D.O.A.
We Come In Peace
Sudden Death (2012)
in·sti·tu·tion noun \?in(t)-st?-?tü-sh?n, something or someone firmly associated with a place or thingThere are few bands around that can be considered any kind of institution for their respective region. D.O.A. However, is such a band. A band synonymous with growing up in Canada. More specifically, growing up in Vancouver.Year after passing year, frontman Joe Keithley could be counted on to rear … Read more
Daft Punk
Human After All
Virgin (2005)
Considering the phalanx of albums due for release, and with previous offering Discovery bringing all the musical vision and ingenuity of a series of polyphonic ring-tones, Human After All found itself rated rather low on my list of desires and expectations for the first half of 2005. Being honest, I expected absolutely nothing of real musical value from this album, … Read more
Dag Rosenqvist & Matthew Collings
Hello Darkness
Denovali (2017)
There is a familiarity that builds when musicians collaborate. Experimental alchemists, Dag Rosenqvist and Matthew Collings have met in the past to produce the wonderful Wonderland EP, released in 2012 as part of Hibernate's collaboration series. Their new record together, Hello Darkness, produces a more distinct and complete end result of what their combined musical vision is. At first glimpse … Read more
Daggermouth
Stallone
Feeding Frenzy (2005)
Recently I was talking with (read: bitching to) my friend Brian about how there hasn't been any new bands lately that have really caught me and pulled me in. Granted, there have been many bands I've really gotten into over the last year or so, but none of them really caught my ear and made me love them. It's not … Read more
Daggermouth
Turf Wars
State of Mind (2007)
Daggermouth's 2005 release, Stallone was a really solid record. For me, the band came along at a time when no new bands were really catching on with me. I was hooked on Stallone from the start and I've been riding the hype train with The 'Mouth ever since. Turf Wars was certainly a long time in the making, but I … Read more
Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones
Astrild Astrild
Denovali (2017)
At some point in the '90s a strange scene begun to form, spawning from the adventurous nature of Gore and their follow-up project Bohren & der Club of Gore and expanded by the likes of Asunta and Phantom City. Taking the cool jazz structures, artists begun performing alchemical experiments with ambient music, abstract rhythms, drone elements and aspects of dark electronica. Artists such as The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and The … Read more
Dälek
Abandoned Language
Ipecac (2007)
Dälek have the ability to produce an album that's so distinctively different from anything that have done before and yet still sounds characteristically like a Dälek album. As soon as you hear a song by this group, you know it's them. Not only have they consistently been able to do this album after album, but while doing so the quality … Read more
Dälek
Absence
Ipecac (2004)
There's rap and there's hip hop, or at least that's how things used to be. Now there's Dälek and there's everything else. Dre, Outkast, and Lil' Jon aren't worthy enough to share a mixed tape with this trio. Collectively known as Dälek, Dälek, Oktopus, and Still work together to create an original recipe of hip hop that at times shares … Read more
Dälek
Asphalt For Eden
Profound Lore (2016)
Dalek has long been a group for outsiders. Embracing noise, industrial and ambient genres while still holding a tenuous grip on their New York hip hop roots. There is something strangely prescient about their mix of these genres being their own thing while fully embracing a structured sound that embodies the new york aesthetic at the same time. So after … Read more
Dälek
Gutter Tactics
Ipecac (2009)
Describing Dälek is always pretty tough. Despite the fact that MC Dälek himself has stated that they should be considered purely hip-hop since the origins of the genre lie in experimentation and breaking down barriers, I would conjecture that whacking Gutter Tactics onto your stereo and playing it to your average chart-loving hip-hop aficionado would result in blank stares and … Read more
Dälek
Precipice
Ipecac (2022)
It is easy to take for granted the excellent state of experimental hip-hop today. With Death Grips freely applying noise and electronica with a punk ethos, and clipping. doubling down on industrialized beats and Afro-futuristic narratives, it is easy to forget that this landscape was not always so rich. Traveling back in time, to the end of the ‘90s, it was artists like Dälek … Read more
Damages
Scars
Clue #2 (2009)
About this time last year I received a 7" from a band named All Through a Life. That 7" contained a welcome surprise of D.C. inspired hardcore. Well apparently they are no longer a band, but a couple of the members have reconvened in Damages. Scars essentially picks up where the members left off with their previous band. Damages still … Read more
Damiera
M(us)ic
Equal Vision (2007)
M(us)ic equals "us in music." Playful guitar lines and broken time signatures characterize Buffalo, New York's Damiera. Imagine a mélange of The Fall of Troy and Circa Survive. This comparison (to bands also on Equal Vision Records) was the first thing I thought of when listening to Damiera. Each track is respectively catchy and melodically technical, proving the musicians know … Read more
Damnation A.D.
In This Life or the Next
Victory (2007)
Seeing Damnation A.D. for the first time in years at New Year's reunion in Syracuse a couple of years back awoke something in me that I had not realized had been sleeping. Watching this five piece shake the building with their tortured, bottom heavy power was and is a great experience. If you doubt this, go see them and watch … Read more
Damnation A.D.
Kingdom Of Lost Souls
Revelation (1998)
Sometimes over the course of a lengthy tenure in being completely absorbed in music in some fashion, certain bands and musicians can fade in and out of a regular rotation of what you are listening to at the time; Damnation AD has for some reason been one of those bands for me and through no reason because their music is … Read more
Damon Eliza Palermo
Beacon of Maracaibo
Johnkôôl Records (2018)
Contemplative and calming, “Delacorta” kicks off Damon Eliza Palermo's Beacon of Maracaibo release with flowing piano and bubbling electronic tones playing under a pleasant, naturalistic bed of chirping birds. Slightly glitchy but undeniably relaxing even when it introduces a cymbal-heavy beat late in the going, the opener transitions into a lengthy title track awash in sweeping synths, seesawing vocal tones and airy … Read more
Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
Angles
Sunday Best (2008)
If you have the good/bad fortune to live in the U.K., you will in all likelihood have a fairly limited view of hip-hop. For many years it kind of bypassed us, only really hitting the charts in the mid-to-late 1990s with the gangsta boom (a term which I am hoping will catch on). As a result, most U.K. hip-hop is … Read more
Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
The Logic Of Chance
Sunday Best (2010)
Ah, the sophomore curse. It's a minefield for most artists, and rare indeed is the second album that matches the first. After due consideration, I declare that the problem is primarily one of gestation. The songs that comprise a debut are usually ones which have been fine-tuned over a number of years while the individuals concerned earn enough reputation or … Read more
