Out of print on vinyl since 1977, Bennie Maupin’s solo debut, The Jewel in the Lotus, makes its welcome return to the format this month via ECM’s Luminessence reissue series. A counterpoint to the playful funk of Hancock’s Headhunters, The Jewel in the Lotus swings the pendulum well beyond Mwansishi’s heady explorations into more earthy, deeply spiritual turf.
A true headphone journey and an aural balm for a world that’s spinning a bit too fast.
New Zealand’s cosmic jazz ensemble The Circling Sun comes forth with Orbits, the sequel to 2023’s Spirits and, like it, deftly serves up Yusef Lateef vibes on a platter. The group has all the irreverence and joy that makes spiritual jazz so compelling versus its more competitive, virtuosity-obsessed co-genres—especially when delivered by a group this numerous (an undectet!), you can almost hear the musicians having fun.
2024 heralded the 50th anniversary of this seminal dub record – one of the first of its kind – and it’s no exaggeration to say this release from Jamaican producer Keith Hudson remains one of the genre’s high-water marks. Recorded in a nascent scene, Pick A Dub‘s edges are rough, but the riddims are pure and shot straight from the heart boasting a simplicity and honesty that is nothing short of enchanting.
If there exists a more perfect reggae album than Rastafari to symbolize the rejuvenating, re-energizing power of spring we have yet to hear it. Turning 50 this year, this is far more than sound-system music, this is reggae as art form.
A just-about perfect collection of guitar reveries from Cameron Knowler. The simultaneously timeworn and fresh qualities of Knowler’s playing initially felt kinda Norman Blakean. But maybe CRK is kinda William Blakean, too, in a quietly visionary way. This record, recently released on the extremely reliable Worried Songs label, is pristinely recorded, as well, Knowler’s guitar upfront and dazzlingly clear.
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.
Phi-Psonics is a spiritual jazz collective headed by Los Angeles-based composer and acoustic bassist Seth Ford-Young, whose prolific session work can be heard on releases such as the recent stunner by Takuro Okada. The uninhibited, meditative soundscapes of previous studio offerings The Cradle and Octava quickly made waves after catching the attention of Manchester jazz label Gondwana, flashing nods to A Love Supreme and a lush framework playing off of Ford-Young’s Mingus-inspired upright bass, lifting woodwinds and the Wurlitzer piano of Mitchell Yoshida.
From the archives of Micron Music, Every Mouth Must Be Fed: 1973-1976. A toppermost three year overview of the Kingston, Jamaica based label, the roots collection highlights selects from the likes of Joe Higgs, U Roy, I Roy, Tommy McCook, Junior Byles, King Tubby and others, featuring an effortless array of early reggae and dub.
Car Seat Headrest’s 13th album is ambitious in every possible way, from the overarching conceptual framework to the exulting, triumphant sound to the sheer length of the tracks. The new record is that deeply unfashionable thing: a rock opera. Yet the theatricality, the sonic overload, the proggy construction do not, in any way, overburden the tunes, among the strongest and most anthemic of Will Toledo’s hook-laden career.
Another place, another time. Raised in Puerto Rico and based in Los Angeles, dub master Pachy “Pachyman” Garcia evokes both across the expanse of his latest platter of tricked out riddims, Another Place. His sound is undeniably rooted in the classic dub techniques of King Tubby, Scientist, and Lee “Scratch” Perry, but with the new album Garcia pushes things into new territory. He joins us to discus paying dues and pushing the genre forward.
New Zealand’s cosmic jazz ensemble The Circling Sun comes forth with Orbits, the sequel to 2023’s Spirits and, like it, deftly serves up Yusef Lateef vibes on a platter. The group has all the irreverence and joy that makes spiritual jazz so compelling versus its more competitive, virtuosity-obsessed co-genres—especially when delivered by a group this numerous (an undectet!), you can almost hear the musicians having fun.
Here’s an archival gem for Elephant 6 heads: a collaborative EP from the late visionary Will Cullen Hart and Elf Power’s Andrew Rieger. Though very brisk, the timing of this snapshot (culled from recording sessions circa 1999-2000) vividly conjures the opaque psychedelic sweet spot of the Olivia Tremor Control and beginnings of Hart’s essential offshoot project Circulatory System.
