Our team of writers share their thoughts and feelings about music they, generally, like. Where possible, we present tracks for you to listen, download, and decide for yourself. Register with Groovemine.com to join the discussion below and throughout the site.



Mr. Machine by
The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble
TEXT: NEIL LEVENS
At the precise point where the experimental, the avant-garde, and the just plain strange in the musical world swing back full circle and converge into pop and accessible form is where we would...  [continue reading]


All Things Will Unwind
by My Brightest Diamond
TEXT: JENNIFER MILS
Shara Worden, a.k.a. My Brightest Diamond, is an old pro on the art pop scene. A veteran of both Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoisemakers and a collaborator with acts like The National and yMusic...  [continue reading]


Rey Pila (self-titled)
TEXT: KYRSTEN BEAN
It’s hard to pin Rey Pila, written and performed largely by frontman Diego Solórzano, into a specific genre. Solórzano successfully manages to straddle a little bit of everything from funk to electronica to pop. His lyrics speak about irony and reality with a...  [continue reading]


Zorya by Floex
TEXT: NEIL LEVENS
If I had to single out one composer who managed to fuse the oftentimes at-odds worlds of the organic and electronic into one tremendous, gorgeous sum it would be Tomas Dvorak, the man behind Floex and the exceptional soundtracks to Amanita Design’s...  [continue reading]

Glowing Mouth by Milagres
Brooklyn-based band Milagres has created an album of bedroom pop perfect for a day indoors. Bedroom pop being a perfect genre for singer/songwriter...  [continue reading]



You Are All I See by Active Child
New Jersey’s Pat Grossi, the brains of Active Child, was a choir-boy. Less than a minute into his debut album, after a radiant flourish of harps like sunlight...  [continue reading]



The Rip Tide by Beirut
Labels can be hard to overcome. And Beirut, the Brooklyn-based outfit centered around wunderkind Zach Condon, has had to avoid a lot of pigeonholes since...  [continue reading]



Garden of Arms by Peter Wolf Crier
Peter Wolf Crier, the Minneapolis-based folk-rock duo behind Garden of Arms, are not afraid to experiment. In any track by Peter Pisano and Brian Moen...  [continue reading]



Tripper by Hella
Anyone who has ever heard of a drummer named Zach Hill knows exactly what to expect from a project he participates in. Whether it’s Marnie Stern, Bygones...  [continue reading]



Chicxulub by Mochipet
I like albums with audacious concepts. Often, though, the music itself is boring, the concept simply serving as a crutch. When I first heard the newest...  [continue reading]



Forget by Oupa
It’s hard to know what feeling the dirge-like melancholy of Oupa’s Forget most evokes; maybe a cautious and false acceptance of the failures of the past...  [continue reading]



Rumspringa by Canon Blue
Nashville musician Daniel James’ first album as Canon Blue, Rumspringa, is both instrumentally and lyrically strong. The album benefits highly from...  [continue reading]



From The Rooftops by The Funk Ark
The Funk Ark, newly signed to Thievery Corporation’s ESL Music, are a classic-sounding afrobeat/world funk group with a modern sheen, as well...  [continue reading]



Slow Music For Rapid... by Ekca Liena
In 2008, Ekca Liena (also, pedestrianly, referred to as Daniel Mackenzie) released a quiet masterpiece into the world of experimental and...  [continue reading]



Horse Meat Disco III by Various Artists
Genre experts Horse Meat Disco return to release a double mix on (about) July 4th for Strut. The quartet of DJ’s, hailing from London, has been packing...  [continue reading]




Sam Baker’s Album by Samiyam
Obligatory background information: Samiyam relocated form Ann Arbor to Los Angeles in 2006. Close friend Flying Lotus is his mentor, and the...  [continue reading]



Volume One, 1970-1979 by Sorry Bamba
Indie label Thrill Jockey offers us a glimpse at the apex of Malian bandleader Sorry Bamba’s career, ten classic post-colonial jams curated by the...  [continue reading]



