#pylar

Bruce McClure — Interval Band Selections (Glance Mechanic)

With rhythmic patterns created using short loops of 16mm film leader with sections of the emulsion on the optical soundtrack masked or bleached off (creating patterns such as 1 base frame for every 11 emulsified frames), paracinema legend Bruce McClure develops the directive for each piece and then crafts the framework of the sound through his manipulation of effects pedals and PA system. The result is a bulldozing force that exists somewhere between light sculpture and Tony Conrad’s “Flicker”; a hellacious expanse between harsh noise and techno that devotees of either camp would likely approach with guarded looks. These two side-long compositions were recorded live in performance at Cafe OTO in London and are held in an understated two-tone die-cut sleeve, with a screen-printed inner sleeve and informational insert tucked inside. We’re dealing with an industrial transcendence here — stamina is required, but listeners intent on threading their attentions beyond the gate get spooled on the take-up. Single sprocket symphonies for cellulose acetate.

Justin Clifford Rhody

Pylar — Delyrio (Cyclic Law)

Spanish freaks Pylar are back with another slab of black-metal-adjacent noise, cultic drone and ritual madness. Delyriodoesn’t wander far from the band’s established modality: long compositions that hammer and hum, rumbling through underground passages that wind up somewhere deep in the unconscious of an obscure Lovecraftian entity, perhaps a god, definitely a monster. If that sounds like a good time to you, have a listen to “Enajenación” and the song’s slow, methodical build toward deranged intensities. This time around, Pylar claims Amy Ireland and the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit as references, so there is likely some meditation on the displacements and delirium potentiated by post-human digital spaces. To this reviewer, the music still feels profoundly material, more attached to prolonged vibrations and violent deformations in physical spaces. Not sure that’s a good thing.

Jonathan Shaw

Sleeping Beast — Sleeping Beast (Musical Eschatology)

Someone had to do it, and I can’t think of a better crew than this one to name a tune, “The Fascist And The Furious.” Mercurial and mostly muscular prior to its delicate denouement, it exudes not one iota of sympathy. Still, a distinguishing characteristic of Sleeping Beast’s improvisations is that the Texan trio does not settle for standard-issue lung-busting. Danny Kamins, who plays alto saxophone and contra-alto clarinet this time (the man has many horns), meshes effortlessly with Lisa Cameron’s rough, respiratory drumming and Thomas Helton’s double bass. Their textural explorations vibrate in sympathy, but for each other, not the fascists. Another defining quality is their appreciation for space; the players never crowd the bandwidth, nor do they crowd each other. The recording quality nicely balances the forcefulness of their playing with the amount of air in between the musicians.

Bill Meyer

SSBT — States/Stages (Unhinged)

Albuquerque New Mexico based sports enthusiast and sound artist, Steve Jansen, has been on a roll over the last year with a striking series of self-released records from his avant-turntablism project Primitive Techno, as well as duos with Jeph Jerman and Jimmy Peggie. These newly issued recordings created a decade ago in Denton Texas find Jansen on electronics and tapes in a trio with Chris Cogburn on percussion, Parham Daghighi on guitar, and everyone playing a bit of “etc.” or “objects” according to the liner notes. SSBT’s process-driven, minimalist improvisations are of a lowercase nature that ring reminiscent of Bhob Rainey and Greg Kelley’s Nmperign or a DIY noise-nik take on Morton Feldman’s pursuit of the flat surface. A hermetic ambience that recognizes the pastoral as a deception, wiping the glass clean with a wire brush and hydrofluoric acid. And a resounding minutia magnified in symbiotic upholding, to collectively conceive a whirling étude of tone. Environmental music with a disjointed mise-en-scène.

Justin Clifford Rhody

sssiv — 2 (Forlaget Afvikling)

Sssiv is a Danish trio that makes pristine pop in an experimental way, building sophisticated song structures from improvisatory beginnings. The sound is glossy and cool, with big choral swells anchored by a jazz-leaning acoustic bass. It sounds like a lot more than three people, too, with darting melodies refracted into walls of sound. A corrosive guitar solo splits “Ask for Better” in half, adding chaos and distortion to ritual thump and breezy vocals, but these cuts are mostly well-behaved and pop oriented, in the buzzy, drone-y manner of Stereolab.

