Tag: review

listencorp track-by-track review

Posted on by elizabethjoankelly in news

listencorp has a really incisive track-by-track review of LF17 / Edinburgh up. Here’s what they had to say about “Calton Road Cobblestones:”

‍Calton Road Cobblestones ends Elizabeth Joan Kelly’s sonic exploration of a small patch of Edinburgh’s ground, taking the listener to a spare and empty space that opens up slightly through the wandering keys, frigid noise, mulling synth pads and emotive strings that close off the song. It’s an ending that lets free-wheeling melodies speak to the aura of Edinburgh, encapsulating the ominous yet rich spirit of the city.

Read the full review at listencorp.co.uk, and many thanks to Louis Pelingen for such an inspired piece.

The Wire Review

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It’s such an honor to be featured in The Wire, and this month’s review from Spenser Tomson is just wonderful. An excerpt:

“Calton Hill” sounds weirdly like the more ambient sections of Queen’s soundtrack for Flash Gordon; “Princes Street Gardens” traces a stroll not through the city streets but the shallow tropical lagoons which came long before. Given a set of urban field recordings, it’s reasonable to expect the result might be far less fantastical and strange, but Kelly always finds weirdness in the everyday.

Read the whole issue (maybe with the help of your local library)? at The Wire website.

ANTIGRAVITY Review

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An absolutely lovely review of LF17 / Edinburgh in one of my personal favorite New Orleans publications, ANTIGRAVITY Magazine. An excerpt:

The three electro ambient tracks, each named after a location in Edinburgh where the original field recordings were made (“Calton Hill,” “Princes Street Gardens,” “Calton Road Cobblestones”), are soothing and otherworldly, occasionally employing synthesizers to flirt with more unsettling undertones. The end result only hints at the original recordings, Kelly’s production leaving the faintest memory of the actual time and place, like stepping into a dream reality.

Many thanks to ANTIGRAVITY and Mary Beth Campbell for this. Catch the whole thing, plus reviews of Kim Gordon, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Hurray For The Riff Raff, and more on the ANTIGRAVITY website.

Avant Music News Review

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Avant Music News has graciously reviewed LF17 / Edinburgh, and per usual it’s an insightful analysis of the release:

“Calton Hill is five minutes of ethereal chording with a slow voice-like melody. The tones are light but with a hint of anxiety. Princes Street Gardens is based on looped rhythmic structures reminiscent of old-school works from Dockstader and others. Over these, Kelly places a dialog between echoing effects and horn-like themes. Calton Road Cobblestones finishes things up with sparse string-plucking and drones. The latter grow ominous as the piece ends.”

Catch it, and more of the most knowledgeable analysis in experimental music, on the Avant Music News website.

Edinburgh In the Letter

Posted on by elizabethjoankelly in news

Much gratitude to Blair for highlighting LF17 / Edinburgh in The Letter this week:

“LF17 / Edinburgh is the latest in the LIFEFILES series and features Louisiana artist Elizabeth Joan Kelly. Previous contributors include Simon Fisher Turner, Xqui, Audio Obscura, Maps and more. The idea behind the series is simple, an artist receives some recordings (I assume from the label Mortality Tables) and they respond in a fitting manner. The recordings could be “from places, people, objects, moments in time, environments and quotidian events”. This time round, the sounds come from the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh!”

LF17 / Edinburgh in Moonbuilding

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Many thanks to Moonbuilding for spotlighting LF17 / Edinburgh, my new solo release from Mortality Tables:

“The latest installment in the Lifefiles series from Mortality Tables features the excellent New Orleans-based composer Elizabeth Joan Kelly. Lifefiles are field recordings, usually made by the label’s Mat Smith, and handed over to an artist to respond to recordings however they see fit. Here EJK gets three recordings made in Edinburgh in August 2021 and responds with three warm soundscapes. Knowing Mat, the recordings won’t be random. There’s always a story with this label.”

It’s a good day for new music; see more at the Moonbuilding substack.

C.M.S.O. reviewed by recent music heroes

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Always pleased when our music is still making an impact a couple of years on. Perennial favorite Recent Music Heroes just reviewed Orca, Attack!’s C.M.S.O. The review is in Estonian (which I think is a first for us!); here’s a Google translate-generated excerpt:

Doo wop, panoramic Americana, sardonic electronica, music from academia mixed into something magical. The light blue American Dream that fades out of reach — it was already in the formula — and is replaced by a real life killer whale attack on the symbols of affluent life — as has recently happened with yachts in the Mediterranean

Many thanks to Borealiscape, aka Agier Music.

ANTIGRAVITY REVIEW

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Wonderful new review of You Won’t Remember This in the new ANTIGRAVITY Magazine! Jesse Lu Baum writes, “You Won’t Remember This is a living example of form married to function. Created by the local duo Orca, Attack! (Elizabeth Joan Kelly and David Rodriguez), the two-song EP is part of DIY label superpolar Taïps’ cassette single and EP series, and is as quirky as the label and its chosen medium…It’s a delightfully odd listen!” Catch the full review on the ANTIGRAVITY website or in print (!) if you live in New Orleans.

On The Fringes of Sound and Space Is The Place

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There’s a lovely review of You Won’t Remember This from On The Fringes of Sound:

The title track is an instant attention grabber as it begins with indie-folk vibes that quickly take an electronic with soaring pads and tight percussion that blend in perfectly. The next track “World Map” takes us in an even stranger direction as warm electric bass lines mix it up with more airy percussion and springy synth lines.

Also, new episode of Space Is The Place on CandoFM; catch the archive on Mixcloud or below:

Vital Weekly and The quietus reviews

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Great day for You Won’t Remember This reviews. First up, Vital Weekly writes, “‘You Won’t Remember This’ is a breezy Avant-folk tune with a slightly hoarse voice, starting mellow with acoustic guitars but fully opening up when the drum machines and electronics kick in… ‘World Map’, on the other side, is a bit more abstract in terms of ‘pop’ or ‘folk’, with a significant role for the drum machine, and all the other sounds around appear in a dub form, coming and going. But the melodic aspect of this song isn’t forgotten and gives this song a great flavour as well.”

Then the Cassingle series gets a shoutout in this month’s Spool’s Out column in The Quietus (!!!!). “From a tentative acoustic opening, the duo of Elizabeth Joan Kelly and David Rodriguez ascend to a glorious Tropicália meets shoegaze epic. It’s ridiculous in its ambition, cramming an album’s worth of ideas into two minutes and thirty seconds.”