Articles by Ljubinko Zivkovic

The key to why it works is that it is all done without becoming pretentious, as both the music and lyrics keep that essential balance.

‘Phosphenes’ is an album that reflects these gloomy times in all its aspects, yet provides the hope that gloom will not end up in doom.

That deep knowledge and feel of the Mojave Desert have actually been transferred to the music with ease and a sense of vision that makes it truly work.

The three tracks here seem to have been fine-tuned to the band’s liking, and quite possibly also to the liking of their potential hard rock/alt-metal audience.

Tawni Bias nails it with both his music and the description of it. And yes, it is its unexpected elements that actually do make it healing.

Tobin is not standing still but is further developing not only his sound but also bringing new elements to electronic music, no matter how minute they initially may seem.

In essence, Squanky Kong and his album make the case that we should forget genre classification and just listen.

That retro heavy psych sound is all over ‘Badlands,’ and it is refreshing to hear it all over again.

It is exactly that movement through various heavy metal variations that make ‘Desert of Our Dreams’ an interesting and engaging listen, even for those listeners that only occasionally venture into heavy metal.

‘Open for Business’ sounds like a sparse combination between ‘Remain In Light’ era Talking Heads and any phase Yo La Tengo, the two bands never made but Smoke Bellow did.

Drowning Effect does combine various strands of the sounds they like, particularly all strands of heavy and psych, in to something that sounds their own.

‘Metamorphosis’ sounds exactly as it was intended – a black metal album with varying ideas and musical presentation.

In combination with Zuydervelt’s usual concept of making incongruous sounds work exactly in the opposite direction, it makes ‘Re: Moving’ an exciting listening experience just as is, without the dance performances it was initially created for.

It is that dance-inducing ‘motorik,’ constant movement, enveloped in a quite heavy dose of psych that makes ‘De Película’ work its charms. With ease.