I think it’s impossible to overestimate the important place Roy Montgomery has in the annals of New Zealand’s experimental rock scene. Thanks to his work on labels such as Kranky Records and Drunken Fish, he has quite a high international profile, and it helps that the music he’s produced for Continue Reading
Guitar
Santiago Fradejas – The Light Through The Springs
The guitar, all by itself, can serve as tool for making a haunting orchestra’s worth of sounds. My good friend Santiago Fradejas, now resident in Kent, of all places (!) presents a mini-LP’s worth of brooding, swelling, lilting soundscapes. There is a menacing element tying the album together, as though Continue Reading
Cousin Silas – Dreamsville
Cousin Silas is one of my favorite guitarists, and I can’t think of many who are better at making such mellow soundscapes. This is one of his latest albums, and his massive body of work is consistently good. Really consider looking him up on Facebook and following his massive release Continue Reading
Florian Arbenz, Hermon Mehari, Nelson Veras – Conversation #1: Condensed
Swiss drummer and percussionist Florian Arbenz was featured on our previous website, A Miscellany of Tasteful Music, some time in 2020 on a record he did with American saxophonist Greg Osby. This album is equally as engaging. This slightly unusual line up of guitar, trumpet & drums might, at first Continue Reading
稷廬 / jì lú – 山與客聽 / Mountain, Traveler, Listener
The Sichuan, China-based Jì Lú (稷廬) are a new project that has connections with one of China’s most innovated bands, Raflum. The instrumentation on this album is sparse, but it makes for good listening, as bamboo flute and guitar seem to blend pleasantly. Some notes regarding the release: When talking about landscapes in the traditional context, it’s mostly about reclusion. Although true recluses are rare, the mountains and rivers are always there. Ironically, the real landscapes are actually “horrible nature” instead of some leisure place. The traditional landscape paintings are a kind of “tame nature,” which were described as “To observe with meditation, and lie down to experience” and “Sitting in the forest and spring instead of go to banquet” by ancient Chinese poets. It emerge at North and South Dynasty, then become a game of finding the essence during the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, and finally stuck in the static self-development after the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The development of landscape paintings are just like how people detach with the nature and entering urban life. This album is the continuation of this thesis. In a time when the virtual reality are replacing urban life, we attempt to reinterpret this cliche with improvisation that based on the topic of “landscape.” We also naming the songs by minutes and seconds instead of the traditional way of titling the songs, which is based on its imagery. That creates interactive between the “teller” and listener, and reflects the beauties for individuals due to their own aesthetic experiences. At this time, the distant, outmoded, cumbersome and vague image of landscape might leave a huge space for “starting again.” Instrumental Continue Reading
Nicadrio Lee – Palette
Aloha Got Soul is a record label out of Hawaii documenting the lost soul that was coming out of the state during the 1970s and 1980s, but this release is actually the work of a local prodigy called Nicadrio Lee who put this album together last year if I understand Continue Reading
Various Artists – The Hired Hands: A Tribute to Bruce Langhorne
We will be celebrating Memorial Day with my family today, and in honor of the holiday, we offer up this compilation dedicated to American guitarist Bruce Langhorne, who influenced so many indie musicians that it’s a wonder so few outside of this select club have heard of him. Byron Coley, Continue Reading
Samo Salamon & Hasse Poulsen – String Dancers
Musicians never cease to amaze me. Despite the horrible conditions which have led to worldwide lockdown, artists like Samo Salamon, a guitarist out of Slovenia, and Hasse Poulsen, originally from Denmark, manage to weave together an acoustic guitar-only album of improvisations that don’t sound like what you normally associate with Continue Reading
George Christian – África em mim
Our friend and colleague George Christian Vilela Pereira has released an album that I could only describe as mellow strumming psychedelic noise with elements of Krautrock and instrumental psych that one could have found in Japan in the late 70s and early 80s. The lo-fi feel of the recording adds Continue Reading
Tommy Guerrero – Sunshine Radio
Tommy Guerrero’s music came to me via a recommendation of a friend online. I had heard his name bandied about years ago because of friends of mine who were into skateboarding, but I had no idea he was making music. And such good music, I must say. The album is Continue Reading