Chicagoans BBsitters Club released BBsitters Club & Party in October 2020, and limited by time, we’re only bringing the good news in the middle of December. Because the album delivers borderless energy and borderline maturity, this release caught our attention and took care of our many moods at first listen....
Slow Culture Magazine.
Album reviews, literary critique, eternal wonderment.
We're only in it for the feelings.
Music featured this week:
Gianna Lauren, Disappear (from Vanity Metrics)
When we reviewed Jennah Barry’s album Holiday, we sensed (and, consequently, hoped) that other Nova Scotian talents would visit this blog in a near future. As usual, patience didn’t disappoint.
On Gianna’s Bandcamp page, one promise: Lush arrangements and measured vocals creating a haunting ambiance.
Featuring the empowering fragility of Regina Spektor’s debut and St. Vincent’s admirable self-affirmation, Gianna delivered tracks resurrecting grunge in a charming, aerial, intimate dimension.
Latest news and articles
Susan Uehara Rakstang, Cooking for Her Eyes – BOOK REVIEW #13
Susan Uehara Rakstang’s Cooking for Her Eyes was released in October 2020, seven years after Julian Barnes’ critically-acclaimed Levels of Life, a title of a similar nature. In Cooking for Her Eyes, Susan Uehara Rakstang contemplates the different emotional levels of her own past. The book succeeds where most authors...
Takuya Kuroda, Fly Moon Die Soon – ALBUM REVIEW #28
Excellent news from (and for) the jazz microcosm: trumpeter and Berklee graduate Takuya Kuroda is back with Fly Moon Die Soon, his fifth album. Piri Piri (from his album The Rising Son) was our first encounter with Takuya Kuroda’s musical expression. This was already six years ago. As his album...
Fast Preacher (for Figure It Out, out now) – ITW #27
Glamorous enlightened people of all kinds, rejoice! Daniel Hanson and his Fast Preacher project just released Figure It Out, or in other words, what you dreamed of hearing after typing “alternative” on your favorite search engine. Remember TALsounds, Stuck and NIIKA? As demonstrated on Slow Culture more than once, Chicago...
Cathlene Pineda, Rainbow Baby – ALBUM REVIEW #27
The first notes of Rainbow Baby instantly let us believe that keeping quiet about this album for long was an impossible mission. To be honest, at that time we didn’t know much about Cathlene Pineda despite her indisputable talent and extensive curriculum. We first heard Cathlene’s music the exact same way...
Dan Drohan (for You’re a Crusher / drocan! out on June 26) – ITW #26
On June 26, drummer Dan Drohan releases You’re a Crusher / drocan!, his not-so-solo project in the form of a double album. This forthcoming album is the kind of creative work made to be enjoyed from A to Z without interruption. Not because the tracks are inaccessible, but because tasting them...
Be Afraid, Remember Fun – ALBUM REVIEW #26
Coming from Vancouver and signed on Hidden Bay Records, the band Be Afraid released Remember Fun on May 8th. For the record (no pun intended), these six tracks were engineered through the summer of 2019, but not in any case does the music sound outdated. Remember Fun is a memorable party...
Leni Stern (‘4’ album, out June 19th) – ITW #25
Legendary guitarist Leni Stern releases her forthcoming album ‘4’ on June 19th. ‘4’ is an album recorded with three other musicians and featuring an appearance of her husband Mike Stern. As our readers know, we love jazz! Beyond our love for this genre, this album and this interview demonstrate once...
Discover
INTERVIEWS
Words with people who know.
REVIEWS
Cultural advice and strong recommendation.
OUR MUSES
Take a chance and find yours.
BEGINNER'S GUIDES
For beginners wanting to begin.
WRITERS WRITING
And telling us why.
WEEKLY RECAPS
A digest of selected love.
Categories
Music & Records
Rock, funk, jazz, blues, house, electric toasters.
Literature
From Woolf to Fante to modern indie presses.
Visual arts
Doing our best.
Random artistic pleasures
(if unsatisfied, refresh)
Prima (for Unplugged, Vol. 1) – ITW #19
Manchester-based musician Prima reinforces the city’s reputation in the field of creativity with talent and spontaneity. Her Unplugged, Vol. 1 (Live) was released at the end of 2019, but the need for such brilliant art never dies. Skillfully oscillating between vibrating solo releases and notorious collaborations, we had many questions...
Benjamin DeVos, Human Fish (Eraserhead Press) – BOOK REVIEW #9
Benjamin DeVos is back with his book Human Fish after having impressed us in 2019 with Madness Has a Moment and Then Vanishes Before Returning Again (Dostoyevsky Wannabe). Good news: Human Fish impressed us with a stronger force, a force perceivable from the first lines of the book. The plot,...
Five Minutes with Alexander Dickow
Alexander Dickow sent us four unpublished poems. At Slow Culture, that’s what we call an honor.
Jeff Swanson & Case-fitter, Fathoms (jazz, out February 28th 2020) – ALBUM REVIEW #15
Almost two years after the enchanting Case-fitter album, Chicago-based guitarist and composer Jeff Swanson comes back with Fathoms (BACE Records). In case you missed the aforementioned album, we’d advise you to listen to his versions of Graham’s before pursuing, it’s worth the half hour. The notion of conversation is essential in...