For your viewing pleasure, Don Letts produced a great video on the history of the skinhead movement.
The Story of Skinhead with Don Letts (BBC Documentary)
Erkin Sadykov & Abdugheni Abdurusul – Secret of the world. Archival recordings of Uyghur music from Kyrgyzstan
There is little information available on Uyghur musicians Erkin Sadykov (vocal, dutar) and Abdugheni Abdurusul (tambur), but the quality of these recordings show a warm, sensitive interpretation of music we’re watching disintegrate before our eyes. Thankfully, Kyrgyzstan allows their Uyghur minority to live and protect their traditions in peace.
Ángel Ontalva – Roads to Sunrise Cities
Ángel Ontalva is something like a paisano to me; a fellow of Spanish descent who spends an extraordinary time in Russia, and who has integrated himself into local scenes across the country. Guitarist Ontalva has released a single which is a mellow pastiche of progressive rock, world music and jazz. As this is a free track, and of high quality, it’s worth your time to explore.
Nihil Impvlse – Stasis
Though I am not sure exactly where Nihil Impvlse hail from in Italy, I can rest assured that Raffaele Pezzella of Eighth Tower Records and his own project Sonologyst will ensure the quality of such music.
Nihil Impvlse are quite a pleasant surprise for noise or drone music. This sounds more sculpted, more relaxed and focused, in comparison to other projects of a similar bent. For an album release which is so bleak, it seems almost gentle to the ears, eminently listenable. Not quite what I was expecting, but so much the better for it.
The Claudia Quintet +1 with Kurt Elling & Theo Bleckmann – What Is The Beautiful?
Cuneiform Records offers a very generous program where a release from their back catalog is offered for $5 ($7 for a double album release), and they don’t skimp on the quality of these releases.
Drummer John Hollenbeck’s The Claudia Quintet released this disc in 2011, and as a Rock-In-Opposition / Avant-Progressive / Spoken Word release, it holds together beautifully. Collaborating on this album are Kurt Elling, one of America’s finest jazz vocalists, and Theo Bleckmann, one of Germany’s finest singers.
From the Cuneiform Bandcamp site:
For their sixth album, What Is The Beautiful?, The Claudia Quintet brings together the acclaimed compositional approach of leader John Hollenbeck with two of the most important male singers in improvised music, Kurt Elling and Theo Bleckmann. Elling and Bleckmann recite and sing the poems of avant-garde/proto-beat American poet, Kenneth Patchen, an innovator in his time.
“Claudia with vocals?” Yes, Claudia with vocals, and it will probably not surprise anyone who has followed this much-loved, one-of-a-kind ensemble that that it still sounds completely like Claudia…but different! Kurt Elling, probably the most popular male jazz vocalist today, brings to these words – words which are, by turns, funny or poignant or thought-provoking – a hipster swagger somewhere between Ken Nordine and Tom Waits. Theo Bleckmann is, as always, Theo Bleckmann; one of the truly singular and distinctive singers in jazz today. Having both vocalists on board, with their radically different styles, was a brilliant move and gives What is the Beautiful? an tremendously wide sweep.
Formed by composer / drummer / arranger John Hollenbeck in 1997, this NYC ensemble’s sound explores the edge without alienating the mainstream, proving that genre-defying music can be for everyone. Over the past decade, the group has released CDs that are critically acclaimed world wide and whose appeal extends well beyond, as well as including traditional jazz audiences. The Claudia Quintet has amazed audiences from Alabama to the Amazon. Their unique sound has inspired dancing hippie girls at a New Mexico noise festival, the avant-garde cognoscenti in the concert halls of Vienna and São Paolo, and a generation of young musicians worldwide. In the course of the thousands of miles they have traveled together and hundreds of concerts they’ve played, the Claudia Quintet has evolved and grown, developing a dynamic live sound based on trust and spontaneity. They bring this powerful energy into the studio, where they record the old-fashioned way, live, playing as a band.
As on their previous album, Royal Toast, the Claudia Quintet is again supplemented by a +1, in this case Philadelphia-based pianist Matt Mitchell. His virtuosity and spontaneity make him a perfect fit with the long-running core group – Hollenbeck on drums, Drew Gress on bass, Matt Moran on vibraphone, Ted Reichman on accordion, and Chris Speed on clarinet and tenor sax.
Julien Bigorgne – Monades
Julien Bigorgne is a flautist working out of Paris, France, who also happens to be an oud player. The music on this album is filmic, a soundtrack to a non-existent film. The music walks the line between soundtrack compositions of Yann Tiersen, jazz and world music (such a nebulous term, but until I find a better one, I’m stuck using it). One can also hear dabs of the music of French national treasures like Erik Satie and Claude Debussy. The album is unique, relaxing, easy to listen to and flow with.
Magnolian – Famous Men
It is my great honor to present the first featured release of the blog. This album comes to us from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It is not what you would expect from the country, as most marketing of music shows Mongol folkloric culture melded together with everything from heavy metal to rap, most of it working well, but also letting off an air of cod exotica. This release by Magnolian is radically different from what most of their countrymen are producing. This is more of a breezy folk-rock touched gently with post-rock, a combination that works surprisingly well. The vocals and lyrics are sophisticated, and if you didn’t pay attention to the band’s hometown information, the release could have come from a place like Ohio or Indiana. Quite a sublime release, and a good album to launch with.
So It Begins…
It is our tremendous pleasure to introduce to you Music You Need To Hear. We will be pointing out some amazing releases from around the world, and will eventually add a bi-weekly podcast featuring five tracks to turn you on to interesting, adventurous music. We look forward to an exciting 2021!