Loosely rooted in classical jazz, the experimental soundtrack work of Croatian composer Tomislav Simović was an integral part of Zagreb’s innovative midcentury animation. Heavily inspired by the stylized, anti-Disney conceptual and visual sentiment of modernist American studio UPA, the “Zagreb School” was nothing short of a creative powerhouse. Sourced from their original reel-to-reel master tapes, these lively eighteen snapshots brought to life such animated films that otherwise featured no dialogue or spoken dialogue.
Author: Justin Gage
Smoke :: Everything
In this day and age, very few albums are truly lost. Some just get misplaced. Take Bay area jazz band Smoke’s 1973 album Everything, an album that should be universally acknowledged as a stone-cold classic of groove music and proto-acid jazz and yet seldom gets mentioned. A half-century later, it still sounds fresh. Spacey, funky and ambient in turn, Everything managed to anticipate so much of where twenty-first century jazz has recently wound up.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: L’Eclair
Earlier this summer the Geneva, Switzerland based L’Eclair released their fourth LP, Cloud Drifter, via our neighborhood friends down the hill at Innovative Leisure. We’ve been following the Swiss outfit since Frank Maston turned us onto them in 2019 when the group supported his stateside tour, and later recorded the 2021 collaborative album, Souvenir. For their debut Lagniappe Session, L’Eclair reimagines some 1979 disco heat via Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell,” embrace the street soul of Lisa Baron’s 1990 “Lovin N Affection,” and engage with something more recent in the form of Beach House’s now decade-old “Space Song.”
Water From Your Eyes :: It’s A Beautiful Place
This is the duo’s follow-up to the break-out Everybody’s Crushed, a cubist’s abstraction of rock music that you could dance to. It’s a Beautiful Place feels a bit more assured than its predecessor, a bit less confrontational, but still thrillingly volatile. Think Sonic Youth in a blender, Stereolab dodging shrapnel or Deerhoof with a chilly post-punk attitude, and you’re getting there, but no other band is doing exactly this right now.
Star Moles :: Snack Monster
On Snack Monster, Philadelphia-based artist Emily Moales sets out to explore a self-described “medieval via 1960s folk troubadour” ethos. A literary concept album pipeline inspired by the writings of twelfth century French author Andreas Capellanus, the record glimmers with the most charming benchmarks of Tascam-recorded, warbly bedroom pop. It’s a deliberately stripped down detour compared to previous Star Moles offerings, eschewing synthesizers for a romanticism in the paired down nylon string guitar and vocals.
Dog Days of Aquarium Drunkard
The heliacal rising of Sirius around late July traditionally marks the start of the dog days of summer. For the astrologically-minded, it begins an ill-omened period of drought and sickness. For the rest of us, it is simply hot and muggy. Either way, the antidote is probably about the same: shade, a cold beverage and some good music. We asked the AD crew, once again, to tell us what they were spinning in the high summer sun. What we got back has everything you need to beat the heat.
Dig in. The temperature is high. The air is muggy. The cicadas are deafening. And the stars are against us. All the more reason to make sure the vibes remain immaculate.
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)
Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays. No static at all.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W
Kenny Barron :: Lucifer
Word that pianist Kenny Barron’s 1973 debut as leader Sunset to Dawn was getting a welcome reissue this year sent us back to some of his other releases from that period. Most intriguing among them is his ultra-rare, never-reissued 1975 fusion experiment Lucifer, an album that mixes acid funk, sensitive balladeering, synthesizer experiments and queasy psychedelia. Practically impossible to acquire but eminently worth hearing, Barron never sounded as freaky as he does here.
Up In My Mind: An August Mixtape
One hundred and twenty-seven minutes of strange and mercurial music – slow burning, sprawling, smoggy, and ephemeral. 60s Kenyan folk and Thai garage rock; late 70s drum machine gospel from Inkster, Michigan, and private press psych from the Pacific Northwest; mid 80s Congolese electronic soul and Senegalese art-funk; Zambian highlife circa 1991 and experimental computer music made in a juvenile detention center in modern day Albuquerque. The same Hawa Daisy Moore mp3 files that were used in the inaugural Blue August Moon eleven years ago – the crackling tropical oasis showing signs of increased deterioration. These are just some of the sounds that Up In My Mind—the latest edition of our August mixtape—is steeped in. An irregular late summer tradition, but ever an occasion to look up, zoom in, and zone out.
You’re Future’s In Space: Eddie Harris on Atlantic (A Mixtape)
From the late 60s through the mid-70s, Eddie Harris indulged in a string of progressively freakier, beautifully executed records that smeared boundaries, blew minds and sold poorly. This mixtape collects two and a half hours of the most adventurous moments from those heady Atlantic days.
Prairiewolf :: Upslope Brewing Company, Boulder, CO (7/5/25)
While Phish was playing a three-day run at Folsom Field at the University of Colorado this past Fourth of July weekend, the cats in Prairiewolf were playing an epic two-hour set at a brewery on the other side of Boulder. A pristine recording of the show catches them unspooling their already-potent album tracks into stretched-out improvisational odysseys.
Various Artists :: Maybe I’m Dreaming
With twenty selections culled from private press relics only, Maybe I’m Dreaming is a grab bag that feels as congruous as it does eclectic. From the Anthology Recordings diggers who brought you essential previous compilations like Sad About The Times, this collection is a self-described conscious detour, pairing synth-driven gems and reggae rhythms with rootsy AOR folk rock. Like a mixtape from a reliable old friend, Maybe I’m Dreaming feels curated with purpose and delivered with a panoramic reach.
Blake Mills & Pino Palladino :: That Wasn’t A Dream
That Wasn’t A Dream, the new album by Blake Mills & Pino Palladino, was recorded in a series of live sessions at Sound City Studios, and works like a redux jazz version of Mills atmospheric, cinematic, dream-like aesthetics, best showcased in his 2023 slow indie gem Jelly Road.
Sunking :: I Don’t Like My Telephone
A spin-off of adventurous jazz fusion band High Pulp, sunking prioritizes brief, transient grooves and restless rhythms. On their third album, the trio enlists guest vocalists from their native L.A. scene and cuts down on their previous sprawl. Hazy, chewy, curious and cool, sunking has made an album for endless weird summers, ideal for indoor living, tiny twilights and evening escapades.
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)
Tropical orientation. Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays. No static at all.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W