• Music

    Max Brody – MAXBRODYWORLD TV 2006​-​2007: THE SOUNDTRACK

    June 28, 2021 - By 

    If you haven’t heard the name Max Brody before, you probably know a lot of the bands he’s worked with: Ministry, the Test Apes, the Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, the Big Boys, Lubricated Goat and so many others.  He was a powerhouse drummer in the Austin Industrial music scene, but has since moved to the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, where he has been working on projects such as a rock documentary/travel blog which is, sadly, no more. Of particular interest is the project Fried Smiling which includes my old friend, business partner and a fine video director,…

  • Music

    Jauno Jāņu Orķestris – Div’ Svecītes

    June 27, 2021 - By 

    The Jauno Jāņu Orķestris (The New Midsummer Orchestra) are a folk music band hailing from Latvia, an area we don’t get to cover terribly much here on this blog, which is a shame.  This is a one-track single of very well-done traditional music with, of course, updated production values and a very full sound.  The vocals are cheery and dramatic, and as far as I can translate the lyrics (shown on the band’s Bandcamp page), it’s hard to pin down if they are referring to early Christian or pagan times.  It’s a fascinating song regardless.

  • Music - Music Articles

    Salah Ragab and The Cairo Jazz Band – Egyptian Jazz

    June 25, 2021 - By 

    How do such wonderful musicians get lost in the mists of time?  It boggles the mind, though I must say I’m happy to be living in an age of crate-divers and those who have the same passion of discovering music as I do. This particular artist, Salah Ragab, a military man who also was a swinging jazz maestro, is well-known to Sun Ra aficionados, but only to a few outside this select group.  It’s a shame, as this particular album gathers songs which mix together big band music, cha-cha-chá, Raqş sharqī, and melodramatic music which would fit well in an…

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    Jeff Gburek – Corduroy Cascade

    June 24, 2021 - By 

    Jeff Gburek · Corduroy Cascade Normally, I’m more than happy to present works from Jeff Gburek and those associated with his music because the quality is high as it comes to experimental or other such avant-garde music. This, however, is a departure from what I’m used to hearing from him, and to say it’s a stunning one is putting it mildly. The track weighs in at under 8 minutes, but is more a lush, truly acid-folk-inspired work. There are elements of projects like the American psychedelic folk band Changes, Coptic/esoteric period Current 93 (without the rambling), and a great lo-fi…

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    Culto al Qondor – Tannhauser Tor

    June 23, 2021 - By 

    Repsychled Records is based in Peru, and has done great work documenting their psychedelic rock scene.  This particular one is a weird treasure from 2019.  Culto al Qondor bring the freakiest of Krautrock to South America with two 14-minute tracks of pure drone-laced music inspired by bands like Ash Ra Tempel or Amon Düül II.  Really good music.

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    László Hortobágyi – The Amygdala Expedition

    June 22, 2021 - By 

    This is quite a momentous occasion for me, as áMARXE Records out of Galicia, Spain, release an album by Hungarian composer László Hortobágyi which has been shelved since 1989.  The album was programmed specifically for vinyl, and áMARXE are releasing a small edition of 250 copies, no doubt of high quality. The story with László Hortobágyi is quite an interesting one, as I used to work many years ago as an A&R manager for Tone Casualties, a record label run by the animator Gábor Csupó, he of Klasky-Csupo, who released such cartoons as The Rugrats and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, among…

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    RHaD – Metamusic

    June 19, 2021 - By 

    It’s one thing when you’re the impresario of a record label who consistently delivers astoundingly good quality.  It’s quite something else when you make music yourself that is as solid as any of the releases you so lovingly curate. RHaD (Research for Historical Audio Documents) is a side project of Raffaele Pezzella (better known as Sonologyst), and head of so many incredible boutique record labels.  This collection of tracks pulls together influences like radio transmissions, telephonic conversations, hi-fi test signals, old and forgotten documentaries, unknown field recordists, and threads these bits together into wonderfully coherent compositions made for late-night black-and-white…