Maria Usbeck’s 2016 solo debut, Amparo, may go down as one of the great sleeper records of the decade. And now, after a period of considerable quiet, the Brooklyn via Ecuador artist returns with her sophomore lp, Envejeciendo, due August via the Cascine label . . .
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There’s a lot to love in Scorsese’s film, which repurposes an enormous trove of backstage and concert footage into a representation of the fall 1975 iteration of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Considered as a traditional documentary, Rolling Thunder Revue is fairly embarrassing. Considered as a Bob Dylan movie in the tradition of the films the songwriter has had his hands in over the years, it’s a grand achievement. The project swerves from fact in similar ways that Dylan’s Chronicles swerves from traditional memoir, with fictional constructs serving the biographical needs of the moment, just as . . .
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A spiritual successor to Golden Apples of the Sun, the recent compilation Fragments du Monde Flottant proves Devendra Banhart's ears fully intact. Released by the Genève, Switzerland based Bongo Joe Records, Fragments again finds the singer-songwriter in a curatorial role, culling demo recordings from his labyrinth of friends, acquaintances and musical compatriots . . .
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Chicago’s venerable Drag City turns 30 years young in 2019. In perhaps typical fashion, the label doesn’t seem to be doing much in the way of commemoration — no star-studded festival, no limited edition boxed set, no self-congratulatory excess. Instead, Drag City is doing what it’s always done: releasing great records.
But those past glories deserve a little celebration, don’t they? That’s why the Aquarium Drunkard team has put together this eclectic guide to Drag City’s immense catalog: 30 masterpieces for 30 years . . .
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June 22, join Ryley Walker and Aquarium Drunkard to benefit the ACLU at Trans Pecos in Queens, New York, To prep, give this a spin. Recorded at Fivethirteen Recording in Arizona in the fall of 2016, this collection finds Walker, drummer Ryan Jewell, and bassist Anton Hatwich working through a set of new, experimental recordings. In many ways, they presage the direction Walker and co. would take on Deafman Glance and The Lillywhite Sessions—knotty, electric, and searching. We previously shared these recordings, along with a loopy, freewheeling interview, as part of our Transmissions podcast series, but we're presenting . . .
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Black sand blues. Freeform airwave debris transmitting off the coast of Los Angeles.
SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W . . .
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Afro-psychedelia. This is the heat. Having found ourselves knee-deep in all things Joni Haastrup of late, we were reminded of this incredibly funky, fly-on-the-wall, 1971 footage of the Nigerian musician laying shit down with Ginger Baker. Along with a cache of locals (Tunde Kuboye, Laolu Akins, The Lijadu Sisters, Segun Bucknor & The Sweet Things), the clip finds the group riffing on Tunde Kuboye's "Coming Back Home . . .
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"The missing links in my life's work, no less!" – Robert Wyatt
How's that for an endorsement? Though two of the tracks were later re-recorded by the group (appearing on Soft Machine's second and third albums), Wyatt's original renderings provide much more than a cursory, academic glimpse into the nascent material. Loose, intimate and inspired, these nearly forgotten demos document the young artist's muse in motion during an ascendant period of Soft Machine's creative trajectory . . .
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8 musicians, 16 surfers, and tucked-away surf breaks in Mexico, the Maldives and Iceland are on full display, as the viewer is taken on a journey that showcases the seamless relationship between wave and sound. As the opening credits state, the surfing was done in real time… the music was created in response . . .
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The end of July sees the release of left-field jazz ensemble The Quiet Temple's self-titled debut. A collaborative effort, the group’s primary members are Rich Machin (Soulsavers) and multi-instrumentalist Duke Garwood; further augmented by Spiritualized's Thighpaulsandra and Doggen Foster, with Stereolab saxophonist Ray Dickaty. An expansive, free and very out affair, for this installment of the Lagniappe Sessions, the ensemble stretch out on the godhead of Coltrane's "Africa", Band of Gypsys' fer-de-lance "Machine Gun", and riff on The Grodeck Whipperjenny . . .
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Tanega's debut was recorded and released in 1966. Twelve tracks in 29 minutes, the album stylistically scans a hybrid of folk and blues traditions, along with erstwhile doses of orchestral-pop balladry. No matter the approach, the entirety of Walkin' is driven by and framed by Tanega's unorthodox vocals, unusual lyrics, and atypical time signatures. Hardly conventional compared to her peers, the album still managed to reach #22 on the charts. Imagine that today . . .
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Digging into O Terno spurred a deep dive into the work of the São Paulo band’s jack-of-all-trades, Tim Bernardes, whose 2017 release, Recomeçar, shines exquisitely from head to toe. Bernardes’ voice is truly next level . . .
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Maximillain Turnbull walks us through the library music, jazz fusion, and progressive sounds that inform the self-titled debut of his Badge Époque Ensemble, which is driven by flute, Rhodes, clavinet, and strutting grooves . . .
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Fictional astronaut blues. Here's a chestnut we've been spinning via satellite for years, a grotesquerie which seems to elicit an equal measure of delight and horror depending on the beholder. Via Barcelona, Los Hermanos Calatrava's wholly bizarre rendition of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" was released in 1974 - five years after the original 7" single. If nothing else, the cover begs the question: is it possible to "unhear" something? Cuidado mis . . .
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The "Slippery" cover, featuring David Byrne on guitar, was a minor hit for the Staples -- enough so that it brought the family's 70 year old patriarch out of retirement. Far from their first rodeo, the cover was also responsible for the Singers fifth appearance on the long-running television monolith that was Don Cornelius' Soul Train. As covers go, this one feels like a second skin . . .
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