Birdsongs of the Mesozoic – The Iridium Controversy

Cuneiform Records offered this album as a half-price release this weekend, and though I already had the album, I thought it would be good to note what an amazing album this was back in its prime. Birdsongs of the Mesozoic are a band from Boston, Massachussets who have been active Continue Reading

Vadim Neselovskyi – Odesa: A Musical Walk Through a Legendary City

Odessa is a city that both Ukraine and Russia, as well as its many Jewish and even Tatar inhabitants, claim to be its own.  Never mind the political hideousness of today, and let me present you with one of the most fascinating releases I’ve heard in contemporary classical and jazz Continue Reading

Be The Hammer & JOHN 3:16 – Swarm

Our friend JOHN 3:16 (a quote I subscribe to as well as a band whose work is consistently brilliant) has paired with the Belgian project Be The Hammer and the pairing have produced an album that, while fresh and brutally punchy technologically, also has a flair for reminding the listener Continue Reading

Samo Salamon, Arild Andersen & Ra Kalam Bob Moses – Pure and Simple

This is some fine jazz improv.  The trio of a friend to this blog, guitarist Samo Salamon, working alongside bassist and ECM Records legend Arild Andersen and Ra Kalam Bob Moses, and this group have an incredible way of flowing with each other’s vibes. Samo, of course, absolutely shreds on Continue Reading

Jeff Gburek – Tamarind Winds: Songs for Javanese Rebab, 2022

Tamarind Winds has to be the best album of 2022 for me to get lost in.  Composer and friend of the blog Jeff Gburek continues to awe with the magic he imbues in each instrument he touches, spinning haunting drones, field recordings and soothing the senses with his rebab.  From Continue Reading

Pyroclastic – Welcome To The Abusement Park

Sometimes it’s an absolute pleasure to take a stroll down memory lane.  My friend Ryant Reeleyes, who worked with Los Angeles legends Jugend Staat many years ago, never gave up the aggro-Industrial-techno bug, and has kept the spirit of bands like Skinny Puppy and Front 242 alive. The album is Continue Reading

Dirk Fock (composer), Irene Maessen, Mattijs van de Woerd, Maurice Lammerts van Bueren – Songs and Sketches

Dirk Fock was a Dutch-American pianist with a very interesting musical history, including working with Richard Strauss.  From the Bandcamp site: Dirk Fock (1886-1973) In 1945 the Dutch-born conductor and composer Dirk Fock (also: Foch) became an American citizen. Before that – during the interwar years – he conducted many Continue Reading

Nechochwen – Algonkian Mythos

While reading Bandcamp Daily on my feed, I came across a black metal band out of West Virginia called Nechochwen.  The article is enlightening, but it got me interested in exploring their music a bit deeper.  This particular album, Algonkian Mythos, is technically a ‘metal’ album, but it is so Continue Reading

Western Standard Time Ska Orchestra – Unshackled​/​Bedouin Ska

Here is an impressively authentic-sounding ska coming to us from Los Angeles, California (my home town).  The Western Standard Time Ska Orchestra boast of combining Jamaica’s greatest contribution to the world and a big-band sound.  They pull this combination off flawlessly, and they must have one very impressive live act Continue Reading