Miles Davis :: Rated X

“Rated X” lacks the monumental sound collage quality of its taped compatriots. The quick (for this era of Miles) seven-minute tune leans into a minimal chaos, almost as if In a Silent Way was recorded in the depths of hell. What begins in disarray slowly becomes the most cohesive thing you’ve ever heard . . .

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J. Mamana :: For Every Set of Eyes

“But what the hell do I know? I just record records that get streamed for free.”

A years-in-the-making conversation with songwriter and producer J. Mamana . . .

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

Painted dreams. 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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Meshell Ndegeocello :: No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin

The works of novelist, essayist and political activist James Baldwin continues to resonate in the culture and in the music of Meshell Ndegeocello nearly 40 years after his death. No More Water sets his words—and the words of poets Staceyann Chin and Audrey Lorde—to an incandescent soundtrack, influenced by jazz, folk, gospel, rock and the rituals of the black church . . .

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Transmissions :: Starflyer 59

This week, we have an exceedingly rare interview with Jason Martin, of California dream pop band Starflyer 59. Fermented in the nascent Riverside dream pop underground alongside his brother Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric in the early '90s, Martin's band SF59 released its debut album, Silver, 30 years ago in 1994 on the fledgling Tooth & Nail label. His latest, Lust for Gold, finds him winking knowingly at the title of his 1995 album Gold, a record routinely cited as one of the best shoegaze albums of all-time . . .

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Pat Metheny :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Pat Metheny continues to innovate. At the same time, having just turned 70, his work has become more reflective, looking back at absent friends, bygone mentors and old songs, and considering how they shaped — and continue to shape — him. Entering the sixth decade of his career Metheny continues to make boundary-blind music that, though clearly in touch with a wealth of traditions both orthodox and esoteric, is unmistakably his own . . .

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Neil Young’s Archives Vol. III :: 16 Unreleased Highlights

Look, it’s just too big. Weighing in at 17 compact discs (198 tracks!) and five Blu-Rays (11 films!), Neil Young’s upcoming Archives Vol. III box set is a monster that we’ll be grappling with for years to come. Covering the songwriter’s ridiculously prolific / ridiculously divergent span of 1976 to 1987, Vol. III can’t really be summed up in a meaningful way in one cursory review. So, what we’ve got here is a little addendum to Takes, the 16-track Vol. III sampler — 16 more unreleased highlights that give a hint of the treasures . . .

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Caetano Veloso :: Bicho

Recorded in 1977 following a performance at the Negro Festival of Art and Culture in Lagos and a month immersed in the city with his comrade Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso’s Bicho is a shimmering and rapturous entry in the Brazilian legend’s indelible catalog, one in which the influence of African culture, particularly Jùjú music, coalesces stunningly with funky, orchestral MPB, jazz-laced lounge, and soulful cosmic folk . . .

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Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: August 2024

Freeform transmissions from Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab. Airing every third Sunday of the month, RFAD on dublab features the pairing of Tyler Wilcox’s Doom and Gloom from the Tomb and Chad DePasquale’s New Happy Gathering. This month kicks off with Wilcox's mix of sunset laments and armchair boogies, followed by DePasquale's selection of city pop, MPB, and jazz-funk. Sunday, 4-6pm PT . . .

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Count Ossie and the Rasta Family :: Man From Higher Heights

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 . . .

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“Blue” Gene Tyranny :: Real Life and the Movies Volume 1

Unseen Worlds is reissuing Real Life and the Movies Volume 1, a 1981 cassette previously published through Tyranny's collaborative private press. Spanning a 25-year period of his varied compositional experiments, the themes enclosed all blend cinematographic excerpts and American cultural miscellanea into a single, unified aesthetic . . .

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Library Music Series 1 & 2: Crime / Oceanography

2-Headed Deer, the label that recently gained notability releasing records by jazz experimentalists like Misha Panfilov and the Organic Pulse Ensemble, has just released the first two albums in a series inspired by European Library Music labels like KPM, CAM and Music De Wolfe. The first, Crime, by the Milan-based band Larry Manteca, replicates 1970s Italian b-movie soundtracks, while the second, Oceanography, produced by Chris Stullenberg under the alias of New Library Sound, pays respect to Jacques Cousteau documentaries, with liquid-like analog modular synths and sound effects recombining to evoke marine life and underwater exploration . . .

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Richard Metzger :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

"Changing reality is a group sport." Richard Metzger has been documenting the counterculture for decades with projects like Disinformation and the beloved blog Dangerous Minds. Now, he's launched Magick Show—a survey of modern occultists. He joins us to discuss online media, counterculture, and art and explain how "magick" is a part of it all . . .

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, 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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The Same Man: Bob Dylan’s “Shot of Love”

Even in its semi-bastardized state, Shot of Love stands as a major achievement. The songs harmonize into something spectacular, a perfect finished plan. Hard rockers, little love ditties, kaleidoscopic four-dimensional ballads, "Lenny Bruce": it’s all here, everything you could ever want, bursting out the grooves like a blast of blue-orange Ben-Day dots. It is the album Bob Dylan wanted to make at the time, made the way Bob Dylan wanted to make it. His furnace of desire had not stopped burning. It never would . . .

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