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Floreana :: Diamond Head (Beach Boys Cover)

Floreana The Beach BoysPosted on

As part of When You're Calling Me, an upcoming tribute to the Beach Boys Friends LP coming soon on Passing By Records, Floreana (AKA LA-based musician Victoria Mordoch) tackles “Diamond Head,” one of the album’s two exotica-flavored instrumentals. In her hands, it’s a great dot-connector, taking us from Les Baxter to Stereolab to today’s ambient jazz scene. And she gets there in under two-and-a-half minutes. Something tells me Brian would be pleased . . .

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Posted on Floreana The Beach Boys

Videodrome :: Vampire’s Kiss (1988)

VideodromePosted on

From Hollywood A-list leading man to B-movie cult favorite, from Oscar winner to Razzie nominee, Nicolas Cage has made a career out of disappearing into his characters. But characters can just as easily disappear into Cage. Vampire’s Kiss is an exemplary example of the aforementioned, where Cage’s eccentricities become so pronounced that both the actor and character implode inward, forming a caricature that occupies the liminal space between meme and reality . . .

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MJ Lallo :: Before Brazil

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The ether has been particularly swampy as of late, but the strange alien sounds of the California-based MJ Lallo have been helping us wade through the thick and uncertain fog. Dig “Before Brazil,” off the vocal artist, poet, and composer’s self-released 1988 album The Channeled Voice - with just her vocal, albeit heavily modulated, and a drum machine, she conjures a hazy club outing that blends dance music, exotica, and new age in a deeply intoxicating and idiosyncratic fashion . . .

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Bandcamping :: Summer 2025

BandcampingPosted on

Could this summer get any weirder? Things are tumbling forward in 2025, with the future as unsteady and uncertain as can be. But the great music keeps on coming somehow, making the weirdness more tolerable. For your further explorations (and continued sanity), check out a handful of recent releases that we’re putting on repeat as the mercury rises . . .

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Håvard Volden :: Small Lives

Håvard VoldenPosted on

Norwegian musician Håvard Volden is best known for his collaborations with songwriter Jenny Hval, with whom he plays in the experimental art pop group Lost Girls. But with his solo excursion Small Lives, he creates a space where post-rock lulls nestle against jazz structures and subtly anarchic counter melodies. Though the cited influences of early tape composers like Luc Ferrari and madman studio experimentalist Joe Meek might call to mind chopped and spliced takes, Volden maintains a steady organic feel on the title track, a graceful guitar-based drone funk ballad . . .

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

SIRIUSPosted on

Dubwise summer. 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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Jackie-O Motherfucker :: Flags of the Sacred Harp (20th Anniversary Edition)

Jackie-O MotherfuckerPosted on

There have been few bands in the twenty-first century that have been as thrillingly alive to the history of American music as the shapeshifting Portland, OR free rock ensemble Jackie-O Motherfucker. They paired folk with free jazz, post-rock with Protestant hymnody, New York minimalism with Negro spirituals. The sonic collective unconscious of the United States, in all its strangeness and suffering, seeped through their sound. A welcome twentieth anniversary reissue of their best-loved and most accessible album Flags of the Sacred Harp offers a fresh opportunity to reconsider their inimitable form of musical archaeology . . .

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All One Song :: Meg Baird and Charlie Saufley on “Interstate”

All One Song Neil Young PodcastPosted on

This week, you’re getting two fantastic guests for the price of one: ⁠Meg Baird⁠ and Charlie Saufley. Meg first came to my attention thanks to her work with the innovative Philadelphia psych-folk collective ⁠Espers⁠, and since then she’s created a pretty much flawless solo career — her most recent record, 2023’s ⁠Furling⁠, is a perfect showcase for her pristine guitar work and beautiful vocals. Charlie Saufley co-produced that record with Meg and the duo also played in ⁠Heron Oblivion⁠ with Ethan Miller and Noel Von Harmonson — a group that only managed one studio record during their . . .

