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Turner William Jr :: Vipérine

It would be easy to write a verbose piece about the immersive nature of Turner William Jr.’s musicianship or drone on about the philosophical implications of the vipérine, a flower that is both at home on the shoulder of roadways and dry barren landscapes. But it seems much more important to state clearly, without metaphor or poetry, that Vipérine is a beautiful album, effortlessly weaving the rich presence of sacred music to the forward momentum of genre-agnostic artistry . . .

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Drew Gardner :: Wave Field

Drew Gardner may be best known for the cosmic shimmer and drone of Elkhorn, his duo with Jesse Shepherd or his own trippy solo work, but he’s a long-time Hawkwind head as well. Wave Field, recorded with Garcia Peoples’ Tom Malach and Andy Cush on guitar and bass and Ryan Jewell on drums, is far more motorik and krautish than what you’ve heard from Gardner up to now . . .

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The Sleeves :: Self-Titled

Jack Cooper’s Modern Nature expanded on the last album, The Heat Warps, to include the U.K. improvisatory guitarist Tara Cunningham. Their dual guitar play was loose and intuitive, softening the lines drawn by the band’s motorik sound and adding an unpredictable but well-thought out element to its songs. Now, the two of them extend their conversation in Sleeves, in this quiet but riveting concoction of acoustic guitar and voices . . .

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Sun Ra Arkestra :: Live In Berlin, 1970

Off-axis early peak expansion. Captured at a moment when the Arkestra was stretching further into its own woozy mythos, Berlin 1970 hangs in low orbit, charged with a sidelong electricity. Grooves materialize, then fracture the frame—sliding from radical abstraction to something that starts to hold . . .

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Talk Talk, Montreux 1986: Before the Silence

By July 1986, Talk Talk were still a functioning live unit touring behind The Colour of Spring. But something had already shifted as evidenced by this set from that summer’s Montreux Jazz Festival. Listen closely and you can hear the architecture beginning to loosen: tempos breathe, arrangements open, and familiar material begins to drift toward something less fixed, less performative . . .

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Westerman :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Where Westerman's first record neurotically arranged harmonies into refined ambiences and lush production aesthetics reminiscent of Peter Gabriel and Mark Hollis, and the second succumbed to unsettlingly unformatted bittersweetness, like Nick Drake making a party record, in A Jackal's Wedding he tries to put things into motion once again, if only by breaking them apart. First you clinch it, then you stress it, then it bursts and pours out . . .

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African Head Charge w/ Lee “Scratch” Perry :: Glastonbury Festival 1990

Glastonbury, England. June 1990. One foot in the dying century, the other feeling for whatever comes next. Amid the sweating sprawl, DJ Earthpipe furtively records African Head Charge’s heated 66-minute set with Lee “Scratch” Perry on a Sony Walkman. A séance disguised as a sound system sermon, the tape folds time in on itself---hallucinatory, ritualistic. Press play and drift as tectonic basslines shift beneath the surface . . .

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The Kynds :: So If Someone Sends You Flowers Babe

Here’s one that’s been on serious repeat lately. A mid-60s garage rock gem, “So If Someone Sends You Flowers Babe” is the A-side on the sole release by a group known as The Kynds. A trio from upstate New York, organist Joseph Cirincione, drummer Jerry Porreca, and bassist Dan Wood (with one of them anonymously on vocals) laid down the track in Kinderhook while gigging in the area in 1966, fashioning a lo-fi garage rock gem with merry-go-round keys, a sparse drumbeat, and warped humming bass. It’s a mysteriously cool platter, a . . .

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

Via satellite, transmuting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.

