On The Turntable

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    LOVING

    LOVING :: Any Light

    After the amiable lo-fi debut If I Am Only My Thoughts, Loving makes a self-proclaimed “sonic leap” on sophomore stunner Any Light. Of course, this seamless transition to the studio is a credit to the Canadian duo’s charmingly unwavering formula. With delayed vocals that don’t kick in until nearly two minutes, the gentle acoustic strum of the title track sets the perfect tone for this remarkably intimate collection of songs.

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    Corey Madden

    Corey Madden :: Taste the Hour

    Released on the peripatetic Worried Songs, Taste the Hour finds camaraderie in the label’s ever-expanding ilk of freaks, heady rockers, and ardent songcrafters. Sure to stand above the fray in a growing world of blissed-out jammers, Madden has founded a realm where folk-rock grit is further refined in fuzz and adorned with sparks of power-pop benediction.

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    Alice Coltrane

    Alice Coltrane :: The Carnegie Hall Concert

    Had The Carnegie Hall Concert been released in 1971 when it was originally commissioned and recorded by Impulse as a double live LP, it would undoubtedly rank among the all-time holy grails of live jazz, no, live music, period.

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    Soft Power

    Soft Power :: Raw Bites

    Add Helsinki sextet Soft Power to the growing list of jazz-rock revivalists. On their third album Raw Bites, Soft Power marries krautrock musculature to the jazz dynamics of Canterbury-scene stalwarts like the Soft Machine. But where one might expect fusion excess, Raw Bites delivers a punchy, rollicking album, brimming with riffs and hooks. This band is one to watch.

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    Kurt Stenzel

    Kurt Stenzel :: Jodorowsky's Dune Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

    … the soundtrack to the story about the greatest film that never was.

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    Yura Yura Teikoku

    Yura Yura Teikoku :: Hollow Me

    Prior to founding Zelone Records and becoming the emperor of mellow groove, Shintaro Sakamoto fronted Yura Yura Teikoku. A scrappy psych trio with humble origins in the Tokyo’s DIY underground, the band cut a unique trail guided by an eclecticism that pushed their sound ever further to new heights.

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    Jessica Pratt

    Jessica Pratt :: Here in the Pitch

    Jessica Pratt returns with “Life Is,” the first taste off her forthcoming album, Here in the Pitch. The track, which has been on serious repeat, finds Pratt orbiting a Blossom Dearie-like sphere—its big 60s girl group backbeat, staccato strings, and kaleidoscopic production accompanying her on an existential carousel.

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    Mal Waldron

    Mal Waldron :: The Call

    Everybody knows that Mal Waldron was the first artist released by Manfred Eicher’s fledgling label ECM. Less well known is that the veteran pianist also had the maiden release on Eicher’s experimental jazz imprint JAPO. That album, The Call, placed Waldron right at the heart of the burgeoning krautrock scene, teaming him up with affiliates of Amon Düül, Tangerine Dream and Et Cetera. The result was tripped-out, electrified space jazz of the very highest order.

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Transmissions :: Roger Eno

Incoming transmission from Roger Eno. This week on the show, he joins us for a freewheeling, friendly chat about art, place, and Dune (1984). Eno began his recording life in 1983, when he joined his brother Brian and Daniel Lanois at the latter’s studio in Hamilton, Ontario, to cut one of our favorite albums of all-time, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. Imbued with country and western ambiance, it suggests the vastness of space and man’s ventures into it. Not only that, but it serves as one of the foundational documents of the “ambient country” subgenre that practically forms its own corner of the Aquarium Drunkard sonic universe.

The New Eves :: Post-Punk Drone Folk from Brighton

The New Eves—the Brighton-based quartet of Nina Winder-Lind, Kate Mager, Ella Oona Russell, and Violet Farrer—craft a rousing brew of post-punk, drone-folk, and avant-choral psych that evokes The Raincoats, Nico, Television, and Horses-era Patti Smith in equal measure, offering one of the more exciting new sounds we’ve heard this year.