People Changes >> Nat Baldwin
People Changes, the new record from soulful Dirty Projectors bassist Nat Baldwin, is an intimate, experimental album. The spare sound of the album (most...  [continue reading]



Bon Iver (self-titled)
It’s been nearly four years since we first heard the introverted sound of Bon Iver. The band’s debut full-length, For Emma, Forever Ago, brought beauty, tears, and...  [continue reading]



Thee Physical >> Pictureplane
While listening to Pictureplane’s just-released album, Thee Physical, I was blissfully taken back to the early 90s when I would wait with anticipation for the radio...  [continue reading]



Two-Way Mirror >> Crystal Antlers
To describe the music of Long Beach-based band Crystal Antlers, you may need to invent a new word. Experimental-goth-noise-pop? Neo-psychedelic-garage...  [continue reading]



Hello Cruel World >> Sole and the Skyrider Band
Two things have changed since the last album by Sole and the Skyrider band, 2009’s Plastique. First, at the beginning of 2010, Sole left his longtime...  [continue reading]



Eternally Teenage >> Tomorrow’s Tulips
Alex Knost and Christina Keys are a couple that really does make beautiful music together. As Tomorrow’s Tulips, the seasoned Cost Mesa musicians...  [continue reading]



Mammal >> Altar of Plagues
Back in my youth, the term “black metal” was used almost exclusively to describe a range of extreme musicians who were all competing with GWAR at costuming...  [continue reading]



Spear of Gold and Seraphim Bone >> Aderlating
The most base emotions in the human canon are primal. Aggression, fear and cruelty (arguably) do not react out of some clear cognitive process but from an instinctual...  [continue reading]



Hounds of Love >> Railcars
First, let’s just admire the cojones on noise artist, Aria Jalali. Whatever “shitgaze” actually means, San Francisco-based Railcars has been known to...  [continue reading]



Player Piano >> Memory Tapes
Dayve Hawk has always found his music treading the blogosphere, mostly under his previous lo-fi electronica recording monikers, Memory Cassettes and...  [continue reading]



Aratan N Azawad >> Terakaft
Terakaft, or “rebel elders,” encompass two generations of musicians who have dedicated their musical creations to the history of the Tuareg, a nomadic people...  [continue reading]



Shirts vs. Skins >> Graham Wright
Graham Wright plays synthesizers in Tokyo Police Club. However, this review does not concern the quick, screeching guitars of Josh Hook, the thumps and...  [continue reading]



Buffalo >> The Phoenix Foundation
Usually, when you say an album is pleasant, it’s a bad thing, a kind of backhanded compliment that really means it’s safe, bland, and forgettable. But with...  [continue reading]



Solid State >> Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips, aka Leslie Ann Phillips, is a bit of an enigma to the uninitiated. Her latest project is an avant-garde collection of re-mastered songs...  [continue reading]



Nigeria 70 - Sweet Times: Afro Funk... >> Various Artists
The third edition of Strut Record’s wonderful Nigeria 70 series, curated by vinyl hero and godfather of African crate-digging Duncan Brooker, offers another...  [continue reading]



Konkylie >> When Saints Go Machine
The Danish synth-pop group return for their excellent sophomore effort, a sonic landscape that sounds something like The Knife injected with a blanket of...  [continue reading]



David Comes To Life >> Fucked Up
Concept albums. They’ve been around for almost as long as music has been divided into albums. The dichotomy of story-telling and music combine to create...  [continue reading]



H-p1 >> White Hills
Heavy, unrelenting drones of guitar riffage that are spread out over an extended jam. That is how I would characterize the sound of White Hills’ H-p1 in...  [continue reading]



SMOD (self-titled)
Decades after Kool Herc extended the break — ad infinitum — straining the climax of a song until it burst into something entirely different, what remains...  [continue reading]



Shangri-La >> YACHT
With their newest album, dance duo YACHT have created the funkiest dystopia ever imagined, and a great concept album. Shangri-La expands on...  [continue reading]