Ajate are a Japanese band who have the Afrobeat sound down. They’re one of the best bands working in this style while seamlessly blending Japanese percussion, funk and soul into their milieu.
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Dirk Fock was a Dutch-American pianist with a very interesting musical history, including working with Richard Strauss. From the Bandcamp site: Dirk Fock (1886-1973) In 1945 the Dutch-born conductor and composer Dirk Fock (also: Foch) became an American citizen. Before that – during the interwar years – he conducted many orchestras all over Europe. Living in New York from 1919-1924 he was first conductor to the New York City Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor to the New York Philharmonic. He also was co-founder and first conductor of the American Orchestral Society. In 1924 Richard Strauss requested him to work as…
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Jerzy Milian is one of the most important jazz musicians to ever come out of Poland. In this rather expensive album, he is collaborating with the BRT Radio (now VRT Radio) Orchestra during the late 1960s. The release showcases Milian’s vibraphone talents, but also shows how multi-faceted his music was, incorporating beat, rock and soundtrack music into his oeuvre.
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Dutch composer and experimental musician Michel Banabila is joined on this one-track release by duduk player Cengiz Arslanpay and violist Oene van Geel for a warm, haunting take on improvisational music.
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Israeli singer Luna Abu Nassar produces a darkly mellow sound, singing in both Hebrew and Arabic, and her lilting voice fits well with such heavy instrumentation. The only problem with this gem is that I don’t understand either Hebrew or Arabic, and from what I understand, the lyrics are quite profound. Still, this is so sonically pleasant that it was worth sharing with you, my friends.
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One of the perks of being a teacher in the Czech Republic has been the fact that I run into students who are both bright and interesting. I have to offer a hat tip to my student Michal Szabó for hipping me to this appreciation of the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC), a format which should have taken off far more than it did.
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Strawberry Switchblade were my first musical crush, and perhaps the most charmingly twee band I heard during the 1980s and there was a lot of competition in those days. This EP from 40 (!!) years ago sounds as fresh as their eponymous debut album, but the sound is far rawer, more post-punk and less synth-sounding. Rose McDowell, of course, went on to work on many worthy solo projects and collaborate with acts like Current 93, and Jill Bryson started writing music in 2013 with a new band called The Shapists, but this album reminds me of just how good Strawberry…
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While reading Bandcamp Daily on my feed, I came across a black metal band out of West Virginia called Nechochwen. The article is enlightening, but it got me interested in exploring their music a bit deeper. This particular album, Algonkian Mythos, is technically a ‘metal’ album, but it is so atmospheric that it could almost count as a neofolk album. The instrumentation is sparse and has a spirit of foreboding. This, for my ears, is metal done right.
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Here is an impressively authentic-sounding ska coming to us from Los Angeles, California (my home town). The Western Standard Time Ska Orchestra boast of combining Jamaica’s greatest contribution to the world and a big-band sound. They pull this combination off flawlessly, and they must have one very impressive live act if their music is anything to go by.
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A pleasant surprise comes from Australian record label The Round Table. Amancio D’Silva was a musician based out of India who mixed traditional music from his homeland with modal jazz, and the results are stunning. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “Also recorded in 1972 although not released at the time was Konkan Dance, an unofficial sequel to Dream Sequence that further explored the unchartered possibilities of an Indian music-jazz fusion. Featuring many of the same personnel, this session also included support from Don Rendell and Alan Branscombe, two giants of the UK jazz scene who add serious credentials to D’Silva’s singular…