Inana is the fourth album by Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar which came out in 2011. The trumpeter starts the album with eight tracks dedicated to Inanna, the Mesopotamian goddess of sex, beauty, war and political power. ElSaffar mixes microtonal jazz with Arabic scales such as maqam, which seems to be naturally suited to improvisation. It’s […]
Good music and good new labels are easy to find if you apply yourself. Zhelezobeton is not a new label, per sé, but a lot of the bands they work with will be new to listeners who don’t normally follow what is happening in the Russian sphere of influence. This compilation is three hours of […]
A debt of thanks is owed to Alexei Aigui, a friend of this blog as well as one of Russia’s finest composers and violinists. He and his troupe, Ensemble 4’33” bring a sweeping cinematic album which will appeal to those who enjoy composers like Steve Reich, Michael Nyman, and also more interesting aspects of progressive […]
Our dear friends at Unexplained Sounds Group release consistently good ambient, post-Industrial and noise music compilations. As we have reached the mid-point of 2021, Raffaele Pezzella and company have released what they (rightly) deemed to be the best of the year to this point. From their Bandcamp site: Unexplained Sounds Group 7th Annual Report (Mid […]
From the ashes of local garage rock legends The Bomboras sprang, in something like a phoenix-like fashion, The Lords Of Altamont. This particular album has been reissued by the Italian record label Heavy Psych Sounds, and as considered to be a rarity for garage rock music collectors. It was first pressed by the French record label […]
While doing a bit of research pertaining to my new position at a school in China, I took a bit of time to read a great review over at The Spirit Of Progressive Rock on a box set I’ll have to purchase before I leave the States. Be-Bop Deluxe were one of the premier art-rock […]
I have a feeling that this Israeli psychedelic release is a hoax, and the label, ΠϢΑϪЄ (That Word), seem to admit the same. However, on the music’s merits, it’s a pretty interesting slab of Middle Eastern-influenced psychedelic rock. Eventually, the mystery of this album will be solved, but it’s nice to just enjoy the music […]
I can’t say that I’m able to find any hard information on who Bill Baxter is, but he releases an almost ridiculous amount of music. Amazingly, the quality is consistently high. The tracks are very long, but they’re quite engaging on a pair of headphones. If you want to learn more about this mysterious figure, […]
The ever-brilliant Aloha Got Soul Records is about to release a lost masterpiece of exotica. Arthur Lyman played vibraphone and marimba, and with these tools, nature sounds and some fine musicians backing him up, he managed to conjure up images of life in the South Pacific and Hawaii, which had just become our 50th state […]
Taennya is Tatyana Maslova, an ambient music composer from Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia. The city is home to some of my favorite musicians (including Roman Stolyar and Sergei Belichenko among others), and it looks like I have another musician whose works will be on my playlist for some time to come. The tracks are instrumental, with […]
