Spin (p.90) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Angela Desveaux rests on the alt-country continuum somewhere between Lucinda Williams and Neko Case..."Magnet (p.116) - "[M]ost of these songs feature Desveaux's clear, uncommonly expressive voice conveying lyrics about tearing love apart and changes of heart."Mojo (Publisher) (p.109) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "This likeable Canadian singer-writer has a good voice....There's more than a little Lucinda Williams on the lullaby-tempo 'Joining Another'..."Clash (magazine) (p.115) - "Title track 'Mighty Ship' is gospel inflected, while 'Other Side' has enough pedal steel to silence the most devoted Hank Williams fan."52.10044
$14.35
The Wire (p.50) - "High Places manage to sound incredibly simple and subtly sophisticated. In the best way, Barber and Pearson distill their knowledge and experimentation into something which sounds like the raw essence of a musical personality."52.10044
$12.93
CMJ - "The duo brings to mind sonic explorers like Animal Collective, but they've got an auditory texture all their own."52.10044
$12.46
41.14223
$13.73
35.34226
$9.03
Pitchfork (Website) - "Together as Pontiak, the Carneys -- Jennings, Lain, and Van -- turn MAKER, their second album for Thrill Jockey, into a platform for bending elemental rock'n'roll into warped shapes."Clash (magazine) (p.113) - "[T]here's something warm and homely about Pontiak's noisy, saturated rock....Wilder and weirder than their contemporaries, Pontiak are a three-headed rock monster."12.39265
$18.33
12.16422
$15.15
The Wire (1/99, p.27) - Included in Wire's "50 Records Of The Year [1998]"The Wire (1/99, p.49) - "...he's deconstructed himself to the point where he sounds like an old-fashioned freeformer....[It] summons just enough bite and grip to suggest that he's not simply dossing around in textures for their own sweet sake."12.16422
$12.48
12.16422
$7.67
Spin (4/00, p.197) - 8 out of 10 - "...very much in the [Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians] lineage of placing tradition in a taffy-pull - stretching its sweetness and gathering a few gnats..."CMJ (2/14/00, p.3) - "...masterfully incorporates bebop, modal, freeform and shades of classical into a seamless flurry of soulful expression. It's as if the group harnessed all of Chi-town's wind and set it free in wild bursts of beauty and madness."12.16422
$13.96
Q (2/00, p.84) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...recalls Tom Verlaine's more spectral instrumental flights and...Duane Eddy. This is heavy on atmosphere and light on speaker-worrying grooves....a thing of beauty."Uncut (1/02, p.86) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Ambient, mazy and acoustic....Music that's truly 'American' in a way American music rarely is..."12.16422
$15.35
Alternative Press (12/01, p.74) - 8 out of 10 - "...Musically free but never overpowering, muscular but still beautiful."The Wire (8/01, p.51) - "...Captures the inventive urgency of Anderson's blowing....there's no padding, no filler, but lots of unexpected detours that, once executed, sound like the only viable choice..."CMJ (6/11/01, p.23) - "...Nothing short of spectacular...One can hear and feel the blues in every note and beat of this duo's soulfully adventurous music."Down Beat (10/01, p.64) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...A rare encounter....Barry is steady and precise...creating patterns and setting the pace....Anderson responds with a big, effusive tone and bluesy melodies..."12.16422
$14.97
Uncut (9/01, p.106) - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 - "...Nobukazu Takemura has a gift for making devotional music out of austere material....Recordings, xylophones and cellos follow the patterns on other tracks, providing a warm, pastoral correlative..."12.16422
$15.03
12.16422
$14.43
Q (p.114) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[With] plenty of nods to Neil Young, as well as Yo La Tengo's way with a skewed melody."12.16422
$14.96
Uncut (8/03, p.110) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Bean's voice is never less than emotively suspenseful..."Magnet (6-7/03, p.84) - "...Ambitious in its range of mood, prickly in its imagery, clever and assured in its arrangements....the music ranges from gunslinger cinematic to post-rock wall of sound and brooding free-jazz piano..."The Wire (5/03, p.74) - "...DRAGGING WONDER LAKE is a confident and accomplished album....Pretty satisfying..."12.16422
$15.82
