Because this isn’t a Bandcamp release, and because I should be exploring more sites so that readers can enjoy an ever-widening array of music, I am happy to offer for your ears a track by Berlin-based composer (and an alum from the Musician’s Institute in my home town of Los…
Our beloved comrade in World Music, Christian Pliefke, releases another gem on his label CPL Music. This new release by the band ShooDja-ChoDja from comes from the region of Udmurtia, populated by people of Finno-Ugric stock, and having traditions far different from their fellow Russian citizens. The music is played on…
Relative Pitch Records is making a great case for becoming a favorite label of mine. There are so many great releases covering the best of improvisational and free music that I’ll probably go broke trying to purchase all of them. It’s fitting to make my first review that of avant-harpist…
Compost Records have released two exquisite CDs covering the best of downtempo electronica. Familiar names include A Forest Mighty Black (featuring Rainer Trüby) , Peter Kruder (of Kruder & Dorfmeister), Funkstörung and Minus 8. These comps cover a lot of ground and show the depth and diversity of the label.
This was a happy surprise. Manne Skafvenstedt is a Swedish pianist, composer and producer who works in the fields of jazz, ambient, electronics and sound design. His latest album, Archway, is a calming experience. There is a sort of sweetness to this music, where the listener actually feels good enjoying…
Combining surf rock, garage rock, touches of psych and having a generally lo-fi vibe to it, Mexico City’s Secret Agent combine a couple of cool instrumentals with two sung tracks, including the title track, Mata Hari, featuring Vince Montes Rivera, which you can listen to below:
Neon Noodle mixes lo-fi noise with what sounds like horror soundtracks, touches of vaporwave and a bass line that reminds me of something one could hear out of an early 80s garage post-punk or experimental cassette demo. It’s crunchy, but interesting. I’d like to see how Neon Noodle develop as…
Bassist Daniel Casimir is a young lion of London’s jazz scene. This is a one-off composition in preparation for a full album coming out later this year on Jazz re:freshed, and it features some of the best instrumentalists active today. Observe the names on this track. Each is leaving a…
This has to be one of the most charmingly weird, frankly unclassifiable discs I’ve heard in a while. Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs manage to pull together a collection that should sound like a mess, yet it’s a rather enjoyable one. The music goes from lo-fi disco tracks (which for…
Clara Engel is based in Toronto, Canada. Her work has been described as “Folk-Noir” or “minimalist holy blues,” and who am I to disagree? This takes the best elements of neofolk, stripped-down to just voice, cigar box guitar, electric guitar, melodica and harmonica, and it sounds like a rare self-pressed…