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 Continue Reading
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Hideki Umezawa & Andrew Pekler – Two Views Of Amami Oshima
Electroacoustic music inspired by painting and field recordings done in the Ryuku Islands off the coast of the Japanese mainland. This definitely caught my attention. Edições CN out of Antwerp, Belgium released this album in 2020, and it features the works of Japanese composer Hideki Umezawa and the Samarkand, Uzbekistan Continue Reading
Steven Severin – 23 Wounds of Julius Caesar
Today is the Ides of March, once a day of celebration during Rome’s peak (and a deadline for settling debts), now remembered as the anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar. Former Siouxsie & The Banshees bassist Steven Severin makes available his ambient experimental work commemorating the event.
Various Artists – Can You Feel It? Vol.2 Modern Soul, Disco & Boogie 1976-84
Tramp Records out of German is gaining quite a following because of their high-quality compilations. This one is a scorcher if you’re into funk-inflected disco. At least as I understand it, and I’m sure the label can correct any errors I make, the artists were from around the Akron, Ohio Continue Reading
Rafał Mazur & Satoko Fujii, Guillermo Gregorio, Natsuki Tamura, Artur Majewski, Ramon Lopez – The Great Tone has no Sound
Though I cannot say I know much about Fundacja Słuchaj’s background, I can say that their releases tend to be excellent, releasing some of the bigger names in improvisational music. This collection is no different. The personnel on this four-disc set is pretty phenomenal: Rafał Mazur plays bass, Satoko Fujii Continue Reading
Toronja – QuedarseIrMorirEgo
This one-track release was in my queue while I was doing some work, and when it came on, I assumed it was a track of Spanish cold wave from the early 1980s. Toronja, as it turns out, is a Chilean project from this year, and they manage to do a Continue Reading
JOHN 3:16 – Tempus Edax Rerum
Our friends JOHN 3:16 come at us with less an audible listening experience than a sheer sonic pummeling. Take for example Part I, which sounds as though the ghost of Cop/Greed-era Swans was under more control, a more musically apt, and put through the gothic/post-punk music grinder. Part IV goes Continue Reading
Damir Imamović’s Sevdah Takht – Dvojka
It is a shame to think that when the words Bosnia, Herzegovina or Sarajevo are mentioned, most think only of the ugly breakup of the former Yugoslavia. It’s a crime, as the country, and especially her capital, have so much to offer. The people, the food, the incredible culture, so Continue Reading
Toni Dimitrov – Live at SlovoKult literARTour 2020
Composer, radio presenter, label owner, philosopher and old friend Toni Dimitrov has released a new album on the ever-interesting Kalamine Records. Here are some of the details regarding the release, courtesy of their Bandcamp page: Performance at SlovoKult literARTour 2020 in Gevgelija, as a part of Bosh Festival. SlovoKult literARTour Continue Reading
虚极 (Bliss-Illusion) – 森罗万象 (Shinrabansho)
虚极 (Bliss-Illusion) are a band based in China who have caused quite a sensation all across the world of Black Metal. The music is a combination of the aforementioned Black Metal but adding a twist by mixing post-rock, straight-ahead metal, elements of doom, shoegaze and what they term to be Continue Reading