Author: Bob Fish

Album | Watchhouse – Watchhouse

When a band changes its name there’s always the feeling they’re desperate for a new start, yet nothing could be farther from the truth for Watchhouse. As Mandolin Orange they had managed to create a respected body of work, on that…

Box set | Laura Nyro – American Dreamer

“I don’t accept any limitations as a writer,” Laura Nyro said and no words have ever been truer, with the proof on display in the eight-disc collection of American Dreamer. The four albums she released from 1967 to 1970, (More Than a New Discovery, Eli…

Album | LUMP – Animal

In a world that often expects musicians to release the same record over and over again, LUMP are explorers on a mission forcing them through unexplored pathways, and Animal suggests that there is plenty of searching still left to be done. Initially…

Album | Dusted – III

There is something mind blowing about Dusted and his new album III. For a guy who was shortlisted for the Polaris Award for his 2012 album Total Dust, yet may be better known for his electro-experimental work with the band Holy Fuck,…

Album | The Mountain Goats – Dark in Here

The Mountain Goats are a little different than most bands, rather than taking on one project at a time they actually took on three. In between recording Songs for Pierre Chuvin and Getting Into Knives, they went into FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals…

Album | Chloe Foy – Where Shall We Begin

The voice is disorienting, pure as a bell, yet the subject matter of Where Shall We Begin by Chloe Foy is often decidedly downbeat. At first it seemed like a great lost Virginia Astley album. That lasted all of about…

Album | David John Morris – Monastic Love Songs

David John Morris was asked to give up his guitar for nine months in order to enter Nova Scotia’s Gampo Abbey, which actually resulted in the creation of Monastic Love Songs. Along the way he had to work, study and meditate with the Buddhist…

Album | Oliver Wood – Always Smiling

Always Smiling, Oliver Woods first solo album, is a testament to not having a plan. He didn’t even know he was making a solo album. Being creative, when folks came to Nashville, he invited them over to write and jam…

Album | Frøkedal & Family – Flora

It’s amazing what you can do in 10 days – it took just that long to record Flora by Frøkedal & Family. The Family part is something new, up until now it had just been Anne Lise Frøkedal. The new title reflects the communal…

Album | Will Graefe – Marine Life

Will Graefe was incredibly lost when he recorded Marine Life. Retreating to his parents’ house in Massachusetts during the pandemic to lick his wounds after a relationship going bad finally collapsed, doesn’t seem like the ideal place to record a cathartic…