• Music

    Taennya – Natural Serenity

    July 22, 2021 - By 

    Taennya is Tatyana Maslova, an ambient music composer from Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia.  The city is home to some of my favorite musicians (including Roman Stolyar and Sergei Belichenko among others), and it looks like I have another musician whose works will be on my playlist for some time to come. The tracks are instrumental, with big, cavernous washes of sound.  As far as ambient music goes, this gives off a warm, calming feeling without being saccharine.  You will hear beats and voices here and there, and these help to guide you deeper into this enveloping sound.  A very engaging release.

  • Music

    Various Artists – Cameroon Garage Funk

    July 21, 2021 - By 

    Analog Africa produces yet another astounding compilation.  Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait a while for this one, because the release date is scheduled for September 3, 2021.  Still, considering the high quality of pretty much everything this label has produced, I’m expecting some fine music. Over on the Bandcamp release page, a question that had been in mind for a while has been answered.  How could Cameroon, with a rich musical history, be so poorly represented?  As it turns out, there was no infrastructure so speak of, so promotion outside the country would have been impossible in those days. From…

  • Music

    Harald Grosskopf & Ramón Amezcua – Quetzalkrautl

    July 20, 2021 - By 

    ¡Demasiado kosmiche…!  Two absolute legends in electronic music grace these pages with a combination whose name cracks me up, but whose music entinces.  Ramón Amezcua is best known under his nom de plume Bostich and is known as the godfather of the Nortec scene which combines hard electronic music with Norteño music and banda into a radically different form of the sort of electronica produced either Stateside or in Europe.  Harald Grosskopf played drums for progressive rock bands like Wallenstein, Ashra and appeared on quite a few albums by Klaus Schulze, as well as releasing Synthesist, which is today considered…

  • Music

    Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel 1 (Car)

    July 19, 2021 - By 

    It’s safe to assume that the vast majority of my friends and readers know who Peter Gabriel is.  I don’t think there’s been a more important pop singer in the last 40 or so years, and it’s really a pleasant surprise to see him put the whole of his catalog on Bandcamp. This album is my favorite of the back catalog, as it was his first after leaving the band Genesis.  Car is a collection of songs that sound like Gabriel was undergoing a creative explosion, mixing heavy rock, progressive, and you could hear a strong imprint from guest musicians…

  • Music

    TienYinMen – Between Clouds (雲峽)

    July 18, 2021 - By 

    TienYinMen are a collection of composers and musicians based in Hong Kong who release a lot of thematic soundtrack music played on traditional instruments and electronic instruments.  They have a healthy body of work to choose from, and I found this one to be the best out of a great lot.  I can see why they would be in demand for scoring TV programs as well as theater.

  • Music

    John Tejada & Ulrich Krieger – Silversonic

    July 17, 2021 - By 

    Two legends from rather different backgrounds collaborate on this EP. Austrian-American DJ John Tejada is a legend in electronic music as has thrived in the scene as a sought-after remixer.  I had the pleasure of meeting him several times while working at a record shop in Los Angeles during the 1990s, and it pleases me to no end how far his career has taken off. Ulrich Krieger is a composer, improviser and experimental rock musician from Germany whose work you may have heard either as a composer or interpreter of contemporary classical music with Zeitkratzer/ or as a member of…

  • Music

    Muito Kaballa Power Ensemble – Mamari

    July 16, 2021 - By 

    Fiddling around on the Youtube stream today as I have the house to myself, I came across a video of this album, and within the first second or so, I got hooked into a mix of Malian blues, funk, Cuban rhythms and a general Afrobeat vibe.  Muito Kaballa are a nine-piece band based in Cologne, Germany, and the label releasing this charmer is Rebel Up Records, a fine imprint out of Belgium.

  • Music

    Black Ink Stain – Incidents

    July 14, 2021 - By 

    Our friends over at P.O.G.O. Records have released a record which relates very well with acts like Big Black and The Jesus Lizard.  Black Ink Stain are from Belgium, and I have to say this album is as brutal as anything labels like Touch & Go Records released at their peak.  The production is a bit raw, but it makes the album sound like an authentic post-punk record.  The magazine Muzzart does a good review of the album in French here.

  • Music

    Kaelin Bougneit – Geograph

    July 13, 2021 - By 

    After a few dark albums, I thought I would share something that, while also a bit darker than normal, shows shades of the Berlin School and rather gentle Industrial soundscapes.  Kaelin Bougneit is a composer and label owner (Subviolet Records) based out of Portland, Oregon, and this particular album has elements of not only classic ambient music, but of tones I tie to old TV programs like “In Search Of…” with Leonard Nimoy.  This triggered some pleasant memories for me, indeed.

  • Music

    Cyanosis – Unscathed

    July 12, 2021 - By 

    Costa Rica, musically, has always been a mystery to me.  The last contact I had was with a brilliant DJ out of San José who hosted a progressive rock radio program, but to find out that there is experimental music coming out of the country is a very pleasant surprise. Cyanosis is not a stranger to this site, as Efrain Valerio’s work was reviewed when he participated in a split album with our friends Destruktionsanstalt in April.  This is the first chance I have had to hear his own work, and it is as bleak a recording as I have…