Release Date: April 7, 2017 Label: Domino Recording Company My friend Dennis is a composer. He has a theory that the most interesting innovations in music happen in those spaces where genres and traditions smash together to recombine in new, unexpected ways. There was a period when music was brimming with innovation. New genres and … Continue reading Album Review: Yorkston/Thorne/Khan – Neuk Wight Dehli All-Stars
Board Game Review: Trajan
PUBLISHED: 2011 DESIGNERS: Stefan Feld ARTWORK: Jo Hartwig PUBLISHER: Ammonit Spiele PLAYERS: 2-4 TIME: 60-120 MINUTES Stefan Feld is one of those designers a lot of people have opinions about in the boardgaming world. On one hand, there is a great deal of respect for the way he gets gameplay mechanics to interlock. On the … Continue reading Board Game Review: Trajan
Album Review: Aldous Harding – Party
Release: May 19, 2017 Label: 4AD There is a place for quiet music in this world, for introspection. When I was living in downtown Fort Collins, I used to put on my headphones on warm summer evenings and go for a walk around the neighborhood. There I'd drift through the twilight in the alleys and … Continue reading Album Review: Aldous Harding – Party
Video Game Review: Dungeon of the Endless
RELEASE DATE: October 27, 2014 LEAD DESIGNER: Amplitude Studios Dungeon-crawling has long been one of the central pillars of video gaming. Whether it is Adventure on the Atari 2600, or the Wizardry series and Moraff's World on the PC, the concept of exploration and interaction is perfectly suited to the video game format. Even games not traditionally … Continue reading Video Game Review: Dungeon of the Endless
Album Review: Skyway Man – Seen Comin’ from a Mighty Eye
Release Date: February 24, 2017 Label: yk Records For those of you who are unfamiliar, Fort Collins is a mid-sized college town about an hour north of the Denver/Boulder nexus. Growing up here, the music scene was dominated by bluegrass and jam bands. That's not to say there weren't pockets of other music, just that … Continue reading Album Review: Skyway Man – Seen Comin’ from a Mighty Eye
Board Game Review: Santorini
PUBLISHED: 2017 DESIGNERS: Dr. Gordon Hamilton ARTWORK: Mr. Cuddington (i.e. David Forest & Lina Cossette) PUBLISHER: Roxley Game Laboratory PLAYERS: 2-4 TIME: 10-20 MINUTES For the past two weeks, I've been mired in a landscaping project. When I'm not at work, most of my waking life seems to revolve around digging out sod to expand our planting beds. 20 … Continue reading Board Game Review: Santorini
Album Review: Meilyr Jones – 2013
Release Date: February 26, 2016 Label: Moshi Moshi Records Every year, when the year-end best-of lists come out, I make a good-faith effort to give each of the represented albums a good listen. Sometimes I agree with critics' assessments, many times I don't. Most often, the lists converge around some inexplicable trend sweeping the indie … Continue reading Album Review: Meilyr Jones – 2013
Video Game Review: The Witness
Release Date: January 26, 2016 Publisher: Thekla, Inc. Lead Designer: Jonathan Blow A high proportion of our reviews thus far on Indoor Archipelago have featured albums or games that somehow reference or incorporate islands. Merely coincidence, I promise. That said, the trend will continue with The Witness, as it is a video game that takes … Continue reading Video Game Review: The Witness
Album Review: Dirty Projectors – Dirty Projectors
Release Date: February 21, 2017 Label: Domino [Note: This album review is part of a paired set of reviews meant to be considered together: see Amber Coffman's City of No Reply for the corresponding review.] I had a plan for this review. It was going to be about how my friend John hates the Dirty … Continue reading Album Review: Dirty Projectors – Dirty Projectors
Board Game Review: Scythe
PUBLISHED: 2016 DESIGNERS: Jamey Stegmaier ARTWORK: Jakub Rozalski PUBLISHER: Stonemaier Games PLAYERS: 1-5 TIME: 115 MINUTES I’ve always had a fascination with propaganda art. Not so much “I really like what those posters are telling me,” but more “I appreciate that design aesthetic.” The artists putting Soviet propaganda together really knew how to capture a person’s … Continue reading Board Game Review: Scythe