Aug 17, 2021
‘One of the most prolific artists of the last decade, rivalling the output of Oh Sees and Robert Pollard, Ty Segall emerged from a two-year hibernation earlier this month, surprising the world with Harmonizer which he released to the world with no advance notice.’
Aug 14, 2021
‘The album distinguishes itself from the Segall catalog with extra-punctuated parts that slam into the ears, a calculated continuity enhanced by tracks that transition seamlessly, and a bunch of laser sounds.’
Aug 12, 2021
‘On “Whisper,” Segall mangles synthesizers until they sizzle and melt down into guitar-like lava. Combining sludgy stoner metal, electronic textures and sugary-sweet harmonies, Segall basically remakes heavy music into his own funhouse image. At the end, “Whisper” suddenly lurches into a slower gear, heading off in another direction.’
Jul 6, 2021
‘The 10 compositions of Butterfly 3000 work together as a whole, interlocking with each other through synth loops and feathery, dreamy vocals. With Butterfly, King Gizz is less of an experimental prog-jam band standout and more in step with its synth-rock contemporaries—and they fit in just fine.’
Jul 1, 2021
‘The orchestral title track from Tia Cabral’s third album as SPELLLING is plenty dreamy on its own, but the woodsy, self-directed video neatly rounds off her fairytale vision. ‘
Jun 29, 2021
‘The elegant collection of twelve songs builds on the bewitching synth-based sound she’s consistently refined since 2017’s Pantheon of Me, evolving in terms of lyrical complexity, sonic richness and conceptual depth. Born largely of the past year spent in isolation, these shifts all serve to signal the exponential potential of Cabral’s creative capabilities.’
Jun 28, 2021
‘The myth-skewing, Oakland-based artist is a chameleonic pop singer on her third album. Whimsical and urgent, these are fairy tales meant to wake us up.
Jun 25, 2021
‘Tia Cabral is a shapeshifter, with an eye and ear tilting toward the fantastical. In the visuals for her experimental pop project SPELLLING, she has appeared as an entity dipped in glittery goo, a rodeo princess, and a silver-faced harlequin. In her new short film for “Turning Wheel”—the title track of her enchanting new album—Cabral leads a gaggle of circus-chic misfits up a grassy knoll, a butterfly perched on her lavender cheek.’
Jun 25, 2021
‘The Turning Wheel is inspired by a multitude of genres, “from soul to psych to pop to noise” according to the record’s liner notes, which she knits together to gradually transport listeners from an airy high to a heavy low. It’s all done in a theatrical fashion, each scene connected by raw emotion.’
Jun 25, 2021
‘We loved “Little Deer,” the immutable lead single from Oakland avant-pop artist Spellling. Her new project is entirely self-produced and enlists the talents of 31 different musicians.’
Jun 25, 2021
‘Chrystia Cabral’s new album as SPELLLING was led by the single “Little Deer”—a song she called a “thesis track” of the LP because “it accomplishes this strong impression of theater that I was striving for with the album as a whole.” Learn more in the new feature “How Dracula, Tarot Cards, and Drinking in the Shower Inspired SPELLLING’s New Album.”’
Jun 21, 2021
‘The Turning Wheel, SPELLLING’s latest work, is exactly that—a mesmerizing, inventive, and infectious work sprawling in beautiful new directions from past acclaimed albums like Mazy Fly. The Sacred Bones release drops June 25 and deserves to be heard by the masses…’
Jun 20, 2021
‘Little Deer,” the first single from Cabral’s third album The Turning Wheel, proves what she’s capable of with a lot more room to stretch out and build upon the already captivating foundation she’s established. Dramatic piano chords ring out against a cinematic array of strings, with twinkly synths climbing toward starlight. It’s a stunner from the outset, but by the chorus it becomes truly breathtaking…’
Jun 20, 2021
‘An album of contrasts and juxtaposition, The Turning Wheel is an exploration of cycles and coefficients, its two halves comprising a set of bright orchestral pop against an underbelly of big-production gothic dirges.’
Jun 15, 2021
‘Butterfly 3000 is the latest offering, a melodic and psychedelic affair that certainly justifies the band’s prolific nature.’
Jun 14, 2021
‘King Gizzard is back with Butterfly 3000, their second album of the year, and one that’s both melodic and psychedelic. What makes Butterfly 3000 unique for King Gizz is that, while elements of psych-rock are scattered throughout the band’s discography, this album is straight up psychedelic from start to finish with modular synths and arpeggio loops proving another departure for the band.’
Jun 11, 2021
‘The third album in seven months from ever-prolific psych-overlords King Gizzard also happens to be their most radical departure yet’
Jun 11, 2021
‘It’s already the most prolific band you’ve heard of but never listened to, but after 18 wildly different albums in a decade, Australia’s King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is still just getting warmed up. On the heels of two loud and unusual LPs written in the decidedly non-Western microtonal tuning, King Gizzard’s latest release, “Butterfly 3000,” marks a radical shift toward smile-inducing songs built on synth arpeggios, danceable beats and honest-to-goodness singalong choruses.’
Jun 11, 2021
‘Album number 18 was recorded in the band’s homes during the pandemic, and trades psych-rock blitzes for a finely-woven sprawl of synth programming and MIDI sequences.’
Jun 10, 2021
‘King Gizzard magically arrived at their most generously melodic and open-hearted album to date. It wouldn’t be accurate to call Butterfly 3000 the band’s synth-pop album. Their trademark motorik thrust is still in effect; it simply veers toward the more electro-curious side of the kosmiche-rock canon — less “Mother Sky,” more Harmonia.’
Jun 9, 2021
‘The Turning Wheel is Chrystia Cabral’s third album as SPELLLING, and it marks a turn toward lush orchestration (featuring no fewer than 31 collaborative musicians) and fanciful storytelling.’
Jun 9, 2021
‘King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard aren’t really a psychedelic rock band. It’s a useful, off-hand label for a group that’s so genre averse they wrap each album in a new songwriting gimmick, but the raw garage-psych of their early years is firmly over. Their latest release, ‘Butterfly 3000’, is both the closest and furthest they’ve come to returning to these roots, as they submerge themselves in the breathy vocals of dream pop.’
Jun 8, 2021
‘As SPELLLING, Chrystia Cabral has been making darkly alluring experimental pop for years. The Turning Wheel maintains the darkness, the allure, and Cabral’s experimental touch, yet she has turned up the pop quotient significantly here.’
Jun 2, 2021
‘SPELLLING is releasing her new album, The Turning Wheel, in a couple weeks. We’ve heard two tracks from it so far, “Little Dear” and “Boys At School,” and today we’re getting the title track, which sounds like an elaborate ’60s pop fantasia with an appropriately theatrical video to match.’
May 31, 2021
‘Hot in front! The Murlocs - the Melbourne band, led by Ambrose Kenny-Smith and Cook Craig of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - have shared their new single “Eating at You,” the final single from their upcoming fifth studio album, Bittersweet Demons , which will be released on June 25 (via the label Flightless Records).’