SASHA GEFFEN’S BEST MUSIC OF 2021 – The Turning Wheel
‘Chrystia Cabral’s music encircles scenes of love and harmony with the threat of what lurks beyond their light: wolves at the edge of town, snapping at the gates. ‘
‘Chrystia Cabral’s music encircles scenes of love and harmony with the threat of what lurks beyond their light: wolves at the edge of town, snapping at the gates. ‘
‘King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have announced a 2022 world tour in support of their latest LP Butterfly 3000, kicking off on March 19 at Lollapalooza Argentina. They’re supported by Amyl and the Sniffers, Spellling, Dj Crenshaw, Leah Senior, and the Murlocs.’
‘Beginning next March at Lollapalooza Argentina in Buenos Aires, the psychedelic rock band is scheduled for some of their biggest festival appearances, including shows at Shaky Knees and Primavera Sound. Also taking on some of their largest venues yet, King Gizzard are returning to Red Rocks Amphitheatre for a two-night sold-out stint. The Red Rocks […]
‘The trek will see the Aussie psych-rockers traversing across Europe and the North and South Americas, while hitting festivals such as Lollapalooza in Argentina and Brazil, Primavera Sound, and Shaky Knees. During the latter part of their tour, King Gizzard will play some of their biggest venues yet, including a two-night stand at Red Rocks […]
‘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.’
‘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.’
‘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.’
‘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.’
‘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. ‘
‘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.’
‘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.
‘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 […]
‘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.’
‘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.’
‘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 […]
‘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…’
‘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 […]
‘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.’
‘Butterfly 3000 is the latest offering, a melodic and psychedelic affair that certainly justifies the band’s prolific nature.’
‘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 […]
‘The third album in seven months from ever-prolific psych-overlords King Gizzard also happens to be their most radical departure yet’
‘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, […]
‘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.’
‘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.’
‘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.’
‘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.’
‘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.’
‘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 […]
‘Los Angeles garage psych punk purveyors Osees rolled in to Red Rocks Amphitheatre Saturday May 15th for a one-off show to one of the last pandemic-limited crowds of the early 2021 season. Threatening weather moved out of the area just in time, leaving clear skies and perfect temperatures for the sold out, pandemic-limited* crowd.’
‘Led by her acute lyricism and liberating honesty Jess Cornelius’s bleeding-heart beach rock lands plenty of punches in an emotional slog match.’