by eyes cast down | Feb 9, 2011 | Poems
Back in the mid-90s, I wrote some poems to indulge my love of wordplay, which also served as helpful venting. Some of them were published in various periodicals from 1993-96. I was going to publish them as a book called Divinations, but circumstance intervened. Maybe...
by eyes cast down | Feb 7, 2011 | Album Reviews
Longform pieces and albums abound, but this is only the second album that I’ve heard of featuring more than one longform piece. This by itself is merely eyebrow-raising; the real astonishment is the music presented by Steve Brand in his double-CD Coniunctio (Relaxed...
by eyes cast down | Feb 3, 2011 | Album Reviews
The music of Chris Russell and Disturbed Earth (Dean Richards) on their first Relaxed Machinery release, The Approaching Armada (RM0008) fully lives up to any expectations created by such a compelling and dramatic title. This album is beatless, atmospheric and...
by eyes cast down | Feb 1, 2011 | Album Reviews
Glancing over the notes I made while listening to this album for the second time, I felt disoriented. The materials used by Bob Ohrum on his third full-length release are minimal; my notes hardly amount to anything. I glanced at them and wondered: is that it? The...
by eyes cast down | Jan 28, 2011 | Album Reviews
The old truism about an artist’s first album embodying his entire life’s musical quest up to that point certainly holds for this first effort from åpne sinn (Geoff Small). Espiritista (Relaxed Machinery 0015) explores a fine range of styles, weaving a rich tapestry...
by eyes cast down | Jan 25, 2011 | Album Reviews
Jack or Jive’s Kakugo, released in 2008 by their longtime friends at Prikosnovenie, was their first release after 2006’s 3-CD box set Issin, which closed the circle of their first 18 years. That set featured a vast selection – one CD of unreleased songs...
by eyes cast down | Jan 24, 2011 | The Creative Life
A friend in the Relaxed Machinery community, for his English class paper on “Underground Musicians”, drew up a set of questions and invited answers. They are excellent questions, cutting to some fundamental issues, so it was a pleasure to participate. My...
by eyes cast down | Jan 22, 2011 | Album Reviews
Chris Russell is fond of working in his home studio during the long winter months. For Frozen, his third full-length CD (Relaxed Machinery 0003), he heeded the call of inspiration and didn’t bother to wait for the season. He channeled its harsh extremes, its muted...
by eyes cast down | Jan 21, 2011 | Intrinsic Beauty
I’ve started this blog for the purpose of sharing my reviews of great music, which is fair enough – but let’s expand our focus. There’s so much more worth celebrating: creative artists of all kinds (many of them relatively unknown); natural phenomena...
by eyes cast down | Jan 20, 2011 | News
My name is Greg Moorcroft. I’m an ambient/electronic composer & musician using the name eyes cast down. I enjoy reviewing albums by my fellow musicians, and my reviews have been generously received, which has only encouraged me to set up this blog....