Brian Eno is an iconic and omnipresent pioneer in the world of ambient music, but he's gained real staying power while working behind the boards. He's produced albums for some of modern music's most influential artists, including Devo, David Bowie, U2, Coldplay, Peter Gabriel and Talking Heads.
Rock and ambient music might as well reside on opposite sides of the galaxy, so it's almost shocking when a band like Deerhunter melds the two so effectively.
If Death Grips isn't the fourth horseman of a hip-hop apocalypse, its music at least tests the genre's threshold of extremity: The trio's abrasive, jittery style teeters on the edge of palatability, and plays toward a morbid curiosity to which many listeners won't succumb.
Occasionally, I'll want to cover something that's outside of my audiences' tastes or interests. Every week or so I have to try and cover at least one or two of those things to keep my sanity. If you're only reviewing what is in the top album spots on Apple Music every week, you can get kind of jaded.
At the end of the day, I would love for the artists that I give positive reviews to to continue coming out with music. That's ultimately what I want as a fan.
Holiday Shores' ambition far exceeds its members' recording budget. The band's boyish vocal harmonies wash in and out with the tide, and reverb radiates from the guitars like heat off a sun-baked parking lot.
The Internet has essentially democratized the music industry in terms of what is popular and it's democratized the music journalism industry as well.
Girls' strength lies in its diversity, and its members have walked in a lot of borrowed shoes to make it that way. 'Solitude' is a bold and sweet example of inspiration trumping originality.
Memes just show that people are engaged about something. A meme is just a little inside joke for a group of people that care about a certain thing.
For more than 15 years, Mogwai has built a reputation on its monstrous ambitions for rock music.
The 11-minute 'Colouring of Pigeons' takes The Knife's experimental, cerebral side to new heights.
On its self-titled debut, Happy Birthday flirts with several flavors of love, and 'Girls FM' is where taste gets confusing.
Garage-rock eccentric King Khan may be from Montreal, but his heart is almost a thousand miles away, throbbing from Atlanta to Castle City, Mont., until it hits cardiac arrest in Kalamazoo. Khan and His Shrines warn that this so-called 'Land of the Freak' is where only the strong survive, but it's a strength that can't be measured in muscle.
With its breezy guitars and sweet backing vocals, 'Norway' blows away any semblance of Beach House's previously bleak approach to pop.
Music can provide a much-needed break from life's harsh moments, but Eddy Current Suppression Ring has no interest in creating a sonic fire escape for the distraught. Instead, the band embraces the real world, wrapping its arms around the beautiful and the ugly alike.
The TV show 'How It's Made' brings the intricate details of assembly lines to numerous North American living rooms. But if the series were to ever branch into exposing the secrets of music production, Colin Stetson's 'New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges' would make for a mind-bending episode.
I'm not that famous.
The personality and songwriting of Holy Ghost! trumps the originality card any day.
Jesu's walls of distortion are uplifting in comparison to those of its doom-driven contemporaries. The band's 2009 album 'Infinity' has its bleak moments, but that album's single 49-minute song resolves into something inspirational and grandiose by the time it's over.
Stay adventurous with that musical taste.