Rolling Stone (9/18/03, p.72) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Subtle electronic treatments twist his traditional acoustic instrumentation, and slow, restrained and sustained notes seem ready to explode at any second....[It] isn't rock, but it isn't soft, either."Q (10/03, p.102) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Byrne has constructed a piano-led suite which evokes the hopelessness of '50s Clydeside, but exudes unfettered beauty..."Uncut (11/03, p.116) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...After its spookily tentative openings, the violins and delicately gathering rhythms start making since. Sincere and beautiful..."Mojo (Publisher) (10/03, p.110) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...This is music you can lose yourself in..."12.16422
$12.37
Rolling Stone (p.70) - 3 stars out of 5 - "Percussionists John McEntire and Dan Bitney lock into percolating, jazzy grooves with bassist Doug McCombs, and keyboardist John Herndon and guitarist Jeff Parker lay down single-note lines that bristle with angularity."Spin (pp.107-9) - "[Parker's] controlled playing, a lean thrum of pocket-lint noise, is a valued commodity in Chicago's avant-jazz underground; on IT'S ALL AROUND YOU, it gives Tortoise their 22nd-century jam-band edge." - Grade: BEntertainment Weekly (4/16/04, p.78) - "Subdued, layered rhythms leap from indie-jazz lightness to manic psychedelia, often in the same song..." - Rating: B+CMJ (4/04, p.46) - "[L]ush and intricate..."Mojo (Publisher) (4/04, p.108) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[T]he sound of a band sticking to its guns....That means rich, miscellaneous percussion from Dan Bitney and Johns McEntire and Herndon, Jeff Parker's always-inventive jazz-meets-surf guitar twang and Doug McCombs's ocean bed-trawling bass."Paste (magazine) - "[T]he burbling beats, chimes, vibraphone and lushly synthesized vocals of 'The Lithium Shifts' and the dark collapse and tip-toeing starburst of 'Crust,' cut a straighter, more emotionally directive path than nearly anything in the band's catalog."12.16422
$12.07
Q (4/04, p.122) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[I]t's a rich and broodingly intense musical experience to get totally lost in."JazzTimes (p.130) - "The trio blends its own delicate, slow-dancing acoustic improvisations with a remarkably nuanced field of electric hums, static and flutter-tones."12.16422
$12.68
Uncut (p.84) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[V]ery pleasant, avant-lounge fare."The Wire (p.70) - "The musicians simultaneously project simplicity and complexity, extemporising on a central melodic theme, boldly departing from it, but returning to it, all the while retaining a consistency of pace."Mojo (Publisher) (p.99) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Parker drizzles an alluring assortment of liquid melodies over Chad Taylor's inventive but never flashy drums..."12.16422
$12.90
Magnet (1/03, p.83) - "...By balancing novelty with familiarity, McCombs has perfected the juggling act that's at the heart of the collaboration..."The Wire (2/03, p.57) - "...The album unfolds, laid back and lateral, with equal helpings of sweetness and bold posture....Chad Taylor adds jazz-influenced but often light and looping percussion grooves against the surefooted bass plucks..."Mojo (Publisher) (1/03, p.97) - "...Instantly evocative, sonically alluring mood music with a distinctly filmic mien..."12.16422
$12.95
12.16422
$13.19
The Wire (p.65) - "[R]equisite listening....[With] a certain grace....There's also tremendous subtlety."12.16422
$12.97
Q (4/02, p.122) - 3 out of 5 stars - "...A perfect chill-out album for those of an acoustic inclination..."Magnet (6-7/02, p.110) - "...If you buy one indie-rock album faeturing a bass clarinet this year, make it C'MON..."CMJ (3/18/02, p.12) - "...7 tight little packages that retain a loose, improvised feel and still contain enough direction to hold the listener's attention..."Mojo (Publisher) (3/02, p.105) - "...This is a thing of deftly understated beauty from pillar to post..."12.16422
$13.00
The Wire (p.62) - "Radian is a machine, their music the sum total of body hydraulics and fuzzy logic."12.16422
$15.11
Spin (p.108) - "[An] instrumental set from the punk era's highest-flying guitarist....It charms on its own terms."Entertainment Weekly (4/3/92, p.54) - "..a collection of thoroughly alluring instrumentals...Verlaine's edgy guitar coils and snakes its way around the album's delicate melodies.." - Rating: B+Magnet (p.88) - "Loaded with sagebrush atmosphere and recorded with former Television bassist Fred Smith and drummer Billy Ficca, Verlaine's guitar work has never seemed more star-lit and intensely lovely."The Wire (p.65) - "Oblique narrative is a common thread in Verlaine's lyrics, and these instrumentals also strongly evoke scenes, intrigues and incidents."Down Beat (6/92, p.50) - 3.5 Stars - Very Good - "..a mood piece that grows on you.."Mojo (Publisher) (p.118) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[W]here '50s rock'n'roll twang meets Angelo Badalamenti's strongly melodic musical evocations of the American night."12.16422
