New tunes for a new year! While the status / coolness of Bandcamp as a corporate entity is in flux, the platform itself remains in fine form for the time being — even Bandcamp Fridays seem to be rolling forward in 2024 (the next one hits on Feb. 2). Wherever you get your music and however you choose to support artists, dig in here for some recent / recommended zones.
Author: Justin Gage
The Secret Hemisphere: New Age, Fusion and Fourth World, 1970-2002
Fourth world music belongs to an occult geography. This is by design. When the late trumpeter and composer Jon Hassell coined the term, he conceived of it as “an attempt to create a kind of musical scenery which is not entirely ‘primitive,’ not entirely ‘future’ but someplace impossible to locate either chronologically or geographically.”
There is no atlas to the fourth world. The best that we can offer is something like a star chart. You may have to draw the constellations yourselves, out of lines connecting ECM jazz to phase music, woolly hippie cult rock to a thousand forgotten new age cassettes. Navigate by those for now. You’ll get somewhere eventually. Here’s a compass.
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean :: Bob Dylan | Highway 49 Revisited
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean is a recurring series exploring classic Bob Dylan bootlegs from the CD era. Before broadband internet, YouTube, and bottomless hard drives overflowing with FLACs, many Dylan fans relied on the grey market to gain entry into the world of unreleased Dylan. This series celebrates those tangible treasures and wonders: “What’s lost when you can have it all?”
Now playing: Highway 49 Revisited (1976)
House Band :: Aventurine
Evoking electric era Miles and krauty minimalism, House Band unites players known for their work with Cat Power, Tim Heidecker, and Grateful Shred with Brian Harding of Philm for a stalwart, funk and dub obsessed psych odyssey—improvised in the moment and preserved for your zoned-out listening pleasure.
The Kate Bush Christmas Special feat. Peter Gabriel (1979)
Amongst the plethora of classic televised Christmas specials are lesser-known outliers that haven’t become ubiquitous holiday viewing. Case in point: The Kate Bush Christmas Special (1979).
The Aquarium Drunkard Radio Holiday Nog Spectacular
Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.
Tonight, suit up, it’s Aquarium Drunkard’s annual seasonal spectacular.
Videodrome :: Metropolitan (1990)
In Metropolitan, The Ghost of Christmas Past and The Ghost of Christmas Future are the same, and the characters are so caught up in their bubble of affluence that they fail to reckon with The Ghost of Christmas Present.
Songs of Christmas, Midwinter, & New Year :: From the Alan Lomax Collection
Hark! The arrival of a late in the year gift: Songs of Christmas, Midwinter & New Year: From the Alan Lomax Collection. Collecting material the legendary archivist recorded in the Caribbean, Italy, Spain, Scotland, the American South, and Harlem, this compilation presents a variety of Yuletide sounds, both playful and sacred, from around the globe.
Celtic Guru :: Van Morrison In The 80s | Irish Heartbeat
In many ways, Irish Heartbeat was Van Morrison’s reawakening. He was opening himself up once more to the idea of collaborating; giving up the singular vision which he had been pursuing for a collective one. This also spawned a reawakening in the public eye. Though Morrison seemed able to confer directly with his core audience with any output, it was this record that grabbed the ears of the masses once more.
Warner Jepson :: Buchla Christmas
For those who’ve reached their sanity threshold for cloying Christmas fare, here is an album that will wipe the screen clean. An ethereal, odd masterpiece from 1969 — “Buchla Christmas” by the fascinating Warner Jepson, electronic musician and video art pioneer.
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PST, Channel 35)
Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays. Tonight’s broadcast is culled entirely from our 2023 Year In Review …
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W
First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 12
Welcome to the twelfth installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
As autumn fades into the quiet embrace of winter, immerse yourself in the hushed tones of acoustic introspection, where each note invokes the stillness of the changing seasons.
Aquarium Drunkard :: 2023 Year in Review
Looking back to look ahead. It’s our Year In Review 2023. As always, our list is unranked and unruly. Let it blurb.
Aquarium Drunkard exists because of the passion of its contributors and the support of its generous Patreon community, so consider pledging your support as we ring in the new year. If Aquarium Drunkard improves your listening life, the Patreon is the best way to reciprocate. Only the good shit, now, then, and the unspecified moments in-between.
Thandi Ntuli :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Rainbow Revisited was recorded over the course of two sessions in 2019, between Ntuli’s grand 2018 epic Exiled and last year’s shimmering Blk Elijah & The Children of Meroë. An accomplished bandleader, Ntuli might never have recorded a collection of solo tracks had percussionist/producer/sorcerer Carlos Niño not reached out after seeing a video of her warming up.
Wes Montgomery And The Wynton Kelly Trio :: Maximum Swing
While three records and six sides of music sourced from radio airchecks and audience tapes might sound a little excessive to some, Maximum Swing delivers on its promise. It fleshes out the picture from the famed Smokin’ at the Half Note record and shows it wasn’t just a lone night of musical inspiration. And while this group has been documented elsewhere – 2017’s Smokin’ In Seattle, for example – this is a good chance to hear them on their home turf and for an appreciative crowd. It’s another welcome piece to the Montgomery canon, and another example that he didn’t settle down into pop-jazz in the last years of his life.