Experimental Reviews
27 Experimental records in the Certified Archive. Every one of them earned five rainbow thumbs-up, because we only publish reviews of records we think are great — so treat this page as a listening list rather than a ranking. Newest first.
Bimbo's 'The Bimbonacci Sequence' Is a Gleefully Unpredictable Masterpiece of Sibling Noise
A brother-and-sister duo from Marquette, Michigan make their full-length debut on Exploding In Sound: eight tracks of lurching, funny, genuinely unguessable noise rock, cut to tape at Dead River Sound.
Trá Pháidín's 'Cloch 's Claí' Builds an Irish-Language Record Out of Jazz, Afrobeat and Two Drummers
Ten tracks, sung and spoken largely in Irish, out on the tiny London label World of Echo. Six players, funded by the DEIS Recording Grant and Ealaín na Gaeltachta. The Line of Best Fit and Klof Mag both reviewed it in release week and both came away impressed by the same thing: the playing.
Applied Communications' 'Bites the Big One' Is a Glorious One-Man Pile-Up of Ney Flutes and Bad Decisions
Max Wood's first Applied Communications full-length in over two decades, written and performed entirely alone, out on his own Rare Noodles imprint. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day and described hearing Arabic ney flutes, calypso drums and lyrics ricocheting between Claire's Accessories and Disney villains. All nine tracks are lowercase and none of them sit still.
Gilla Band's 'Pugnello' Is a Deafening, Hilarious Masterpiece of Controlled Demolition
Four years and three Dublin studios later, the Irish quartet's fourth album lands ten tracks in forty-two minutes and gets scored 8.8 and Best New Music by Pitchfork, Album Of The Week by Stereogum, and five stars from both The Guardian and The Irish Times. Loud is the least interesting thing about it.
megiapa's 'Intentions' Is a Warm, Patient Masterwork of Beat-Scene Neo-Soul
The Ohio-born, LA-based producer, vocalist and linguist delivers her full-length debut on International Anthem: fourteen tracks of jazz-informed beat music built between Chicago and Los Angeles. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day and called it a testament to her skill as beatmaker and sonic collagist.
Semiratruth's 'S!M' Is a Gleeful, Booby-Trapped Masterclass in Taking Dance Music Apart
Twenty-two tracks from the Brooklyn-based, Chicago-born producer Semira Truth Garrett, out on Sooper Records, written produced arranged and mixed alone. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day and called it a sharp and stunning deconstruction of dance music. They are not overselling it.
SUAHN's 'Distort Everything Forever' Is a Ferocious, Freeing Debut of Hardware Bass Music
Michael York — Baltimore multi-instrumentalist and former guitarist for Pianos Become The Teeth — spent six years building his debut LP out of analog hardware and found sound. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day and ended the review with three words: this music sounds like freedom.
Actress' 'Radical Frame' Is a Patient, Corroded Masterclass in Electronic Space
Darren J. Cunningham returns to Ninja Tune with eight tracks, thirty-eight minutes, and a sixteen-minute closer that eats nearly half the record. DJ Mag stamped it 'Masterpiece'; Clash gave it 8/10 and called it Actress at his most essential.
Haruomi Hosono's 'Yours Sincerely' Is a Warm, Unhurried Letter From a Lifelong Shape-Shifter
Hosono's 23rd studio album and his first for Ghostly International. Ten tracks moving between bossa nova, classical, doo-wop and soundtrack music. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day, praising its 'special tenderness and ache.'
Nate Mercereau's 'Fantastic Thoughts' Is a Blazing Masterpiece of One-Man Maximalism
Ten tracks on Leaving Records from the guitarist André 3000 called 'a magician' on New Blue Sun. He plays every instrument here — guitars, flutes, drums, electronics, synths — and The Quietus calls it 'a vibrant shredder's paradise.'
Cyst's Debut Is a Gleefully Grotty Masterpiece of Glitchcore Worldbuilding
The debut from Cyst, a new duo of UK producers Iglooghost and daisy* (fka BABii), out on LuckyMe. Nine tracks of jungle rhythms, two-step and hyperpop. Bandcamp Daily's Joe Muggs made it Album of the Day and said the absurdist genius will charm you even if the beats don't.
Chat Pile's 'Who Loves the Sun' Is a Merciless, Deeply Soulful Noise-Rock Triumph
The Oklahoma City noise-rock band's third album is self-produced and mixed again by Ben Greenberg of Uniform, and it lands at an 82 critic average on Album of the Year. Ten tracks of corroded low-end and genuine tenderness — heavier and stranger than anything they've done.
