Ryan Burns, Author at The Sights And Sounds

[AMBIENT/MINIMALIST] Inventions – Springworlds

January 24, 2015 Ryan Burns 0

We live in an age when– I’ll stop right there, because I hate when people claim a clean break of continuity with the past. “We live in a technological age,” “These days we’re busier than ever,” and so on. It’s lazy thinking. There’s always the past present with us; it’s never a clean rupture, and […]

Album Reviews

[DARK INDIE/POST-PUNK] Disappears – “Irreal” Album Review

January 12, 2015 Ryan Burns 0

When I hear poppy, cheery, bubble-gum-smacking tunes I’m convinced I really need to get this depression diagnosed. The opiate of the masses: make people content about their lives so they, unperturbed, reproduce the given social and political order. Beautiful world? Sure, but let’s be sincere. What makes it beautiful isn’t its happiness, luminance, and spectacle, […]

Minimal House

[END OF YEAR] You Ain’t Heard Nothing Like This: Best Experimental, Minimalist, And Ambient Tracks Of 2014

December 31, 2014 Ryan Burns 0

It was a strange experience. I sat down to finally curate and annotate this list, approaching with some anxiety, as only a few tracks stood out as obvious contenders for inclusion. Would I even be able to identify 20 “best” minimalist, experimental, and ambient tracks of 2014? What would “best” even entail? How could I […]

Sounds

[INDIE/ELECTRONIC] Petite Noir – “Chess”

December 3, 2014 Ryan Burns 0

“That’s the real shit right there” – an anonymous background vocalist exclaims a little over a minute into “Chess”, seemingly on the receiving end of your telepathic transmissions. How did he know what I was thinking? In any case, it’s the real shit in all its positive connotations – that catchy beat driving a funky, […]

Album Reviews

[AMBIENT/EXPERIMENTAL] Anjou – “Anjou” Album Review

November 11, 2014 Ryan Burns 0

Satellites erode, collide, and emit, adding ever more debris to the morass already orbiting the earth. Read about it: it’s a thick film surrounding us, and may have already reached critical mass to accumulate indefinitely. Bits of metallic, electric nuggets speed around the planet, a harsh inorganic environment set against the backdrop of sub-zero silence. […]