Early 80s industrial beats synthesized with traditional African rhythms make for a deep zone experience on Criola, a collection of collaborative tracks between Belgian/Congolese duo Denis Mpunga and Paul K.
Among new artists digging into the bygone sounds of Pacific impressionism, Molly Lewis is the standout. She has taken her sound to the masses and has been met with praise and approval. In the seventy years since America’s initial Exotica sensation, popular music has been in a state of near-constant upheaval and reformation.
Originally released via Pressure Sounds in the spring of 2008, a CD copy of this twenty track compilation soundtracked the majority of that summer, and, due to a recent cop of the vinyl version, it appears to be doing the same some 14 years later. A toppermost three year overview of the Kingston, Jamaica based label, the roots collection highlights selects from the likes of Joe Higgs, U Roy, I Roy, Tommy McCook, Junior Byles, King Tubby and others, featuring an effortless array of early reggae and dub.
Stringed-thing wizard, and tireless sonic explorer, Joseph Allred’s new album The Rambles & Rags of Shiloh, is a collection of 10 gorgeous instrumental works for acoustic guitar and banjo.
In his sterling new compilation, archivist Moataz Rageb, aka DJ Arabesquo, highlights the importance of cassettes to the musical culture of 1980s Eqypt. The compilation effortlessly moves through nine tracks, across thirty-seven groovy minutes, filled with classic 1980s production effects, early drum machines and synthesizers tweaked to accommodate Egyptian rhythms.
On his newly released sophomore album, Mil Coisas Invisíveis, São Paulo’s Tim Bernardes brings his diaristic existentialism to vibrant sonic life.
Released in 1978, Dub Encounter Chapter 1 is a pivotal album at the juncture of Jamaican and British dub—a nexus of dub’s origins and everything the music would evolve into. It’s a dank and earthy affair full of Flabba Holt’s & Sly Dunbar’s driving, deep-nodding basslines that still pack enough power to rattle the foundations of Babylon.
Kawasaki’s 1976 jazz-funk opus. Over the course of its seven tracks, the visually sci-fi-tinged world of Juice feels at once perfectly of its time, yet remains delightfully vital in 2022.
On the heels of his latest and seventh long-player, This Is A Photograph, we caught up with Kevin Morby to discuss Memphis, Butterflies, and his appreciation for someone who died 25 years ago. Hallelujah! Hallelujah.
For his debut Lagniappe Session, Eli Winter applies his solo guitar to a set of songs by Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell, Maria BC, Judee Sill, and Karen Dalton.
Outré California. Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W
For his most recent OSEES album, A Foul Form, John Dwyer shifts again, this time revisiting the punk and hardcore that shaped his Rhode Island adolescence. And since he’s looking back, it seemed like a good time for us to look back, too, in an interview that spans the Dwyer career so far, from Providence skate punk to SF garage rock to Castle Face honcho to free improv experimenter.
Built on loops culled from doo wop, psychedelic pop, and early rock & roll records, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom’s new album Reset is an exuberant and oracular listen. In this all-new episode of our weekly interview podcast Transmissions, Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and Peter Kember (Sonic Boom) sit down with host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss their collaborative partnership, the influence of far out futurist Buckminster Fuller, memory and musical optimism.
Terry Riley’s “A Rainbow In Curved Air” is a piece of music that, in certain registers, has the lasting power of a proverb. Released on David Behrman’s Music Of Our Time series through CBS, it’s a supple composition which defines just as easily defies minimalism, an open work that extrapolates jazz, improvisation, raga, tape manipulation, and classical motifs. Nico Georis, an FM synthesis aficionado and head of his own experimental radio station, approaches Riley’s mythical work with a fluid and unintimidated approach.
At three in the afternoon on Thursday, September 28, Amon Düül II took the stage of the Aula der Pädagogischen Hochschule. Freshly split from the ‘nonmusical’ portion of their Munich commune, the eight-piece ensemble intended to make waves, not as a leftist collective, but as a strict musical unit.
Last month saw the release of Of Montreal’s 18th long-player, the seven track Freewave Lucifer fck, and with it the perennial project’s second set of covers for AD, this time paying tribute to a pair of British iconoclasts and longtime influences. First up is Barnes’ rendering of Syd Barret’s “Dark Globe, off The Madcap Laughs, the singer-songwriter’s 1970 debut following his departure from Pink Floyd. Up next, the majesty of Marc Bolan circa ’71, courtesy of an acoustic take on “Cosmic Dancer”, via T. Rex’s Electric Warrior.
Going from country to cosmic in the blink of an eye, the debut long-player from Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears will put a smile on your face and a spring in your step—guaranteed. The Nashville-based guitarist has established himself as a valued sideman over the years (you’ve heard him with Erin Rae, Eve Maret and Spencer Cullum as well as with the late/lamented Promised Land Sound), thanks to his tasty/tasteful six-string mastery.
Electronic soul singer Eddie Chacon returns with “Holy Hell,” and a new label in Stones Throw Records. In a new Sissy Chacon-directed video, Eddie and producer John Carroll Kirby go cruising in a message scrawled 1986 Lincoln Mach 7, cooing a message of redemption like Curtis Mayfield over G-Funk fusion synths and reeds.
Candid may not have the same name brand recognition as Blue Note or Impulse! But during its brief existence, the label made its mark on the jazz and blues worlds—as a recent series of remastered reissues demonstrates. The cream of the crop is Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, recorded in October 1960 and released the following year. It’s a thoroughly crackling affair, highlighting the composer at one of his many peaks and featuring an awesome lineup of musicians
In this installment of Videodrome, Stephen Lee Naish examines the sinister and dangerous representation of urban spaces in cinema. From comedies like Adventures of Babysitting to Taxi Driver, The Warriors, and Cosmopolis, he explores how film filters our own sense of danger and makes the city a strange and intriguing place—and a hellscape once night falls.
If you’re a fan of jittery guitar-driven indie rock, you’re probably most familiar with our guest today, Glenn Mercer from his work with The Feelies. While this episode of Transmissions doesn’t skimp on Feelies discussion, Mercer also discusses the diversity of his catalog, including work The Trypes, whose 40th anniversary edition of Music for Neighbors was released earlier this year, and his solo canon. Along the way: the Velvet Underground, The Dead, Peter Buck of R.E.M., his tribute works to David Bowie, Brian Eno, Roxy Music, and Marc Bolan, plus even more.