SIRIUS 886: Intro ++ Sun Ra – This Song Is Dedicated To Nature’s God ++ Rikki Ililonga – Fire High ++ Shintaro Sakamoto – From The Dead ++ Bob Marley (Dylan Tate Interview excerpt) ++ Luis Melodia – Baby Rose ++ Yo La Tengo – Esportes Casual ++ Fumio Nunoya – Mizu Tamari ++ Yaphet Kotto – Have You Ever Seen The Blues ++ Africa – Paint It Black ++ Muro – Conduct: A Library Research Track 3 ++ Junior Parker – Tomorrow Never Knows ++ Kukumbas – Respect ++ Cisneros & Garza Group – I’m A Man ++ King James Version – He’s Forever (Amen) ++ Shuggie Otis – XL-30 ++ Shuggie Otis – Aht Uh Mi Hed ++ Susumu Yokota – Lapis Lazuli ++ CAVE – Beaux ++ Ranking Ann – A Slice Of English Toast ++ Wayne Smith & Prince Jammy- Synchro Start ++ Fela Kuti – Unknown Soldier ++ Masao Yagi – Sukeban M-2 ++ Akiko Yano – Funamachi-Uta Part 2 ++ The Budos Band – Ghost Walk ++ Antibalas – Dub Je Je ++ Dwight Sykes – In The Life Zone (Instrumental) ++ Rob – Forgive Us All ++ The Poets Of Rhythm – Discern Define ++ Scientist – The Voodoo Curse ++ Fela Kuti – This Is Sad ++ Joe Tongo – Dig It Babe ++ The Psychedelic Aliens – Okponmo Ni Tsitsi Emo Le ++ The Lijadu Sisters – Bayi L’ense ++ Georges Happi Hello Friends ++ Rikki Ililonga – Love Is So Strange ++ Bohannon – Save Their Souls

Fela Kuti :: Live in Detroit 1986

There are records that feel like documents and there are records that feel like contraband. Live in Detroit 1986 sits firmly in the latter… a tape smuggled out of the room, dubbed and redubbed into soft focus until the hiss becomes a third rhythm section. Captured less than a year after Fela Kuti’s release from prison, at Detroit’s Fox Theatre during his first U.S. tour, the set lands with a charged, itinerant electricity: part exorcism, part declaration . . .

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All Song Song :: Scott Bunn on “Boom Boom Boom”

For his appearance on All One Song, AD and Recliner Notes contributor Scott Bunn picked a truly deep cut: ⁠“Boom Boom Boom.”⁠ This is a song that you might know better … though not much better…as ⁠“She’s A Healer,”⁠ which closed out Neil’s 2002 LP Are You Passionate?, recorded with Booker T and the MG’s. But “Boom Boom Boom” is the original Crazy Horse version of the song, which was cut in the year 2000 . . .

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The Lagniappe Sessions :: Big Bend

On their 2024 album Last Circle in a Slowdown, Big Bend took concert recordings and reconfigured them, bending that live energy into weird, spacious and intricate constructions. Leader Nathan Phillips does something similar for his project's first Lagniappe Session, turning these covers into loose, free and focused interpretations of the source material. Slowdown bore the light but pervasive imprint of Talk Talk, especially Mark Hollis' tentative yet determined phrasing and breathy, plein air timbre . . .

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R.E.M. :: Lifes Rich Pageant at 40

R.E.M.'s fourth album may be 40 years old by the Gregorian calendar, but its cockeyed self-determination and wistful mistrust make it seem younger than many of the band's '90s records. Full of ambivalent emotions expressed in clear, ringing tones, the songs of Lifes Rich Pageant show a band waking up to its potential (commercial as well as artistic) and recognizing the extent of that discovery and what remained to be mapped out. Take a picture here, take a souvenir . . .

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Mildred :: Fenceline

An unassuming set of songs made by an unassuming four-piece, Fenceline rolls by in a little over thirty minutes. There is a certain sense of inertia to the record, the songs so strong and fundamentally enjoyable that you can’t help but listen to it in sequence, almost as if it were a real piece of wax on a turntable—or better yet, a scuffed CD in a six-disc changer. This is an album made for tooling around the streets of a town you don’t necessarily want to live in anymore, in a car that’s seen . . .

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Adam Schatz :: A Test of Attention Spans and Contact Cleaner

Though he's known for his work with artists like Neko Case, Japanese Breakfast, and Hand Habits, and the prog-pop of Landlady, Adam Schatz steps fully into the role of spontaneous composer with his modal jazz and fractured bop-inspired forthcoming solo album Civil Engineering Vol. 1, out April 24 via Jealous Butcher Records . . .

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