A strong empha­sis on melody and struc­ture define Mar­tin Dosh’s music. On Tommy, he keeps in fine form while con­tin­u­ing to layer dis­parate ele­ments between melodies. The drums are more hec­tic, the pace more fre­netic. The open­ing free-jazz of “Sub­trac­tions” gives lis­ten­ers intensely paced per­cus­sion while the gui­tar and keys dance between its whirl­wind. Even when melodies are lush and beau­ti­ful, such as on “Yer Face,” Dosh’s drum­ming sounds like a blender; kicks and snares sur­round each other furi­ously. (more…)

The open­ing moments of Cos­mo­gramma are a rapid ascent into the future world of Fly­ing Lotus (Steven Elli­son). Once arrival is com­plete, the lis­tener is instantly enveloped in a busy urban-metropolis of jazzy robots wet with elec­tronic rain and percussion-driven hov­er­craft speed­ing over head. (more…)

I read quite a few of the advance reviews for Starkey’s new album Ear Drums and Black Holes and many of them left me con­fused about what the album would be like. There is a cer­tain num­ber that revolve around sim­i­lar crit­i­cisms: that it’s too long and too scat­ter­shot. After spend­ing time with it recently, I’ve come to the con­clu­sive it’s not either of those things. Rather, it’s relent­lessly assertive. Each one of these tracks is say­ing some­thing in a loud voice. They stand up and put them­selves out there as indi­vid­u­als. Per­haps this is why it might seem “scat­ter­shot.” Even though the songs form a seam­less whole, they all have dis­tinct per­son­al­i­ties. Too often these days albums con­tain ten tracks that are vari­a­tions on a shared theme. The songs don’t break out as indi­vid­ual nuggets of cre­ativ­ity. They do on Ear Drums and Black Holes. (more…)