• Music

    Jeff Gburek – Still Life with a Question Mark

    January 1, 2024 - By 

    No wishes, no hopes for the year, just a pleasant way to gently slide into 2024.  We launch with Jeff Gburek’s latest release, of which he provides notes on his Bandcamp site: “Still Life with a Question Mark came together as an album rather quickly after I discovered loops unused from an older project fit very well with the latest work I’d done in seclusion at Dom Sztuk, Kęszyca. Captures of VLF radio (ionospheric geomagnetic crackling impulses), hydrophone recordings from Solacz pond, frame drums, zither played with ebow, looped guitar and string passages, synthesizer, shortwave radio, textures of leaves, wood,…

  • Music

    Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang – Azure

    December 19, 2023 - By 

    Two masters of drone at their peak after two decades of collaboration.  From the duo’s Bandcamp site: “Since beginning to work together as a duo in the early 2000s, Kang and Kenney have collaborated on sound installations, music for orchestra, choir, and mixed ensembles in addition to releasing numerous widely acclaimed full-lengths: Aestuarium (2005), The Face Of The Earth (2012), Live In Iceland (2013), At Temple Gate (2014), Reverse Tree (2016), Seva (2017), The Cypress Dance (2020). A hypnotic return to the duo’s unique expression of “unison music”, Azure is among Kenney and Kang’s most pared-down efforts in more than…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Magnificent Sounds Records: A Chant About the Beauty of the Moon at Night: Hawaiian Steel Guitar Masters 1913-1921

    December 8, 2023 - By 

    Magnificent Sounds Records is a record label out of Buffalo, New York, and they specialize in rare archival recordings and remastering music from a century ago in a lot of cases.  From this magnificent compilation of Hawaiian music, you can read the promo quote on the label’s Bandcamp site. “A collection of rare original recordings, unheard for over a century, of captivating Hawaiian steel guitar music that influenced the first generation of Delta blues and country artists, changing the sound of music forever. Ghostly transmissions from paradise, beamed across time from a lost century, carefully remastered and restored with extensive…

  • Music

    Fabiano Do Nascimento – Mundo Solo

    December 2, 2023 - By 

    The indubitable Far Out Records have produced what might be my favorite record of 2023, a guitar album by Brazilian guitarist and fellow Los Angeleno Fabiano do Nascimiento.  I’ll let the label’s crack promo team describe this absolute beauty of a record below: “Adopting Hermeto Pascoal’s concept of Universal Music, a rejection of nationalistic tendencies in order to express all of one’s musical influences all at once, Fabiano avoided leaning too heavily on any particular musical language, without denying his own musical roots. After studying classical piano as a child, the Rio de Janeiro native discovered the guitar aged 10.…

  • Music

    Pyroclastic – Life is an Illusion

    December 1, 2023 - By 

    Pyroclastic is the brainchild of former member of the Los Angeles Das Bunker Collective Ryant Takai, who was one of the few musicians promoting genres like Industrial Dance, Electronic Body Music and Power Noise.  From main member Ryant Takai’s Bandcamp site: “The second coming album focuses on the continuing of Power Noise/Rhythmic Noise roots, pays tribute to Indigenous tribal rhythms of North America, and blends in a hybrid of Dark Techno vibes. Ryant Takai is well versed in percussion and experiments in a diverse array of Bass kicks without sticking to any particular 909, 808, or any other typical digital…

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek – The Radio & The Sea

    November 25, 2023 - By 

    Jeff Gburek’s latest album is not a departure from his carefully crafter work, but a continuation of his honing sounds together, weaving them in a way that the early musique-concrète composers could not have imagined.  Drones, pulses and the sounds of Burgas, Bulgaria, are blended to produce an immersive soundscape.  Yet another fine work.

  • Music

    Earthtones & Etsegenet Mekonnen – Selam

    November 20, 2023 - By 

    This is a rather glorious single pairing American DJ Earthtones with Ethiopian singer Etsegenet Mekonnen.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: “Selam is a vision of peace. This collaboration between producer/DJ Earthtones and Ethiopian musician/vocalist Etsegenet Mekonnen features haunting vocals sung in Amharic. Analog & semi-modular synths combine with 909 drums and afrobeats percussion by Earthtones, to weave grooves for Etsegenet’s depth in songwriting, voice and soul. The main version has a dancehall bassline that calls one to movement, while the dub versions evoke mystery amidst long modulated leads + filtered pads.”