Radio Martiko usually does a fine job remastering old shellac recordings and making them sound vibrant. This album by Tassos Chalkias is an incredible example. From the release’s Bandcamp site: “Epirótika! Greek psych folk as a soul medicine. A shepherd’s fever dream or spiritual jazz from an ancient world? The Continue Reading
Mamer 马木尔 – Awlaⱪta / Afar 离
Mamer 马木尔 is perhaps my favorite underground artists operating in China today. His work fuses Kazakh folk music with avant-garde music, bordering on experimental, even though he has a pedigree in working with record labels like Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. It’s rare to see an authentic musician dig into Continue Reading
Dust Of Time – The Waking Hours
Greek composer Manolis Fasoulakis (Dust Of Time) joins with the Last American Poet, Shane Beck for an album which deftly combines Fasoulakis’ ethereal sonic landscapes with the haunting poetry of Beck. If you are into bands like Dead Can Dance, Lycia, Zahmia Lehmanni-era SPK or bands of this caliber, The Continue Reading
Philippe Neau – hORs SoLs
Our friends at Mahorka Records introduce us to yet another brilliant composer. Phillippe Neau masterfully uses nature sounds to paint sonic ‘pictures’ that envelop the listener. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “”I started with sounds from different places: the house, the garden, the workshop, the forest next door in Mayenne, Continue Reading
Arbay Taraa – Arbay Taraa
I have a bit of catchup work to do with Russian releases which I plan to remedy over the next few weeks, and moreso once I move from China. Arbay Taraa are a mindblowingly great band brought to us by our friends at Russian World Music Chart. They are an Continue Reading
Laibach – Alamut
This is the Laibach I grew up loving, taking a very different and radical direction in each new album. The industrial music lounge act was growing irritating, but it might have been because the band needed time to come up with brilliant ideas after dipping into the sonic well way Continue Reading
Various Artists – Village Wedding: Lebanese Songs & Vignettes ca. late 1960s – early ’70s
We have another gem from Canary Records: “Anthony M. Abraham (b. June 13, 1893 in Aintourine, present-day northern Lebanon; d. July 1978) arrived in the U.S. in 1921 and worked for decades as a machinist and crane operator at Crucible Steel Works. His label Alkawakeb, primarily reissued or pirated Arabic-language Continue Reading
Various Artists – Ayo Ke Disco: Boogie, Pop & Funk from the South China Sea (1974-88)
An absolutely crucial release from Soundway Records covering Southeast Asian Pop Music from the mid-to-late 1970s: “Soundway Records delivers an exciting new compilation, diving ever deeper into South-East Asia. Ayo Ke Disco celebrates the musical identities emerging during the 1970s and 80s from the newly independent countries nestled around the Continue Reading
Ceget – Sïbïzƣï
Ceget is an artist from Karachay-Cherkessia in the Russian Caucasus region. The sounds produced on this short but pleasantly recorded album come from the Sïbïzƣï, a flute native to the region. The composer’s style for these tracks take on elements of ambient and experimental music, but are not harsh listening Continue Reading
Fallen Sun I Sacher Pelz I Thomas Bey William Bailey – Acousmatomisation
Sacher Pelz is one of the early monickers of Maurizio Bianchi (MB, who is legendary to fans of experimental noise), and he returns in collaboration with consistently amazing Malaysian composer Fallen Sun and the American artist Thomas Bey William Bailey. As with a great deal of MB releases, this one Continue Reading