Stoner rock is a genre that always surprises me (in a good way, mind you). Dead Gallery, for example, are a heavy stoner/psychedelic blues band out of Austria, and the music they make reminds me of really old rare hard rock albums you would find in collector fairs (think of bands like Black Widow as […]
Month: July 2023
Domenique Dumont – People on Sunday
I came across a “composer” (really, a duo) based in Riga, Latvia called Domenique Dumont. The pair consist of Latvian multi-instrumentalist and producer Arturs Liepins and vocalist, ethnomusicologist Anete Stuce, and they have produced a shimmering, gentle piece of electronic music. From the release’s Bandcamp site: “People On Sunday is an original soundtrack to the […]
Pete Townshend – Save It for Later
Today is a rest day thanks to horrid summer rain in Beijing, so I leave you with The Who’s legendary guitarist and second frontman, Pete Townsend, doing justice to a song originally performed by The (English) Beat.
The Jagaloons – Ruin The Party
The Jagaloons are an instrumental surf/garage-rock band out of Albany, New York. They have the energy of a punk band, the suaveness of those who play exotica, and can work in spaghetti western themes into their music. Brilliant stuff.
Philip Jeck & Chris Watson – Oxmardyke
There’s little I can say to introduce you to the work of Philip Jeck, the turntablist who passed away in March of 2022, nor would I with Chris Watson, the maestro of field recordings and one-time member of Cabaret Voltaire. This release is a project that the gentlemen were working on before Jeck’s untimely passing. […]
Szilárd Mezei Trio – Inkább (Rather)
Serbian-Hungarian multi-instrumentalist and composer Szilárd Mezei is perhaps the most adventurous musician coming out of Hungary these days, and that’s saying a lot, considering the great quality of improvisers who have come from that country (think of the legendary A.E. Bizottság, for example). This is a trio album from 2008 where he plays viola while […]
øjeRum – Vågnende Jeg Ser De Døde
Danish composer øjeRum has recorded for and with some of the best ambient and electronic music labels active today, and this latest release is published by the estimable Room40 Records out of Australia. From the release Bandcamp site: “While recording, radio waves and static electricity interfered with the signal – sometimes subtly, sometimes more pronounced […]
Akira Sakata (坂田明) – a.k.a. Tombo (赤とんぼ)
Akira Sakata may be best known internationally for collaborations with guitarist and composer Jim O’Rourke and bassist Bill Laswell, but in Japan and among jazz aficionados, he’s also known as one of Japan’s best purveyors of spiritual jazz. This album is his latest, and it’s imbued with deepness and humor in equal measure.
Fallen – The Floating World
I’ve been a fan of ROHS! Records out of Italy (HT: Ivo Petrov – thanks!) for some time. They put out consistently good ambient music and organic electronica every month, it seems, and this release from Lorenzo Bracaloni, who goes by the monicker Fallen, is a delight to listen to. It’s not a normal album […]
Yunchi Ensemble – Aleksandrovka, Milyanfan: Dungan Music from Kyrgyzstan
Yet another amazing collection has been released by Antonovka Records, now based in Moldova. This collection features a Chinese Muslim ethnic group called the Dungan who live in the passes between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and surprisingly, they don’t write in Chinese, but in Cyrillic! From Antonovka’s Bandcamp site: “Most of the members of the ensemble […]