John Zorn :: The Gift

John ZornPosted on

The genre known as exotica stands just next door to a number of considerably better respected musical forms. Speed up that reverbed guitar and you’ve got surf. Slow it down and you’re in the spaghetti western territory of Ennio Morricone. With a good deal more distortion and chops, you’ll be at spitting distance from acid rock. With a fleshed out jazz instrumentation and an expanded improvisational element and you’re not too far from the early Sun Ra. Perhaps this is what drew the American avant-garde saxophonist, composer and impresario John Zorn to it . . .

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Transmissions :: Sam Cohen

Podcast Sam CohenPosted on

On Slow Fawn, Sam Cohen, a producer, songwriter, and musician known for his work with Apollo Sunshine, Yellowbirds, Kevin Morby, Danger Mouse and Karen O, creates a glowing, meditative space. Inspired by Terry Riley and drawing from long jam sessions with his collaborators, it reflects Sam's desire to "create a world without friction, where you could float and feel joy . . .

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Gold Dust :: The Late Great Gold Dust

Gold DustPosted on

Gold Dust spins out gossamer trails of folk rock, a whipped cream daydream of cosmic cowboy reveries that may remind you of the Beachwood Sparks or Garcia Peoples, depending how hard Stephen Pierce happens to be knocking it out just then. A veteran of the Western Mass musical universe, these are wistful, effervescent clouds of misty sunshine, pierced at times by Beatles-psych twang (not a sitar, but maybe wishes it were) and grounded, often, by surprisingly heavy, dirge-y thwacks on the fours . . .

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FX :: Things Are Not What They Seem

American Dream Reserve FXPosted on

We’re digging the America Dream Reserve compilation, recently released via the Santa-Cruz based reissue label and archival project, Smiling C. Compiled by record collector Charles Bas, it comprises sixteen tracks of private press, home-recorded American country, folk, soul, lounge, disco, and beyond, all dripping with drum machine, synths, and lonesome bedroom pop vestiges. FX’s “Things Are Not What They Seem” has been a particularly choice cut of late . . .

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John Cale :: Rond Point, Marseilles, France, April 12, 1975

John Cale Live Upload SeriesPosted on

The mighty John Cale has re-emerged — he's touring Europe as we speak and has a new LP coming out early next year (You can check out the Weyes Blood-assisted "Story of Blood" now). In the meantime, let's go back to the mid-1970s when John was just getting going as a touring act. He’d obviously played live plenty before, but following the release of 1975's Slow Dazzle, he really leaned into being a traveling musician . . .

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CAN :: Soon Over Babaluma

CANPosted on

Soon Over Babaluma is a satellite moon in CAN’s oeuvre, perpetually orbiting the seismic mass of the music they created between 1969-1973, one last psychedelic excursion before transitioning into the tighter arrangements and slicker production of the mid-late 70s. CAN was floating ever deeper into space, fresh off the gravitational break achieved on Future Days. Recorded on the heels of Damo Suzuki’s departure, Soon Over Babaluma marked both the end of era and a reinvention of everything the CAN had been working toward— the deepening of a sound that was still hurtling toward the outer reaches . . .

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SOYUZ :: Force Of The Wind

SOYUZPosted on

SOYUZ's Force of the Wind is an imitation of the Brazilian Clube da Esquina scene of the 1970s, in the sense that it adheres to certain aesthetic principles and compositional signifiers associated with that group. It even explicitly names its models: Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, Burnier & Cartier, Arthur Verocai. Yet it's clear that any appropriation of Brazilian music is careful and loving, as Alex Chumak wants to not only pay homage to the 1970s MPB that fascinates him, but to play with its grammar, extend it, renovate it. To sound Brazilian yet not Brazilian, as he explains . . .

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Aoife Nessa Frances :: Protector

Aoife Nessa FrancesPosted on

At the start of 2020 Aoife Nessa Frances initiated the new year with her psych-folk debut, Land of No Junction. Misty vocals, expansively intricate guitar work, gauzy strings, and mellotron washing over hazy production cemented her a spot as one of the most promising artists of a new decade. On Protector that prediction holds up. Frances has created an album of down-tempo pop music that retains the psychedelic leanings of her first LP. The vocal work of the Irish songwriter remains serious and solemn, but the work put into the arrangements of the tunes seem to signify a . . .

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June McDoom :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

June McDoom The AD InterviewPosted on

"I grew up only listening to reggae music. And for a long time, I felt like that was really outside of my musical identity." June McDoom joins us to discuss her new reggae-inflected collection of psychedelic folk . . .

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Deadline Paranoia 3/3 :: Cappadocia

Deadline ParanoiaPosted on

Released by Ongehoord, Deadline Paranoia 3/3 is the last of three compilations by the 1980s Amsterdam-based outfit. Jeroen Vermandere, who runs the label, discovered these hauntingly timeless recordings while pouring over the Dutch 1980s cassette scene. I’ve been obsessed with this release since first hearing it, and I think Vermandere puts it best in his description of the newly-rediscovered group when he says the recordings embody “a sensitivity towards the spiritual placed alongside anarchic violence . . .

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Every Angel’s Terrifying: Explorations in German Jazz-Rock, 1970-1980

MixtapesPosted on

... reverberating flutes, amplified saxophones, liquid Fender Rhodes keyboards The guitars are jazzy and lysergic in turn, sometimes in the very same track. At times, the drums sit right in the pocket; moments later, they are thundering out for the old gods. It was not so much a fusion of jazz and rock as a continuum where these forms could mutate one into another and back again. All of this music is compelling; some of it is sublime. This darker corner of the krautrock era of the 1970s deserves a good deal more light . . .

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How To Avoid An Imbroglio: A Rodney Graham Musical Primer

Rodney GrahamPosted on

Internationally renowned artist Rodney Graham (January 16, 1949 – October 22, 2022) passed away earlier this week, and while primarily known as a visual and conceptual artist of uncommon depth and clarity, his career also ran a parallel track over the last two decades as a singer/songwriter and recording artist of wryly observed and perfectly constructed pop songs that mine a half century or more’s worth of North American musical forms . . .

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show (The Halloween Edition)

Halloween SIRIUSPosted on

Broadcasting from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery … The Aquarium Drunkard Show. The Halloween edition, Wednesday night / 7pm California time. SIRIUS/XM ~ Channel 35 . . .

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The Lagniappe Sessions :: Yohei 鹿野洋平

Lagniappe Sessions Yohei ShikanoPosted on

Fresh off of a long summer on the road, the multi-instrumentalist recorded his inaugural Lagniappe Session soaked in the California sun of his outdoor garden studio (background cricket ambiance and all). In addition to tackling Jonathan Richman's interpretation of fantasy exotica, the selections play tribute to his many lifelong influences dating back to childhood in Japan: deep cuts from the limitless worlds of Haruomi Hosono and Eiichi Ohtaki . . .

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Twain :: Noon

TwainPosted on

Noon is a time defined as much by what it isn’t as what it is, a place where morning has ended but afternoon has yet to crest. For songwriter Mat Davidson, the voice and mind behind Twain, Noon is an attempt to exist in this middle ground. But the album resists its existence as a fleeting thing, smearing itself across the album’s 13 tracks to mesmerizing effect, becoming a moment you might believe you’ll be able to live in forever, even if you can’t . . .

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