Tag: John Also Bennett

Top 25 albums of 2025: #’s 15 – 11

We’re now halfway through my list of favorite albums from last year. Who’s here? Read on!

#15: Lammping – Never Never

Take a trip-hop duo (Lammping) and combine them with a Canadian rockabilly one-man-band who was described by John Waters as “Roy Orbison with a head injury” (Bloodshot Bill), and you get the neat Never Never EP. It sounds like something you’d find in a dusty record bin among “2000s Music – Misc.”, and is well-worth seeking out. It’s the first of four EPs from Lammping, so they’re off to a good start.

#14: King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island

Would it be a “best of” year list without a King Gizz album by now, since they release at least one album a year? Phantom Island combines the Aussie psych-rock / thrash metal / rave music giants with an orchestra because…why not? It’s a lush album with as much mystery as its cover.

#13: pôt-pot – Warsaw 480km

Here’s a post-punk band that emerged from seemingly nowhere to knock me back into my chair. “Damn, that’s good,” was my first thought after hearing it. I’m delighted that so many good post-punk bands are still appearing, and this is one of them.

#12: John Also Bennett – Ston Elaióna

This is a lovely ambient record mostly made of synths and field recordings John Also Bennett made around Greece. One song is inspired by the oldest known written song found on a stone pillar.

#11: Paddang – Lost in Lizardland

It’s a French psych-rock concept album about a future world dominated by evil lizard people and a lone heroine in the wasteland trying to defeat them. What more do you need to know?

Come back tomorrow to see who made the top ten!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: John Also Bennett – Ston Elaióna

Take some flute, add synthesizers, mix them with early morning sun bouncing off the Partheon in Athens, Greece, and have it served up by a former noise rocker. What do you get? Ston Elaióna, a beautiful ambient album from John Also Bennett.

I’m not sure how to describe this album, or even if I should. It’s something best experienced. The opening title track is like falling into a dream. “Gecko Pads” is inspired by a lizard Bennett saw on the wall of his apartment studio. “Hailstorm” mixes soft synths and flute with the quiet ticks of the titular storm Bennett recorded in Athens.

“A Handful of Olives” almost ventures into drone music with its long synth notes, but Bennett’s flute turns the song into a lovely stroll through a grove. “Sacred House” refers to the home of the Oracle of Dodoni (as does the mist-like track “Oracle” later on the record) and sounds like a record played by a ghost. Heck, “Seikilos Epitaph” is a composition found carved on an ancient pillar (the oldest known complete musical composition to exist).

“First Lament” is a song Bennett has been performing for years in different forms. Here it’s like something you’d hear drifting over a mountain path as you approach a temple you’ve been climbing toward for days. “Easter Daydream” is, I think, the only song on the album with percussion…and that is a field recording of a church bell across the street from Bennett’s apartment during Holy Week. Finally, if you buy a physical copy of the record, you also get “Lonely Melody.” Remember that ghost playing a record earlier? Well, now he’s doing spectral tidying of the haunted house to keep his mind off the fact that no one comes around to listen to his spooky records.

Again, it’s better to experience all of this than to read about it. Grab a copy of it, sit with it, and let it drift around and through you.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Cody at Terrorbird Media.]