Thom Yorke’s soundtrack for Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Suspiria is as stark, haunting, and unpredictable as the film itself. On the track “Has Ended,” reverberant drums and bass meld with a meditative tanpura drone and Yorke’s compressed voice, which drifts into the music layered two or three times over. His words are barely distinguishable, […]
Category: Music
Posted inMusic
Los Angeles electronic artist Mareux soaks in gloomy romanticism on the new Lovers From the Past
Mareux is the project of Los Angeles producer and vocalist Aryan Ashtiani, whose music incorporates postpunk, goth, and the European electronic styles he heard via Polish MTV during his summers in Iran as a youth. Mareux’s 2013 debut, the four-song EP Decade, is full of sun-flecked synth-pop that mixes bouncy moods with its wistfulness, but […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
Soul artist and freshly minted Chicagoan K.Raydio drops a gorgeous, generous new EP
Ever since singer, producer, and songwriter Krysta Rayford, aka K.Raydio, moved to Chicago from Minneapolis in summer 2022, Gossip Wolf has been on the alert for every bit of her soulful music. She has an endlessly alluring voice, a keen melodic sense, and a knack for beats that combine classic R&B and soul from the […]
Posted inMusic
Enterprising Chicago rapper Kayo drops an optimistic, ambitious debut
If you like hip-hop that foregrounds reflective lyrics, sumptuous production, and a heady mix of youthful optimism and ambition, Kayo may be your new favorite emerging rapper. On his debut full-length, January’s It Was Fun While It Lasted (released via Kayo’s label and streetwear company, Southside Blue Hearts), he raps over relaxed beats built from […]
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Pinksqueeze poke fun at indie rock’s status quo
Chicago four-piece Pinksqueeze should be in the rotation of any local indie-rock connoisseur, and not just because of their skill with their instruments. Sure, these twentysomethings play with the confidence of seasoned veterans who’ve been gigging since before they were born. And sure, their musical chemistry gives an affable warmth to everything they play, whether […]
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Y La Bamba return home with fresh self-knowledge on the new Lucha
The first song I heard from Y La Bamba was the title track from 2016’s tender and expansive Ojos del Sol. The music had a transformative quality that made it feel at once like the nostalgia of returning home and an imagined comfort yet to come. Singer-songwriter and guitarist Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos, the leader […]
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In conversation with music manager Tenzin Dekyi
Tenzin Dekyi is a multihyphenate force in Chicago’s grassroots music industry: she comanages artists, she curates hip-hop and R&B playlists on Spotify, and she writes about rising musicians for outlets such as Complex and Pigeons & Planes. She builds community on Twitter (she posts as @newmusictenzin) and uses the platform of her playlists to create […]
Posted inThe Secret History of Chicago Music
The Austin High Gang helped birth Chicago jazz in the 1920s
In nearly 20 years of writing the Secret History of Chicago Music, I’ve never tackled prewar jazz. The Windy City has been an important center for bebop and avant-garde jazz, and it was also a major player in jazz’s early history. The “Chicago style” has meant different things to different jazz musicians over the decades, […]
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Helen Money and Will Thomas dream up otherworldly soundscapes on Trace
Cellist Alison Chesley, who makes music as Helen Money, has been colleagues for years with composer and producer Will Thomas. Thomas has worked on a couple of Chesley’s albums (2016’s Become Zero and 2020’s Atomic), and Chesley has contributed to Thomas’s song-based collaborative project Dive Index. Chesley, who grew up in California, came to Chicago […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
Heavyweight saxophonist Mars Williams needs help fighting cancer
Chicago saxophonist Mars Williams has been a key part of the international avant-garde jazz community for decades, but he’s arguably even better known as a pop musician—he played with cheeky new-wave band the Waitresses in the early 80s, and he’s recorded and toured with the Psychedelic Furs on and off since 1983. His jazz gigs […]
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Greg Puciato embarks on his first-ever solo tour, and anything could happen
There’s busy, and then there’s Greg Puciato busy. In the thick of his 16-year tenure fronting metalcore act the Dillinger Escape Plan, he got involved in several other endeavors, including wide-ranging postmetal project Spylacopa, alt-metal supergroup Killer Be Killed, and synthwave act the Black Queen. Since the band’s dissolution in 2017 he’s continued to carry […]
Posted inMusic
Man or Astro-Man? return to Chicago with a refreshed aggressive sound
Now that 90s nostalgia is trending hard, you’d think the decade’s wackier shit would get more attention. Man or Astro-Man? (often styled “Man . . . or Astro-Man?”) emerged in the early 90s as a punk-driven surf-rock band from the landlocked college town of Auburn, Alabama, with members who claimed to be extraterrestrials and infused […]
Posted inChicagoans of Note
Molly Compton, founder of Ur Mom Records
Molly Compton is a scene mom and mentor who founded the independent label Ur Mom Records in December 2021, using her savings and support from family. Compton is a recognizable face in the local DIY music scene: she hosts twice-monthly COVID-safe house shows for local and touring acts, either at her place or in her […]
Posted inMusic
Former viral star Rebecca Black cautiously finds her voice on Let Her Burn
In 2011, Rebecca Black became one of the first teen YouTube sensations when she went viral with the video for “Friday,” her ode to the freedom of childhood weekends. Backlash arrived just as quickly as her newfound fame, and even though she was 13 years old, she wasn’t spared harsh criticism. As Dan Whitworth at […]
Posted inMusic
Slayer’s Dave Lombardo goes bonkers on his first-ever solo LP
Dave Lombardo is best known for his work with the legendary Slayer, where he reinvented heavy metal drumming, but he did much more than drive that thrash powerhouse—his resumé feels practically endless. By the time Slayer dropped their fifth album, 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss, it had become clear that Lombardo was more than just […]