Welcome back to the stacks. It’s Aquarium Drunkard’s Book Club, our monthly gathering of recent (or not so recent) recommended reading. In this month’s stack: all things Roxy Music, some narco strung out street-lit by way of east Texas, the infinite puzzle that is the crack in the cosmic egg, the ever erudite and entertaining travels of the late Patrick Leigh Fermor, and more. Your librarians for this installment are Justin Gage, Tyler Wilcox, Ian Everett, and Mark Neeley.
We close out the 10th season of Transmissions with a special look under the hood with Justin Gage, who founded Aquarium Drunkard 20 years ago in 2005. Initially envisioned as just a place to share cultural recommendations with friends, Aquarium Drunkard blew up as the blog rush began. Suddenly, Gage found himself running a respected media outlet. 20 years later, he joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss how Aquarium Drunkard has stayed true to the maxim of only the good shit.
Ty Segall has been making records since 2008, and he’s recorded a lot of them — 16 including his latest Possession, out May 30 on Drag City. We caught up with Segall recently to talk about his dense but uncrowded new set of songs, his partnership with the filmmaker Matt Yoka, his love of old soul and California and the revelatory string of acoustic shows he recently performed across the U.S.
The Budos Band builds a fire with the dry tinder of percussion, cracking and popping on hand and kit drums. It catches in a vaporous pool of keyboards, fuzzy guitar leads and insistent bass, and then jets out in sudden sparks of brass, the heat concentrated in sharp, incendiary bursts. This seventh album from the Brooklyn-born funk/soul/Afrobeat/Ethio-jazz collective rocks a bit harder than some Budos Band offerings but doesn’t mess with the formula. These songs slouch and swagger, grooving from the hip in loose, louche sensuality, but they’re also super on point, the brass coming in like a knife’s edge, the rhythms in ideal, nearly mechanical sync.
You can count on Swamp Dogg to always do the unexpected. Whether crafting album covers that have baffled listeners for decades, pairing autotuned vocals with sleek indie soul, or going country, songwriter, producer, and raconteur Jerry Williams blazes his own path. So tellingly his new documentary, Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted eschews typical music doc tropes in favor of psychedelic animation, oddball shorts, poignant interviews, and yes, an overarching artistic project of painting Swamp Dogg’s signature rat image in the pool at his San Fernando Valley home: “That pulled me in, the fact that I was going to finally get my white rat and so forth in the pool.”
A “state of mind” is how Bryan Ferry once described Roxy Music. Born from art school roots, the early era of the band conjures up all sorts of identifiers, undoubtedly anchored by the visionary presence of Brian Eno, postmodern decadence in the seventies rock hierarchy, and the art-rock genre turning itself inside out. Curating all sorts of Pop Art signifiers from film to the avant-garde to classic Americana pastiche, this angular approach to pop music remains quite unlike anything else that came before or after.
For the past few years, Cameron Knowler has quietly worked his way into the epicenter of the Soli revival. Making a name for his playing with the excellent Anticipation collaboration with Eli Winter a few years back, Knowler has since become a familiar face in the realm of steel string. Indebted to his instrument’s history; his playing steadfast, concise, and open to the possibility of the unexpected. CRK is no exception to this rule.
Clouded by the obscurity of the film itself, Sweet Love, Bitter is a poignant example of the brilliance of jazz pianist/composer Mal Waldron. Adapted from 1961 novel Night Song (loosely inspired by the life and final years of the legendary Charlie Parker), Waldron’s soulful soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment to the gritty, somber themes and even lucid dream montages. After decades of languishing in obscurity, Sweet Love, Bitter proves to be a provocative, multi-faceted display of jazz culture.
Appearing here at Aquarium Drunkard in 2022 for a Lagniappe Session, Chicago guitarist Eli Winter described one of his cover selections as “Arabian Nightingale” as “arresting, cool, and strange.” The three words come to mind regarding his latest LP, A Trick of the Light. Another full-band outing following his self-titled 20202 LP, the recording drifts even deeper into jazz rock territory, pairing Winter’s snarling electric guitar lines with drifting pedal steel and sax. Aquarium Drunkard caught up with Winter to discuss the record’s genesis and what inspired him to spoof Hot Ones in a music video.
