Today on Pitchfork, the venerable Andy Battaglia called Brazilian electronic musician Gui Boratto’s new album Chromophobia “one of the three or four best artist-albums to bear the Kompakt stamp,” Kompakt being the esteemed Cologne microhouse label. As he always is, Battaglia is very, very right. It’s a wonderful record, albeit one unavailable on eMusic. Fortunately [...]

Garage rock, dub-step, house music and hardcore in today’s haul.

Around 1972, I was into martial arts and Charles Bobbit was one of my instructors. He became James Brown’s bodyguard and then James Brown’s personal manager. I’m from Harlem, but I was doing photography in Brooklyn and [Bobbit] ran into me on Broadway one day and he said, “What are you doin’?” I said, “Well, [...]

Though it’s slowly developed a reputation for being “the city that shoves you back,” when I lived there in the mid-90s Philadelphia was twee-pop central. Not only was the city rife with soft-spoken local bands like Clock Strikes Thirteen (R.I.P!) and Snow Fairies, but for some reason the only records people were interested in buying [...]

New release Tuesday! Does this still have the same ring to it in the digital age? At eMusic, we hope so. There’s plenty to dig into, so let’s get right to it…

Last week Stereogum posted a new Snowden remix (”Between the Rent,” by Captain Crunk), as well as a glitchy cover of Fleetwood Mac’s excellent “Dreams.”

Tomorrow night on Fox, American Idol continues whittling down the field, which now stands at 20 contestants. To the eyes of this sometime-viewer of past years but a very dedicated one for this season, American Idol’s sixth iteration is a doozy, with Brandon Rogers, Melinda Doolittle and LaKisha Jones all clear and engaging favorites. But [...]

When The Eternals’ Heavy International first showed up on the site I was suspicious. The genres were listed as “Indie Rock, Roots Reggae, Punk, Alternative.” It seemed at first like an error — were there any bands left that were still so omnivorous?

In 2000, Doghouse Records released Encapsulated, a tribute album of sorts to the Kentucky band Metroschifter. For Encapsulated, Metroschifter main man Scott Richter sent out his recordings to some of his favorite bands with the hopes that they would cover them in their own particular style. It’s the sort of endeavor for which the term [...]

I had the distinct kinda pleasure to see Explosions in the Sky the other night. I say kinda because they’re one of those weird bands that I can never decide if I really like that much or not. If my (often) frightening last.fm stats are any indication, I love the group. And if you’d take [...]

From the Museum of Lost Interactions (click the link for more pictures):
In 1925, the Acoustograph was a music downloading device well ahead of its time. The upper class city families that owned these devices would request a musical composition with the Morse key, down telegraph wire.
(Link courtesy the wonderful Morning News.)

An actually useful iTunes plugin! Who knew? iConcertCal matches the artists in your iTunes to concert listings for your area, generating a monthly browsable calendar listing gigs.

“City of Glass” is exactly what I thought Sonic Youth would sound like before I ever heard them. Maybe the most urban rock song I’ve ever encountered (along with “I’m Waiting for the Man”), a vision of what city living must be like, a montage of Scorsese fast cuts and Cassavetes pops and public transportation [...]

Though he’s probably best known in America for those Massive Attack songs he guested on in the late ’90s, Horace Andy’s back catalog is huge and deep and rich and makes a strong case for Andy as one of the world’s greatest living vocalists, bar aboslutely no one.

More YouTube I’m afraid. I love this film and the idea that the day-to-day should be musical. I first saw it as part of a Future Shorts night. Future Shorts are a network dedicated to short film, showing it, distributing it, all that cinematic jazz. If they do a night near you I suggest you [...]

In virtual reality, anything that can be expressed logically …

… is possible.

Up today: “Fall Sound,” the first single from the Fall’s forthcoming Reformation, Post TLC. I have to cop to not being a big fan of Fall Heads Roll; I loved Real New Fall LP, but Heads Roll felt like it took forever to ignite. The songs were strangely sluggish and soggy, suspiciously pro forma.

It’s Friday! Which means that the pickings might be slim on eMusic as far as new releases go. But if you thought today’s crop of newbies was lacking, check the following German country, Swedish psych, Balkan funk, Baile funk, and concept albums about Odin out. You might surprise yourself!

La Société Expéditionnaire is streaming the upcoming Lewis & Clarke record (out May 10) in its entirety on their website here.

Returning to eMusic with the same unassuming modus operandi that governed their entire career, the Hot Snakes are backbackback on the site, three albums of genuine perfection and one very good Peel Session (John Peel’s last, in fact) that pretty much defines everything that I love about music: staccato noise stark roughshod too fast slow [...]