Télégraphie sans fil. 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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Even now – after some 60 years of concept albums, ambient soundscapes, and post-modern sonic collage – the idea of aural spaces existing in the same realm as their written and visual counterparts comes across as novel.
On William Eaton’s aptly titled Music by William Eaton, listeners are granted the rare opportunity for holistic interpretation. The textured yellow sleeve bears no words other than the album’s title. No song names, no demarcation of tracks, no listed instruments or accompanying musicians. In keeping with this principle, the music is without words. Within these grooves lies Guitar Soli of a New . . .
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Can you hear the urgent call of Palestine? That’s the question the London based Majazz Project is asking. Launched in 2022 by filmmaker and DJ Mo’min Swaitat, the Palestinian label has released compilations of bedouin tapes, field recordings, rare singles, and two proper albums.
The second full length dropped by the Majazz Project is The Dawn by Al Fajer Group. This second album by the Kuwait-based band was completed in 1990, but never released due to the US invasion. Acoustic oud, guitar, and percussion intertwine beneath the Dal’ona-style vocals of Sima Kanaan. Soft as a . . .
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Ryan Davis is tipping his beer to a world in moral and constitutional decline. Ruminating shortcomings, both inward and out, that seem to have settled into the standard, the Louisville-based journeyman defiantly declares he and his crew “the new vigilantes of the two-drink minimum” on “Free from the Guillotine,” the dryly pugnacious opener to Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band’s Dancing on the Edge, the latest and perhaps greatest notch in the storied songwriter’s belt . . .
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When we hosted counter cultural hero Dorothy Moskowitz on our Transmissions podcast, she reflected on the influence her pioneering psychedelic group The United States of America had on forward looking artists that followed in their wake, namely Trish Keenan of Broadcast. "I should have told her how wonderful she was," Moskowitz said. "Moon," from Moskowitz's The Afterlife, a recent collaboration with Retep Folo (Peter Olof Fransson of The Owl Report), brings to mind what that imagined exchange with Keenan might have sounded like . . .
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Multi-instrumentalist Spencer Zahn’s latest is a minimalist marvel. Statues I features Zahn alone at the piano, dreaming up a series of Harold Budd-esque reveries. The melodies and playing are meditative and inviting, but not without a certain restlessness that holds your attention. Statues II is one of the best so-called “ambient jazz” recordings of the year, with Spencer adding synths, saxes and woodwinds to the mix. While some of it has a Jon Hassell / Fourth World flavor, it drifts very nicely into its own unique zones. In spite of the title, these pieces are anything but . . .
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There have been various interpretations of Eno’s Music For Airports over the years — Psychic Temple’s beauteous rendition, Bang On A Can’s sweet version. Here, Bruce Brubaker strips the ambient masterpiece down to the studs in (mostly) solo piano form, alongside a few other similarly styled Eno tunes. And the whole thing is absolutely gorgeous. I could listen to that iconic Airports piano line (originally played by Robert Wyatt) for at least 24 hours, and in Brubaker’s hands, it is appropriately luminous and enchanting . . .
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Taking some time away from the aural revelation of Equipment Pointed Ankh, Louisville’s Jim Marlowe comes out swinging on his second solo record. Mirror Green Rotor in Profile is a groove machine that covers serious ground over the course of a mere 30 minutes. Following a long tradition of experimentalism, the artist flourishes the annals of the Avant-inclined with a series of astrally-tinged excursions in face-value beauty . . .
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Hailing from South Louisiana, by all accounts Butch Hornsby was one of those supremely talented performers who was incapable of getting out of his own way. Somehow that didn’t stop his sole lp, recorded in 1975 at Jackson, Mississippi’s storied Malaco Studios for ABC records with a crack team of friends and session musicians and later mixed at Allen Toussaint’s famed Sea-Saint Studios in New Orleans, from sounding like a million bucks . . .
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Kayla Cohen’s Itasca has grown over the last decade or so from a solitary acoustic pursuit into a full-band enterprise where pensive art folk kicks up a country rock ruckus. Her latest, Imitation of War, was conceived in the isolation of COVID out in California's Yucca Valley but came to life in collaboration with long-time associates, Evan Backer on bass, Daniel Swire and Evan Burrows on drums, Robbie Cody producing and mixing.
“My past albums feel like growth experiences, but with this album I’ve gotten to a place where I still feel like it’s . . .
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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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When I heard of Iasos’s ascendance, I threw on 1979’s excellent Crystal Love. Like most of his early cassettes, Crystal Love is comprised of two side-long slices of infinite bliss. Here are endless undulating harmonies of synthesizer and zither forever folding into one another like cirrus clouds. And the way Iasos turns his inimitable echo-laden lap steel into a celestial transmission. In its sheer otherworldly force, one can convince oneself that rather than pressing play on a track, you have simply tuned into a song that was always there . . .
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In case you missed it, last year we caught up with visionary percussionist Kahil El’Zabar on the heels of his latest effort, Spirit Gatherer: A Tribute to Don Cherry. Over the holiday break we turned our ears back to 2020, as in the midst of that most infamous year, El’Zabar released Spirit Groove, an eight track LP featuring saxophonist/composer David Murray. Self described as music "to move you nakedly with a deep sense of dance on a mind/body/spirit level," El’Zabar's sonic aim was to "rekindle the motion of social relevance within the legacy . . .
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A recurring narrative runs throughout Shirley Hurt. It’s a catalog of recollections, some are challenging and others provide bursts of exuberance. She joins us to discuss it . . .
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Following a string of promising EPs going back four years, Oyster Rock! is the debut record from Australian five-piece The Brights. Hailing from the Northern Beaches region of Sydney, chiming guitars and infectious melodies make the record an impressive jangle-pop treasure. At times recalling the sounds and DIY aesthetic of the likes of The Clean and extended Flying Nun family, Oyster Rock! is conversely a decisively polished effort, letting the brisk songcraft and soft backing vocals flow . . .
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