A pleasant surprise comes from Australian record label The Round Table. Amancio D’Silva was a musician based out of India who mixed traditional music from his homeland with modal jazz, and the results are stunning. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “Also recorded in 1972 although not released at the time was Konkan Dance, an unofficial sequel to Dream Sequence that further explored the unchartered possibilities of an Indian music-jazz fusion. Featuring many of the same personnel, this session also included support from Don Rendell and Alan Branscombe, two giants of the UK jazz scene who add serious credentials to D’Silva’s singular…
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With the death of Richard H. Kirk last year, my hopes are dashed for new material from Cabaret Voltaire. However, Stephen Mallinder is carrying the torch of mid-period Cabs by combining a dark soundscape with rough electro-funk. From his Bandcamp website: “Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Stephen Mallinder’s second solo outing for Dais further distills his signature fusion of minimal synth, oblique wordplay, and “wonky disco” into a riveting rhythm suite ripe for our age of escalation: tick tick tick. Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity,…
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Within the next few weeks, I will conduct an interview with pianist Alessandra Celletti, a dear friend and one of Italy’s most colorful musicians. This one is her latest, and its centerpiece is based on the Lemhi Shoshone teenager who not only led the American explorers Lewis & Clarke in their exploration of the Louisiana Territory but also became a symbol of women’s suffrage in the United States.
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Some very happy news today, as Japanese acid-folk-psych band Kikagaku Moyo have given us a fresh album. From their Bandcamp website: “In many ways ‘Kumoyo Island’ represents the culmination of a journey for Kikagaku Moyo. While their decade-long career can be summarized as a series of kaleidoscopic explorations through lands and dimensions far and near, there’s a strong intention in each of their works to take the listener to a particular place, however real or abstract they may be. In that sense, the title and cover art for the band’s fifth and final album draws you into a magical mass…
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In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we present you a new post-rock band out of Mexico City called A Shelter In The Desert. The band’s sound incorporates a lot of shoegaze sounds and has a cinematic vibe to it. Impressive, and worth exploring.
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Italy’s Record Kicks has been releasing crime-funk, hip garage rock, deep soul, afro and boogaloo hits for 15 years so the label will be offering, as of May 15th, a compilation of some of their finest moments. Bands on this killer comp include The Tibbs, Calibro 35 and our favorite neo-soul diva, Martha Ren.
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The Mossad are a project out of Lansing, Michigan, which reminds me of a slower, dubbier, late-period Tackhead or even Gang of Four with less funk, but far rawer. I haven’t heard a sound this crunch since the late 1980s, so for music ability and nostalgia, I give this single high marks.
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Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurðsson is a classical composer who has developed into the country’s leading light in terms of modern classical music. From his Bandcamp site: “Valgeir has become a master of sound to get lost in. Through his layering of his collaborators’ instrumental and vocal parts and a nuanced balance of electronic and organic sound, KVIKA is a perfect collection of moments that last only as long as they need before taking us elsewhere. After his award winning album Dissonance, it is a measure of his artistic inclinations that he looks to a shorter form of music making. Where…
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Sublime. There’s no other word for it. If you enjoy modern classical music, especially by composers like Gorecki, Ligeti or Penderecki, Canadian composer Adrian Copeland has something here which will appeal to you, with long, mournful drones, sparse instrumentation, and a rough, melancholic feel to the tracks. Track 4, Heir to the Ember Sun, was my favorite track, as it stays within the classical realm, but adds elements and a pop structure that reminded me of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. A fine album.
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When I hear the words Avant-garde in relation to contemporary classical music, I think normally of some me composers who pull out old, clichéd tropes. This release from Kenyan composer Nyokabi Kariuki is so stunningly weird that the album has given itself the right to be termed Avant-garde correctly.