With the release of the Chocolate and Cheese (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) earlier this month, the inimitable duo of Gene and Dean dug deep into their archives (i.e. a contractor bag of old cassette tapes and DATs) to share “fifteen previously unreleased demos of classic and soon-to-be classic tracks,” alongside a remaster of the original C&C. The remasters are fine, as clear and crisp as one would expect – but the headline here is the new tunes.
Author: Justin Gage
Jennifer Castle :: Lucky #8
Jennifer Castle has been in communion with the cosmos for as long as we’ve been listening, and certainly for at least a little while longer than that. On “Lucky #8,” the lead single from her forthcoming new album, Camelot, she emerges as an ambassador for celestial divinity—leaping in song in celebration of its ability to liberate us of our existential dread, almost parental in its omniscient embrace.
Fuubutsushi :: Meridians
Try a little tenderness! Fuubutsushi’s Meridians invites the listener into a sound world where gentleness is a strength, where delicacy speaks volumes. A wonderful sprawl across two LPs, the album’s 15 tracks patiently unfold and unfurl, finding a remarkably fertile middle ground between the rich interplay of Bill Evans’ classic early 1960s trio and Chicago’s exploratory post-rock scene of the mid-1990s.
Keanu Nelson :: Wilurarrakutu
This week sees the Mississippi Records reissue of last year’s revelatory, Keanu Nelson album Wilurarrakutu to a worldwide audience. Nelson is an aboriginal Australian from Papunya, a remote community northwest of Alice Springs, and for this album he recorded himself freely singing his own poems over template Casio beats. Expect simple reggaes, apotheotic synthpop ballads, and new age devotional hymns.
Søren Skov Orbit :: Adrift
Released by Frederiksberg Records, the Danish label that recently reissued landmark multi-genre Scandivanian artists like Klaus Schonning and Karin Liungman, Soren Skov Orbit’s Adrift feels like it fits right in while also extending the eclectic, adventurous fusion styles of Pekka Pohjola or Jan Garbarek, who similarly saw jazz as a means for reimagining other musical traditions: Ethiopian harmonies, Balkan melodies, Jamaican rhythms, Archie Shepp, Yusef Lateef and whatever else can filter the broken geometries of jazz through a silky folk noir.
The Medium :: City Life
Like the venerable touchstones of golden seventies pop, the strength of Nashville four-piece The Medium lies firmly in their established songcraft. On their promising sophomore effort For Horses, the band melded their confident baroque pop with a rousing dose of guitar-driven melodies. Curiously, the title of new record City Life represents a bit of a mirage.
Miles Davis :: Rated X
“Rated X” lacks the monumental sound collage quality of its taped compatriots. The quick (for this era of Miles) seven-minute tune leans into a minimal chaos, almost as if In a Silent Way was recorded in the depths of hell. What begins in disarray slowly becomes the most cohesive thing you’ve ever heard.
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)
Painted dreams. 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
Pat Metheny :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Pat Metheny continues to innovate. At the same time, having just turned 70, his work has become more reflective, looking back at absent friends, bygone mentors and old songs, and considering how they shaped — and continue to shape — him. Entering the sixth decade of his career Metheny continues to make boundary-blind music that, though clearly in touch with a wealth of traditions both orthodox and esoteric, is unmistakably his own.
Neil Young’s Archives Vol. III :: 16 Unreleased Highlights
Look, it’s just too big. Weighing in at 17 compact discs (198 tracks!) and five Blu-Rays (11 films!), Neil Young’s upcoming Archives Vol. III box set is a monster that we’ll be grappling with for years to come. Covering the songwriter’s ridiculously prolific / ridiculously divergent span of 1976 to 1987, Vol. III can’t really be summed up in a meaningful way in one cursory review. So, what we’ve got here is a little addendum to Takes, the 16-track Vol. III sampler — 16 more unreleased highlights that give a hint of the treasures in store.
Caetano Veloso :: Bicho
Recorded in 1977 following a performance at the Negro Festival of Art and Culture in Lagos and a month immersed in the city with his comrade Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso’s Bicho is a shimmering and rapturous entry in the Brazilian legend’s indelible catalog, one in which the influence of African culture, particularly Jùjú music, coalesces stunningly with funky, orchestral MPB, jazz-laced lounge, and soulful cosmic folk.
Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: August 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 kicks off with Wilcox’s mix of sunset laments and armchair boogies, followed by DePasquale’s selection of city pop, MPB, and jazz-funk. Sunday, 4-6pm PT.
Count Ossie and the Rasta Family :: Man From Higher Heights
If you’re wondering where to head after Dadawah and Heart of the Congos, this ain’t a bad next step. Man from Higher Heights is a roots reggae jammer shrouded in mystery. It’s potent brew of reverent nyabinghi rhythms, synth, brass, and sinuous fuzz guitar will elevate you above the heat and humid murk to your own higher heights.
“Blue” Gene Tyranny :: Real Life and the Movies Volume 1
Unseen Worlds is reissuing Real Life and the Movies Volume 1, a 1981 cassette previously published through Tyranny’s collaborative private press. Spanning a 25-year period of his varied compositional experiments, the themes enclosed all blend cinematographic excerpts and American cultural miscellanea into a single, unified aesthetic.
Library Music Series 1 & 2: Crime / Oceanography
2-Headed Deer, the label that recently gained notability releasing records by jazz experimentalists like Misha Panfilov and the Organic Pulse Ensemble, has just released the first two albums in a series inspired by European Library Music labels like KPM, CAM and Music De Wolfe. The first, Crime, by the Milan-based band Larry Manteca, replicates 1970s Italian b-movie soundtracks, while the second, Oceanography, produced by Chris Stullenberg under the alias of New Library Sound, pays respect to Jacques Cousteau documentaries, with liquid-like analog modular synths and sound effects recombining to evoke marine life and underwater exploration.