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Posted on All One Song Neil Young Podcast

Golden Brown :: Whisker Fatigue

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Colorado guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Stefan Beck gets a lot of love around these parts as one-third of Mountain Time motorik outfit Prairiewolf. Fortunately it hasn't been getting in the way of the solo work he puts out under his Golden Brown moniker. The new album Whisker Fatigue practices a rare form of psychedelic austerity, whipping up a heady atmosphere through subtraction. Some might call it ambient, but it is really what happens to acid rock when it is reduced to its essential elements . . .

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Hiroki Tamaki :: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Hiroki TamakiPosted on

Originally released in 1980, before the Bhagwan had ventured to America to begin the now infamous Oregon ashram and its ill-fated demise, his spiritual teachings reached Hiroki Tamaki in Japan. Compelled to reach far outside his classical training for a full length tribute to the guru, Tamaki lays out a mind altering trip into some confounding musical spaces. An all-you-can-eat buffet of prog-ladened synths, ethereal vocals, spoken word meditations, and pedal to the floor jamming shouldn’t work this well - but damn if it doesn’t . . .

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Charles Tolliver’s Music Inc. :: Live at Slugs’ Vol. 1 & 2

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The resurrection of Strata-East is nothing short of monumental, and that’s a fact. While each album on the legendary jazz label is a masterpiece in its own right, there is perhaps no clearer line to the heart of the Strata-East psyche than Charles Tolliver and Music Inc.’s Live at Slugs’ Vol. 1 & 2. Originally issued in 1972 as two separate albums, Live at Slugs’ is finally presented in all its majesty as a proper double album, transferring the full impact of this tour-de-force scorcher that occupies the intersection of heady post-bop, modal elegance . . .

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Seke Molenga & Kalo Kawongolo

Kalo Kawongolo Lee Perry Reggae/Dub Seke MolengaPosted on

Recorded in 1977 at the hand of Lee “Scratch” Perry in the legendary Black Ark lies one of its most beguiling and misunderstood creations. Two talented Congolese musicians were brought to Jamaica to record an album only to be unceremoniously dumped by their promoter and fend for themselves. Found begging on the streets of Kingston by Perry himself, as the story is told, The Upsetter took it as a sign from Jah to take them in, and a serendipitous musical collaboration followed . . .

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Posted on Kalo Kawongolo Lee Perry Reggae/Dub Seke Molenga

Dubwise Summer: An Aquarium Drunkard Mixtape

Mixtapes Reggae/DubPosted on

Summer equals dub. It is the elemental music of the season. And not simply because it comes from a tropical island. Everything in dub feels suspended in the heat and humidity: a little slower, a little hazier—all the elements delayed in the muggy atmosphere. There is something about the laid back languor of dub that feels especially appropriate this time of year, when the sun is high and the stakes are low. In that spirit, we're serving up a couple hours of some of our favorite cuts from the golden age of dub . . .

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Nate Mercereau, Josh Johnson, Carlos Niño :: Openness Trio

Carlos Niño Jazz Josh Johnson Nate MercereauPosted on

Openness Trio marks the first major release for the small group of L.A. musicians Nate Mercereau, Josh Johnson and Carlos Niño, as well as a significant milepost for the drifty, electronics-infused style of jazz they favor, appearing on the storied Blue Note label, once a haven of the old guard. Meditative, vibrant and lush, Openness Trio reenvisions the crystalline perfume of West Coast New Age not as daffy escapism but as the transcendental successor to avant-garde spiritual jazz. Equal parts incense and neon, it’s a testament to a place and a sound that sees the . . .

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Posted on Carlos Niño Jazz Josh Johnson Nate Mercereau

Mark Stewart :: The Fateful Symmetry

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The incendiary artist Mark Stewart, the main creative force behind the Pop Group, died suddenly and unexpectedly in April 2023, shortly after completing this eighth solo album. It’s a fitting cap to a career that spanned more than four decades and brought together the most uncompromising threads of post-punk, dub, funk, dance and agit-punk . . .

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Posted on Mark Stewart