Edsel Axle :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Variable Happiness was made available to the world in August 2023, courtesy of a previously unknown artist named Edsel Axle. But it doesn’t take much detective work to determine that Edsel Axle is a nom de plume of Rosali Middleman. As Rosali, she has released a number of albums in the singer/songwriter mode, whereas Variable Happiness is a collection of instrumental electric guitar recordings . . .

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Blue Lake :: Sun Arcs

Copenhagen-based Jason Dungan makes fully transportive music as Blue Lake. Sun Arcs is an absolutely perfect folk/ambient/new age/neo-classical hybrid, with the musician blending a 48-string zither, acoustic guitars, a Roland 606 drum machine, clarinet and more into these beauteous and buzzing instrumental compositions. “Bloom” sounds like a dreamy Pentangle / Laraaji collab, while “Fur” finds a happy middle ground between John Fahey and Steve Reich . . .

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Videodrome :: The Hired Hand & Idaho Transfer

Following the success of Easy Rider, Peter Fonda tried his hand at directing with two wildly different films. Both feature a score by the influential musician Bruce Langhorne, and one is a minor masterpiece that attempts to rewrite the rules of the western genre . . .

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The Feelies :: Some Kinda Love: Performing The Music Of The Velvet Underground

The Feelies connection to the Velvet Underground goes long and deep. As gawky teenagers, Glenn Mercer and Bill Millions put VU on the same tier as the Beatles. Their jittery, drone-y, laconically delivered Crazy Rhythms sounded like no one else, except possibly the Velvets. The band covered “What Goes On” on their 1988 album Only Life, and, about the same time, got a chance to play a show with Lou Reed at the Orpheum Theatre in New York City. Reed himself once told Bill Millions that the Feelies were the only band that ever “got” the Velvet Underground . . .

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The Amazing :: Streetfighter

The majestic return of The Amazing. A swift decade has passed since the Swedish group burst onto the scene with the panoramic, coastal folk of sophomore stunner Gentle Stream. Following a gauntlet of stateside touring, the band reclusively hunkered down. For patient loyalists, the coming years saw a quiet, steady run of expansive records building upon atmospheric, heavily layered jams in riveting unison with the haunting ballads . . .

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Anatolian Psych Out: Volume One

As Western rock music dominated the global airwaves of the 1960s, perhaps no region adapted this music into such a rich and swirling stew as did Turkey. Mixing the heavy riffs of Zeppelin and the Stones with traditional Anatolian folk melodies and instrumentation, the Turkish psych rock of the golden era (1960s-80s) surely represents some of the most gloriously untethered interpretations of the classic rock canon . . .

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Dexter + Franz :: Flamingo Heights

Flamingo Heights transcends ambient music and becomes a pastiche of psychedelia, cosmic-country, and French lounge, alternating between what you’d hear drifting on the wind while meditating on a Mojave sunset and what would be piped through the PA speakers of a retro-futuristic vestibule while valeting a rocket ship on some distant planet . . .

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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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First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 11

Welcome to the eleventh installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board . . .

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Transmissions :: Matt Marble on Arthur Russell (Live at PRS)

Welcome back to Transmissions. We're still buzzing from this last weekend, which saw a live taping of Transmissions at The Philosophical Research Society, the Los Angeles campus founded in 1934 by esoteric scholar Manly Palmer Hall, featuring Matt Marble, an artist, author, audio producer and director of the American Museum of Paramusicology . . .

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Adeline Hotel :: Hot Fruit

Dan Knishkowy’s Adeline Hotel takes many forms, from blues-folk guitar to pensive piano ballads to this, an exercise in breezy, carefully orchestrated jazz, dense with strings and woodwind instruments but full of light and air and clarity. This is buoyant, serene music, without much sweat or strain in it . . .

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Sad Song :: Lou Reed’s Berlin At 50

Transformer, released in late 1972, gave Lou Reed a dose of the success that had eluded him in the Velvet Underground days. He almost immediately brought that momentum to a halt with Berlin, which hit record stores 50 years ago this week.

To dig deeper into Berlin's mysteries, check out an alternate version of the LP, gathered from a variety of sources over the decades — home demos, live shows, etc. — with a few guests along for the ride, including ANOHNI, Sharon Jones and John Cale. Caroline and Jim are waiting for you down by the wall with a little . . .

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Joni Mitchell :: Archives Vol. 3

By dabbling in outtakes, demos, and live cuts, Archives Vol. 3 tracks Joni Mitchell's evolution in the early '70s, right down to the dead ends and paths not taken. The studio tracks offer fly-on-the-wall glimpses into Mitchell's working process . . .

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Aquarium Drunkard Presents: Tele Music Mix Volume 1

Back in the deep, bleak, pandemic dog days, Be With Records struck a deal with the legendary Parisian library music catalog, Tele Music to reissue the very best, most sought-after LPs in the catalog. With much of this music now commercially available for the first time, the series of albums recently reissued presents an expansive grip of heavy funk, drama-jazz, deep disco, synth-wave, psych-rock, cosmic soul and beyond . . .

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Chad VanGaalen / Astral Swans :: Split EP

Home-recording psychonauts Chad VanGaalen and Astral Swans share the sides of this fun and beguiling little EP. The longtime collaborators from Calgary, Alberta have played a role in each others’ recording sessions since the late aughts, and both stayed busy. For the past three years, CVG has performed live electronic scores to silent films as his Black Mold alter-ego, while singer-songwriter Matt Swann recently teamed up with Julie Doiron . . .

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