Greg Belson’s Divine Funk: Rare American Gospel Soul And Funk

Compilation Greg BelsonPosted on

Hit me! Get sanctified, testify, and let it all hang out across a dozen raw Holy Ghost-infused funk and soul jammers where the spirit locks deep in the pocket. Putting in the work, DJ and record collector Greg Belson is the selector, unearthing heavyweight rarities from his personal crates. Originally released in 2021, Divine Funk is back in print as of last year via Cultures of Soul . . .

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The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis :: Deface the Currency

James Brandon LewisPosted on

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis return, for their second collaboration. While their first record dealt in deep grooves and comfortably familiar rhythms, Deface the Currency aims for something noisier, angrier and more invigorating. The guitar takes command, with Anthony Pirog unleashing boiling leads and laying down thickets of distorted drones, while the rhythm section barrels away behind him. Lewis holds his own, sometimes playing fierce counterpoint to Pirog, sometimes bolstering the guitar's attack, and often making his own searing, soaring declarations . . .

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Tokyo Pulse :: Japanese Funk, Modern Soul and City Pop from The Tokyo Scene 1974-88

JapanPosted on

The recent algorithmic explosion of Japanese city pop with Haruomi Hosono, Yoshiko Sai, Masayoshi Takanaka, and others didn't even come close to exhausting the otherworldly fertility of the genre. For the new compilation by international reissue label Wewantsounds, Tokyo-based DJ Notoya selected lost, hidden, and obscured city pop tracks, none of which have quite entered the Western market yet . . .

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Tilaye’s Saxophone With The Dahlak Band ((የጥላዬ ሳክስ ከዳህላክ ባንድ ጋር))

Tilaye GebrePosted on

Released sometime in the late 70s, Tilaye Gebre's album as a featured performer was taken from a one-take, single microphone live recording during their residency at the capital’s Ghion Hotel. Unfolding across nine, slow-burning tracks, the band feels woozily cool, locked in a groove that feels unconscious. There’s a telepathic current running through the players that fashions a sound both nocturnal and bright but a little grizzled by its stripped-down recording texture too . . .

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Even If It’s Flawed or Crooked :: Catching Up With Buck Meek

Buck Meek The AD InterviewPosted on

Buck Meek joins Aquarium Drunkard from his LA-based studio Ringo Bingo, to discuss his latest album The Mirror, his relationship with collaboration and solitude in songwriting, giving himself permission to be uninhibited in frankness, a childhood obsession with Garth Brooks’ Ropin’ The Wind and more . . .

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Stereolab :: Emperor Tomato Ketchup at 30

StereolabPosted on

Thirty years old this month, Stereolab's 1996 breakthrough record Emperor Tomato Ketchup was equal parts transitional and revolutionary. Upon three decades of reflection, the retrofuturism bridgegap keenly foreshadowed the self-coined groop's prolific trajectory, spanning all the way through last year's comeback album Instant Holograms on Metal Film. From borrowing basslines from Gil Scott-Heron to meditative three-word mantras, ETK represented a singular pop/experimental nexus virtually unheard of in its mid-nineties timing, casting a kaleidoscopic umbrella in its influence over endless genres and eras . . .

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David Lee Jr. :: Evolution

David Lee Jr. JazzPosted on

New Orleans — birthplace of the syncopated rhythm splinter known as the second-line. Cut to 1974. Drummer and composer David Lee Jr. quietly releases his lone solo LP, the Afro‑futurist Evolution, privately pressed to just 400 copies on his own Supernal Records imprint. A percussive spiritual meditation in motion, the record folds intricate polyrhythms into hypnotic, repetitive loops that sound as urgent and on-point today as they did half a century ago. Four hundred copies. Infinite resonance . . .

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Dagmar Zuniga :: In Filth Your Mystery Is Kingdom / Far Smile Peasant In Yellow Music

Dagmar ZunigaPosted on

One of the most striking records from 2025 finally gets its deserved vinyl release with AD93's issuing of Dagmar Zuniga's in filth your mystery is kingdom / far smile peasant in yellow music. The pluricultural artist's debut was also assembled in a pluricultural environment, across Norway and Greece and Georgia, and found a rapid, cult-like admiration within a certain Brooklyn scene of lo-fi and experimental art—featuring Zach Philips, its success would eventually lead Zuniga to tour with Mount Eerie . . .

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Matt Valentine :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Matt Valentine MV MV & EE The AD InterviewPosted on

The latest Wet Tuna LP is called Vast — and you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a better title for this collection of strange and funky flights. It’s a wide-open, far-flung album, deeply textured and ridiculously detailed, but somehow spacious and inviting. A psychedelic micro-galaxy/macro-dose that teems with life and imagination. Close to a decade in, this is the fourth proper Wet Tuna offering (not counting an array of more “under-the-counter” situations), but the project is just another whistle-stop on the Matt Valentine express . . .

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Bonnie “Prince” Billy :: We Are Together Again

Will OldhamPosted on

It would be a mistake to take the simplicity of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy’s songs at face value. Certainly, his tunes do have a pared down grace. And yet, listen closely and you’ll catch the embellishments, the flicker of saxophone, the soft cushion of strings, the flutter of flute, the smoke wreathes of communal singing. The center, as always, is Will Oldham, his tetchy, querulous voice, his warm way with melody, his startling, occasionally absurdist sprays of poetic imagery, but these songs are beautifully filled out by a cast of long-time friends and neighbors from the Louisville area . . .

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PST, 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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JJ Cale :: Stay Around

J.J. CalePosted on

If JJ Cale had been any more laid-back, gravity would’ve stopped trying. Understated, and rhythm-first, Cale’s distilled blend of regional blues, country, rockabilly, and shuffle stripped away the kink and left only the groove. If there was indeed a Tulsa sound, he was it. Playing less, feeling more. As such, a posthumous post-script from the Breeze might seem, if not suspect, unnecessary. And yet… the release of 2019’s Stay Around proves that sometimes an afterword can indeed swing, giving Cale a reason to linger a little longer . . .

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Makoto Terashita meets Harold Land :: Topology

Harold Land Jazz Makoto TerashitaPosted on

Recorded in 1984, the unlikely pairing of young Japanese jazz pianist Makoto Terashita and veteran American saxophonist Harold Land was kept obscured for far too long. With its opus "Dragon Dance" originally showcased on the BBE label's essential J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz from Japan four-part compilation series, Topology unearths the sensational full session. Like his run seventies Blue Note sessions with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, the unsung tenorist Land is a marvel as a collaborative partner, elevating this set of mostly original compositions by the younger, up-and-coming Makoto Terashita . . .

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Gil Scott-Heron and His Midnight Band :: Live, January 16, 1978 KALX‑FM

Gil Scott-HeronPosted on

Laid down live at KALX‑FM radio at the University of California, Berkeley, Gil Scott-Heron’s January 1978 engagement with his Midnight Band has long circulated as a well-worn bootleg among enthusiasts. Clocking in at around seventy minutes, the recording captures Heron at his artistic zenith in the ’70s, working in vital tandem with Brian Jackson. As broadcasts go, it remains a vivid testament to his singular command of stage, band, and political pulse . . .

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Bill Frisell :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Bill Frisell Jazz The AD InterviewPosted on

For Bill Frisell, music at its best feels dreamlike. It bends and manipulates time, contracting and expanding. On his latest, In My Dreams the guitarist is joined by longtime collaborators for a spectral set of tunes, including a sterling cover of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's "Isfahan." He joins us to discuss the record, dreams, and Gary Larson's The Far Side . . .

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