Thorn Wych's 'Aesthesis' Is Folk Music Played on Instruments She Grew Herself
The Lancashire artist builds her own bowed strings, flutes and percussion out of tree branches from her own backyard, then loops them alone in her living room. Tompkins Square has given her debut LP a proper vinyl release, and Bandcamp Daily made it an Essential Release.
RAP's 'Navigator' Is a Subterranean Beauty of After-Hours Electronics
The fourth full-length from the UK duo of Guy Gormley and Thomas Bush is exactly the kind of record you're supposed to fall for after too many hours down the internet — twelve tracks of blurred, subterranean club music that reward the trawl. Jolly Discs put it out and Bandcamp Daily called it Album of the Day the next day.
Frances Chang's 'been thinking bout confession' Builds an Orchestra Around a Hundred-Year-Old Piano
Written on a century-old baby grand and recorded between a Sunset Park apartment and a Maspeth studio, Chang's RVNG Intl. debut runs a string quartet, two saxophones and a lot of deliberate silence through her DIY instincts. Forty minutes, eleven songs, no wasted gesture.
Lambchop Turn 1800s Scottish Hymnals Into Nashville Gospel on 'Punching the Clown'
Kurt Wagner's long-running Nashville institution returns after four years with a stripped-back record built around 'lined out singing,' a centuries-old call-and-response tradition — and brings Bon Iver's Justin Vernon along on banjo. Understated, gorgeous, unmistakably Lambchop.
Siavash Amini and Eugene Thacker Dissolve Language Into Pure Sound on Songs for Sad Poets Vol. III
Tehran-based composer Siavash Amini and Brooklyn theorist-writer Eugene Thacker dedicate three sprawling pieces to three 'cursed poets,' layering up to forty voices until words dissolve into pure texture. Bandcamp Daily called it seriously forward-looking, and they're right.
L'Rain's 'fata morgana' Is a Mirage You Never Want to Wake Up From
L'Rain keeps proving that 'experimental' doesn't have to mean 'unlistenable' — fata morgana swings from ambient hush to speed-metal wall-of-sound without ever losing the thread. It's disorienting in the best way, like waking up in a dream you don't want to leave.
Arun Sood & Angeline Morrison's 'Donn/Dubh' Is a Genuinely Singular Listen
A Scottish folk collaboration that threads a 1952 psalm recording and an old Uist song through tape loops, drone, and electronica. Donn/Dubh is dense, immersive, and unlike anything else released this month.
Duffy x Uhlmann Find a Common Language in Two Guitars on 'Hot Creek'
Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Gregory Uhlmann strip their collaboration down to just two guitars, using a Mono County geothermal spring as a guiding metaphor for constant change and quiet discovery across thirteen tracks.
Hourloupe's 'Last Lost Word' Finds a Whole World in a Vanished Language
The sixth album from the experimental duo of Frank Menchaca and Anar Badalov draws on Alexander von Humboldt's travels and the story of a tribe whose language survived only in the song of one bird. Bandcamp Daily called it the duo's boldest work yet.
Xiu Xiu's 'Eraserhead Xiu Xiu' Is a Noise Record Only They Could Make
Jamie Stewart and Angela Seo rebuild the sound world of David Lynch's 1977 film Eraserhead from scratch, trading in industrial hum, bug-wing buzzing, and tactile mechanical noise. Clash called it 'one of the best noise albums in recent years.'
Mohamed Bourouissa's 'LILA' Turns a Visual Artist's Decade of Sound Into a Haunting Debut
The French photographer and visual artist's debut solo album, out on PAN, spends twelve tracks treating relationships as emotional landscapes rather than portraits. A Closer Listen called the title track 'one of Bourouissa's most affecting moments.'
Parts & Labor's 'Set of All Sets' is a Glorious Overload of Noise-Pop Ambition
First album in 15 years, so they made it a 79-minute double with TWO drummers. Brooklyn noise-punk elders return sounding hungrier than bands half their age. Melody buried in beautiful wreckage.
Violet Cowboy's 'Ramraid at the Wiggly Worm' is a Shape-Shifting Gem of Electronic Storytelling
Brighton's Stephen Maskell splices spaghetti-western twang, elastic dub, and classical minimalism into a macabre little travelogue. Kit Records strikes again. Weirdest great record of the month.
Kim Gordon Rewires the Machine on PLAY ME
Sly humor meets technocratic dread over some of the gnarliest rhythms of the year. Gordon builds songs from beats and attitude, not melodies. It works spectacularly.
Mandy, Indiana Turn Up the Grit on 'URGH'
Album two doubles down on the industrial grit with arrangements that keep escalating past where you think the ceiling is. 'Magazine' alone is worth the price of admission.