• Music

    Chapovski – Fogged, Encased

    Bleak and morose, this is the debut recording (as far as I know) of Alexander Chapovski, related to the Čapovski clan of musicians from North Macedonia.  There’s a thread of Tindersticks, Leonard Cohen and Swans in this piece, perhaps a neofolk influence as well.  I look forward to hear his style develop.

  • Music

    Willebrant & Williamson – Night Daze

    I was introduced to a project new to me coming from Australia.  From Karl Willebrant’s Bandcamp site: “Night Daze blends immersive textures and emotive expanses that invites the listener to conceive a visual experience through soundscapes and drones utilizing bass, trumpet, field recordings, and improvised performance. The album evokes themes of time and place moving in congruent motion. ‘Night Daze’ Full performance interpretation with special guests Peggy Lee (cello) and Dylan van der Schyff (drums) viewable here – www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQgYvLem3lY “Each track feels like a seemingly large area in which the sounds of the bass and trumpet echo around luxuriously. I…

  • Music

    Shūko No Omit – 秘密の回顧録 (Secret Memoir)

    Ramble Records out of Australia have published a unique album here – one that should be seen as a modern psychedelic rock masterpiece.  From their Bandcamp site: “Shūko No Omit, the name of the band, featuring Yonju Miyaoka on guitar and Vocals, his older brother Taiju Sugimori on bass and chorus,and his cousin Yuya Yamazaki on drums and chorus, is a mix of Japanese and english. Yonju told me he came across the word omit while reading an old English dictionary. Shuko (終古) is old Japanese. A word no longer used. One lost to time. The characters 終 + 古mean…

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek and A.J. Kaufmann – Jazzisthmus

    Had I not known the previous (impressive) works of both Jeff Gburek and A.J. Kaufmann, I would have happily believed that this was a lost psychedelic music gem long forgotten about in a basement studio recorded during Soviet times.  While the tones are dulcet, you never really get a chance to get into a groove.  The music shapes and shifts, making you ever aware of its presence and demanding that you pay attention (particularly hard to do as I’m grading papers at the moment).  The introduction to the album at Ramble Records’ Bandcamp site is one of the most elegant…

  • Music

    Louis Tillett – Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell

    One of Australia’s most important, if overlooked, musicians, Louis Tillett, passed away on August 6.  He started off as a musician who experimented with Industrial music in his first band, Wet Taxis, but ended up developing a rough, bluesy style that could really only be compared, vocally, to fellow Australian Nick Cave.  When I was 23, I had started working at a local record shop after traveling a bit called Aron’s Records, and this album, already 6 years old at the time, came onto my desk, as we had first dibs on used albums and CDs.  It blew my mind,…

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek – Vigilance Suite I & II

    Fellow giromondo Jeff Gburek offers another incredibly profound album, balancing perfectly his own signature experimental sound touched with folk and blues, with the spirits of Robbie Basho and John Fahey once again coming along for the ride. For the influence behind this album, please consider taking the time to read his liner notes at the release page here.

  • Music

    Nasim Khushnawaz – Songs From The Pearl of Khorasan

    Worlds Within Worlds in an Australian record label releasing music from Iran, Afghanistan and India.  This album features rubab (or rebab) player Nasim Khushnawaz.  From the label’s Bandcamp site: “As a master of the Afghan rubab, Nasim Kushnawaz hails from one of the most important musical lineages in Afghanistan. The son of Herati rubab maestro Ustad Rahim Khuhsnawaz, Nasim resides in exile in Iran, wherein he continues a four-generation tradition of performing exemplary Afghan, Khorasani and Herati playing techniques. Listeners will easily notice his keen ear for tempo and feeling as he sets up unexpected twists and turns throughout his…