MUSIC
CRITIC'S CHOICE: Matthew Burbidge?
1. ITINERANT DUB (Itinerant Dub)
All I know about this series is that it's a London-Berlin collaboration and they released three 12-inch EPs containing three tracks each this year. You will hear snatches of strange vocals, subharmonic frequencies and a high-hat that starts out innocently enough and then becomes an angry hiss. This is all in the foreground, in front of the towering walls of bass. This is minimalist dub music at its finest, unlike anything I have ever heard. The only explanation is that it is a transmission from the future. You will be dancing to this in the nightclubs of 2040, but not now – it's too soon.
2. TIM HECKER: Virgins (Kranky Records)
The drone master returns with Virgins, his first album since 2011's Ravedeath, 1972. Back is the densely layered sound, but this time his palette appears to be drawn from a sombre meditation on the Iraq war and its aftermath. Back, too, is the beautiful piano. On the track Black Refraction, the piano melody appears to split in two, like a reflection: one decaying, one attacking. There seem to be a lot of original instruments here, such as strings and flute on Incense at Abu Ghraib, but it's hard to know, really.
1. The Grohl Sessions, Volume 1 – Zac Brown Band
2. Wrapped in Red – Kelly Clarkson
3. PTXmas (deluxe edition) – Pentatonix
4. Frozen (original motion picture soundtrack) – Various artists
5. Pure Heroine – Lorde
Source: US iTunes