There seems to be an explosion of indie bands popping up around Iran, and this one seems to be one of the most interesting of the lot. Crows In The Rain hail from Tehran and produce a very melancholic form of post-rock mixed with neo-classical influences. Solid material.
May you, the reader, have a wonderful Fathers Day. We’ll be reviewing again tomorrow. For now, enjoy Leon Thomas grooving.
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…
I can’t imagine there being traditional music more pleasant to the ear than that of Georgian polyphony. Whether it is in an ecclesiastical setting or around the dinner table, the Georgians are incredible singers, and this particular band, Kimilia, do a phenomenal job interpreting songs that go as far back as to the country’s medieval period. Stunning!
An’archives, a French experimental music record label, has released しりえないものとずっと (Forever With The Incomprehensible) by legendary drummer and percussionist Ikuro Takahashi. Takahashi has worked with the likes of Keiji Haino’s power-trio Fushitsusha, Seishokki, High Rise, Ché-Shizu, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Kousokuya, LSD March and Nagisa Ni Te. This kind of pedigree is unmatched in the Japanese improvisational music scene. The album is volcanic in its power, full of thundering percussion which would equal, and in some parts surpass, many percussion based free-jazz albums.
No review today because we had to send my brother packing to his new home, so in honor of his new abode, I present you with the song perhaps best associated with the city, albeit in a slightly surreal form, courtesy of the Dead Kennedys.
China has 55 legally recognized minorities, each contributing to the mosaic of the country. This particular project, Yerboli, comes from the Kazakh community, but it is not ethnic music per sé. This is folk music, but with a slightly more mystical element to it. Shenzhen-based Old Heaven Books released this album, and they boast quite a healthy catalog of this kind of music. They are worth exploring.
This release is a double introduction of sorts for me; first, for the chance to finally delve into a full recording of the work of Biliana Voutchkova, an interdisciplinary artist, violinist, performer, composer, improviser and curator from one of the countries I most enjoy visiting, Bulgaria (though she is based in Berlin these days). Second, it is nice to see that Café OTO in London have opened a record label called Takuroku. Considering that the venerable café has hosted so many musicians of exquisite quality throughout the years, it seems fitting that they would give a platform to someone as…
Cuba has a long, storied history of sharing a strong bond with many countries in Africa. From the horrifying slave trade to the Cuban Communist “revolution,” culture and music have flowed back and forth between the island nation and most of the richly cultured continent. This release from the now-legendary Ostinato Records documents one of my favorite bands, the Senegalese powerhouse Star Band de Dakar. The music is a wonderful mix of their mbalax, one of the many native styles of Senegal, with rhumba and other styles to make an Afro-Cuban cocktail. This is a joyful release – fun, danceable…
I’ve had the pleasure of reading about Farren Fages‘ work for at least 20 years now, but I never had a chance to fully explore his work. I’m happy to say that I regret not diving into his catalogue earlier. It’s impressive, to say the least. This particular album, Llum Moll, is a 41-minute audio sculpture which was originally released in 2012. According to his notes on the Bandcamp page hosting this release, “The composition was made in two parts. The first was to record and then select fragments with different lengths, pitches and textures. The second was to re-adjust…