Båul have managed to release an album which travels the world while residing in the beautiful state of Colorado. They mix Arabic, Russian, Hebrew and other music together into a cohesive, energetic album. Really fun listening.
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The Blog That Celebrates Itself was a website and record label based out of São Paolo, Brazil which dedicates itself to promoting shoegaze and other underground artists from all over the world, of course specializing in young Brazilian acts. This particular comp leans more towards pop-psych music, with covers from bands such as the Velvet Underground and Herman’s Hermits done in a drone-like, hazy fashion. The blog and the label are worthy reading.
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Our dear friend Zumaia has reached the mid-century mark in his life, which is, of course, a wonderful milestone. We at Music You Need To Hear celebrate his birth, and the exceptional work he does with his label, the Bordeaux-based Kalamine Records. In honor of this milestone, Linn Friberg, composer and curator of the INTENT series on the label collaborate on a sonic birthday present for fans of the label. The music is cavernous, full of post-industrial and dark ambient soundscapes. I would compare the sound to early experimental cassette-based musicians, but the sounds are so utterly crisp that it…
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It’s been a while since I had the pleasure to feature Robert Scott Thompson on our blog, though you will be seeing releases from a label he plays a large role in, Aucourant Records, in the future. Through Circle and Shadow is a 7-and-a-half minute piece of gentle ambient music which is dark and reminiscent of some Berlin School-related artists, and others like Robert Rich and Steve Roach. There’s something more cosmic in this release, however, and it sounds magnificent on a set of good headphones.
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The second release from Raffaele Pezzella’s Unexplained Sounds Group’s latest acquisition, the magnificently dark Reverse Alignment record label. This is a different affair from yesterday’s compilation, which was more extreme in sound. New State of Flux doesn’t have the same reach in terms of geography, but it covers music which is more focused, more intense, and gives a feeling of being part of a film-noir soundtrack. Of particular interest to me was the piece done by Vongoiva called Palovankka, which you can hear below. Well done, as always.
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The first of two releases related to our friend Raffaele Pezzella (who performs under the name Sonologyst) for today. This release from Unexplained Sounds Group is part of a series of compilations of experimental and dark ambient music concentrated in different regions. This one is particularly special to me as, though my birth city is Los Angeles, those who know me well know that the Balkans has served as a second home to me over the years. Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania all seem to be well-represented, and musically, each track is up…
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Anna Michaels is not the Toni Morrison-kind of poet I can’t get into. Rather, she has the power of a street storyteller, the sort of person who you can engage at a New York or Los Angeles coffee shop talking about her experiences across the world, her observations of American life both as a local and a foreigner in some sense, and at her best, her words can be rather spellbinding. She is the sort of person I would utterly enjoy a coffee with. It’s quite a treat to know that she has paired up with Yordan Kostov’s band, one…
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It’s a minor tragedy that Jisr have not made their debut album available as a download on Bandcamp, but you can find it over at La Boîte à Musique and Turtle Records in Belgium, Deejay.de and Decks in Germany and surely other fine record shops near you, though I’d pick this up quickly as it’s running out of print everywhere I look. To the music. This is ecstatic spiritual jazz infused with Kosmische Musik, odd progressive and improvisational rock (think Embryo and Dissidenten, especially since the legendary Roman Bunka is involved in this disc playing oud and guitar), but the…
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Federico Balducci is an experimental music composer based out of West Springfield, Massachusetts in the United States. The soundscapes he makes here are engaging, and it seems he’s not only influenced by excellent cassette culture forebears, but his style is rather cinematic in scope, a style that I think very highly of. A very pleasant sonic experience, indeed.
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This album works on so many levels. There is a blend of Italian romance, easy listening, French chanson, sophisticated City Pop, bossa nova, a touch of schmaltz, and electro-pop all rolled into one fine album. Drummer Yukihiro Takahashi had just helped form the Yellow Magic Orchestra after leaving The Sadistic Mika Band at about the time this album came out (circa 1978), and his new bandmates, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi “Harry” Hosono, ably assisted him in arranging everything from synths and brass. It’s an elegant album and would appeal greatly to those into everything from crooners like Al Bowlly and…