Callers met in New Orleans before ultimately relocating to Brooklyn. This isn’t necessarily important in their creation of music, merely a statement of historical fact. Well, that’s not entirely true. When I think of New Orleans, I think of a place somehow lost post Katrina and struggling to renew their culture. But it’s different; things are different. So culture has changed. Of course, this is all in my head as I have not been to New Orleans. But in a way, I hear …

J. Tillman has always created a very minimalist style of folk, and this sound once again dominates his new track “Three Sisters”, from his upcoming Singing Ax release. With minimalism, there’s a fine balance between the risk of being bland and sans any melody, and creating something astonishingly brilliant. Tillman knows this line well, and flirts with it frequently. No surprise: his skilled footwork keeps him on the side of brilliance.

Music is often experiential, but none is more so than that which embodies the hypnotic. Drone, shoegaze, post rock – they all often tell stories through notes rather than words, and with Tomorrow Becomes You Slow Six does just that. The band combines classical music with rock in a way unlike contemporaries such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The emphasis is comparably on strings, but the sounds are much more cosmic – more along the lines of Explosions In The Sky’s post rock sensibilities, but with classical …

Experimental electronic folk never sounded so dreamy. “Cotton Curls” by Sleep Whale has soft, pleasant melodies supported by a heavy percussive tromp. Fronted by mysterious, psychedelic, cooing vocals, the song splits reality with the dream-life. It’s like an Animal Collective track without all the bells and whistles; just peaceful and colorful. It’s evocative of a midsummer afternoon half-slumber, warm with soft pillows and messed up sheets. You can almost feel the sun streaming in through the blinds, and hear a lawnmower in the distance. …