Gardner picks up his guitar again for the amiably shaggy Flowers in Space, an album of four low-key liquid jams that all stretch out around the ten-minute mark. Recorded at the same 2019 Black Dirt sessions featured on Gardner’s excellent 2021 self-titled solo cassette, Flowers in Space further demonstrates the guitarist’s virtual telepathy with bassist Andy Cush (of Garcia Peoples) and drummer Ryan Jewell (of pretty much everything). It was unexpected treat to get another slab of sympathetic magic from what amounts to a veritable dad psych supergroup.
Author: Justin Gage
MV & EE :: Green Ark
Breathe deep the sonorous vapor that riseth from Green Ark, the latest from everyone’s favorite wooly, woodland wielders of the vibe eternal, MV & EE. After a brief (and prolific) detour with Wet Tuna, Green Ark synthesizes the last two decades of MV & EE’s various guises and iterations into a singular philosophy of sound, launching them on a new course to the far flung reaches of their Spectrasound universe.
Catching Up with SQÜRL (Jim Jarmusch & Carter Logan)
Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan’s SQÜRL has been around for 14 years, but Silver Haze marks the duo’s long-player debut. They join us to discuss working with producer Randall Dunn, guests Charlotte Gainsbourg, Anika, and Marc Ribot, and the influence of poet John Ashbery.
Okonski :: Magnolia
Via Asheville, NC, the pensive piano jazz stylings of Steve Okonski. File under nocturne. Released earlier this year, Magnolia’s atmospheric impetus initially stemmed from a late night session in the winter of 2020 followed up by a second week of sessions the following summer. All improvised and recorded live to a Tascam 388, the trio’s (pianist Okonski, double bassist Michael Isvara Montgomery and drummer Aaron Frazer) interplay feels both intuitive and effortless.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Healing Potpourri
Released last year, Healing Potpourri’s Paradise came across like an introspective deep dive, drawing upon all that inspired the band’s orchestral brew of infectious chamber pop. The recording project of Bay Area multi-instrumentalist Simi Sohota and collaborators, the group’s inaugural Lagniappe Session dives head first into these avant-pop sensibilities.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Gabriel da Rosa
Shaping up to be one of our most played albums this spring, Gabriel da Rosa made his full-length debut in February with É O Que A Casa Oferece, courtesy of Stones Throw Records. Sounding like a lost seventies samba album, from the likes of Paulinho da Viola or Martinho da Vila, da Rosa makes his Lagniappe debut via a pair of Brazilian staples: Geraldo Pereira and Tom Jobim with Vinícius de Moraes.
Don’t This Look Like the Dark :: On Magnolia Electric Co.’s Sojourner
A decade ago, alone in his Indianapolis apartment, Jason Molina died, his body no longer able to keep up with what it kept calling for. Seven years prior to his death he was a man on fire. His creative process was fueled by a recognition of darkness, resulting in incredibly confessional and stark albums.
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
Fridge :: Happiness (Anniversary Edition)
Fridge’s masterpiece Happiness dropped in September 2001. And like Tortoise’s American flag-stamped Standards from earlier that year, it was one of the last great missives from post-rock’s salad days. Revisiting it at two decades’ remove, one still hears the work of ingenious and relentless tinkerers.
Transmissions :: Jana Horn
This week on Transmissions, we’re joined by writer and musician Jana Horn. Her new album The Window is the Dream is out now on No Quarter Records. Writing about it, Andy French at Raven Sings The Blues calls it, a “delicate exfoliation of dream and reality.” When she’s not penning oracular folk rock songs, Horn teaches fiction at the University of Virginia and writes short fiction. She joins us to discuss it all.
Kahil El’Zabar: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Kahil El’Zabar has worked as a bandleader and collaborated with Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Dizzy Gillespie. With his latest album, Spirit Gatherer: A Tribute to Don Cherry, El’Zabar is once again joined by the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, with vocalist Dwight Trible of the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, and multi-instrumentalist and son of the album’s namesake, David Ornette Cherry. Celebrating jazz luminary Don Cherry, the album is beautiful in its spatial depth, brevity, and intimacy, three attributes clearly set upon with masterful intention.
The Velvet Underground :: Fully Re-Loaded
10 tunes were chosen for Loaded, each one a perfect pop miniature. The album is famous for its unparalleled one-two punch of “Sweet Jane” and “Rock & Roll,” of course. But that’s just the beginning of its delights. There’s also the twilit balladry of “I Found A Reason,” the choogling groove of “Train Round the Bend,” the garage rock abandon of “Head Held High,” and the slow, sad sway of “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’.” Slyest of all is the groovy opener, “Who Loves the Sun,” which wouldn’t have sounded out of place next to the Archies on Lou’s beloved AM radio.
The Upsetter Director Adam Bhala Lough on Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Supernatural Will
“Without a doubt, there was something mystical and magical going on with Lee Perry.” Co-director Adam Bhala Lough joins us to discuss his film, The Upsetter: The Life & Music of “Lee” Scratch Perry and what he learned from his time with the late dub pioneer and artist.
Mystic 100s :: On A Micro Diet
If a friend were to inform me that a psychedelic band had just held up a convenience store, seized a Fed Ex truck, and were now currently at large and on the lam, my first guess would be that the perpetrators were the members of Mystic 100s. Like their hardcore punk forebears, the group’s music often sounds like the work of unpredictable and dangerous people.
Os Tincoãs :: Canto Coral Afrobrasileiro
In the 1970s, Os Tincoãs released three of the most revered and unique records of Brazilian music, which crystallized translucid vocal melodies on top of the polyrhythmic percussion patterns of Afro-Brazilian ritualistic music. Now, more than forty years after their last album, Sanzala Cultural has just released Canto Coral Afrobrasileiro, a collection of the trio’s recordings from 1982/83.