Month: May 2024

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Jeff Gburek – Raw Radio Dispatch For “RIAFC”

Many honorable composers of note were fascinated by radio static, and as someone who owned a shortwave radio in my youth, I happily admit to having the same fascination with such crunchy sound.  Our friend Jeff Gburek uses radio sounds for his latest release.  From his Bandcamp site:

“This album combines a recent sequence of Shortwave radio capture performances from late April (tracks 1 – 11) and two VLF recordings from the X class solar flare and geomagnetic storm day May 11. Inspired to put this album out quickly after hearing what seemed to be a call for newly recorded radio morsels from Radio is a Foreign Country (RIAFC) on of my favorite music blogs. Even if my interpretation of this open call is perhaps mistaken, there is here, or, here it is, nevertheless, some new material of interest to “strange” radio signal enthusiasts. Enjoy and share.”

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stotrojka – Најубави

Kanal 103 FM is the best independent radio program in the whole of the Balkans, never mind Macedonia.  I’ve had many friends work there and produce amazing shows, so when Gjorgji Janevski let me know that this compilation was out, I rushed to hear it!  From stotrojka’s (the label associated with Kanal 103 FM) Bandcamp site:

“Kanal 103 turns 33.

Our birthday compilation is up. This time, Macedonian music only.
A lots of first times and debuts, new and established names, some crazy pseudonyms, rockers going electronic, bedroom songs, postcards from our music diaspora, and also some rarities and archival gems.

It was a blitzkrieg operation, and now, it’s time to celebrate.

Big love to all the wonderful musicians and souls who took part in it.
They are the most beautiful ones.”

Also, a big thank you to friends who took the time to interview me at the station, especially Toni Dimitrov, who I am indebted to for this honor.

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Cousin Silas & Glove Of Bones – A Brief History Of…

Although I’m happy to say I’m a longtime fan of Cousin Silas’ work, I had no idea what to expect from Glove of Bones, a project I knew nothing about until reading their webpage.  I still know little about the band in terms of bio, but what a great impression they make on an album!  The album sounds like a combination of early ambient and a touch of Popol Vuh’s later, more acoustic moments; not that the album is acoustic, but the vibe is certainly similar.  An elegant album.

 

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Various Artists – The Jewel Garden: Clarities

Absolute respect to the estimable Ernesto Diaz-Infante for telling me about this noble cause.  Foxy Digitalis has a nearly 3o-year track record, first as a xeroxed zine, and the in its current digital incarnatiom, of reviewing what I would rate as the absolute best of non-mainstream music.  This compilation, featuring Ernesto, Lawrence English, Yann Novak, zàke, Stephen Vitiello and a number of names who are new to me, but no less impressive, have contributed tracks for the purpose of helping to keep Foxy Digitalis up and running.  Do consider a donation.  The magazine, as I hope is the case with this blog, is absolutely worth your time!

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Jos Smolders – Textuur 2 [ |||| – – – – ]

Dutch composer Jos Smolders, a friend of this site, has a new release out on Portugal’s Crónica Electronica Records.  This is a sample of the text associated with the album, which you can read in full here.

“Each Textuur project is built up in a similar fashion. There are two groups of sound. First there are the collections which consist of samples of the original material. The other group consists of various permutations. The samples from the collections are torn apart into threads of various widths and subsequently rewoven into a new synthetic fabric. Sound is thus stripped from its original value and meaning and resynthesized into a new texture. Each permutation is the result of a fresh approach. Although they are presented in a certain order on the album, you are free to play them in any order you like and even skip some parts. Like the experience I had with Carl Andre’s poems, in this project listeners can investigate at what point the source (as presented in the collections), and the meaning of that source, disappears into the sonic surface it is woven into. Sometimes it completely blends in and becomes an anonymous part of a big whole. At other times, it retains its original shape and most times simultaneously its original meaning. It’s amazing, as you will hear, how persistent meaning of actual words can be.

Listeners are invited to design their own permutation or permutation of the permutation.”

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Musala nan Eilan – Glossolalia

This is a charmingly freakish album from the French band Musala nan Eilan which has the audacity to combine post-rock with Celtic music, among other genres.  From the band’s Bandcamp site:

“Five musicians who don’t know each other, coming from different musical worlds, finding themselves under the same roof for some weekends. Discovering each other, trying to understand each other, making everyone’s tastes and expectations collide. From these moments shared together a sort of musical glossolalia was born. A language specific to the five musicians, which none of them really understands. A clumsy praise to the clash of influences. An ode to spontaneity and to the beauty of incomprehension.
With members from Daski, Eyelid, Notre Dame de la Colline, Peignoir Tapis and The Celtic Tramps.”

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Dirty Three – Love Changes Everything

After a long, rather painful, but necessary break, we are back!  Thank you kindly for your patience.

We start off with an album I’ve anticipated for awhile now, as I have been immersing myself in the works of Dirty Three’s leader Warren Ellis and his collaborations with Nick Cave as well as Warren’s own solo soundtrack albums.  From the release’s Bandcamp site:

“Dirty Three Ahoy! Appropriately disheveled, the Three emerge from the unending waves of time to pick up their guitar drum and viola/violin/piano/synthesizer/loops/percussion for their first album in a decade. Their playing encompasses ALL – from the original fury of their unlikely power trio to an impressionist cinema later on; mercurial, tumultuous to ambient to adagio, mood and emotion drawn up to dazzling heights from the humble human scale.”