Stockholm 1994 in its entirety. It gave listeners an extra 45 songs to soak up, spread across an extra six pieces of vinyl.