The Polyphonic Spree emerged in 2000 as a vehicle for Tim DeLaughter’s wide-eyed orchestral-pop vision, with the players dressing in white stage robes and building enormous crescendos through woodwinds, strings, keyboards and choirs. But the core of what made the project so special—the imagination, the symphonic-level splendor—has probably also kept them in a cultural cage. […]
The backstory of this 1976 recording by the late tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders is so fascinating and convoluted that it takes a 64-page booklet—included in the box set—to unravel it all. In short, Sanders entered the studio determined to make an album for India Navigation Records producer Bob Cummins that was different than anything the […]
There’s a fine line between “fun creative prompt” and “tired gimmick,” but fortunately King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have always steered clear of the latter. Over the course of 24 studio albums, they have (among numerous other experiments) explored the rarely charted realms of microtonal tuning, edited jams into structured songs and established strict […]
