Shot out of a hyper-creative canon, Kit Sebastian (Kit Martin and Merve Erdem) landed with a formidable debut in 2019’s Mantra Moderne. Its audience held tightly to the album’s global sprawl, advocating for more ears to agree and more music to arrive. The duo’s follow-up, Melodi, answers those calls and then some. Intercontinental instrumentation is back – traversing sounds from the Cold War-era Balkans to rural South America – replete with Erdem’s versatile, multilingual voice. Delightfully dancy, impressively intricate. Melodi’s momentum delivers a confident band for their first Lagniappe Session with Martin and Erdem reimagining Turkish pop sensation Sezen Aksu and (no-introduction-needed) avant Londoners, Stereloab.
Category: Lagniappe Sessions
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Le Ren
For her debut Lagniappe Session, Le Ren’s Lauren Spears digs in on her roots—tackling country and bluegrass popular songs, the pioneering Hazel Dickens, and the forward-thinking feminism of Kitty Wells—and weaves them her own: a warm, gentle tapestry with threads growing ever new.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Liam Kazar
In our recent piece on Liam Kazar’s Due North, we noted that the Kansas City/Chicago polymath was “justifiably confident no matter the subject or style,” as the lp highlights both his croonerisms and lyrical word play. In choosing the following three tunes for his first Lagniappe Session, Kazar leans a bit more into the croon but not at the expense of variety.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Cochemea
Cochemea’s latest, Vol. 11 Baca Sewa, plays like a cosmic funk and spiritual jazz ancestral trip through time. For his first ever Lagniappe Session, Cochemea interprets Big Star’s “Kanga Roo” and Irakere’s “Danza Nañigo.”
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Myriam Gendron
For her first Lagniappe Session, Gendron sets her sights on the overlooked songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler, seventies Eno at his most hypnotic, a deep cut and long-standing favorite from her Montreal compatriot Leonard Cohen, and an unintentionally timely tribute to the recently departed Michael Chapman.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Cactus Lee
Cactus Lee’s Kevin Dehan has been keeping busy. Following the release of four long-players in the span of some eighteen months, his honky-tonk horizons are set next on the live set, Live from Dry Creek Café, in tribute to the band’s beloved Austin haunt. Rowdy, and soaked in pedal steel and Lone Stars, it shines selections from the band’s patented Texas Music in perhaps its purest form yet. We recently caught Dehan for a gorgeous full-band set at the Brooklyn-based jukebox joint Skinny Dennis, and it is with those players—Jon Catfish DeLorme on pedal steel, Russell Hymowitz on bass, and Adam Amram on drums—that he laid down his inaugural Lagniappe Session.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Uncivilized | All Chico Hamilton Set
All Chico Hamilton set. The NYC based collective interprets five tunes from the jazz drummer’s 1965 album, El Chico. A record that bandleader Tom Csatari describes as “effortless music with pulse and an eye towards the unknown”, he and his group suffuse the selections here with the same liberated and exuberantly searching ethos.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection
Not one to avoid earnestly discussing and exploring the sounds of his English influences, Cullum reached into the overflowing 60s/70s British folk bag, proffering three selections from pillars of the era in Kevin Ayers, Trees, and Bridget St. John. These deft reinterpretations are patient and affecting, each take heightened by Rae’s truly fine vocal accompaniments. Overt respect to the forebears.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Pachyman
Pachyman, the one-man dub reggae project of Pachy Garcia, is not to be slept on. Born in San Juan, PR, and now residing in Los Angeles, Garcia’s latest long-player is laced with the good shit. At a dozen tracks, it’s a roots ride of originals, all with knowing nods to the genre’s greatest innovators.
For this installment of the lagniappe sessions, we asked Garcia to riff on the inimitable Greensleeves label.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Tobacco City
For their debut Lagniappe Session, the Chicago band emits several shades of their distinct musical palette, including the wayward, burnt-out sardonicism of Warren Zevon, the AM country sheen of Female Species, the mysterious pastoralism of early 70s Dylan, and the imbibed care-free state of mind we call Jimmy Buffett.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Carlos Niño & Friends
Carlos Niño picks up on frequencies. In return, he transmits them back out into the universe. He’s built a vast body of work via radio broadcasts, intergalactic jams, and completely free sonic excursions. Openness requires listening, and Niño is an expert listener. “Frequently, I would say I’m doing some version of supercomputing, where I’m completely free in the moment and I’m also bookmarking sections I know I want to get back to,” he told us when he was a guest on our Transmissions podcast. For his first Lagniappe Session, he turns his ear to music by his friends and collaborators, Iasos and Laraaji, plus Pharoah Sanders and Joe Bonner.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Sonny & The Sunsets (Second Session)
Covering two tracks from the mighty Troggs, when asked about the band’s longevity, Sonny attests “they always felt so mysterious , and now fifty years later they seem like unknown mystics from another time. It’s the same feeling when you think about some old world mystic poet, Rasputin, or Rumi or something”.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Yuma Abe
For his debut Lagniappe Session, Tokyo-based singer-songwriter Yuma Abe cites influences and inspirations, including Devendra Banhart, who toured with his band Never Young Beach in Japan and contributes guitar to Fantasia, and Haruomi Hosono (Chu Kosaka’s former bandmate and frequent collaborator).
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Sugar Candy Mountain
Bay area duo Sugar Candy Mountain returned late last month with the release of their fourth long-player, the 13 track psych-pop that is Impression. Recorded with Papercuts’ Jason Quever, the record maintains the aesthetic touchstones of previous work, yet organically expands their sonic palette. For this installment of the Lagniappe Sessions, the group take on the nonpareil oeuvre of Serge Gainsbourg.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Robert Walter (Third Session)
Spirit Of ’70, Robert Walter’s 1996 solo debut–and collaboration with sax legend, Gary Bartz–was issued on vinyl for the first time this month. To commemorate, Walter steps up for his third Lagniappe Session in eight years. Inspired as ever, this third round finds the artist dipping into exotica, reggae, nascent rap and the jazz of Silver Cycles.