• Music

    Amid The Ruins 1453 – Dyerwave Trilogy (All Dyerwave Tracks)

    September 27, 2021 - By 

    Dyerwave is a stand-alone genre sitting inside of synth-wave, which has produced a number of appealing artists who bring 1980s visual imagery and marry it to dystopian visions of the future.  The artist responsible for this release, Amid The Ruins 1453 is a Serbian composer and fellow Orthodox Christian who has expressed admiration for philosopher, Christian apologist, conspiracy theorist and radio talkshow host Jay Dyer. The music is appropriately bleak, and would work well for fans of Vangelis (during the period he was composing the score for Blade Runner) and a more warped disco of Giorgio Moroder.  One could also…

  • Music

    JOHN 3:16 – Yoldath Aloho

    September 26, 2021 - By 

    I have to catch up and see what has been going on with our friends at Alrealon Music.  This release is two tracks of a horrifying soundscape that conjures up images of characters like Pinhead from the classic horror movie Hellraiser.  Though the movie had no effect on me (I grew up watching far better horror movies from Spain and Italy), the music JOHN 3:16 (perhaps my favorite, and certainly the most hopeful, verse in the Bible) conjures up left me feeling slightly uneasy.  Disturbingly enjoyable.

  • Music - Music Articles - Music Promo

    [Press] Meticulous Midgets – Music You Need To Hear

    September 25, 2021 - By 

    Today we were given the honor of being featured by the independent music radio, magazine and record label Meticulous Midgets, who were also kind enough to reference my old blog, A Miscellany of Tasteful Music, in the past.  Meticulous Midgets not only have a fine magazine, but publish some of the best new indie music coming out of Russia these days.

  • Music

    The Hauchzart Ensemble – Hauchzart Momentum Vol. I

    September 24, 2021 - By 

    What a remarkable work this is.  The Hauchzart Ensemble includes our dear colleague Wilfried Hanrath, who plays guitar, bass, drums, beats, synth and electronics on this album, along with Matt Getchell, who also provides electronics, synthesizer and beats. This album takes quite a journey, starting off with a track that, if you can believe it, reminded me of the better aspects of bands like Michael Cretu’s seminal electro-pop band Enigma.  It sounded like a very accessible piece of electronic pop, which was a good start, but then the musicians started to really surprise me with elements of bands like Tuxedomoon…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Canary Records: Let’s Add Raki to Wine: Women in Istanbul ca. 1931​-​46

    September 23, 2021 - By 

    Canary Records are the kings of shellac-era reissues, and this is one of their most fabulous.  It’s a collection of female singers who were active in Turkey’s cultural capital, and Ian Nagoski, musicologist and venerable head of the company, has made these recordings sound as clear as possible, despite being around 90 years old.  Yet another stunning peek into the past.

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    The Striking Chamber – Tomás Luis de Victoria: Collected Works

    September 22, 2021 - By 

    Although there are some phenomenal classical musicians represented on Bandcamp, I didn’t expect to hear any work by the Counter-Reformation-era priest and composer Tomás Luis de Victoria.  This cassette tape, released by The Striking Chamber, came as a pleasant surprise.  It’s only 13 minutes long, and it’s released here as one solitary, slightly over-compressed track, but the organ sounds clear, and I want to encourage more performers of Renaissance music to come out and share their wares.

  • Music

    Cabaret Voltaire – Shadow of Fear

    September 21, 2021 - By 

    Today is a terrible day, as we’re reeling over the loss of Cabaret Voltaire multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Richard H. Kirk.  He was 65 years old. The Cabs were one of the most influential bands of their era, whose work would have serve as inspiration to genres such as Industrial, post-punk, EBM, avant-funk, electro, acid house and techno. The album we share today was the first one by Cabaret Voltaire, with Richard doing the album solo, in 26 years.  It’s as bleak as the old material, though better recorded, and it sounds like a culmination of those early, gritty experimental recordings, that funky drum machine…

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    F.P. & The Doubling Riders – Doublings & Silences Vol. I

    September 20, 2021 - By 

    The Doubling Riders were one of those bands that came out of 1980s Italy who were criminally neglected. It’s great to see this published digitally.  This reissue came out today, and it was considered a big score in my collection when I had the vinyl version.  From the Bandcamp site: The Doubling Riders were born in the middle of the ’80s from the ashes of the great experimental / minimal wave project A.T.R.O.X. around the trio of Francesco Paladino, Pier Luigi Andreoni, and Riccardo Sinigaglia (Professor of Electronic composition at Milan’s Conservatory). Starting from an electronic music approach and working…

  • Music

    Maryam Sirvan – Feast On My Body

    September 19, 2021 - By 

    We have to wait eight more days to hear the complete work, but given the two tracks Maryam Sirvan has made available, this will be worth the wait.  There were two artists which came to mind while listening to the tracks over and over – Tim Buckley at his most experimental, and ‘Dogs Blood Rising‘-era Current 93.  This should be seen as an electroacoustic album, and would compare very favorably to those artists like Bernard Parmegiani who could depict a hellish landscape in what some wrongly think is an academic medium.  This album is truly that weird, and it sounds…

  • Music

    Gideon Nxumalo – Gideon Plays

    September 18, 2021 - By 

    Gideon Plays is apparently seen as a holy grail of South African jazz collectors.  Judging by the performance of pianist and maribist Gideon Nxumalo, this should be seen for what it is – a spiritual jazz masterpiece.  The album swings and grinds through eight tracks of bopping good music. Matsuli Music continues to reissue some astoundingly good music.