Month: June 2022

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Julee Cruise (RIP) – Falling

Sad news to report today.  Julee Cruise, who served as the muse for the David Lynch-directed TV series (and movie) Twin Peaks, and who had a massive hit with the song Falling, which was composed by Angelo Badalamenti, has passed away at the age of 65.  She had been suffering from lupus since at least 2018, when she announced her condition.  I had the pleasure of saying a few words to her during my earlier Facebook days, and she struck me as being a kind, unpretentious person.  Rest in peace.

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Air Volta – Volta Jazz

The 1200 Line is an expert reissue label bringing some amazing African music to the masses with meticulously recreated cover art and remastering.  This release is from Upper Volta, and it features cumbia rhythms, rhumba, Cuban son and yé-yé blended into a joyful mix.

From the Bandcamp site:

From the landlocked tropical savanna of Upper Volta, an ever-evolving cast of musicians brought the world’s rhythms to the streets of their native Bobo-Dioulasso. Combining Congolese rhumba, American R&B, French yé-yé, Cuban son, and regional Senufo and Mandingo traditions, Orchestre Volta Jazz was at the epicenter of the West African musical explosion of the ’60s and ’70s. Air Volta compiles nine original songs originally issued on the Disques France-Afrique and Sonafric labels, a peerless primer of a group that turned the brutality of colonialism into something beautiful and enduring.

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Lalalar – Bi Cinnete Bakar

Quite a tasty album here.  Lalalar are not some common Anatolian Rock ripoff.  Rather, they do use the venerable genre as a reference point, but you can hear influences such as post-punk and darkwave seep into the stew.

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Ellipsis Quintet – Avoid The Void

This is something of a revelation for me!  The music produced by the Ellipsis Quintet, led by trumpeter Vasilis Nalbantis, mixes traditional Balkan, Greek and Levantine melodies inside a framework that would appeal to fans of the avant-progressive and Rock-In-Opposition genres.  Theirs is a prog-world-jazz stew that’s one of the freshest things I’ve heard come out of Austria in a long time (barring electronic music, of course).

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The Mossad – Broken Phone

The Mossad have been featured here before, but this new two-track single blends sounds that would feel familiar to fans of both Fad Gadget and the On-U Sound catalog stripped down to it’s Industrial undergarments.

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Pyroclastic – Welcome To The Abusement Park

Sometimes it’s an absolute pleasure to take a stroll down memory lane.  My friend Ryant Reeleyes, who worked with Los Angeles legends Jugend Staat many years ago, never gave up the aggro-Industrial-techno bug, and has kept the spirit of bands like Skinny Puppy and Front 242 alive.

The album is harsh, ugly at times, cavernous and it makes for a brutal listening experience.