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Questioning the Status Quo: Joshua Abrams and Chad Taylor Interview

Chicago-based duo Mind Maintenance discuss their devotional new album for Drag City Records with Gareth Thompson

Finding Order in Things: Phil Self (Dau) Interview

Musician-composer Phil Self talks about pulling pints, the Kentish coast and Peter Greenaway’s influence on his new album Zed Zed

Not Turning Off: Volume 16

A diverse gathering of sounds from Rob St John, Colleen, Cheval Sombre, The Chills and Juliana Hatfield goes through some evaluating ears

Joining the Dots with Mark Churcher of V-Neck

Mark Churcher discusses the musical foundations of V-Neck and his A Nice Random Meet LP, plus Glasgow connections and the return of Emote

Stories Beyond the Dancefloor: Five Rituals Interview

Lithuanian duo Five Rituals discuss their debut LP of experimental low-end music, giving in to the present moment and eco friendly vinyl

Various Artists – La Ola Interior: Spanish Ambient & Acid Exoticism 1983-1990 (Bongo Joe)

Bongo Joe’s La Ola Interior compilation of 1980s Fourth World infused Spanish ambient is a third eye opening experience

Clay Pipe Music: From the Foreshore

Reflections on ten tremendous years of Clay Pipe Music, with founder Frances Castle, through ten totemic releases

Not Turning Off: Volume 10

New albums from Cheval Sombre, Plankton Wat and Isnaj Dui shift through several shades and shapes of self-seclusion

More Vital Records from Last Year Now!

Stewart Gardiner highlights a baker’s dozen of 2020 records he missed then, but has fallen in love with now

Concrete Islands Albums of the Year 2020

These are the seventy-five albums of 2020 that have meant the most to us at Concrete Islands, alongside our archive releases of the year

Danalogue x Alabaster dePlume – I Was Not Sleeping (Total Refreshment Centre)

Danalogue and Alabaster dePlume hitch a wild ride together with a freewheeling studio set for Total Refreshment Centre

Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra – Dimensional Stardust (International Anthem)

Rob Mazurek’s latest cosmic carnival of an album for International Anthem is playful, epic and riotously inventive

Not Turning Off: Volume 4

New albums from Snow Palms, Angèle David-Guillou and Faten Kanaan, pushing post-classical envelopes and more, fall under the review spotlight

Leaning into the Spaces: Burd Ellen Interview

Burd Ellen’s Debbie Armour talks to Gareth Thompson about sacred dramas, Mary as an Ever Mother and taxidermy wrens

The Tunnels That Lie Beneath Literature: David Keenan Interview

David Keenan tells Stewart Gardiner about losing himself to writing fiction, keeping the voices at bay and letting Xstabeth loose

Staraya Derevnya – Inwards Opened the Floor (Raash)

British-Israeli combo Staraya Derevnya make an extreme montage of noise and rhythm on their latest record Inwards Opened the Floor

Listening to the Wind: Ian Preece Interview

Ian Preece tells all on Listening to the Wind, his hefty yet accessible book profiling intrepid independent labels from across the globe

Belbury Poly – The Gone Away (Ghost Box)

Belbury Poly’s The Gone Away reopens the town of Belbury with a musical journey through the eeriest Ghost Box hinterlands

The Trains Have Gone: Gilroy Mere Interview

To mark the release of new LP Adlestrop, the real Gilroy Mere talks to Stewart Gardiner about Clay Pipe Music, the Beeching Report and avoiding nostalgia

Rupert Lally – Lost to the Past (Modern Aviation)

Stepping aside from his films and literature led explorations, Rupert Lally looks back into his own childhood with this first appearance on Modern Aviation

David Lynch Featuring Jack Cruz – The Flame of Love (Sacred Bones)

David Lynch gives voice to unreliable simian singer Jack Cruz for this 7″ of noir-surreal DIY torch songs on Sacred Bones

Witch ‘n’ Monk – Witch ‘n’ Monk (Tzadik)

Witch ‘n’ Monk’s boundary pushing eponymous second LP playfully explores fourth world landscapes, cosmic jazz boundaries and no wave rhythms

Spring Provides: Part Two

This second springtime column brings together a broad range of wares from Modern Studies, Textile Ranch, Bizarre Statue, Correlations and Rose City Band

Ville Herrala – Pu: (We Jazz)

Finnish double bassist Ville Herrala conjures raw suspense and offers many surprises on his ambitious debut album Pu: from We Jazz Records

Jon Brooks – How to Get to Spring (Clay Pipe Music)

Jon Brooks’s How to Get to Spring on Clay Pipe Music invites nature indoors with a set of beautifully necessary pastoral electronics

Polypores & Friends – Piano: Dismantled

Moustachioed modular-synth maestro Stephen James Buckley brings others into his immersive sound world with sublime communalist results

Keith Seatman – Time to Dream but Never Seen (Castles in Space)

Keith Seatman’s phantasmagorical progtronica does like to be beside the seaside on his Time to Dream but Never Seen long player