• Music - Youtube

    Zbigniew Namysłowski Modern Jazz Quartet: Lola (England, 1964) [Full Album]

    Polish jazz legend Zbigniew Namysłowski has departed the world. He played alto saxophone, flute, cello, trombone and piano, and was equally at home playing straight-ahead jazz or acidy funk. He also played on what is considered to be the holy grail of Polish jazz albums, Krzysztof Komeda’s classic LP Astigmatic, as well as collaborating with local luminaries like Janusz Muniak, Leszek Możdżer, Vladislav Sendecki, Michał Urbaniak, and Andrzej Trzaskowski.  He was 82.  You can read his obituaries here and here. Requiescat in pace.

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    Diana Hayes/Andy Meyers – Deeper Into The Forest

    Andy Meyers is the former guitarist of Toronoto art-punk legends The Scenics.  He’s gone off to do more exploratory work after moving to the Vancouver area, and this, his latest work, is a collection of soundscapes set to the poetry and vocals of fellow Canadians Diana Hayes and Susheela Dawne. From the release’s Bandcamp website: Composer/producer Andy Meyers was co-recipient of Canada Council Grants to score two CDs of spoken word with award winning poet Brian Brett. (“an often unsettling meld of orphan sounds and menacing undercurrents, and an offbeat celebration of those old staples: love, experience, sex and death.”…

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    Ty Segall – Lemons

    Ty Segall is a garage-rock music phenomenon, and this album shows him at his beat-rock best, mixing garage, psychedelic rock and the aforementioned beat music this album oozes.  Remarkably raw and impressive.

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    Bernard Purdie – Purdie Good!

    Imagine having a resume working with the following acts: James Brown, The Beatles, Jeff Beck, Hummingbird, Steely Dan, Aretha Franklin,Gil Scott-Heron, King Curtis, The Rolling Stones, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Randy Brecker, Quincy Jones, Hall & Oates, Isaac Hayes, Cat Stevens, Hair and Larry Coryell among so many others. Bernard “Pretty” Purdie is something akin to an institution in modern drumming. This album, reissued by Prestige Records, is one of his more mellow jazz excursions.  The sound is meaty, and it shows off a pleasant finesse he has with percussion.  His touch is about as golden as it gets as…

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    Various Artists – Zona Electronica

    Zoharum are one of Poland’s longest-lasting experimental, ambient, minimal and industrial/dub/illbient labels.  On January 30, they released a comp of musicians who are critical in Poland’s underground music scene.  Among familiar names, of course, are Jeff Gburek, Hubert Heathertoes and Mike Majkowski, but the new names I’m hearing on this release are equally as intriguing.  Zoharum have done sterling work documenting the current goings-on of their local scene.

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    Gui Duvignau – Baden

    Bassist and composer Gui Duvignau was born in France, but raised in Brazil.  In his latest album, he interprets some classic work by the legendary Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell, whose work left an indelible mark on the samba and bossa nova scene worldwide.

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    Dragon & Jettenbach – Tales from the Algorithm

    This is so pleasantly dark and focused that I don’t think calling it ambient would do it justice.  Dragon & Jettenbach are a project out of the United Kingdom who produce a sound that, while bleak, is also musically organized, reminding me of some of the modern Berlin School electronic artists of the 1980s, mixed with a vibe one would have heard from post-Industrial music on cassette during the same time period.  As this is the period where I was reared on great music, it brings a sense of nostalgia to me, and I feel that, for those between 40…

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    Chris Conway – When Pianos Dream

    Though his bio on Bandcamp calls him a superlative jazz pianist, I would have to add that Chris Conway handles modern classical music with as much aplomb.  He has also worked with some stellar musicians, including Guy Barker, Andy Sheppard, Stan Sulzman, Martin Speake and the legendary Finnish sax player Sakari Kukko (leader of Piirpauke) amongst others. This album, released today, I believe, is a collection of improvisations and ambient electronic music he gathered while working with the United Isolation Ensemble, of which he is a member.  How ECM Records hasn’t signed such a prodigious talent is beyond me, but…

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    Mong Tong 夢東 – Mystery 秘神

    We had the pleasure of reviewing Mong Tong last year.  They have produced yet another surreal post-progressive electronic gem.  On this album, there are elements of post-rock, modified traditional Taiwanese music, but also the eerie grooves which would do bands like Goblin proud, as the creepiness is quite subtle.  Read their Bandcamp site for a more in-depth account of this latest album.