Category: ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Mike Cooper’s “Life & Death In Paradise + Milan Acoustic Live 2018”
The moment when it seems like you have nothing to lose can be a good time to strike a deal.

Essential New Music: Jim O’Rourke’s “Hands That Bind (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)”
Jim O’Rourke’s passion for film has informed his music from the start. Cinematic notions of pacing and structure influence his

Essential New Music: Nicolas Leirtrø/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Ståle Storløkken’s “Heaven Hill Fragmentarium”
There’s a story that when Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton were on set making Batman, the former advised the latter

Essential New Music: Black Duck’s “Black Duck”
If Rhys Chatham hadn’t already done something with the name, Black Duck really should have been named Guitar Trio. Some

Essential New Music: Swans’ “The Beggar”
Inside the first minute of “The Parasite,” which kicks of the digital and CD (but not LP) editions of The

Essential New Music: Danny Paul Grody’s “Arc Of Day”
Arc Of Day cues you right away: This is music that deals with the passage of time. Time, of course,

Essential New Music: Doug Wieselman’s “WA-Zoh”
The phrase “for the birds” is often applied dismissively. But if you said it to Doug Wieselman’s face, he might

MAGNET Exclusive: “Karen” Excerpt From “Thank You For A Lovely Day: 11 The Go-Betweens Songcomics”
If you have spent any time reading MAGNET over the past three decades, you know about our obsession with the

Essential New Music: Sharron Kraus’ “KIN”
When the stages went quiet, no one artist was better equipped to handle the pandemic than Sharron Kraus. Her songwriting

Essential New Music: Ken Vandermark & Hamid Drake’s “Eternal River”
Ever since Heraclitus so wrote 2,500 years ago, people have been saying that no one can step into the same

Essential New Music: Rose City Band’s “Garden Party”
Audiologists and environmentalists will unite to implore you not to drive the highway with your windows down. The drag will

Essential New Music: Talk West’s “Black Coral Sprig”
If your impressions of the American West have been shaped by its cinematic representations, sooner or later, your mind will