Various Artists: Zanzibara: First Modern Taarab Vibes From Mombasa & Tanga, 1970​-​1990

It’s so good to see the inestimable Buda Musique take the modern route and make some of the treasures of their back catalog accessible, not only digitally, but on fine vinyl and CD editions. This compilation brings together a collection of artists from the towns of Mombasa and Tanga, in Continue Reading

The Bayan Mongol Variety Group – The Bayan Mongol Variety Group

From Discogs.com and Light In The Attic Records: The Bayan Mongol Variety Group existed from the early ’70s to the late ’80s. After the collapse of the USSR, the ensemble began to experience serious difficulties with funding and booking concerts, and finally disintegrated, after which the participants lost contact with each Continue Reading

Various Artists – Blackford Hill: Transmissions / Volume One

Welcome to the first proper release promotion of 2022, and it’s quite a lovely way to begin the year.  Blackford Hill is a record company out of Edinburgh, Scotland, and they offer up a compilation of ethereal independent music from bands like Ultramarine, Emily Scott, Kate Carr, Jake Tilson and Continue Reading

Various Artists – Unexplained Sounds Group – 7th Annual Report

Unexplained Sounds Group has had another stellar year releasing ambient, experimental and post-Industrial music from around the world in 2021.  We had the pleasure of reviewing their mid-year compilation on July 28, and now that the year is complete, USG end the year by giving us 35 tracks from artists Continue Reading

Jagath – Samadhi

Jagath is a field-recorded ritual ambient act from Perm, Russia who use handmade instruments, scraps and metal to make their dark, dank industrial sounds. As quoted from their Bandcamp site, “We do this to share our vision of decaying postindustrial age, to unleash the spirit of deep beyond-world and unveil Continue Reading

Alif – Aynama​-​Rtama

I trust you, my friends, had a lovely Gregorian-Calendar Boxing Day. I spent mine listening to a Lebanese experimental band called Alif. At least as the liner notes on their Bandcamp site explain, it looks to be a collaboration between Lebanese and Egyptian musicians, and features the talents of the Continue Reading

Jeff Gburek – Gendhing Rebaban

As we near the close of a challenging 2021, we’re graced with a release by composer Jeff Gburek which features a rebab, a spiked fiddle.  It’s an instrument he studied in Indonesia under Pak Suhardi, blended with synthesizers and electronic bloops and bleeps which left me feeling like I was Continue Reading