Ezra Sturm & Ernesto Diaz-Infante – Live at Day of Noise

This is the second time I get to present the father-son due of Ezra Sturm and the consistently wonderful Ernesto Diaz-Infante.  In this live improvisation, I get to hear more of a space rock sound.  There is a sci-fi element to the music, which makes the performance that much more Continue Reading

Slermpy Fishkins – I WANT TO PRODUCE FOR MY FAVORITE RAPPERS BEFORE THEY DIE

This is a weird one, admittedly, but it has enough charm for me to share it.  Slermpy Fishkins hail from Riverside, California, not terribly far from where I lived in California before moving to China.  They produce a grubby, lo-fi hip-hop laced with some very strange samples and cut-ups.  Interesting Continue Reading

Maâlem Mokhtar Gania & Bill Laswell – Tagnawwit: Holy Black Gnawa Trance

Maâlem Mokhtar Gania & Bill Laswell collaborate on bringing Gnawa music up-to-date in the 21st Century.  There have been a good number of Gnawa-related recordings which have come out over the past few decades, but having Laswell’s thundering bass supporting Gania’s instrumentation makes for quite a pairing.  

Capricorni Pneumatici – Witchcraft

I don’t ever recall using the word haunting to describe the sound of a record on this blog, but Witchcraft by Capricorni Pneumatici deserves that adjective.  There is a horrific, claustrophobic vibe to the album, as though it were made for a movie so frightening that it would give viewers Continue Reading

Loren Connors & David Grubbs – Evening Air

What an absolutely sublime record performed by two legends, released on one of the best labels in operation today.  From Room40’s Bandcamp site: “Evening Air is the result Loren Connors and David Grubbs’s first trip to the recording studio in the two decades since their first duo album, Arborvitae (Häpna). Continue Reading

Bèlènou – Emosyon Tambou​-​a

Today’s release is quite a stunning little gem out of Martinique that mixes both a creole jazz element with a sound reminiscent of Afrobeat in some way.  From the band’s Bandcamp site: “In the early eighties, Edmond Mondésir, professor of philosophy and Léon Bertide, trade unionist, founded the Bèlènou group. Continue Reading