Philip Glass’s soundtrack for piano, pipe organ, and chorus mirrors the repetition in the summoning spell.
Author Archives: Noah Berlatsky
Congotronics International is a supergroup as big as the world
Congotronics International is rooted in Konono No. 1 and the Kasai Allstars, two bands from the Democratic Republic of the Congo that released music through legendary Belgian label Crammed Discs in the mid-2000s. Those groups’ hyperamplified, percussion-heavy sounds, which Crammed released in a series dubbed Congotronics (also the title of Konono No. 1’s 2004 album […]
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
If you love Nicolas Cage, you’ll love this film—and who doesn’t love Nicolas Cage?!
Experimental musician Claire Rousay makes you listen to everything
Prolific experimental percussionist and electronic musician Claire Rousay has created a sprawling body of work that clunks and patters somewhere between noise and silence, music and abstraction. Her new release, Everything Perfect Is Already Here (out April 22 on Shelter Press), consists of two 15-minute ambient explorations that rustle and dissolve in gentle lyrical spasms. […]
Subverting the dominant paradigm, one stitch at a time
The Bayeux Tapestry dates back to the 11th century, so you can’t really say that high art appreciation of fiber work is new. There’s a big difference, though, between validating a giant record of European military conquest and the recent explosion of curatorial interest in quilting, knitting, embroidery, and clothing. Mrinalini Mukherjee’s monumental draped fabric […]
Duma show that the future of metal is in eastern Africa
Africa’s metal scene has been quiet compared to its counterparts on other continents. Duma rectify that, and loudly. Vocalist Martin Khanja (aka Lord Spike Heart) and guitarist and producer Sam Karugu hail from Kenya, and they relocated to Uganda to release their self-titled 2020 debut album on Kampala’s Nyege Nyege Tapes. That label is known […]
With Painless, Nilüfer Yanya presents a quietly perfect pop album
Fans of the eclectic sprawl of Nilüfer Yanya’s 2019 debut album, Miss Universe, may be a little disappointed in her more conventional follow-up; there are no satirical parodies of wellness culture on Painless, and no surprising jazzy sax solos. But if the new record isn’t an advance over its predecessor, its consistency suggests that the […]
Best Chicago representation in a groundbreaking music documentary
When the world, or the country, wants you dead and forgotten, making unforgettable living music is a kind of defiance. Every performer in Summer of Soul knows that. But no one puts it over with more force than Chicago’s Mahalia.
The Cursed
Ellis has made it very clear that the emotional core of the film is the suffering of marginalized, displaced, and slaughtered people. Why then are we spending the bulk of the run time supposedly rooting for those who benefit from that slaughter?
Alison Shearer debuts with a fusion of grief, joy, and jazz
Alto saxophonist Alison Shearer had nearly completed her debut solo album when her father, acclaimed photojournalist John Shearer, died in 2019. In the aftermath, the Brooklyn-based musician, who cofounded the ten-piece hip hop group Pitchblak Brass Band and currently plays with eclectic party band Red Baraat, decided to start from scratch. Her new View From […]
How a gospel vocal style walked into Chicago and out to the world
“Walk around, walk around, walk around, walk around,” the background singers chant, their a cappella harmonies chugging fire like a train bound for glory. Then the clouds open and a high tenor floats out of the sky. “I want,” it says, before swooping up into a falsetto yodel that seems to reach beyond heaven itself: […]
No superman is an island
Disney used to be best known for its children’s animation. But over the last decade the House of Mouse has become the House of Hulk. Princesses and neotenous animal companions haven’t vanished. In terms of market share and screen dominance, they’ve been shouldered aside by the thundering pectorals and power beams of the Marvel Cinematic […]
Boy Harsher take darkwave from the dance floor to horror movies
Update 12/27: All three of Boy Harsher’s shows at the Empty Bottle have been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 surge. New dates have not yet been announced. Founded in Savannah, Georgia, in 2013, Boy Harsher have grown a cult following for their crypt-meets-dance-floor throb and coldly seductive, echoing vocals, notably on the 2014 favorite […]
Chicago electronic group Courtesy go pop but stay weird
Chicago group Courtesy have always staggered and glitched across the line between experimental and pop electronics. Their first album, 2011’s Idmatic (Tape Deco), recorded by members Drew Ryan and Kirk Rawlings in Memphis and Chicago, is filled with ambient drone and feedback noise but also illustrates their pop sensibilities; on “Sisters,” for instance, percussive clang […]