Shuma (Šuma) – Sonca

Sonca is a reissue of an album released in 2016 by Belarusian band Shuma.  From label Ezhevika’s Bandcamp site: “Re-issue of Shuma’s most popular album Sonca, originally released back in 2016. It was aknowledged by Belarusian music critics as The best album of the year, The best electronic album and Continue Reading

Yggdrasil & Vera Kondratieva — Timint Areh

Yggdrasil are a Faroese project led by multi-instrumentalist Kristian Blak (whom I had the pleasure, many years ago, of meeting in Varna, Bulgaria) and a host of local musicians along with singer Vera Kondratieva from Siberia.  You would expect to hear a melding of Scandinavian and traditional Siberian music on Continue Reading

Mimi Roman – First Of The Brooklyn Cowgirls

Unless one thinks of the ever-amusing singer Kinky Freidman, I can’t say I’m terribly familiar with Brooklyn Jewish people being heavily involved in country music.  Enter charming Brooklynite Mimi Roman, whose voice was among the early pioneers of rockabilly.  It’s a large collection at 35 tracks, but it’s worth every Continue Reading

Abdel Halim Hafez – Mawood

Though it is always with great sadness that modern record labels who release spectacular vinyl editions don’t offer such releases on digital formats for sale, it’s a forgivable sin, as our dear friends at WeWantSounds continue to impress with their choices of artists they so lovingly reissue. Abdel Halim Hafez Continue Reading

Sula Bassana – Nostalgia

Though he have nearly 20 years under his belt with this band, I have to admit that I never heard David Schmidt’s music until this evening.  Sula Bassana’s latest release, Nostalgia, is a gloriously slow wade into space rock.  It’s heavy, sludgy, and exactly the sort of thing that I Continue Reading

Sound and Voice – That Which is Unknown

This has to be one of my favorite psychedelic folk releases since the heyday of bands like Charalambides.  Merit Medrano is an Austin-based guitarist and leader of Sound and Voice, which is, apparently, his latest musical project, implying that he’s been a busy soul for some time now.  The music Continue Reading

Various Artists – Ten Songs from Houshang Ebtehaj

Iranian poet and balladeer Hushang Ebtehaj passed away on August 10, 2022, but left an incredibly rich body of work.  This compilation, released by Tehran-based record label Khosousi, brings together Ebtehaj’s best interpreters, such as Mohammad Reza Sharjarian and his son Homayoun,as well as Alireza Eftekhari, Hossein Ghavami, Mohammad Motamedi Continue Reading