White Noise

With White Noise, Noah Gundersen continues his journey away from the rather anaemic acoustic balladry of old. This is a step up in songwriting, production and emotional heft that, with its touches of synth and Gundersen’s occasional swooning falsetto, warrants favourable comparison with Perfume Genius’s excellent recent albums. “After All” and especially “Sweet Talker” best exhibit this new ambition, though less successful are some banal attempts at sparse Josh Ritter-ish folk that sit awkwardly on an album that, thanks to Gundersen’s sonic imagination and maturing sense of songcraft, otherwise succeeds.

With White Noise, Noah Gundersen continues his journey away from the rather anaemic acoustic balladry of old. This is a step up in songwriting, production and emotional heft that, with its touches of synth and Gundersen’s occasional swooning falsetto, warrants favourable comparison with Perfume Genius’s excellent recent albums. “After All” and especially “Sweet Talker” best exhibit this new ambition, though less successful are some banal attempts at sparse Josh Ritter-ish folk that sit awkwardly on an album that, thanks to Gundersen’s sonic imagination and maturing sense of songcraft, otherwise succeeds.

Smith/Kotzen is a musical collaboration between musicians Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden and Richie Kotzen, a member of Winery Dogs and a solo artist in his own right.

On their 2017 full-length debut album AM/PM, the group boldly bob and weave past convention and emerge with an infectious and inimitable body of work representative of their penchant for unpredictability. Throughout 2016, the band recorded what would become AM/PM with producer Drew Fulk [Motionless In White, We Came As Romans] in Los Angeles. Along the way, they succinctly sharpened their style. AM/PM, named in reference to a song by the band Give Up The Ghost, threads together a captivating musical narrative, each moment adding another layer of complexity to the album as a whole. Ultimately, the songs encourage listeners to be introspective, self-aware and think outside the box. 'We don't want to stick to any one specific sound,' affirms KJ. 'Every song stands on its own, but there's a cohesion to the record because of how we play. At the core of everything, we're a rock band. There are no boundaries to that.'

The Levin-Torn-White album saw the light of day this year (2011) via Lazy Bones Recordings, and comprises fourteen songs that make a total time of 55 minutes, worth of every listen, as you can imagine. The songs are not really long, oscillating from 1:30 to 5:30 minutes. The references to King Crimson or Yes may be obvious due to the musicians in this project, and it does have some moments that will remind you of them, however, the sound is not really what you would think. Here the experimental side of Torn’s guitars produces rich textures that give the music a different style and direction.

Not to be confused with Scottish Britpop flash-in-the-pan tykes Whiteout , White Out is Lin Culbertson and Tom Surgal, two fans of New York’s free jazz and no wave scenes who met at a Big Black gig at CBGB 20 years ago and have been journeying to the outer reaches ever since. They return to Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! Label for this, their fourth album, after stepping out with ATP Recordings for 2005’s China Is Near. Senso continues that record’s move away from jazzier structures towards abstraction, but whereas China Is Near featured six tracks of differing moods, here there are only two tracks, each filing a disc of its own.

Casey Dienel aka White Hinterland’s new album Baby is poised to display her transformation from a more introverted singer performing over drones and glitchy beats to her own best producer soaring over bombastic experimental R&B. Lead single “Ring The Bell” already showed this, but the album’s title track goes further. Dienel’s voice and beats here are tougher than before while her experimentation during the recording of the album shines through with dissonant, angular distortion cutting through smooth bass lines. The recurring mantra of “is this my weakness,” flows with the music so well that it almost sounds like a boast. Listen and read Dienel’s comment on the song below.

A collection of a some David Bowie's singles from the 1993-2003 period. Includes Black Tie White Noise, Miracle Goodnight, The Buddha Of Suburbia, Hallo Spaceboy, Thursday's Child, Survive, Slow Burn, and Never Get Old.