• Music

    Dragon & Jettenbach – Tales from the Algorithm

    February 2, 2022 - By 

    This is so pleasantly dark and focused that I don’t think calling it ambient would do it justice.  Dragon & Jettenbach are a project out of the United Kingdom who produce a sound that, while bleak, is also musically organized, reminding me of some of the modern Berlin School electronic artists of the 1980s, mixed with a vibe one would have heard from post-Industrial music on cassette during the same time period.  As this is the period where I was reared on great music, it brings a sense of nostalgia to me, and I feel that, for those between 40…

  • Music

    Chris Conway – When Pianos Dream

    February 1, 2022 - By 

    Though his bio on Bandcamp calls him a superlative jazz pianist, I would have to add that Chris Conway handles modern classical music with as much aplomb.  He has also worked with some stellar musicians, including Guy Barker, Andy Sheppard, Stan Sulzman, Martin Speake and the legendary Finnish sax player Sakari Kukko (leader of Piirpauke) amongst others. This album, released today, I believe, is a collection of improvisations and ambient electronic music he gathered while working with the United Isolation Ensemble, of which he is a member.  How ECM Records hasn’t signed such a prodigious talent is beyond me, but…

  • Music

    Mong Tong 夢東 – Mystery 秘神

    January 31, 2022 - By 

    We had the pleasure of reviewing Mong Tong last year.  They have produced yet another surreal post-progressive electronic gem.  On this album, there are elements of post-rock, modified traditional Taiwanese music, but also the eerie grooves which would do bands like Goblin proud, as the creepiness is quite subtle.  Read their Bandcamp site for a more in-depth account of this latest album.

  • Music

    ‘t Geruis – Slow Dance on Moss Beds

    January 30, 2022 - By 

    Our dear friends at Lost Tribe Sound start the year with two powerful releases, though I’ll concentrate on one today (with the other in the next week or so).  This one is by Belgian composer ‘t Geruis (a rather unusual name, which, in Dutch, means “The Noise” or “The Murmur“).  The album, at least the four rather remarkable tracks available to hear, have a grainy, organic quality to the loops which build and collapse in a still-life manner.  The music has more in common with graphic art or experimental film than it does with cold, staid experimental music.  Quite an…

  • Music - Uncategorized

    Various Artists – Mainstream Funk: Funk, Soul, Spiritual Jazz 1971-1975

    January 28, 2022 - By 

    From the label’s Bandcamp site: Wewantsounds continues its collaboration with Bob Shad’s formidable label Mainstream Records, to present a selection of 12 turntable-friendly tracks recorded between 1971 and 1975 and showcasing the label’s superb blend of Spiritual Jazz, Funk and Soul by the likes of Buddy Terry, Sarah Vaughan, LaMont Johnson and Johnny Coles. Most of the tracks are released on vinyl for the first time since their original release in the early 70s. What makes this comp so incredibly tasty is the heavy spiritual jazz vibe crossing wires with Melodie’s that easily evoke singers like Marvin Gaye’s most crucial…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Tape Rolling! with Bunny Lee and Friends

    January 27, 2022 - By 

    England’s Pressure Sounds continue to release mind-blowingly good reggae compilations.  This one features the production work of Bunny Lee pairing up with such luminaries as Eric Donaldson (whose raw version of Cherry Oh Baby adds grit to the warmly produced original. From the Bandcamp release website: “In 1971, despite his run of hits, Bunny Lee was still having to support himself with freelance producing at Dynamic Sounds, but by 1974 he was fully independent and poised to dominate Jamaican music in the mid 70’s. The tracks on this compilation capture that moment of transition, when the smaller ghetto producers were…

  • Music

    Sunset Wings and Brodsky – Songs of Love, Madness and Sleep

    January 25, 2022 - By 

    From Kaliningrad, Russia (formerly my material ancestral Linn homeland of Koenigsberg, East Prussia) hail one of the most impressive psychedelic folk records I’ve heard in some time.  From the cacophony of the violin starting the album, it morphs into a Beatlesque horn arrangement.  Those few seconds set the tone for what I figured would be a very heavy listening experience. Sunset Wings, led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Aleks Popov team on this album with fellow singer Evgeniy Brodsky.  What makes the album crucial listening, along with the impressive instrumental array you will see below, is the adaptations by poets and…

  • Music

    BlindººCoyote – Along The Cracklefield Wash

    January 24, 2022 - By 

    Our dear friend Drem Bruinsma, the BlindººCoyote in question, provides a 20-minute track of ambient loops, eerie rhythms and and enchanting soundscapes.  From his Bandcamp site: “Inspired by personal hikes into various shadowless desert arroyos, to meet with silence, coyotes, antelope, dust and rocks, leveling with tumbleweeds and sagebrushes from a different perspective, walking on those eroded, shallow dry riverbeds, meandering arid nature’s hidden trails when you lose track of time and where you encounter hiding parts of your identity. This track simulates the immersive, enveloping experience of slow- changing minimal landscapes observed from a ground-level perspective, the shallow dry…

  • Music

    Jan 疆 Hasker – Pastoral Song – 牧歌

    January 23, 2022 - By 

    Jan 疆 Hasker is a folk musician out of Xinjiang, China, but this is a bit of a twist, as he uses Altaic and other folk melodies for his musical base rather than Uyghur.  From his Bandcamp website: “Jan made this album collecting, sorting and adapting musical elements from China Xinjiang’s Altai nomadic horse people’s culture. Pastoral song’s lyrics are all about the attachment and nostalgia for this homeland and its folk culture. Jan sings in several Altai languages including Kazakh, Tuva (Russian Altai), Kirgiz and Oirat (Mongolian tribe). These nomadic folk songs and melodies travelled through lands and time.…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Artoffact Records 2021 Sampler

    January 22, 2022 - By 

    2021 was a very solid year for electro-industrial record label Artoffact Records out of Canada.  Some of the more incredible cuts from this compilation come from The Hafler Trio & Reptilicus, Cevin Key (from Skinny Puppy), Kælan Mikla with Alcest and of course, Canada’s own Front Line Assembly-related project, Noise Unit.  A really good introduction to a pivotal record company.