Category Archives: Featured Articles
ACL 2019 ~ Top Ten Drone
Drone music doesn’t need to be scary; there’s nothing inherently frightening about elongated tones. Yet the drone genre does seem predisposed toward darkness. Just look at the cover art for Black to Comm; or the compositional corpses found in the BABEL hardback
ACL 2019 ~ Top Ten Drone
Drone music doesn’t need to be scary; there’s nothing inherently frightening about elongated tones. Yet the drone genre does seem predisposed toward darkness. Just look at the cover art for Black to Comm; or the compositional corpses found in the BABEL hardback
ACL 2019 ~ Top Ten Ambient
And now, the first of the Big Seven Lists! We receive more ambient music than anything else, at times equal to all the other genres combined. This makes the field our most competitive, which is ironic considering the fact that
ACL 2019 ~ Top Ten Ambient
And now, the first of the Big Seven Lists! We receive more ambient music than anything else, at times equal to all the other genres combined. This makes the field our most competitive, which is ironic considering the fact that
*Press A* 2019 ~ The Year’s Best Videogame Soundtracks
As the videogame market expands, it reaches places and people perhaps previously uninterested in its products. In 2019, with the quality of games striking ever upwards, that expansion was reflected throughout the world of developers, with many different kinds of
*Press A* 2019 ~ The Year’s Best Videogame Soundtracks
As the videogame market expands, it reaches places and people perhaps previously uninterested in its products. In 2019, with the quality of games striking ever upwards, that expansion was reflected throughout the world of developers, with many different kinds of
ACL 2019 ~ The Year’s Best Labels
When it came time to tally our votes, we discovered that this year’s winners had never been listed before! A huge congratulations to Wisconsin’s well-deserving and hard-working Lost Tribe Sound, A Closer Listen‘s Label of the Year for 2019, followed closely
ACL 2019 ~ The Year’s Best Labels
When it came time to tally our votes, we discovered that this year’s winners had never been listed before! A huge congratulations to Wisconsin’s well-deserving and hard-working Lost Tribe Sound, A Closer Listen‘s Label of the Year for 2019, followed closely
ACL 2019 ~ The Year’s Best Film Scores
We’re not talking about the same films as everybody else, but for good reason; we’ve packed our slate with dark horse candidates. So no Star Wars (too obvious), no Joker (the artist’s score for Chernobyl was better), no Ad Astra (not the composer’s best soundtrack), no Us (although
ACL 2019 ~ The Year’s Best Film Scores
We’re not talking about the same films as everybody else, but for good reason; we’ve packed our slate with dark horse candidates. So no Star Wars (too obvious), no Joker (the artist’s score for Chernobyl was better), no Ad Astra (not the composer’s best soundtrack), no Us (although
ACL 2019 ~ The Year’s Best Album Covers
The competition was tough this year, but we’ve been able to whittle our selection down to ten. These album covers made us want to hear the music, and even if the music wasn’t much good (don’t worry, it was), we
ACL 2019 ~ The Year’s Best Album Covers
The competition was tough this year, but we’ve been able to whittle our selection down to ten. These album covers made us want to hear the music, and even if the music wasn’t much good (don’t worry, it was), we
ACL 2019 ~ The Happiest Music of the Year
Are you ready for some holiday cheer that has naught to do with the holidays? After sifting through thousands of albums, we believe we’ve found the happiest music of 2019! This is music for playpens, for beaches, for the open
ACL 2019 ~ The Happiest Music of the Year
Are you ready for some holiday cheer that has naught to do with the holidays? After sifting through thousands of albums, we believe we’ve found the happiest music of 2019! This is music for playpens, for beaches, for the open
ACL 2019 ~ The Year’s Best Packaging
Streaming is king. Fewer physical editions are produced than ever before. And yet, the tactile experience offers something special to the recipient: a feeling that the experience is real. Our ten 2019 selections include half a dozen formats, evidence of
ACL 2019 ~ The Year’s Best Packaging
Streaming is king. Fewer physical editions are produced than ever before. And yet, the tactile experience offers something special to the recipient: a feeling that the experience is real. Our ten 2019 selections include half a dozen formats, evidence of
a closer listen 