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Allah-Las :: Sirenas

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On their sixth record, Allah-Las embrace a fully instrumental template that oscillates with hypnotic, rhythmic textures and soft ambient currents. Wrapped in the ambiance of aquatic soundscapes, the grooves channel atmospheres where sundowns meet blurred, gauzy perceptions. With references to the likes of English electronic duo Ultramarine and The Durutti Column's Vini Reilly, the free-wheeling pathways of Sirenas offers a fascinating pivot that leaves the door open for boundless transmissions . . .

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Don Cherry & Okay Temiz :: Music for Turkish Theater 1970

Don Cherry Jazz Okay TemizPosted on

In 1969 Istanbul, James Baldwin brought Don Cherry and Turkish percussionist Okay Temiz together to score Fortune and Men’s Eyes, a controversial play about gay love in an Istanbul prison. The resulting music—a hypnotic, unruly weave of drums and flutes, somewhere between free jazz and a fever dream—vanished for more than 50 years. Now, Caz Plak has finally unearthed it . . .

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In Gowan Ring :: The Glinting Spade

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Some records evoke another era, and then there are those that seem untouched by chronology. Originally released in 1999, The Glinting Spade is one of the latter: an ethereal procession of drone, medieval folk, ritual percussion, and acoustic reverie that emerged just before the so-called 'freak folk' renaissance . . .

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Jan & Dean :: Save for a Rainy Day

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Far removed from Jan & Dean's halcyon early days as surf-rock "California sound" architects, Save for a Rainy Day was a valiant attempt at a concept album revolving around summer thunderstorms and precipitation. Conceived as a solo effort to keep the duo's name alive in Jan Berry's medical absence, Dean Torrence and a series of key session players from the Wrecking Crew worked patchwork rain sound effects around lilting harmonies admirably reminiscent of their old collaborator Brian Wilson. Somber and cathartic, it's an oddly whimsical sunshine pop trip for both dry and wet weather . . .

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Transmissions :: Dust-to-Digital

Dust-to-Digital PodcastPosted on

Since 1999, Atlanta label ⁠Dust-to-Digital⁠ has created lavish boxsets, books, and collections of gospel, folk, blues, field recordings, and other sounds sourced from deep global archives. This week on Transmissions, Lance and April Ledbetter join us to discuss the label's mission, navigating the algorithms, and of course, some of the most notable Dust-to-Digital fans, including the Brian Eno and Law & Order's Carey Lowell . . .

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Nick Hakim :: I Can See

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A patient, deeply atmospheric work developed over more than five years, Nick Hakim's I Can See finds the in-demand producer and songwriter distilling his expansive palette into something quieter, more intimate, and quietly elegant. It offers the low-volume comfort of a dinner at a friend's house, where you never want to leave the room, but don't feel the need to talk much either . . .

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Wild Havana :: Wild Havana (1977)

Wild HavanaPosted on

In 1977, a Dutch multi-instrumentalist named Johan Smit tried to synthesize his adventures in 1970s music. Drawing on kraut, prog, jazz-funk and the ethnic rock experiments of Embryo and Popul Vuh, Smit and some of his friends put together one of the more weirdly compelling artifacts of the private press era. Wild Havana is at once retro and futuristic, looking backwards toward traditional sounds while anticipating the mutant funk and electro of the 1980s. It doesn't all come together, but not coming together is what makes it all work . . .

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Wau Wau Collectif :: Teranga

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Originating in 2018 when Swedish music archaeologist Karl Jonas Winqvist brought together a group of local musicians, producers, and poets in the Senegalese fishing village of Toubab Dialaw, the Wau Wau Collectif has since felt like something too precious and magical to be real. Now comes the trilogy’s third and final installment, Teranaga, finalized during the band’s first live tour—a five-week journey across Europe with “three Swedes, three Senegalaise, a French driver, and a lovely mess of languages . . .

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The Durutti Column :: Renascent

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In Ocean of Sound, David Toop describes ambient music as being more about a smell than a sound. Renascent, the first The Durutti Column record in over fifteen years, keeps us bumping into the bones inside that perfume, pushing Vini Reilly’s hazy summer aesthetics somewhere even more unperturbed and unpretentious. At 73, after a series of strokes that had theoretically compromised his ability to play, Reilly has made a record where all structure is just texture stretched thin enough, or all texture only structure slowed down . . .

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Beverly Glenn-Copeland :: Light of the Heavens

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Recorded shortly after his 1986 cult classic, Keyboard Fantasies, “Light of the Heavens” is a nearly lost relic by Beverly Glenn-Copeland. Existing in the same mesmeric electronic sphere of that album, the track features rippling synths and heavenly chants, as Glenn-Copeland sings lovingly of our infinite cosmic connection. A dazzling video for the song, also unearthed, features trance-like interpretive dance, celestial stained glass, and a bespectacled Glenn-Copeland draped in era appropriate silky headband and robe, singing of “the weaving stars of deepest night,” a paean to the master plan behind our mysterious existence . . .

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Twisted Teens :: Florida Water Blues

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The punk rock, blues-garage band known as Twisted Teens is moving at warp speed through music history straight on through to the future. This latest, Florida Water Blues, follows Blame the Clown by a few months and the self-titled by less than a year, and, never fear, there’s another one on the way. These people aren’t sitting around waiting, for fame, for money, for recognition. No they’re grabbing up music by the handfuls, mining 1930s electric blues licks and punk jackhammer beats and doo-woppy waltz time swirl and dropping them into a blender. This . . .

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Pax Nicholas and the Nettey Family :: Na Teef Know De Road of Teef

Pax NicholasPosted on

Long obscured by Afrobeat lore and rescued from obscurity by Daptone Records in 2009, Pax Nicholas and the Nettey Family's Na Teef Know De Road of Teef rides deep-pocket funk, burnished brass, and rolling polyrhythms across four tracks in just over 30 minutes. A long-running member of Fela Kuti's monster Africa 70 incarnation, Nicholas Addo-Nettey steps up as bandleader, driving the get-down from behind the congas. Legend has it Fela heard the record once, ordered it shelved, and in the process consigned the album to more than three decades in the wilderness. Abami Eda . . .

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

SIRIUSPosted on

Broadcasting 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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Transmissions :: Awake, My Soul

Awake, My Soul PodcastPosted on

Describing the sound of Sacred Harp singing can be difficult. Arcane, otherworldly, and overwhelming, it’s a unique a cappella form of shape note Christian hymn singing that was born in England in the 18th century, but took root in the American south. It’s not something you listen to so much something as experience. This week on Transmissions, co-director Matt Hinton discusses his documentary on the subject, Awake, My Soul . . .

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Dog Days of Aquarium Drunkard III

Dog Days of Aquarium DrunkardPosted on

No season inspires ritual listening quite like late summer. As the days flatten into heat haze and evenings linger just a little longer, familiar records reveal unexpected contours. As August stretches on, the Aquarium Drunkard crew returns with another installment of our annual Dog Days roundup: a stack of old favorites, forgotten treasures, new discoveries, and seasonal obsessions . . .

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