Tanya Donelly's creative muse seems refreshed and revitalized and the best moments, such as "Another Moment," share the same sweetly spooky vibe that Donelly perfected with Belly, but also reveal a stronger, more grounded sound and lyrical outlook.
The Breeders third album is a low-key, introverted return, that blends the stripped down sounds of Pod and The Amps' Pacer into strangely intimate, feminine garage rock and is an admirably honest portrait of the band.
Consisting of six untitled pieces from the soundtrack to Bigas Luna's film, and despite the ambient nature and the fact that it's a score to a movie, Son de Mar is a hypnotic, bewitching album that warrants not just repeated plays, but full-on addiction.
After playing with Silver Apples, multi-instrumentalist Xian Hawkins struck out on his own as a one-man bedroom recording project under the moniker of Sybarite. Fans of quietly challenging, hard-to-place music should enjoy trying to unravel this enigmatic work.
While the lullaby chimes, gurgling analogue beats and ghostly femme vocals still prevail, now Piano Magic's minimal but lovely patterns are more organic - all clunking xylophones, oboes and grand pianos. As powerfully evocative as a French arthouse flick.
