Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air is a record of two pieces, each roughly 20 minutes in length, that are extremely contemplative at their core. Both are rooted in an “om”-like hum (an elegant image of “curved air”) and they play off of it in very different ways.
“A Rainbow in Curved Air” tests [...]

(we have ways of making you talk)
Every now and then a record shows up on the site with little warning, and gets lost in the onslaught of bigger titles with more cache or cred. Do not let Reichmann’s Wunderbar be that record — especially if you have a soft spot for the B-Side of David [...]

A deeply weird and haunting clusterfuck of an avant-garde record came into eMusic on Friday. It is filed under Jazz, but the only distant relation it bears to Jazz is the fact that it is completely improvised. Otherwise, it lays about thirty miles safely outside of any genre borders. It is called The Songs, [...]

It ain’t summer yet, at least in New York. Today, it’s not even very spring-like — although I suppose April showers are part of the deal. Point is, if you’ve got any glum residue left, any room in your psyche for a few more ruminative, mournful, moody, drippy musical moments, then I have the album [...]

He makes it soooooo easy. When someone is this good at this many things — and things so wide-ranging in scope, you can’t help but be shocked in spite of yourself — it’s damn near impossible not to tumble down the rabbit hole.
The Arthur Russell story is well-chronicled amongst music obsessives, the gist being: quiet [...]

“I like new Sonic Youth the best.”
It was an innocuous-enough sort of thing to say, I figured. In the canon of “stupid stuff I say in the office,” I figured it wouldn’t even be top five (today’s winner was “I never really ‘got’ The Stone Roses”). The link to a Thurston-edited snippet/preview track from SY’s [...]

If you paid attention to the commercials during the Super Bowl yesterday (great game!) you may have noticed a familiar-sounding acoustic chant number in the background of a John Turturro-starring Heineken spot. Turns out to be none other than “Higher Than the End,” from 17 Dots fave Twi the Humble Feather! A shocking turn to [...]

(Courtesy of Alex. I actually had this comic when I was a kid)
New on eMusic today: weirdness. Lots and lots of weirdness.

New on eMusic today is a record that’s particularly close to my heart — mostly because it’s a record I worked with the Arena Rock label to get reissued. It’s one of my favorite records of all-time: Darn Floor — Big Bite by the group Daniel Amos. We’re giving a track away free, and I’ll [...]

So last night at the Barbican there was a performance of songs from the last two Scott Walker records, Tilt and The Drift entitled, appropriately enough, Tilting & Drifting. Inexplicably, I was in New York and not in London last night for this performance. Why? Because I’m an idiot.
Short form: since Scott is notoriously [...]

This week Evil Nine released They Live! – a zombie themed electro record with collaborations with EL-P and others. It’s pretty freakin good, and inspired me to track down a few more Halloween or Horror themed (or at least appropriate in tone) electronic albums in the the spirit of the season.

I first saw Bishi perform one very hot night in the summer of 2006 at east London’s Bistroteque. The audience had started to blow out the candles on their tables – even the tiny amount of heat produced by a tea light was too much. The room was nearly dark when Bishi appeared, using her [...]

(photo credit: atjoe1972)
Not so much ‘New on eMusic’ as ‘Back on eMusic,’ the Ace Fu label returns with a healthy selection of pick hits. Among them:
Ex-Models, Other Mathematics: I love this record like crazy; I’m not crazy about the willfully difficult direction the band pursued after this, but this debut, full of herky-jerk tunes that [...]

Ho-hum, just one of the more impressive feats of musical concentration I’ve seen…just about ever. One guy (Peter Aidu) playing Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase” on two pianos. Nothing like a little musical mastery first thing in the mornin’.

So with Todd no longer around feel like someone’s got to keep representin on the electronic tip. I noticed a few arrivals of note today and this week, and have a few that I have recently discovered to share.

Stupido Shop is, to my mind, the best record shop in Helsinki. I visited Finland the week before last and walking into Stupido was like seeing eMusic made physical – all of our favourites were there: Glass Candy on the counter; a vinyl copy of Boxer pinned to the wall and “Paper Planes” coming over [...]

Hearing “What You Won’t Do For Love” on the overhead speakers in the deli across the street today absolutely made my morning. Then finding out that we have a significant chunk, if not all, of Bobby Caldwell’s entire discography made my week. And THEN finding these youtube clips pretty much made my whole [...]

photo via Jason Bergman’s Flickr
Terminal 5, Bowery Presents’ new factory-like behemoth in Hell’s Kitchen, ended up being an oddly perfect venue for a Sunday night noise freakout.

So the Plug Awards show is over, the winners have been announced. Here’s my wrap up of the proceedings with pictures as clear as I could muster with my tiny digital camera from my spot 20 feet back from the stage.

I first attended the Plug Independent Music Awards in 2005, shortly after I had moved to New York and joined the ranks at eMusic. I couldn’t think of a better event to mark the beginning of my employment at a company that is so focused on the passionate spirit of music.