• Music

    Etran de L’Aïr – Agadez

    February 28, 2022 - By 

    Thanks to a bit of luck and our friends at Sahel Sounds, I was fortunate enough to obtain an album by Nigerien (no, not Nigerian) troupe and stars of the local wedding music scene, Etran de L’Aïr (or Stars of the Aïr region).  From their Bandcamp site: “Recorded at home in Agadez with a mobile studio, their eponymous album stays close to the band’s roots. Over a handful of takes, in a rapid-fire recording session, “Agadez” retains all the energy of a party. Their message too is always close to home. Tchingolene (“Tradition”) recalls the nomad camps, with a modern…

  • Music

    Ty Segall – Lemons

    February 7, 2022 - By 

    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.

  • Music

    Sunset Wings and Brodsky – Songs of Love, Madness and Sleep

    January 25, 2022 - By 

    From Kaliningrad, Russia (formerly my material ancestral Linn homeland of Koenigsberg, East Prussia) hail one of the most impressive psychedelic folk records I’ve heard in some time.  From the cacophony of the violin starting the album, it morphs into a Beatlesque horn arrangement.  Those few seconds set the tone for what I figured would be a very heavy listening experience. Sunset Wings, led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Aleks Popov team on this album with fellow singer Evgeniy Brodsky.  What makes the album crucial listening, along with the impressive instrumental array you will see below, is the adaptations by poets and…

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek + George Christian – Thrown Extremes

    January 14, 2022 - By 

    During the next few weeks, I’ll be catching up on releases I could not get to in 2021.  This one is really a gem that I’m surprised I didn’t get to earlier, but thanks to Jeff Gburek reminding me of it, I can happily present this release he did in collaboration with another one of the blog’s dear friends, George Christian. The two tracks which go under the name The Charles Ives Observatory (Parts 1 and 2) bookend the centerpiece of the album, the 28-minute opus Magellanic Clouds.  The CIO tracks have the feeling of classic-era electroacoustic music imbued with…

  • Music

    Şatellites – Seni Sen Olduğun İçin Sevdim

    November 26, 2021 - By 

    Batov Records, based out of Tel-Aviv, Israel, is producing some funky and hard-hitting music, and this 7-inch by Şatellites simply rocks.  The title song of this single is a cover from Arabesque rock legend Hakkı Bulut is a driving jam which is described as a tune “with the force of The Stooges crossed with The JBs.” The second track is an instrumental which is also engaging, but passes too quickly, as I would have loved to hear so much more from it.

  • Music

    monobeat original – Rough Mixes

    November 19, 2021 - By 

    One of the true founding fathers of Krautrock, Zappi W. Diermaier, is still going at it with a new album slated to be released in December of 2021.  The tracks blend together the Krautrock Zappi is obviously known for, while adding psychedelic, progressive and even post-Industrial elements into the brew.  For what should be a rather brutal sounding mix of sounds, it’s actually makes for a hypnotic and lovely listening.  Much respect to our friends at áMARXE Records for releasing this record.

  • Music

    Upupayāma – Upupayāma EP

    November 18, 2021 - By 

    From the Upupayāma Bandcamp site: Upupayāma is the musical persona of Alessio Ferrari, an Italian multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who lives in a small mountain village above the city of Parma. In addition to playing guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums, Ferrari himself also incorporates a number of other instruments into his work, including sitar, erhu, transverse and wooden flutes, and a variety of percussion instruments. This is a stunning debut by Upupayāma, whose take on psychedelic rock caught my attention. The album swims along nicely, reminding me of bands like Kikagaku Moyo. I hope they stay on this vein. It’s pleasantly heavy…

  • Music

    miserable.noise.club – Frost Confinement

    November 15, 2021 - By 

    miserable.noise.club is a collective of incredibly talented musicians based in Jordan, China and the US + other collaborators in East Asia and the Middle East.  The music they make is, by some miracle, a solid blend of experimental music, a paean to post-punk and lo-fi psychedelic rock.  It’s hazy enough to remind me of some of the great music coming out of New Zealand in the late 1990s revolving around luminaries such as Roy Montgomery or The Dead C. Once the radio podcast begins, I have a feeling these folks will be featured heavily.  Very impressive.  Much respect to Abood…

  • Music

    Mong Tong 夢東 – 台灣謎景 Music from Taiwan Mystery

    November 14, 2021 - By 

    Mong Tong are one of the most profoundly interesting bands operating out of Taiwan these days, and their work would compare favorably to psychedelic giants like Ghost or even quieter aspects of Acid Mothers Temple. From WV Sorcerer Productions’ Bandcamp site: Mong Tong is brothers Hom Yu, Jiun Chi (they also play in ​Prairie WWWW​ 落差草原 WWWW & Dope Purple) and 仝. They listened to what they describe as “Dianziqin music 電子琴音樂” along with video game soundtracks, vintage Asian movie samples and psychedelic music. These inspirations combine with Taiwanese folklore and a love of conspiracy theories to form what they…

  • Music

    Old Time Relijun – Musicking

    November 5, 2021 - By 

    Though I’ve followed his work for years, this is the first chance I’ve had to review Arrington Dionyso’s vast body of work, specifically his more rock-based project, Old Time Relijiun. From the first note, it felt like getting hit by a block of cement (in a quite good way).  The first track, Break Through, sounds like a mighty clash between the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Can during its rawer and weirder freak-outs.  Bionic Trunk provides thunderous drums that would compare well to mid-60s garage-rock smashers like The Monks and introduces a bit of throat-singing, of all things.  The cornerstone…