Music Reviews

Barry Adamson

The King of Nothing Hill

Mute

Nick Cave’s Soul Brother from Another Planet No. 1 is back with his tenth effort. The long-awaited follow-up to his “Greatest Hits,” The Murky World of…, The King of Nothing Hill has Adamson at his left-of-left-of-center best. Full of muddy abstractions, death-knell guitar distortions, and his omnipresent love of melanin, this album is a heady good time straight out of a David Lynch film (his music having appeared in Lost Highway). For a slight change of pace, Adamson gives a respectful nod to the funk. “Cinematic Soul” turns Sly’s “Sing a Simple Song” on a schizoid head, and “Black Amour” is a lunatic’s blended ode to Barry White and Marvin Gaye simultaneously. And songs like “The Second Stain” and “Le Matin des Noire” are necro-jazz microscopes piercing the thickest layers of melancholic despair. Ever dark and menacing, the music here screams of isolation and the scrambled-egg scraping of existence on the edge. The perfect madness for the “sanity” that engulfs us daily.

Mute Records: http://www.mute.com • Barry Adamson: http://www.barryadamson.com


Recently on Ink 19...

Swans

Swans

Event Reviews

40 years on, Michael Gira and Swans continue to bring a ritualistic experience that needs to be heard in order to be believed. Featured photo by Reese Cann.

Eclipse 2024

Eclipse 2024

Features

The biggest astronomical event of the decade coincides with a long overdue trip to Austin, Texas.

Sun Ra

Sun Ra

Music Reviews

At the Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976/1977 (Jazz Detective). Review by Bob Pomeroy.