We’re going to have to wait until June 27th before we can actually hear a sample from this 7-inch single by the absolutely legendary actor/”singer”/raconteur and real-life astronaut William Shatner, but it’s pretty exciting to know he’s working with a prog-rock luminary like Steve Hillage covering Elton John’s Rocket Man and the metal god Ritchie Blackmore covering David Bowie’s Space Oddity as a B-side Click here to read more about this release.
I think this may be the first Gabonese album I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing. Orchestre Massako are a band who mixes Afro-Funk with cumbia beats, blending the best of Africa and Latin America together in a joyous mix.
It’s very rare for me to review a folk album that doesn’t involve an element of rock in it, but this is something special. Allegra Krieger is a singer-songwriter based out of New York, and the songs on her album especially Precious Thing, are some of the most gentle ballads I’ve heard in a long while. Her voice is fragile, almost to the point of breaking, but she sings so calmly that these tunes almost qualify as lullabies. This was a surprisingly relaxing, warm album. Well done.
“A massive, oppressively brutal wall of sound.” That was the first impression that popped into my head after listening to Arvo Zylo’s project, Blood Rhythm’s latest release, New Illusions. Think of ritualistic noise with some sense of structure, like Z’ev meeting Merzbow’s more restrained and focused works. This is bleak, claustrophobic, ugly, and fitting with the zeitgeist of our current time. A heavy listen, made much better and more engrossing with headphones.
Sophia Jani is a Berlin-based composer of modern classical music who seems to be part of a wave of a creative new generation coming out of Europe. This collection of string quartets is elegant, yet the music has a mournful quality to it.
Hear me out on this one. Gang Violins, a duo out of New Zealand, released a single to their upcoming album Inner Realms, and it’s a well-crafted mix of cinematic ambient music and post-rock, but it triggered a memory of the subtle buildup to the song Where The Streets Have No Name by U2. No surprise, as Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno had a lot of input, and made a rather decent pop song start lushly. I’m looking forward to hearing more from these lads.
Some very mellow chamber rock can be found here by Tunisian singer Jawhar. If you are a fan of groups like the Tindersticks, but are looking for something more exotic in sound, I can happily recommend this.
This was a combination I didn’t expect. It’s not uncommon for, say, black metal musicians to integrate their music into pagan folk and make a good hybrid, but this is something different. Antiq combine soaring traditional Basque and Breton vocals with a proper metal backing, and somehow, by some strange miracle, it all comes together very well. As far as metal goes, this is really quite good.
Sdban Records, a magnificent Belgian imprint I came across recently, is releasing some absolute bangers in the field of jazz, library music and funk. This particular album, which has its roots in Morocco’s hardly-ever-discussed funk scene, was first available as a cassette in 1978 on Disques Gam. The reissue is lovingly done with crisp cover art, but the music is what wows me. This isn’t merely a funk album. There are tracks here, like My Story With Mrs. Life, are beefy rock tracks with gritty vocals you know you loved hearing on AM radio in the 70s. Another gem, Love…
Experimental music isn’t a genre that avails itself to the power trio. In this case, however, Jeff Gburek, John El-Manahi and John Palumbo should be given such a venerable title. The music they produce as Orphan Sound System is reminiscent of vintage progressive rock bands like Faust or Cranioclast but with production input by the Gyuto Monks. This is sitting on the nexus point of psychedelic music, post-Industrial and experimental. Challenging listening, but ultimately rewarding, as the listener will feel as though they’re being transported on a not-unpleasant tour of Saṃsāra. Lineup: Jeff Gburek: electric guitar, bassic guitar, microfreak, drum machine,…