Big Echo is the sound of a career synthesizing into a kaleidoscope of sound and imagery. The Morning Benders have delivered on their potential. After a needle drop and a rumbling "2...3...4...," we're launched into …
March 8, 2010
Articles by Luke Winkie
Big Echo
I'm New Here
Despite his 60 years, Gil Scott-Heron is still hip, inspiring informed rappers with star-smashing paradigms like the oft quoted "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." He even got an extended namedrop on James Murphy's cred-laden …
February 21, 2010
Romance Is Boring
Los Campesinos! has made a career out of demolishing the hierarchy between fans and friends. All of their records are thematically (and musically) relatable to what the average indie kid can muster -- simultaneously garnering …
February 14, 2010
To Realize
Although they try to be standoffish and badass, Clipt Beaks are just a bunch of dragged kids dealing with rejected loves and wavering self-esteem. Just like the rest of us. Their second full-length, To Realize, …
February 2, 2010
Acolyte
Delphic is an electronic dance band from Manchester that is currently gleaning overblown praise from the always-congenial BBC. Much like dance-pop contemporaries Passion Pit and Junior Boys, Delphic’s sonics are defined by a sanguine, heart-aching …
January 17, 2010
Enemy of the State: A Love Story
Lupe Fiasco makes relevant, conscientious, agreeable hip-hop music that anyone can get behind, regardless of exposure to -- or seclusion from -- the rap scene. That said, the emcee's latest "mixtape," Enemy of the State: …
January 10, 2010
Suite(s)
Ex Libras are the latest disciple of the new prog genre, and like their primogenitors Muse and Oceansize, they're more concerned with bombastic, stadium-crushing peaks than, say, making actual music. Their debut album Suite(s) is …
January 5, 2010
Rifts
The one-man space-ambient project of Daniel Lopatin, Oneohtrix Point Never, is more concerned with the background than the foreground. His debut Rifts smothers you with arcane haze, apocalyptic drone, and dementia-inducing synth for 27 difficult …
December 29, 2009