Pink Mountaintops :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Pink Mountaintops The AD InterviewPosted on

Next month sees the release of the fifth Pink Mountaintops full-length, Peacock Pools -- an eclectic, ruminative album, that reflects Stephen McBean’s long fascination with punk rock, his newer interest in free jazz and the creative ferment that can happen when talented people have time and space to experiment. “I really like this group of songs as far as an album, even though the songs are all over the place. For some reason, in my heart, it feels very cohesive . . .

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Cactus Lee :: Perfect Middle Hall

Cactus LeePosted on

Cactus Lee’s Kevin Dehan continues to release music at a relentless pace, with his new lp, Perfect Middle Hall, on the way. He’s released the title track, a piece that finds Dehan at perhaps his most stark and solemn. A picturesque snapshot born into nostalgia and a yearning for something not yet passed. Dehan strives to keep the light aglow, whisking us away to help keep watch for the gale . . .

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Mondrongo :: Acidente Feliz

MondrongoPosted on

As Mondrongo, Julio Santa Cecilia creates soothing tape music for the 21st century. Even when the textures sound digital, the structure of the tracks are tangible, organic and telluric, as if they somehow had been hand cut and glued together again within the DAW. Loops with ghostly bits of piano find loose, broken snares that are quiet and nebulous enough not to disturb the harmonic core of the songs, until they suddenly become the very center of those songs . . .

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Akira Ishikawa & His Count Buffalos :: African Rock

Akira IshikawaPosted on

Cop the groove. Unleashed back into the wild, Japanese drummer Akira Ishikawa's 1971 lp, African Rock. Working under the guise of a funky jazz excursion, its eclectic forty minute runtime is full of surprises. Expect a torrid medley of percussion, fat blasts of brass, inspired vocal weirdness, and searing electric guitar courtesy of MVP, Kimio Mizutani . . .

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Bruno Pernadas :: Those Who Throw Objects At The Crocodiles Will Be Asked To Retrieve Them

Bruno PernadasPosted on

Provenance: Lisbon, Portugal. The deal: Stereolab adjacent, atmospheric, space age vocal jazz & art pop laced with cosmic psychedelia. Composed, arranged and produced by Bruno Pernadas, at ten tracks, it’s a spacious shapeshifter of an LP . . .

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Videodrome :: Dennis Hopper in White Star

VideodromePosted on

Between 1972 and 1985, Dennis Hopper was persona non grata in mainstream Hollywood circles. As Hopper was unable to score a decent mainstream acting gig in American cinema, he headed to West Germany to appear as a disheveled and burned-out music manager in German director Roland Klick’s White Star (1984).

As a coherent film, White Star might not hang together, but it offers a lucid experience of Hopper’s dangerous, real-life psychological decay, and his own persona bleeding into his character’s wild nature . . .

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Ken Boothe :: Down By The River

Ken Boothe Reggae/DubPosted on

Are you sure Neil done it this way? Not exactly, but it’s hard to care when the results are this good. Revered reggae crooner Ken Boothe teamed up with producer Lloyd Charmer’s in the early 70s, after a decade cutting sides for a who’s-who of Jamaica’s top producers. Nestled amid covers of Syl Johnson, Marvin Gaye, and Bread on his 1975 LP Everything I Own, Boothe’s take on ol’ Shakey’s downer ‘Hey Joe’ narrative is a scorcher for the books . . .

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Posted on Ken Boothe Reggae/Dub

Unearthed, Vol. 18 :: 1992 Blend

UnearthedPosted on

A kind of prequel to a previous 90s-centric Unearthed mix, 1992 Blend takes us on a kaleidoscopic trip through what they used to call “Alternative Rock” (Or College Rock? Or Indie Rock?) via a selection of dusty-but-dynamic live tapes. This stuff may be 30 years old now, but in many ways, these sounds represent a gold standard for guitar-forward rock music, finding inspiration in the past, but with eyes still fixed on the horizon. Nevermind the Buzz Bin — dig into this . . .

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Posted on Unearthed

Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin :: Ghosted

Andreas Werliin Johan Berthling Oren AmbarchiPosted on

While the activities of the always prolific Oren Ambarchi can be tough to keep up with, definitely don’t sleep on Ghosted, his hypnotic new collab with bassist Johan Berthling and drummer Andreas Werliin. It’s a groove record at heart, but one displaying an uncommon sense of adventure and imagination . . .

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Posted on Andreas Werliin Johan Berthling Oren Ambarchi

The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)

SIRIUSPosted on

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 . . .

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AD Presents: Sonor Music Editions | Italian Library Music (A Mixtape)

MixtapesPosted on

Founded in 2013 by Lorenzo Fabrizi and Andrea Galtieri, the Rome based Sonor Music Editions focuses strictly on the world of vintage Italian Library music and original soundtracks, largely from the 1970s and early '80s. Prolific, we asked Fabrizi and Galtieri to curate a medley of sounds via their catalog, and the following mix is most definitely a vibe . . .

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Transmissions :: Sasha Frere-Jones

Podcast Sasha Frere-JonesPosted on

Writer, musician, and prolific TikToker Sasha Frere-Jones joins us on Transmissions, Aquarium Drunkard's weekly talk show podcast to discuss music criticism, listening habits, and self forgiveness. Known for his work with Ui, Body Meπa, and the ambient project Calvanist and as a writer for The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Village Voice, and dozens of other outlets, Frere-Jones can be found on the S/FJ Substack . . .

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Posted on Podcast Sasha Frere-Jones

Carl Erdmann :: Bizarrophytes

Carl ErdmannPosted on

One of those “lost” LPs that almost seems too good to be true, Carl Erdmann’s Bizarrophytes originally emerged mirage-like from the high desert of Roswell, New Mexico in the early 1980s. And like any good mirage, it disappeared quickly, having been privately pressed in an extremely small number. But after years of dodgy YouTube rips, Bizarrophytes has finally gotten a loving reissue via Morning Trip Records so that we can properly all enjoy its phase-y/hazy Kottke-esque Takoma-style rambles, UFO ragas and homespun electronic fuckery, all recorded on a Tascam 4-track reel-to-reel . . .

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Wet Sounds :: Fish Tacos

Wet SoundsPosted on

You'd be hard pressed to find a more apropos band name than Wet Sounds for an instrumental four piece exploring the framework of exotica guitar music. Proof? Look no further than new single, "Fish Tacos" -- a track that equally invokes the fantasy world of Les Baxter's utopian exotica, and Haruomi Hosono's 1978 soundscape, Pacific. Doubling down on the aquatic ambiance, the tune also feels as if it could have been part of a lost score from filmmaker Jean Painlevé's hypnotic underwater footage . . .

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The Trypes :: Music For Neighbors

The TrypesPosted on

Emerging from the fertile Haledon, NJ scene of the early 1980s, The Trypes only released one EP—1984’s Explorers Hold—before morphing into Speed The Plough. The Trypes counted various Feelies in their ranks, and while there’s plenty of common ground between the two groups, they’re much more than just a Feelies footnote, as a 40th anniversary of Music For Neighbors attests to . . .

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Posted on The Trypes