Month: March 2024

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Úzgin Űver – Patak

Our dear friends at the Lollipoppe Shoppe released a stunning slice of psychedelic folk prog that came out in 2018 and holds up beautifully six years later.  From the label’s Bandcamp site:

“In the music of Úzgin Űver traditional folk is stretched far beyond the average world music. Of course, this calm, psychedelic, rich and scale-based instrumental process music draws from a mix of genres and methods, and has an ancient layer as well as some unique velvety emotional and electric charge. The disregard for any current trends gives the music a timeless attraction, and yet takes you on a precise kind of psycho-geographical journey.“

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Thierry Zaboitzeff – Le Passage

Thierry Zaboitzeff was for many years a member of the seminal avant-progressive/RIO group Art Zoyd, and since 1997, he has been involved in numerous solo projects and collaborations.  This is one of the bleakest records I’ve heard in recent memory, and the liner notes on the Bandcamp site sum up the mood perfectly:

“Our world is in the midst of turmoil. Human madness forces Earth to defend itself with violent aftershocks, like so many distress signals. Will wisdom finally become the watchword of the times to come, clearing the path to a possible future? This is the undoubtful aim of a masterful, concise record, stretching a mysterious thread between a worried past, here recalled by Jean-Pierre Soarez’s trumpet and its ‘Zoydian’ echoes, a destructive present where forests become deserts, and an uncertain future that we urgently need to be shaped. As an architect of a unique landscape of light and shadow – here is a cosmogony haunted by a underlying beat and unknown chants – where shouts and murmurs merge, melting into the heart of melodies as ancient as they are contemporary, Thierry Zaboitzeff comes to us as a human being aware of the challenges ahead. His radical, fiercely beautiful visions are ours.
(Denis Desassis)”

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UbuWeb 1996-2024

Though I cannot remember anything new being uploaded to the server for a long time, the magnificent UbuWeb has decided to officially close its doors.  Thankfully, the website will stay up and you will have access to all these incredible artifacts in perpetuity.

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Audion 60

The legendary Audion Magazine has a new (well, new to Bandcamp) edition out, and included with it is about 1 1/2 gigabytes of tracks from albums reviewed within.  They were my first doorway to progressive rock, and I am forever indebted to them.

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Jazz Q – Živí se Diví: Live in Bratislava 1975

A new label out of Poland called GAD Records has been documenting seminal jazz and jazz-rock albums out of Poland, but now they’re venturing into the former Czechoslovakia with this release.  Jazz Q were a progressive rock band who managed to incorporate blues rock and even a bit of free jazz into their oeuvre.  This album documents them at their peak of their live powers in a 1975 concert held in Bratislavia, now Slovakia’s capital.

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BlindººCoyote – Mycelium Sonora Outtakes

From my friend, the rather legendary Drem Bruinsma‘s project, BlindººCoyote manages to expertly weld together wild electronic music with a relaxed back beat, making the music adventurous but, ultimately, pleasant to listen to.  From BlindººCoyote’s Bandcamp site:

“This 33-piece album consists of a deep reflection on a period, albeit a difficult one, from Covid and Confinement to hospitals and surgery, from treatment and opiates, from chronic pain to hope and fear, from social isolation to remaining in touch with the outside world by being online. With this album ends a chapter, a period with a very demanding character. I hope to be coming back with a different energy and vibe, living and working under different circumstances, and with a different inspirational tuning. Most pieces are sparsely arranged, with percussive freewheeling lines as a foundation for either drone-like pads or minimal melodically texture. Maybe it suits your current mood, and if not, save it for a rainy weekend. You can purchase loose tracks as well as the entire album. No sales tricks here. Or just stream and listen, I appreciate your interest and support all the same. Thanks, kind folks!”