Adalberto Santiago, Alfredo De La Fé, Alphonse Mouzon, Barry Rogers, Billy Cobham, Bobby Cruz, Bobby Quesada, Bobby Valentin, Boncana Maïga, Cali Aleman, Celia Cruz, Cheo Feliciano, Eddie Palmieri, Hector Lavoe, Hector Zarzuela, Ismael Miranda, Izzy Sanabria, Jimmy Delgado, Joe Bataan, Johnny Pacheco. Look at that list. These are the kings of salsa. bolero, and so many other genres, with a few legendary jazz folks helping out. The Fania All Continue Reading
Zhaoze – In Snow Storm, Yet Not Back Home | 风雪未归人
Good news from Guangdong, China! From Zaoze’s Bandcamp site: “Finally, it’s here—a new release from Zhaoze. A small EP featuring just two tracks. One is a brief piece under two minutes, a reimagined version of a previous work; the other, a substantial mid-length track clocking in at six and a Continue Reading
Music For Sleep – In assenza
Andrea Porcu released a new album under his Music For Sleep moniker. It’s one 38-minute track which ebbs and flows like most of his music.
Christian Fiesel – Floating In Liquid Air
Although tagged as dark ambient or even Industrial, I see the work of Christian Fiesel a bit differently. His sound does have the hallmarks of a more rhythmic ambient music, but it also has the feeling of mid-era Tangerine Dream as well. It pulses and throbs in all the right Continue Reading
Various Artists – Arborescence: Bouquet Sauvage
This compilation, curated by the composer Aborescence, includes several of the leading lights of ambient music, including Robert Rich, Rudy Adrian, Alio Die as well as newer names (at least to me) like Robert Davies and Roy Mattson. From Arborescence’s Bandcamp site: “Bouquet Sauvage is a curated compilation comprised of Continue Reading
Your vinyl records aren’t as “analog” as you think—and that’s okay
I’m not sure I like that, to be honest, as I would expect that new records would go through analog mastering, but we live in a digital world now, so I guess we’re stuck with what we have. How-To Geek has an article to the contrary, which you can read Continue Reading
Taqbir – Taqbir
I haven’t heard a decent punk record in years, so finding a Moroccan band this raw was a pleasant surprise. From Taqbir’s Bandcamp site: “Musically TAQBIR walks a thin line joining some of my favourite qualities in punk music. The aggression of fuckwave originators DISKOLOKOST, the nastiness of THE COMES Continue Reading
Muriel Grossmann – Plays the music of McCoy Tyner and Grateful Dead
From Muriel Grossman’s Bandcamp site: “On the surface, Tyner and the Dead appear to come from different galaxies. But listen deeply, and it becomes clear: they were orbiting the same planet. Tyner’s playing was all about shape. He built modal infrastructure—riffs and voicings sturdy enough to ground the music, malleable Continue Reading
HJ Ayala – Wesserling En Direct
It’s wonderful to welcome back an old friend of the blog, Hector Javier Ayala, a guitarist hailing from Mexico and living in France. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this is a very song-focused album, featuring a couple of genuinely Mexican guitar tunes and the beautiful jazz classic, Days Continue Reading
Kaleikia – Makali
Some heavy progressive rock from Galicia, one of my paternal ancestral homelands: “Makali (from the Bubi Makálé/Makòlé) was a drill born free in the jungles of Bioko, in Equatorial Guinea. He was captured by humans and sold to Galician sailors who took him to Meaño. There he lived with his Continue Reading