Nick Cave wrestles with the darkest parts of the human experience in Wild God, churning up doubt and fear and grief and blasphemy from the muck at the bottom and distilling it, somehow, into transcending clarity. A meditation on humankind’s first crime—the murder of Abel—turns into a rhapsody over frogs jumping up in the rain.
Author: Justin Gage
Werther :: 1970 S/T
A fine fit for the coming turn of the season, Brazilian singer and guitarist Werther’s 1970 self-titled album is a warm and inviting document of gentle, airy bossa-nova, the music lively and eclectic with folk and Tropicália inflections and adorned with sumptuous orchestral arrangements and choral gatherings.
Nick Lowe :: Indoor Safari
It’s a joyous comfort to know that Nick Lowe is still at it. With a title and appearance harkening back to archetypal exotica motifs, Indoor Safari is the musician’s first full length since a seasonal offering over a decade ago. In many ways, it’s a culmination of Lowe’s prolific solo career being revamped when he began touring with instrumental surf outfit Los Straitjackets as his backing band.
Steve Brenner :: Signals (1985)
Independently released in 1985, Steve Brenner’s Signals is a dark and haunted electronic voyage through a future that never happened. A multifaceted composite of synths and drum machines, Signals has been called everything from “Ferrari-crime music” to “space-rock.” We shed some light on the album’s ominous history and anachronistic music.
Six Organs of Admittance :: Companion Rises (Twig Harper Remix)
Six Organs’ Ben Chasny handed over the keys to Twig Harper for this remix album, giving the noise/electronic experimenter total freedom to remake his 2020 album Companion Rises. The result is something entirely different in this reconfiguration; its warm, clear guitars, its eerie, attenuated vocals, even its forays into digital noise and dissonance have morphed beyond recognition.
Otis Shanty :: Up On The Hill
On their sophomore album, On the Hill, the quartet combines the shaggy dilettantism of ’90s indie rock with the pristine haze of earlier shoegaze bands, looking for new things to make with old tools.
MJ Lenderman :: Manning Fireworks
2022’s Boat Songs propelled North Carolina string-bender MJ Lenderman into the vernacular. A marriage of witty lyrics, twanging guitars, and indie pomp with a mountain drawl delivery and a grungy attitude. Since, Lenderman has been bouncing about and building up a reputation as a spontaneous livewire guitarist when placed in front of a crowd. In between all of this – somehow – he has pieced together a record of significant growth. Manning Fireworks not only showcases the further-honed guitar pyrotechnics Lenderman is becoming best known for but displays his notable development as a literate songwriter with a 21st century lilt.
Virtual Dreams II :: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999
Circumventing the music collector mania of Japan at the height of the acid house fever of the 1990s, these minimal tracks, based on sharp silken hi-hats and psychedelic space-age phasers, add a new twist to the history of the Detroit genre at the same time that they sound as contemporary as any new work by Actress, Jon Hopkins, or Pantha du Prince.
YAI :: Sky Time
The duo of multi-instrumentalist David Lackner and percussionist and engineer John Thayer met while working on Arp’s fourth world revivalist masterpiece Zebra. Their group YAI takes that album’s treated jazz instrumentation and squirming electronics and reinforces them with throbbing beats and deep dub bass tones. The result, Sky Time, lands somewhere between ambient jazz and the chillout room.
Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: September 2024
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, Wilcox kicks things off with an exploration of the Setting sound, drawing from the improv-based North Carolina group’s recent releases, plus some side-trips into the trio’s various other projects. Then, DePasquale shares a sweet mix of recent 2024 digs, both new + archival. Sunday, 4-6pm PT.
Fievel Is Glauque :: Rong Weicknes
Fievel is Glauque is as pop as ever in their new single “As Above So Below,” from Rong Weickness, their forthcoming album. The frenetic chord changes and Stereolab meets Tori Kudo meets Guillermo Klein aesthetic are still there, but now Ma Clement’s honey-waxed high notes are allowed more space to shine, favored by the tight production and arrangement of the track.
Amelia Courthouse :: Broken Things
On her second album under her Amelia Courthouse moniker, Leah Toth crafts a work of American hauntology. Wrought with church organ, field recordings, ambient hiss and a faded hymnal, the stark and lovely broken things is curiously permeated by religion’s absences and presences.
Ginger Root :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Ahead of forthcoming record SHINBANGUMI, Ginger Root joins us to discuss the musical and visual world building that went into the endeavor. Drawing on new horizons as well as the pastiche of eighties City Pop and vintage soul, we explore a deep dive into the musician and filmmaker’s meticulously crafted cinematic world. Plus, recording drums in a dusty karaoke bar and the importance of Glen Campbell covers.
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.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W
Johnny Smith feat. Stan Getz :: Moonlight In Vermont (1956)
Released in 1956 by Royal Roost, Moonlight in Vermont shines the brightest when it allows itself to breathe — to play in the relaxed tempos of ballads, when Smith’s technical precision can coalesce with his delicate touch.