The Italian duo Dumbo Gets Mad specializes in psychedelics for the sober, bringing experimentation together with detailed pop songwriting. Anthony Fantano Read Quote
Naturally, underground music often gravitates toward experimentation and the abstract. That’s understandable, and more often than not, it feels great to dive into a difficult album and swim a few laps. Anthony Fantano Read Quote
With its distinctly rural feel, the New York band Woods makes an ideal soundtrack for balmy walks amidst mammoth trees and crunchy beds of dead leaves. Anthony Fantano Read Quote
Mash-ups have gained a lot of credibility between the fall of Danger Mouse’s infamous ‘Grey Album’ and the rise of Girl Talk’s overwhelming mega-mixes. There’s just something marvelous about hearing seemingly mismatched ideas work together, as two worlds collide to a heavy beat. Anthony Fantano Read Quote
Rather than highlighting music’s differences, Kids & Explosions’ Josh Raskin mixes songs together based on their surprising common ground, making them blend rhythmically and melodically. Anthony Fantano Read Quote
Gonjasufi may sound at first like a rambling hip-hop crackpot, but there’s more to the California rapper and singer than mere eccentricity: What appears messy and thrown together is anything but. Anthony Fantano Read Quote
For artists, looking back in time for ideas is commonplace, but there’s an overwhelming sense of ’70s and ’80s nostalgia in California musician Ariel Pink’s music. It’s impossible to separate ‘Round and Round’ from the anachronism, and there’s no loving one without loving the other. Anthony Fantano Read Quote
The musical era depicted in ‘Round and Round’ may not be pop’s brightest moment, but rather than abandon its ideas, Ariel Pink reclaims them for himself and holds on tight. Anthony Fantano Read Quote
Tame Impala’s music revisits a time when guitar effects and studio tricks were music’s newest frontiers; when rock was barely old enough to drive and violently threw conventional ideas out the window. Anthony Fantano Read Quote
Tame Impala is more about impact than innovation, sure, but the music still stuns on contact. Anthony Fantano Read Quote
