September 14, 2019

Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love Review

Jenny Hval - The Practice Of Love Review

Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love Review

Ever since Jenny Hval's critical and commercial breakthrough, Apocalypse, Girl in 2015, I was hooked to her music. Through the years I had grown to love the style of music from European countries such as Iceland's post-rock band Sigur Rós or Sweden's electronic duo, The Knife and later Fever Ray, but when I found Jenny Hval's music, I felt like I had found my favorite version of this kind of European singer-songwriter, since she contains the fabulous avant-garde sensibilities of Icelandic artist  Björk (who I was never much a fan of), while maintaining the elegant synth-pop style of an artist such as Fever Ray. As she blended the two seamlessly, she grew into her own, and I was already late to the party as Apocalypse, Girl was already her 4th album as Jenny and 6th overall! She continued in 2016 with her atmospheric, concept album, Blood Bitch (a masterwork in my opinion which will be covered in my Masterpiece series at a later date), a meditative EP in 2018 called The Long Sleep, and now her latest album in 2019, The Practice of Love.

August 30, 2019

Masterpiece Crate #3: Tool - Fear Inoculum

Tool - Fear Inoculum Analysis and Review

Tool - Fear Inoculum Analysis and Review

It is rare that I pass down perfect scores on albums, but when I do, it is entirely earned by the artists through pure ingenuity, vision, cohesion between members, and production value. Tool is one of those bands, and 2019’s Fear Inoculum is one of those albums. This review also serves as my masterpiece series entry number 50, as it fits chronologically after my 49th listed album that I still have to write about, and at the same time shifts my sequential writing order significantly since I have only written a couple of articles in this series thus far (my next article will be about the Nine Inch Nails album The Downward Spiral). My masterpiece crate series will occasionally grow beyond the big 5 0 and my original 49 album collage in my introductory article, but for all intents and purposes, this needs to be done to keep up with the release dates of current albums which rise to this rare occasion.

August 17, 2019

Various Artists - The Music of Red Dead Redemption II: (Original Score) Review

Various Artists - The Music Of Red Dead Redemption II: (Original Score) Review

Various Artists - The Music of Red Dead Redemption II: (Original Score) Review

Just as video game developer Rockstar promised, the original score to their engrossing cowboy western game, Red Dead Redemption II released August 9th, and just as their pedigree for cinematic and Oscar-worthy storytelling captured the hearts and minds of fans across the world, so too does their original score for the game itself.

August 13, 2019

Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind Review

Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind Review

Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind Review

A long heavy metal career keeps careening forward, despite the loss of longtime members on Slipknot's 6th studio album We Are Not Your Kind. Having lost their third original member of the 9 since the inception, Slipknot hasn't found a reason to end their reign on the heavy metal genre, and instead, sound as strong as they ever have, despite hitting some of the same notes of their previous releases.

August 4, 2019

Interview: Cuban Pete

Cuban Pete Interview

Cuban Pete Interview

AirdriftSignals: Hey Cuban Pete, how are you doing today?

Busy as usual. Always got something to do whether its artwork or rhymes. Or maybe even 5 minutes with the family if they’re lucky haha.

AirSig: I know how that is... I know you just released a new mixtape that is stacked with guests. How does it feel to release an album full of so many great artists?

Well for The Standout mixtape I am the guest, apart from a couple of tracks I put together. I’ve been using this past year to build up my features on other peoples projects and The Standout is a collection of some of the dopest ones I’ve done.

I’m blessed to be able to work with a lot of great artists from legends to up and coming. It’s been a very well received project.