$15.44
Uncut (4/04, p.106) - 3 stars out of 5 - "In the continued absence of a new album from her other band, the incomparable Boredoms, this'll do just fine."Magnet (2/04, p.104) - "KILA KILA KILA contains plenty of smart rhythmic trickery, mid-song hijackings and amorphous instrumental shifts..."12.16422
$19.32
Uncut (p.98) - 4 stars out of 5 - "These songs crackle with typical Martin static: abrasive, dextrous, wholehearted, but never indulgent."Mojo (Publisher) (p.130) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[The CD] proves that he was not just a great music talent but also a consummate showman."12.16422
$13.47
Magnet (p.86) - "Robotronic Devo meets early-'80s Mute Records on 'Bad Ideas' and the title track, both of which take lyrical aim at complacency and mindless activity."12.16422
$12.94
12.16422
$14.96
Q (1/04, p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 - "5 proffers discreet modernism with a rustic undertow."12.16422
$15.03
Q (10/00, p.119) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Groove-led tracks pulse seductively while electronic texture are deftly interwoven....this will delight those with the acquired...abstract...taste..."Alternative Press (10/00, p.96) - 3 out of 5 - "...Blends improv, songcraft and electronic sound. An out-jazz sensibility holds forth and coheres the tracks..."CMJ (8/7/00, p.32) - "...Augments [their] Aphex Twin/electric Miles/ Tortoise fusion....revolving more around the groove..."Down Beat (10/00, p.60) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The sextet cleverly wrings kaleidoscopic proportions out of simple structures....an attractive new spin on electronic music..."JazzTimes (12/00, p.103) - "...The happy medium between their moody acoustic interplay and the duo's electronic spirit..."12.16422
$13.68
Entertainment Weekly (p.88) - "[L]anguidly pretty, the love-and-death songs are delicate and fluttery..." - Grade: A-Uncut (p.76) - 3 stars out of 5 - "His gentle voice sits amid occasionally baroque arrangements, the simplicity of which ensure his more complex songwriting skills remain accessible."Magnet (p.105) - "Prewitt has honed his vocal art to a fine edge....'Cheap Rhyme' finds him unleashing a contrapuntal cascade of brass and woodwinds, as irresistible a force of nature as falling into a flood-gorged river."Mojo (Publisher) (p.99) - 4 stars out of 5 - "The album showcases Prewitt as an original melodic writer and arranger, and he's gathered together a fine band of multi-instrumentalists."12.16422
$15.44
Uncut (p.113) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[W]ith an elegant David Sylvian-esque baritone, dovetailing with guest appearances by Janet Bean of Freakwater."12.16422
$19.09
The Wire (6/00, p.60) - "...Experimental acoustic music, played out on guitar, piano, harmonium and accordion."12.16422
$7.67
Q (4/01, pp.97-8) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...This is subtle, droning stuff. It's all been done before, but the ethereal guitar and muted drums...evoke a beautifully awed atmosphere with rare delicacy..."12.16422
$16.97
Uncut (p.100) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[B]rimful of breezy melodies and delicate charm....Restrained but deeply satisfying."Magnet (p.111) - "Prekop has the feel of early Pat Metheny behind him: a cool, nervy jangle whose vanilla fluidity aches through the melancholy pop..."12.16422
$12.46
Alternative Press (8/02, p.80) - 6 out of 10 - "...Backed up by a symphony of indie-rock stragglers and misfits....well-played..."Magnet (8-9/02, p.84) - "...Prewitt is still a man who never met a minor chord he didn't like..."CMJ (7/15/02, p.12) - "...Each song opens like a viberant crocus bursting with verve and color...like a joyous little tumble in the green grass...like a perfect day by the pool..."Mojo (Publisher) (7/02, p.104) - "...Sheer pop exuberance...If the holy grail of 'perfect pop' exists, then Prewitt's hands are almost on the chalice..."12.16422
$19.38
Rolling Stone (10/3/02, p.104) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...With an abundance of grooviness...[TA] has a knack for recreating the vibe of a New Wave dance club circa 1983..."Spin (6/02, p.108) - 6 out of 10 - "...Trans Am prize the 80's laughable lyrical posturing as well as its embrace of all things fey, getting their Simon Le Bon on one minute and dropping love-is-a-battlefield metaphors the next..."Alternative Press (June 2002, p.90) - 9 out of 10 - "...Trans Am are moving out of the B-movie brigade and trading in the synthesized silliness and warped, texture-filled instrumentals for solid songwriting and serious subjects..."Magnet (6-7/02, p.109) - "...The soundtrack to parents going out of town....a rump-shakin' tribute to, uh, Wang Chung..."CMJ (6/02, p.5) - "...Trans Am. has bestowed upon us a treasure box chock full of keyboards, crisp dance beats and studio trickery...,Trans Am has successfully created a CD that will have [fans] yearning for a dancefloor and a round of glow sticks..."12.16422
