Much like the bamboo plants that dominate Japan’s landscape, Shuta Hasunuma’s piano work on his new album OK Bamboo has an enduring, simple elegance. OK Bamboo’s title and compositions are the result of Hasunuma’s interest in the ancient relationship between Japan and bamboo. As he explains, “In Japan, bamboo is revered as a plant sharing properties of both wood and grass. It also has an enduring and remarkable strength. After bombings in times of war, when all of the people are killed and the buildings destroyed, often the bamboo plants are all that’s left standing.”

"Existing on the cusp between the hand-tooled elegance of early 20th-century European puppet theater and the unfinished DIY aesthetic of object-based performance art, and emanating a gorgeously haunting aura that will leave you speechless, House of the Sin Eater is a shockingly, audaciously beautiful film in both the scope of its creative ambitions and the execution of its craftsmanship." – David Serlin

Rather than embracing cacophony and cold aesthetics, Et Ret's compositions achieve warmth and resonance through repetition. He compliments his confident, but restrained, guitar melodies with deeply impassioned swirls of violins and cellos.  As a final touch, the compositions are accented with sparse percussion and subtle analog electronics.

Julie Sokolow doesn't need much to express herself.  To record Something About Violins, she used nothing more than her voice, an inexpensive acoustic guitar , and the built-in microphone on her Macintosh G4 Powerbook.  In doing so, she has turned on its head the old adage that lo-fi is the provenance of analog fetishists.  She has also created a work of great and unusual beauty.

Voices and Organs consists of a small core, but on this album families and friends made many contributions (with or without their knowledge) so we ended up asking lots of people for permission. Sonically it is as if only half of the album is about the fictitious orphanage itself and the rest is about us. Lyrically maybe it has been us all along... In the end we are only very small and life flows on within them and without us.

They're simultaneously the scariest band at the laughing festival or the ecstatic gypsy troupe playing Nino Rota's wake." - Baltimore City Paper

They're simultaneously the scariest band at the laughing festival or the ecstatic gypsy troupe playing Nino Rota's wake." - Baltimore City Paper

Robert Lippok’s Robot ep is a portrait of the euphoria and naivety of 20th century robot science.  Throughout the ep he uses the technology and the spirit of early 90’s techno in combination with field recordings and a sense for romantic melodies to explore and elucidate our relationship and fascination with robots.

"Perhaps this reviewer has gazed too long into the reflection, but under its influence, When the Lower resembles one of the strangest, most creative releases of the year." - Stylus Magazine

Chas. Mtn. began in the late fall of 2003 one night in an overpriced, non-soundproofed practice space in the notorious "fens" district in the college ghetto of Boston. Core members Gary War and Ned Egg (no college) began recording bits and songs on the prestigious Tascam Porta 02 machine, and as baseball season ended the boys' sonic explorations flourished.

Nourallah Brothers was the first release by the musically gifted brothers, Salim and Faris Nourallah.  These sixteen well-crafted songs reveal a rich vignette of youth. Unlike many pop albums of the past, this is not a disparate collection.  Its success lies not in its self-consciousness, rather it comes from its ability to remind us all of our past. 

This pensive, skillfully crafted collection reveals Salim brooding on themes of mortality, aging, lost love and, refreshingly, hope as an antidote to despair.  His keen pop sensibilities shine through in songs such as “Montreal”, a McCartney-esque anthem to the joys of coupledom and “The World Is Full of People (Who Want to Hurt You)” a ballad filled with fatherly worries and love.

The melodies are impeccably well crafted and clearly the work of a songwriter in his prime, while the music strides gracefully in step with each melody, perfectly highlighting the emotion and enduring truth of the songs.

Most listeners would be surprised to hear that the album was written, played, and recorded entirely by Faris alone.  Faris takes this approach, willfully capitalizing on his studio’s limitations, while exploring his unlimited creativity.   Recording alone at home on a16-track recorder, he has developed and honed his unique sound.