Jake Acosta :: Rehearsal Park

Another great one from Ryley Walker’s Husky Pants label, which has quickly become a reliable source for sweet sounds both old and new. Jake Acosta’s Rehearsal Park is made up of two long pieces (27 and 17 minutes, respectively) that feel warm and accessible but somehow somewhat unclassifiable. RIYL Oren Ambarchi? (Ryley describes it as “If Glenn Branca went to Hampshire. If Phish was black dice.”) Oscillating grooves, interlocking melodies, unexpected string and horn sections, free-flowing rivers of sound — it reveals hidden layers and buried textures the more you get into it . . .

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James Elkington :: Me Neither

Me Neither, the new album by James Elkington, has the appearance of library music as it is made up of a series of 29 brief instrumental pieces, the shortest of which is 36 seconds long. Elkington is known for his solo work, being a member of Brokeback, and supporting artists such as Jeff Tweedy and Richard Thompson. The new album is a departure from Elkington’s previous singer-songwriter material as most of the tracks feature a theme played on the acoustic guitar, while others are ambient soundscapes with found sounds such as sirens and avian chirping . . .

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Fabiano Do Nascimento :: Mundo Solo

Fabiano do Nascimento seems weary of the "Brazilian music" label, at least when it ties him to particular artistic expectations. He prefers to aim for an impossible universality than to ever be pigeonholed to an ideal of national sound. His new solo material, out via Brazilian music aficionados Far Out, complicates this ambivalence . . .

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Aquarium Drunkard Book Club :: Chapter 27

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: tales of aliens in upstate New York, the life and times of American folklorist Harry Smith, yet another (worthy) Dylan tome and the paranoid end of the 1970s. Your librarians are Justin Gage, Scott Bunn, Tyler Wilcox, and Jarrod Annis . . .

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Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean :: Bob Dylan | Blown Out On The Trail

Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean is a new series exploring classic Bob Dylan bootlegs from the CD era. Before broadband internet, YouTube, and bottomless hard drives overflowing with FLACs, many Dylan fans relied on the grey market to gain entry into the world of unreleased Dylan. This series celebrates those tangible treasures and wonders: “What’s lost when you can have it all?”

Now playing: Blown Out On The Trail (1988 . . .

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John Martyn :: Live At Leeds

When John Martyn set up shop at the Leeds University Refectory, the place was still smoking from legendary sets laid down there by The Who and The Groundhogs just a few years prior. Little did he know, Martyn was about to complete the Leeds trifecta. Live at Leeds finds Martyn barrelling headlong into the uncharted reaches of his own expansive trajectory, flanked by Pentangle’s Danny Thompson on bass and Spontaneous Music Ensemble founder John Stevens on kit . . .

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Jonathan Rado :: For Who the Bell Tolls For

"For Who the Bell Tolls For" begins with a choice. Many are the albums that hum and hiss at their beginnings with the sounds of the studio. They transport us into and out of the creative process with a wink and a nudge as if to say the beauty you're about to hear is the product of process, of mistakes and retakes, of many parts becoming a sum. Jonathan Rado makes such a choice, punctuating it with the muffled expletives of trying to get things right before things start rolling in earnest . . .

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Bob Seger System :: Mongrel

At some point, every ‘music person’ hits that developmental phase in taste-building that sent them looking for the ‘before they got big’ early era of every artist they were interested in. Maybe that early starving artist period does offer some glimpses into genius, if not ingenuity and survival. Bob Seger is one such artist . . .

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Jim Pepper :: Pepper’s Pow Wow

The first song you hear on Pepper’s Pow Wow is the first song that Jim Pepper ever heard. “Witchitai-To” is a Comanche chant that his grandfather brought home from his duties leading peyote ceremonies in the Native American Church. It first appears on the album as a faithful recreation of the way Jim must have originally experienced it: chants, foot stomps, a turtle shell rattle . . .

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Chet Baker: Live at Pub Le Dreher (Paris, France 1980)

February 29, 1980, captured live at Pub Le Dreher — Rue Saint-Denis, Paris, France. Flanked by Maurizio Gianmarco (tenor sax), Dennis Luxion (piano), Ricardo del Fra (bass) and Donny Donable (drums), the near 45 minute set finds the 51 year old Baker in healthy form as he leads the quintet through five tunes including a vocal via the John Klenner and Sam M. Lewis penned “Just Friends”. Sublime . . .

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Lewsberg :: Out And About

Is this band the Dutch Yo La Tengo? Eh, that is probably an oversimplification — but maybe I’ve got your attention now. Lewsberg’s latest, Out And About, definitely shares a bit with YLT’s brand of winsome indie pop (more than a little Feelies in there, too), but there’s plenty of originality and imagination here, too. Half-spoken, half-sung girl/guy vocals, straight-ahead Moe Tucker thumps, alternately chiming/chugging/fuzzy guitar . . .

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

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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Catching Up With Ilyas Ahmed

It’s been a busy couple of months for Ilyas Ahmed. First, Grails (the long-running band Ahmed joined a few years back) released the awesome Anches En Maat, which was quickly followed up by an extensive European tour. Then in October, the Portland, OR-based artist released his excellent new solo record, A Dream of Another. Recently, we hopped on the phone to get his thoughts on a variety of topics . . .

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Transmissions :: On Pauline Anna Strom

Welcome back to Transmissions. This week on the show, which brings our 2023 season to a close, we are joined by Matt Werth of RVNG to discuss the life and multi-dimensional sound worlds of Pauline Anna Strom. This month, the label released Echoes, Spaces, Lines, which collects the first three albums from the Bay Area synthesist and composer, as well as Oceans of Time, an unreleased record included in the box set for the first time . . .

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Airto & Flora – A Celebration: 60 Years – Sounds, Dreams & Other Stories

There’s an embarrassment of riches to be found on Airto & Flora – A Celebration: 60 Years – Sounds, Dreams & Other Stories, the latest compilation from London’s always dazzling BBE label, this time documenting the work of Brazilian jazz power couple Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. Compiling thirty tracks across just about as many years (1964 through 1996) from the various solo and collaborating outings of the duo (now in their sixty-first year as union), the set examines their evolving alchemy of samba, bossa nova, jazz-fusion, and outré-funk excursions . . .

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