ACL 2015: The Top 20 Albums of the Year

Rich picked Matana Roberts, Chris picked Michael Price, James picked Ian William Craig, David picked Holly Herndon and Joe picked Heroin in Tahiti.  But this year’s #1, one of the longest albums ever recorded, drew support from across the board.

ACL 2015: Top Ten Drone

Extended tones form the basis of Drone, a category that can be as soft as a refrigerator hum or as loud as the military plane that adopted its name.  But there’s so much more to the genre than simple extension.

ACL 2015: The Year’s Best Winter Music

Winter music is inspired by winter and sounds like winter, yet winter contains a wide range of inspirations and sounds: from ice-locked ships to children’s games, from piano flurries to fronts of drones.  Its variety is its beauty.  Just as

Rutger Zuydervelt ~ Sneeuwstorm

Can a saxophone sound like snow (sneeuw)?  In the hands of Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek), the answer is yes.  On this album, Otto Kokke (soprano saxophone) and Colin Webster (tenor saxophone) find their contributions rumpled, looped, and otherwise manipulated in the service