Ava Mendoza might not be a household name but, in certain circles, her name carries a lot of weight. This guitar virtuoso (who first worked on the classic guitar) has worked with the likes of John Zorn, flitting around the avant-garde musical scene, collaborating with many musicians, always bringing her…
Every month is a good month for music, if you pay attention. Here’s what gems October brought. Released in October &therisk is a unique project from Germany who convincingly merges the faraway realms of post-rock and mathcore into a coherent and enjoyable entity. Emergent is the result of this experiment,…
We know we’re already well into the final quarter of the year, but…better late than never, amirite? Like many genres (as in, almost all of them), jazz has had a pretty phenomenal showing in 2018. And given each of our individual tastes touching different factions of the style, it’s clear…
One of the greatest traits of the underground music community is its deeply collaborative nature. A journey into one artist’s discography will often illuminate connections to other like-minded artists, which initiates the insatiable quest to devour yet another intriguing discography. Such is the case with Stern, which likely attracted attention due to its…
Premiering new music from familiar faces is one of our favorite things to do. Not only does it give us the chance to highlight more incredible songs and albums, but it gives our readers another opportunity to discover an artist they may have missed the first time around. Which brings…
Though solo albums can excel or plummet in multiple different directions, they virtually always follow one of two paths: a slight or negligible deviation from the artist’s main project, or a complete departure from the sound they’ve become associated with. Dylan Carlson—the drone-doom pioneer and founder of Earth—has ventured down both paths…
Australia’s musical scene seems to know no bounds, and, thanks to the talents and efforts of people like Lachlan of Art as Catharsis, they are spread to the outside world. Case in point: I have the pleasure of introducing you to the entirety of Reductio ad absurdum, the upcoming EP from Sydney trio Instrumental (Adj.). The three have made quite a few waves on the Internet when they released their surprising and fresh debut A Series of Disagreements. It was short, but it overflowed with clever musical ideas and precise execution. It was jazzy, progressive, aggressive, mathematical, and, most of all, I couldn’t get enough of listening to it.
As a fan of forward-thinking music, it’s been thrilling to watch Travis Laplante grow into an essential experimental artist over the past several years. As both a saxophonist and composer, Laplante has created and contributed to some of the most exceptional releases in modern classical and avant-garde jazz. In between his incredible…
We’ve charted out quite the trajectory for Jazz Club over the past few years. Initially, we launched the column as a means of dissecting key albums from throughout the year, starting with what I still fervently believe to be the greatest jazz album of the decade thus far. Then the…
No genre has experienced a more distinct shift in its cultural purpose than classical music. What was once the sole form of musical expression in Western culture has been largely relegated to specific roles in society. Modern classical certainly hasn’t lost any of its esteem, but in terms of popular…
