• Music

    Štefanec feat. Legrand – Eternity

    May 3, 2021 - By 

    Perhaps a new genre of music has commenced with this release – that of monastery synth, rather than dungeon synth.  Though there is little information available on either Štefanec or Legrand, Kalamine Records provides some notes via their Bandcamp site here: Štefanec and Legrand (Croatia) started their collaboration back in 2017. After two years, they are releasing their first joint album Hope, for the record label HDR Limit. In 2020, the album Pjesme iz bunkera was released for Croatian label Slušaj najglasnije publishing house. May 1st their third joint album Eternity is released on Kalamine records.

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek with Ilaria Boffa – Reifications // Minimal Animal // Reanimations

    April 29, 2021 - By 

    Another Akashic Records masterpiece.  This imprint never fails for me. Jeff Gburek works with Italian composer, researcher and poet Ilaria Boffa to make a hazy, deeply psychedelic piece of musique concrète.  The three works on this album are sonic storytelling, layering voice on voice, and  is perhaps the best way I can describe this release.  Sublime, but I expect no less from the parties involved.

  • Music

    Khara (ХАРА) – Mandragora (Мандрагора)

    April 28, 2021 - By 

    Khara is an Old Slavonic word meaning “the smile of God.”  Truly, God must have been smiling to allow such a weirdly joyful music to come together.  Mandragora brings together a bardic style of rock & roll infused with traditional music from their native Khakassia, whose native inhabitants share a lot of cultural affinities with the Kyrgyz people.  Other influences in this record include Tuvan throat-singing by Alexey Khovalyg, a talkbox expertly handled by band leader Alexander Medvedev, and Alexander Pakhtaev adding such as the morin khuur or horse-head fiddle common in this part of Russia and Central Asia. This…

  • Music

    Frau Blücher and the Drunken Horses – Smile

    April 27, 2021 - By 

    Sounding like a band crossing the energy of American garage surf gods The Lords Of Altamont, French punks Les Thugs with the legendary Motörhead, Frau Blücher combine a poppy, but aggressive garage-punk with hints of metal.  The band name comes from a running gag from the movie Young Frankenstein, and you can read about the history of the name here.  Gags and comedy aside, Frau Blucher make great power pop.

  • Music

    The Lamplight Club – Gallows Tree

    April 26, 2021 - By 

    We have quite a treat tonight.  The Lamplight Club was a six-piece band out of Essex, England who produce a sound that fits comfortably between 60’s garage-psych, gothic folk and touched with a noir country tinge to it. You can stream their songs via Spotify here.  If there are more honorable streaming services to recommend, please do so.

  • Music

    Destruktionsanstalt / Cyanosis – Split

    April 25, 2021 - By 

    For those of you, my friends, who were avid readers of my previous blog, A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music, among the musicians I was proud to champion was Destruktionsanstalt, whose works were featured at this link.  I’m pleased to say that Per Najbjerg Odderskov has a fresh release under that monicker, splitting it with a project which is new to me in Cyanosis.  The first two tracks from from Destruktionsanstalt, and unlike many noise bands, there is a nearly surgical focus on both tracks.  The pummeling noise fest has a vibe utterly indebted to the masters, especially early period-Throbbing Gristle…

  • Music

    Kawabata Makoto and Baisong Wu – Rivers And Mountains

    April 24, 2021 - By 

    Though there are heavy tensions at the moment between the governments of Japan and the People’s Republic of China (sic), this compilation proves that there is peace through psych.  Psychedelic music is the medium both the legendary guitarist of Acid Mothers Temple, Kawabata Makoto and Chinese acid-folk musician Baisong Wu, and their collaboration bore the fruit of dulcet, meandering, gentle washes of lightly LSD-soaked bliss.  This is music for the cloudy day we’re currently enduring in the Greater Los Angeles area, and it fits perfectly with the clouds.  A stellar piece of work.

  • Music

    Ombra – Posidonian Poetry

    April 22, 2021 - By 

    This has to be one of the more elegant releases I’ve had the pleasure of spending my evenings with in a few weeks.  Ombra are a quintent, as I understand it, based in Barcelona, Spain.  This sumptuous release blends everything from jazz, a touch of waltz, Arabic and Balkan music with vocals sung in a myriad of languages including Ladino, spoken today in Israel and parts of the Balkans.  This is true ethno-jazz, fusing together music, scales and traditions together seamlessly.  For further information, consider visiting their promotional page at Tejo Milenario. Personnel: Andranik Muradyan — Klarinet Albert Pintor —…

  • Music

    Brendan Perry – Songs of Disenchantment – Music from the Greek Underground

    April 21, 2021 - By 

    Dead Can Dance singer and multi-instrumentalist Brendan Perry is absolutely enamored with Greek culture, and it’s obvious because a lot of DCD’s work has an affinity towards it.  Perry is especially appreciative of rebetiko, the local variant of the blues in Greek culture.  This album is his paean to his adoration of rebetiko, and is perhaps the first time some of these ballads have been recorded in English.  This disc is a labor of love.

  • Music

    Domkraft – Seeds

    April 20, 2021 - By 

    Today seems to be an important day, at least as far as I can read.  It’s apparently a pot holiday, and as such, though I can’t stand the smell of the stuff, I figure posting a sludgy piece of metal would be appropriate.  The Swedish band Domkraft roar with one of the louder pieces of music I’ve heard in some time.  This is heavy on the level of early Black Sabbath with a fuller guitar sound (reminding me of a very much slowed down Metallica or St. Vitus), more distant vocals, and pretty good guitar work.  I’m not much into…