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Bandcamping :: Winter 2020

Fight off the winter blues with a dive into the deep end of the Bandcamp pool, featuring acoustic jazz, hymnambient soundscapes, minimalist pop, and moody Frippertronics. Sample some recent/random/recommended offerings and put a little cash into artists’ and labels’ pockets . . .

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And Then One Day: A Guide to the Music of Carla Bley

On the release of Carla Bley's new album Life Goes On, Winston Cook-Wilson provides an overview of composer, bandleader, and pianist's multifaceted career, from her pop and funk-inflected '70s and '80s work to her more recent "microcosms of a musical personality that is exceptionally difficult to distill . . .

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Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

On Names of North End Women the new collaborative lp by former Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo and Spanish producer/composer Raül Refree, the duo condense electronic pulses, shifting rhythms, tape loops, and far out (and frequently lusty) poetry into a beguiling collage. "I think the idea of going forward is to try to venture into more different places," Ranaldo says, "rather than fall back into familiar sound-worlds from the past . . .

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Six Organs of Admittance :: The 101

Elisa Ambrogio’s video for “The 101,” rides a rock ’n’ roll animism via the  curves of California’s forests, where ferns are hardwired to unseen voltage and black cubes manifest as mysterious omens. Ambrogio’s video teases out the weirdness from the only state that could have given us Esalen, Heaven’s Gate, PKD, and the Integration . . .

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

Ultra White Violet Light. The Aquarium Drunkard Show. SIRIUS/XM radio ~ Channel 35. Wednesdays / 7pm California time + on-demand . . .

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Phil Ranelin & Emanative :: Vibes From The Tribe

UK spiritual jazzist Emanative's 2019 collaboration with Phil Ranelin, covering the badassery of the trombonist's own "Vibes From The Tribe" from 1975 . . .

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Makaya McCraven: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

McCraven is a musician, composer and bandleader, but he is also highly regarded for his “chopping” or remixing and re-imagining production skills. We’re New Again, his reconfiguration of the late-career classic Gil Scott Heron album I’m New Here, will be one of 2020’s top recordings, putting a fresh spin on moving meditations on family, personal history and black identity. We talked to him about that project, the process of remixing and the way he and Heron find links between many different kinds of music . . .

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The Lagniappe Sessions :: Elkhorn

For their inaugural Lagniappe Session, guitar duo Elkhorn take on the traditional ballad "Morning Dew," as heard by Bonnie Dobson via Garcia, the aforementioned Robbie Basho, Dave Holland, Sonic Youth, and a new traditional song, "John Henry," often heard as a ballad and a hammer song or work song . . .

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Catching Up With Yann Tiersen

“It was important to keep everything in context,” Tiersen said in a phone interview with Aquarium Drunkard. “It was really important for me to have [the songs] back and to have them…in the environment they belong.” This sentiment lays at the heart of the sessions for Portrait. How, at 25 years on, can you create a grand unified theory of your body of work? In Tiersen’s case it involved revisiting a wide variety of songs, reinterpreting them alongside new material, in order to create just what the title implies: a portrait . . .

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

Episode 600. The Aquarium Drunkard Show. SIRIUS/XM radio ~ Channel 35. Wednesdays / 7pm California time + on-demand.

34.1090° N, 118.2334° W . . .

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Elkhorn :: The Storm Sessions

The Elkhorn adventure continues, hot on the heels of last year’s stellar double LP. This time around, Jesse Shepard and Drew Gardner have recruited multi-instrumentalist Turner Williams (who records under the Ramble Tamble moniker) for an extremely heady journey. On The Storm Sessions, the tried-and-true formula remains in place, with Shepard’s earthy 12-string keeping things grounded while Shepard’s shimmering electric playing ventures into the slipstream . . .

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YlangYlang :: Interplay

...the album could be compared to a less sinister version of Inga Copeland’s Lolina, but may in fact have more in common with Rick Holland and Brian Eno’s poetronica . . .

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Aquarium Drunkard Presents: Sessa @ Zebulon, February 13

Thursday, February 13, Aquarium Drunkard presents an evening with Sessa at Zebulon. Sessa's 2019 debut, Grandeza, was one of our favorite records of last year. High praise.

With . . .

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Kiwi Jr :: Football Money

Kiwi Jr’s Football Money is a debut that feels like a finale—like the type of record you might expect to hear from a seasoned band just before they call it quits on the patently impossible indie-rock lifestyle while trying to find a foothold in the real world . . .

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