417.3 appeared on my radar about 7-8 years ago when I was trying to explore more about Russian post-rock. They are a heavy instrumental band, but not overly “mathy” or anything like this. 47 is a one-track single with the sort of shimmering guitar playing that one would expect from post-rock bands, as it seems to be the calling card of the non-metal end of the genre’s spectrum.
In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we present you a new post-rock band out of Mexico City called A Shelter In The Desert. The band’s sound incorporates a lot of shoegaze sounds and has a cinematic vibe to it. Impressive, and worth exploring.
This snazzy 7-inch features two Israeli bands, Les Dynamites and Radio Trip, who mix the best of hipster-inflected bellydance music, surf, funk and psych with Greek, North African, Yemenite and Mizrahi styles of music. Worth donning a fez and smoking a hookah pipe for.
We had the pleasure of reviewing an album by Bay Area guitarist Ernesto Diaz-Infante in January, and now, we can introduce you to Vacilando, a collection of instrumental tracks recorded on guitars, oud and banjo. The material is comprised of Ernesto’s composition, none of which exceeds six minutes in length, but feel packed with sounds which drone and mutate swimmingly. Effects-laden, and all the better for it. A good night-listening disc.
Ángel Ontalva is a Spanish guitarist who spends a great deal of time working in Russia whom we’ve featured here in the past, and he surprises us with a release of an album full of Rock-In-Opposition and chamber-rock influences. From his Bandcamp site: “The origin of this album is in the Rock In Opposition Festival 2014. For our participation I wrote new arrangements for some of the group’s compositions that, due to the difficulty of the scores and the lack of time to prepare them properly, were discarded. During these years I have fantasized about the idea of recording these…
According to Midori Hirano’s Bandcamp site, “this album was initially released on staaltape by Rinus Van Alebeek in 2015 as a very limited edition of cassette tape.” It’s a gem of experimental music because Hirano’s background blends a classical music, a commercial music background, and what would end up being termed as “Japanoise,” the beautifully violent experimental music which exploded in Japan and worldwide throughout the late 80s and early 90s. Hirano crafts 24 sound vignettes on this album, and the end result is something akin to John Cage going mushroom hunting with Aki Takahashi while listening to Hijokaidan on…
I was going through a tag titled “Australian jazz” on my free time this week and came across this stunner of an album by Andrea Keller & Wave Riders. From her Bandcamp site: Systems Over-Ride is the new album from Melbourne-based pianist & composer Andrea Keller, featuring her latest musical venture, WAVE RIDERS. The quintet performs Andrea’s music with grit and spontaneity; bringing together her somewhat disparate fascinations of free jazz and doom metal, combined with potent harmonies and yearning melodies. Dichotomous relationships abound as she grapples to reconcile the brutal and the beautiful, all the while focussed on stripping…
This is the second guitar-based album we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing this week. This one comes from Mexican-French guitarist Hector (H.J.) Ayala who works out of Strasbourg, France. The album is a gentle, twangy, pleasantly meandering collection of tones which belong to a film which has not yet been made. Ayala continues to develop his mastery of the guitar and the ambience he brings to his compositions. Another solid release.
Iceland is one of those countries who seem to produce musicians at an incredible rate in comparison to the size of its population. Atli Örvarsson is one of a handful of gifted soundtrack composers to hail from the island nation, and is the first one I can think of who doesn’t originally come from the capital, Reykjavik. He is now a Los Angelino pursuing a career in composition, and is becoming well-known for his scores. The standout track for me on this album is one titled Anka & Robert, which reminds me of a meaty slab of post-Industrial ambient. The…
Our friend from Maribor, Slovenia, the fine guitarist Samo Salamon, graces our blog with a new release. This one is just him alone playing the works of Eric Dolphy accompanied by his guitar and, apparently, his cat adding in a meow or two. From Samo’s Bandcamp site: The idea of the project began by practicing at home alone during the many Covid lockdowns, rediscovering Dolphy’s music again. Furthermore, I was inspired to do this album by Miles Okazaki’s great solo guitar Monk project. We had a long talk this year via Skype and it was so great to hear how…