Author: Justin Gage

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Rich Ruth

Posted on

Earlier this year saw the return of Rich Ruth via the Nashville based artist’s third long-player, Water Still Flows, an album we described as “absolutely audacious in its musical fusions and amalgamations… a woozy kaleidoscope of spiritual jazz, post-rock, chiming minimalism, Berlin school synth sequencers, metal and drone.” For this installment of the Lagniappe Sessions, Michael Ruth and co. reimagine the Boognish via a cover of Ween’s “A Tear For Eddie,” and take on Black Sabbath outlier “Planet Caravan,” via the band’s sophomore effort, 1970’s Paranoid.

All Hallows’ Aquarium Drunkard

Posted on

What does an American Halloween in the year of our lord 2024 sound like? Everyone rings in the spooky season differently. Some people want some melancholy goth rock, others need novelty record exploitation trash. Some people want to draw the shades and build Berlin school synthesizer cathedrals in the air. And some just need to howl ‘Werewolves of London’ at the top of their lungs. It’s all good. We asked some of the contributors to tell us how they’re soundtracking All Hallows. What we got back comprises a monster playlist suitable for apple-bobbing, axe-sharpening and keeping the dark spirits happy.

Elias Rønnenfelt :: Heavy Glory

Posted on

Elias Rønnenfelt, lead singer of the Danish punk dismantlers Iceage and the art rock prophets of Marching Church, has just released his first solo record, Heavy Glory. It features Joanne Robertson and FAUZIA and includes cover homages to Townes van Zandt and Spacemen 3. Where the early Iceage works were collections of punchy, dry, martial miniatures, this solo album seems to triumphantly conclude Rønnenfelt’ conversion from godless hardcore to gnostic americana.

Nap Eyes :: The Neon Gate

Posted on

Arriving after a four-year gap, the latest album from the acerbic Canadian indie rock band reveals a group in a state of graceful turmoil and artistic ferment. A work of stoned eschatology involving Yeats, Pushkin and a jet-ski-racing game for the N64, The Neon Gate finds Nap Eyes scattered but not disenchanted, committed to finding new ways to sound exactly like themselves.

Bob Dylan And The Band :: The 1974 Live Recordings

Posted on

If the people behind Bob Dylan’s new 1974 Live Recordings had a sense of humor, the set would come plastered with a sticker reading: “FOR SICKOS ONLY.” With 27 discs containing 431 performances (more than 24 hours!) drawn from Dylan and the Band’s hotly anticipated return to the stage in early ‘74, it’s a massive archival haul aimed at the ridiculously obsessed, the hopeless completist. If that’s not you, stick to the three-LP “highlights” release from Third Man. But if you’re like us and love this kind of deep immersion in a very specific Dylan era, you gotta get the whole thing. Admit it: you’re a sicko, too.

Laurence Vanay :: Galaxies

Posted on

Like so many lost seventies relics, there’s a level of mystery wrapped up in underground French masterpiece Galaxies. In fact, the “Laurence Vanay” name itself is a pseudonym of multi-instrumentalist Jacqueline Thibault. Released in 1974, Galaxies has largely been siloed in prog-adjacent music circles, but with so many colorful textures at play here, a broader scale reappraisal is more than warranted.

Jennifer Castle :: Letting The Songs Out

Posted on

“I don’t want to teach anybody anything with a song. I’m not trying to steer anybody towards anything with a song. I’m not trying to be manipulative. I’m trying to let it out,” she says. “I must want it to come into being, so I just try to let it out as honestly as I can and then work from there.”

Jim White :: A Banner Year

Posted on

Let’s hear it for Jim White! The drummer has been having a hell of a year. He got back together with the Dirty Three, he released his first solo album, the playful/absorbing All Hits: Memories; he put out a new duo record with the fantastic guitarist Marisa Anderson; he showed up on Ned Collette, Bill Callahan and Myriam Gendron’s latest masterpieces. And just this month, the Hard Quartet released their excellent s/t debut.

To celebrate Jim’s sound, dig into a small sampling of tracks that the drummer has appeared on over the past several months.

Jamaica to Toronto: Soul, Funk & Reggae 1967-1974

Posted on

Light in the Attic is set to reissue their stellar 2008 compilation of Caribbean-influenced music from the late 60s and early 70s Toronto music scene as selected and annotated by Kevin “Sipreano” Howes. This new, deluxe pressing comes with a 20-page booklet featuring detailed bios, essays, and archival photos that further reveal the backstage of this extremely fecund scene of soul, funk, disco, R&B, and reggae.

Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: October 2024

Posted on

Freeform transmissions from Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab. Airing every third Sunday of the month, RFAD on dublab features the pairing of Tyler Wilcox’’s Doom and Gloom from the Tomb and Chad DePasquale’s New Happy Gathering. This month, Chad kicks things off with a moody, drifting mix of avant-garde, ambient music, downtempo pop & soul. Wilcox follows it up with a selection of 2024 tracks that all feature Dirty Three drummer extraordinaire Jim White. Sunday, 4-6pm PT.

Chu Kosaka :: Arigato

Posted on

Chu Kosaka’s Arigato is wide-open pastoral bliss. The natural extension of Happy End with a bit more of a singer-songwriter orientation, Kosaka pieces together what could be the finest example of American country rock through the lens of a Japanese perfectionism. Don’t let that fool you. The tunes are loose.

Adele Sebastian :: Desert Fairy Princess

Posted on

The lone album from Adele Sebastian, a member of Horace Tapscott’s Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra who died way to young, Desert Fairy Princess looks back at the fundamentals of spiritual jazz even as it blazes its own path. Sebastian, a flutist and occasional singer, cedes the spotlight to other composers and her band on her debut as a leader, showcasing her belief in community, conversation and group interplay. The result is a small masterpiece of open-hearted introspection and playful challenge, a declaration of faith and a question left unanswered. Like Tapscott’s Ark, it carries a message that has outlasted its creator.