Jennifer Kelly

Ayami Suzuki & Rob Noyes — Classic Fevers and Chills (Feeding Tube)

This duo recording of Takoma school guitarist Noyes and improvisational vocalist Suzuki originally arrived a few years ago in an ultra-limited cassette run, so if you missed it back then, you are not alone. Now remastered for vinyl by Feeding Tube Records, the session soars with a wide-eyed clarity that matches its inspired dreaminess. There’s an alchemy at play throughout, surprising considering that this is the pair’s initial meeting. Suzuki’s naked, ethereal voice seeps into Noyes’ string figures with serendipitous synergy. They lock into each other’s energy almost instantaneously, producing pure magic that belies their limited run time together. Noyes’ fingers dance across the strings with a beatific languor in contrast to his typically sprightly style, but he retains a brightness of tone that is equal to the reverie of Suzuki’s vocalizations. Classic Fevers and Chills captures a rare moment of sonic convergence from two practitioners of the highest form of musical magic.

Bryon Hayes

V/A — HIMBA HYMN: Ghosts of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast (Sublime Frequencies)

This stunning collection of field recordings from the coastal Namibia desert in South Africa is the first album to ever be released of the Himba people’s music. Recorded live and outdoors in the world’s oldest desert and one of the most extreme environments on Earth, producer Ian Brennan made a daring choice in occasionally applying live looping onsite through the use of a battery-operated pedal board. It’s even more bold considering that he traveled for eight days to arrive at the recording session (which only lasted a few hours). In conjunction with singers cupping their mouths to create chorus and flange effects, the psychedelic results of those selections sound more timeless than ancestral. Vocal tapestries, melodic narratives, and a traditional instrument called a Cattle Gun (the long horn of an Oryx covered in mud and then blown) are all featured, but the opening cut on the record, “Lion Attack, Cattle Massacre,” really takes the cake. Another fantastic document from the wild minds behind the Sublime Frequencies label, and an insightful record of the Himba culture.

Justin Clifford Rhody

David Vélez + Bruno Duplant — Tell Me About The Outside (LINE)

Tell Me About The Outside feels more like a confession of unknowing than a search for conclusive knowledge. You can be in workspace filled with people or a field full of other species and still feel utterly alone, no matter how much you reach out. Both Duplant and Vélez are credited with field recordings and electro-acoustic devices, but while their tools are similar, their perspectives are different. Whether working with sound or images, a melancholic awareness of loss pervades Duplant’s work. Vélez is less of a sentimentalist and more of a social scientist, and while his gaze probes outwards, the duo’s expanses of rustle and shimmer never transcend fragmentation. Nor, one supposes, do they want to. Duplant and Vélez strike a balance between clarity and mystery in which the sounds are never blurry, but you can’t always be certain what they are.

Bill Meyer

Water Shrew Trio — Grub (Eiderdown / Bud)

Portland Oregon’s response to the Organic Music Society have surrendered their first twelve-inch to the public and it’s a profound declamation of tone clusters, interplay, and improvisation. Laid down live on a Tascam 8-track cassette recorder, Emmet Martin, Skyler Pia, and Morgan O’Sullivan chirr and thrum a celestial drone of mammoth scope by simple means and collectively intonate the shapings of a giving world. As listeners we’re reminded of the physicality of sound and its production — physical pressure, vibration, waves, and the ear drum — and this cognizance reinforces an engaged reading of the trio’s subtly shifting nexus and intuitive routing. And despite the density of Grub, the Water Shrew sound carries a refreshing undercurrent of fragility where occult listening between players and non-linear dynamics are given space to foster the gelatinous viscosity they disport so well. A heavy and cohesive statement from committed barnstormers invested in the politics of abstraction.

Justin Clifford Rhody

Håvard Wiik / Antonio Borghini / Tim Daisy — One Brief Cure (Relay)

Since becoming a family man, drummer Tim Daisy has reduced his touring away from Chicago to short, purposeful endeavors. This recording comes from one such adventure. In November 2025, he made a quick trip to Berlin and played one night with a trio comprising one longtime association and one new partnership. While Daisy and pianist Håvard Wiik have shared stages and studio time since the turn of the century, this recording was only his second time ever playing with bassist Antonio Borghini. There’s no uncertainty in the music, though. The pianist and drummer have an evident rapport, matching momentums and enacting intricate formations of sound on the fly. Borghini casts energy bursts into their locked embrace, contributing both propulsion and a three-dimensional harmonic sense that keeps the three long pieces thrilling throughout.