Jim White :: All Hits: Memories

What happens when a renowned collaborator records a solo album? That’s the question when considering Jim White’s first solo endeavor, All Hits: Memories. White first came to prominence as the drummer for the seminal Australian band Dirty Three and now comprises the other half of a slew of duos, including Xylouris White, The Double, and with Marisa Anderson. Additionally, he’s provided percussive wizardry to songs by Cat Power, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, PJ Harvey, Bill Callahan, and many others. White has an innate ability to adapt to the particular tone of a song, his contributions are always apt, surprising, and elevate the final result. 

The Fourth Way :: Werwolf

The Fourth Way were one of the more intriguing denizens of the psychedelic ballroom circuit in the Bay Area of the late 1960s. With a quartet lineup of bass, drums, electric violin and ring-modulated electric piano, their strange sound, alternately funky and trippy, represented one of the first serious attempts to merge jazz with acid rock. Werwolf, the last of their three albums, was recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in June 1970. Even with the subpar sound, it’s a killer slab of the very earliest fusion.

Light Pollution: The Roots of Ambient Jazz

As Aquarium Drunkard recently reported, ambient appears to be the shape of jazz to come. The newest new thing is cross-pollinating with electronics and minimalism, new age and drone. But even these currents have a history. We dove deep into our favorite space jazz of yesteryear, and put together a mixtape for your astral travelling pleasure.

Kreag Caffey :: Kreag Caffey

Some rare private press tome this is not. Despite the at-times questionable atmosphere, obscurity, and ambiguity as to whether or not the record is actually worthwhile, Kreag Caffey’s self-titled debut made its way to shelves with a release on Decca in 1972, bolstered by a heavy-hitting ensemble of the finest studio players to ever do it.

Loving :: Any Light

After the amiable lo-fi debut If I Am Only My Thoughts, Loving makes a self-proclaimed “sonic leap” on sophomore stunner Any Light. Of course, this seamless transition to the studio is a credit to the Canadian duo’s charmingly unwavering formula. With delayed vocals that don’t kick in until nearly two minutes, the gentle acoustic strum of the title track sets the perfect tone for this remarkably intimate collection of songs.

Alice Coltrane :: The Carnegie Hall Concert

Had The Carnegie Hall Concert been released in 1971 when it was originally commissioned and recorded by Impulse as a double live LP, it would undoubtedly rank among the all-time holy grails of live jazz, no, live music, period. But nothing happens before it’s time, and we are unbelievably fortunate to be graced with the revelation of Coltrane’s performance in the here and now. Left in the vault for decades and only partially bootlegged, The Carnegie Hall Concert documents Alice Coltrane cresting a creative peak which marked the end of a cycle of suffering and a rebirth for her spirit and music. This is more than a live recording, it’s a transfiguration through sound.

Sathima Bea Benjamin :: Windsong

Her voice comes from far, far away. From Saint Helena, her grandmother’s home, a tiny island thousands of miles off West Africa, Napoleon’s grave. It comes from the Philippines, where her mother was born. It found a home in Cape Town, where she met her future husband, Abdullah Ibrahim, and became a foundational mother of one of the most vibrant jazz scenes in the world.

Transmissions :: The Paranoid Style

This week we’re welcoming Elizabeth Nelson of The Paranoid Style to the show for a conversation about music, writing, ZZ Top, and her new album, The Interrogator. Packed with pub rock charm, punk verve, and rootsy, wide-eyed songwriting, the album finds Nelson and her collaborators, including partner Timothy Bracy and Peter Holsapple of The dB’s, cranking the amps in service of sharp, literary rock & roll. Sitting down with host Jason P. Woodbury, Nelson explores her dual roles as a writer and artist, details her unique and optimistic approach to posting on X (formerly Twitter), and generally indulges in music geek back-and-forth.

Patti Smith Group / John Cale / Television :: The Palladium, New York City, December 31, 1976

As mentioned in a recent Aquarium Drunkard Book Club, some of the most entertaining parts of Thurston Moore’s Sonic Life memoir come during his teenage years, way before Sonic Youth was even a twinkle in his eye. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Fan? From the suburbs of Connecticut, Moore made countless trips into NYC to soak in the punk/CBGB/Max’s Kansas City worlds, catching shows by The Ramones, Suicide, the Dead Boys, Sid Vicious … and Patti Smith, of course. Thurston paints an evocative portrait of this New Year’s Eve blowout, which doubled as Patti’s raucous 30th birthday party. He was dangerously high on mescaline.

Hear it for yourself …