• Music

    Jeff Gburek – Trans Beskid Radio Volume 4 Extended

    December 8, 2021 - By 

    The last week I was in the United States before heading off to China, I watched MEV (collecting Alvin Lucier with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, may their names be ever remembered) and Kayhan Kalhor the weekend before.  It was an incredible week of music before heading to more surreal surroundings. Jeff Gburek’s latest album comes at a time where Alvin Lucier, whose mark on contemporary classical and experimental music in general is impossible to overstate, continues to inspire musicians as time passes.  It is a ghostly work, at once warm and organic, but imbued with a vibe of a…

  • Music

    CMC – CMC/Now

    December 7, 2021 - By 

    Hungarian band CMC have been recording albums since 1989, and, had they received their fair due during the heydey of post-Industrial Electronic Body Music (EBM), they would have been recognized as competitors of such luminaries as Front Line Assembly and Front 242, but with a darker groove. The band’s main actors, composer Vince Kósa and György Szász, have reactivated the band.  The grooves are still as powerful as they were nearly 30 years ago, and it feels like they never went away.  Three tracks are available to check out, and each will remind you of the days where EBM dance…

  • Music

    Perila – How much time it is between you and me?

    December 4, 2021 - By 

    Perila i(Alexandra Zakharenko) s a composer from Berlin of Russian roots releases one of the heaviest and, frankly, bleakest albums of the year.  I spent today trying to unwind a bit as the snow looked pleasant, but after watching Juraj Herz’s The Cremator, hearing this album left me in a somewhat dark place. The sounds are deep and cavernous.  It is, in fact, my favorite style of ambient music, as it becomes easy to get lost in the sonic abyss the artist is projecting through her lens.  There are two standout tracks on this album; Vaxxine, with gives me the…

  • Music

    E.U.E.R.P.I. – Timid Memories

    December 2, 2021 - By 

    We have a new band to follow, and they’re out of Bulgaria.  E.U.E.R.P.I. produce a sonorous and pleasantly dark ambient music that sounds heavily influenced by the works of Steve Roach, Matthias Grassow, or even Lustmord.  E.U.E.R.P.I. have proven to be as masterful at using field recordings, blending them into their live performance as documented on this record.  One to watch out for.

  • Music

    Various Artists – Lèspri Ka : New Directions in Gwoka Music from Guadeloupe 1981​-​2010

    December 1, 2021 - By 

    This compilation released by Time Capsule Records is going to be stunningly good.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: The innovative, radical soul of Guadeloupe explored across thirty years of contemporary gwoka music, released by Time Capsule and Séance Centre. As Guadeloupean vocalist and composer Marie-Line Dahomay writes in her liner notes to the compilation, gwoka is more than a style of music, it is “a way of living and thinking.” Rooted in the social, musical and ritual practices of enslaved African people and their descendants on Guadeloupe, gwoka has always sought to express the spirit of independence and resistance authentic…

  • Music

    Cut Chemist – Adidas To Addis​/​Povo De Santo

    November 30, 2021 - By 

    Cut Chemist is an institution in Los Angeles.  I first came across his work as a member of Jurassic 5, and it seems he still has the skills of a groove surgeon. Both tracks are bangers, but the first one is my favorite, as it’s a keep originally recorded by Belaynesh Wubante & Assegedetch Asfaw and arranged by the venerable Mulatu Astaké.

  • Music

    Luneta Freedom Jazz Collective – Slaves and Masters

    November 29, 2021 - By 

    Quite an impressive band out of the Philippines, courtesy of Mahorka Records out of Bulgaria.  Some info from their Bandcamp site: Luneta Freedom Jazz Collective is an experimental jazz group from Manila, Philippines. Their first studio album “Ethos”, was recorded and released in April 2015. The group would go on to be featured at 2015’s To Be Continued on Stazione di Topolò/Global Health Incubator. Their second album, “Inland Empire” was released in 2017. In 2021 their third album, “Slaves and Masters”, comes out on Mahorka, the dialectic as a narrative that examines the exploitation of labour and social stratification, with…

  • Music

    The Scorpios – Let’s Go

    November 27, 2021 - By 

    The Scorpios are a Sudanese/British Afrobeat band with an incredible pedigree.  Regia Ishag, the band’s singer, is the daughter of the guitarist of one of Sudan’s funkiest bands, The Scorpions (obviously not the German hard-rock band bearing the same name). This new generation band maintains the funkiness of their forefathers and adds jazz, more funk and a more general Afrobeat element to the music.  It’s rapturous and made for the dance floor or the wedding ceremony equally.

  • Music

    Şatellites – Seni Sen Olduğun İçin Sevdim

    November 26, 2021 - By 

    Batov Records, based out of Tel-Aviv, Israel, is producing some funky and hard-hitting music, and this 7-inch by Şatellites simply rocks.  The title song of this single is a cover from Arabesque rock legend Hakkı Bulut is a driving jam which is described as a tune “with the force of The Stooges crossed with The JBs.” The second track is an instrumental which is also engaging, but passes too quickly, as I would have loved to hear so much more from it.