Aquarius Records on “Trouble Coming Down”
“This is the first we’re hearing from Electric Jellyfish, although mainman Michael Beach is responsible for a killer tape we reviewed a while back. We tried to catch EJ at South By Southwest, they played WFMU’s showcase, sadly, we were at the aQ show across town, but word was they killed it. Which is not hard to imagine listening to this two track teaser, clanging crashing guitars, pounding tribal drumming, howled feral vox, thick sinewy basslines, swaggery and slithery, punky and low slung, very reminiscent of some of our favorite Aussie bands like Lubricated Goat, Kingsnakeroost, the Scientists, etc. A similar sort of swampy junkyard blooz, a little loose, a bit druggy, with the bass on the second track driving a sort of Birthday Party-ish dirge.”
Aquarius Records on “Mountains + Valleys”
“Hooky and a little bit heavy, driving and catchy like crazy, and that tempo shift just kills us every time, so unexpected, but so cool…..Drifting from crunchy post punk, to woozy psychedelic drift, to countrified rust belt songsmithery, and several other stops in between… Gorgeous stuff for sure.”
Michael Beach interview on SF Gate, April 2012
Mountains + Valleys review in YourFlesh Magazine, January 2012
Mountains + Valleys reviewed on Terminal Boredom, January 2012
Michael Beach feature/interview in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, December 2011
Picked for Boshnoggin’s Nine Most Euphonious Gems of 2011, December 2011
Spacerockmountain digs Mountains +Valleys, November 2011
Review Stalker recommends Mountains + Valleys, November 2011
Mountains + Valleys reviewed in Stoned Sun Vibrations, November 2011
Tympanogram “introduces” Michael Beach, November 2011
The Bay Bridged, November 2011
Mountains + Valleys reviewed in Listen Before You Buy, November 2011
Sonic Masala reviews Mountains + Valleys, November 2011
Bandcamp Hunter selects Mountains + Valleys as its Pick of the Week, October 2011
Mountains + Valleys reviewed in The Needle Drop, October 2011
Art for Spastics on “A Horse”
“A Horse is brilliant, understated, yet powerful and emotive. I guess you could call it a “singer/songwriter” effort, but that’d be selling it short. Fans of the best of Elliot Smith, the best of Lou Reed, and Straight Ahead, the 1984 solo LP by Greg Sage of The Wipers, please have a listen to ‘A Horse’ here…”
Featured article in MessandNoise, August 2011
Review in Still Single, June 2011
Review in Life is Noise, April 2011Review in 7inches, April 2011
The Needle Drop digs the “A Horse/The Exhilarating Rise” 7-inch, March 2011
Beach interviewed in Melbourne’s Beat Magazine, March 2011
Curious Works, March 2011
Loudvine, February 2011
Loudvine wants “to be a part of whatever Michael Beach does musically.”
The Bay Bridged, February 2011
France’s S.A.V., February 2011
Built on a Weak Spot podcast, January 2011
Sonic Masala, January 2011
AllEveryoneUnited, January 2011
The Hartford Courant, January 2011
MessandNoise.com on “Blood Courses”
“Somehow these songs seem to exist outside the framework of popular music, their structures both classic and completely individual. As such, Blood Courses is an album that will hopefully be regarded as a fully realised work long after its contemporaries have faded from memory. It avoids the pitfalls of genre, fashion and commercial considerations so successfully, I’m tempted to call it timeless.”