$12.69
The Wire (10/02, p.66) - "...What Irwin's album demonstrates is that going back to basics, done properly, can be just as radical as transgressing the rules..."Mojo (Publisher) (1/03, p.93) - "...Irwin effortlessly up-ends country cliches to lay bare the realities that gave them their power in the first place..."12.16422
$12.38
Q (10/00, p.114) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Decidedly arthouse, but undeniably groovesome."The Wire (1/01, p.34) - Included in Wire's "50 Records Of The Year".CMJ (5/22/00, p.26) - "...Continues to bridge the gap between jazz...and electronic music....this duo has a musical chemistry that is never less than enthralling."JazzTimes (12/00, p.103) - "...Features some unique soundscapes...its appeal increases immensely with repeated listens..."NME (Magazine) (8/26/00, p.61) - 8 out of 10 - "...Dangerous, beautiful stuff.""12.16422
$15.27
Rolling Stone (2/6/03, p.62) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...A tempest of pastels: It's full of burbling electronic experimentation but still manages to always carry a tune..."Magnet (1/03, pp.105-6) - "...ONE BEDROOM is an agreeable album, full of pretty melodies and assorted bric-a-brac that pleases the ear..."The Wire (1/03, p.71) - "...The music is perfectly sculpted around the vocals. The production is so delicate and the arrangements so well crafted and full of detail that you can't help being utterly seduced by this open-ended, non-narrative yet elegant and accessible pop music..."CMJ (1/27/03, p.7) - "...On ONE BEDROOM, delicate synthesizer sounds blend effortlessly with smooth guitar lines and jazzy drums, resulting in an album that could be the perfect Sunday-drive-in-the-country for hipsters everywhere..."Mojo (Publisher) (2/03, p.90) - "...Prekop has explored new configurations of ultra-melodic pop music....ONE BEDROOM finds the group in a more forthright mood - just shifting up a gear makes a big difference..."12.16422
$12.93
Magnet (p.118) - "[A]n ambitious progression....'The Refusal' begins with a sterling little instrumental excursion; after a couple of minutes, it breaks into a dancing melody, then the beat drops and the trio delves fearlessly into a jagged, free-form interlude."CMJ (p.24) - "Roberts plays with a patience and assuredness beyond her years while Taylor and Abrams lay down unobtrusive grooves and static swirls of sound that provide a perfect backdrop."12.16422
$12.67
The Wire (p.55) - "On every track there is a moment where something in the guitar interplay flowers unexpectedly and rivets the listener."Dirty Linen (pp.88-89) - "The result is the new and improved Extra Golden....The fusion of styles works well..."Global Rhythm (Publication) (p.49) - "The long soundscapes, reminiscent of Afrobeat, highlife and juju are present....Beautiful guitar sections and an ease of rhythm proves this album well worth the listener's time..."12.16422
$15.03
Down Beat (p.66) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[The] materials collide with the pieces' most abstract sound explorations and polyphonic outbursts in an eerily powerful way."JazzTimes (p.104) - "With a lineup that includes Mazurek's bandmates from Isotope 217 and members of Tortoise, the Orchestra creates a powerful work..."Mojo (Publisher) (p.103) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "There's a brilliant ego-free empathy between the musicians that recalls electric Miles and Sun Ra's Arkestra."12.16422
$14.96
CMJ (5/19/03, p.9) - "...The edgiest, sharpest music yet produced by the group, which has made a career out of rounding every sharp edge in sight in order to achieve a kind of blissful stasis..."12.16422
$10.78
Spin (p.97) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[With] sleepy folk/blues guitar, ramshackle percussion, quirky noises, and hazy-snap-shot lyrics."CMJ (p.37) - "[M]elodically sweet....The band is still most cozy in their somber, creaky, mythologized Appalachian cabin..."No Depression (p.104) - "Among all the tape manipulations and sonic improvisations...Califone also locates songs that are quite naturalistic."12.16422
$15.70
The Wire (p.59) - "Lithops's music has a way of focusing your attention on tiny details, so that the quirky daring of the overall compositions slips past almost unheeded."12.16422
$13.14
