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

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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Johnny Smith feat. Stan Getz :: Moonlight In Vermont (1956)

Released in 1956 by Royal Roost, Moonlight in Vermont shines the brightest when it allows itself to breathe — to play in the relaxed tempos of ballads, when Smith's technical precision can coalesce with his delicate touch . . .

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Transmissions :: Amelia Courthouse

This week on Transmissions, the return of Leah Toth, aka Amelia Courthouse. She was last here on the podcast in its earlier, more feral incarnation—and by feral we mean "updated with elss regularity"—but back in 2018 she reviewed Shinya Fukumori Trio’s incredible ECM release For 2 Akis. We've wanted to have Leah back on ever since, and this now we've got a great excuse to do so: the release of her incredible new album under the Amelia Courthouse name, broken things. Blending Protestant solemnity with dream pop bliss with extended, meditative ambient music and skeletal . . .

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Erlend Øye & La Comitiva

Erlend Oye is back with a new solo project following the Kings of Convenience homecoming of 2021. One can hear echoes of the aristocratic tranquility of the Norwegian duo's last record of in the soothing, breathable music of La Comitiva, as well as influences from musica leggera and Sicilian folk (which Oye seems enamored with since moving to Italy in 2013), plus flamenco phrasings, bolero intonations, and the occasional bouncy rhythms of calypso and range-restrained quick-strumming of samba . . .

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The Lagniappe Sessions :: Caleb Dailey

Phoenix songwriter Caleb Dailey's voice is a warm, enveloping thing. On his solo debut, 2022 LP Warm Evenings, Pale Mornings: Beside You Then, he applied it to a survey of country and western music, covering songs by Gordon Lightfoot, Waylon Jennings, Blaze Foley, Chip Moman, and more. But the album was far from an exercise in retro country—in these timeworn songs, Dailey finds a site for experimentation, ambient textures, and smoked out soundscapes. For his Lagniappe session, brings a similar sense of vision and mystery to selections by Skeeter Davis and NRBQ, Leroy Van Dyke, and Lucinda Williams . . .

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George Cromarty :: The Wind In The Heather

1984's The Wind in the Heather finds Cromarty evolving from folk-blues purist to a cosmopolitan songcrafter fully aware of the environment in which he created. From the outset, the listener finds that Cromarty is still a powerhouse of the alternating thumbed bassline though he has picked up some new tricks. Incorporating flamenco style strumming, quick runs of clusterchorded breakdowns, and, importantly, that ever elusive idea of ‘space’ within the composition expand his sound beyond the decades-old template dictating the cornerstones of Guitar Soli . . .

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Dorothy Carter :: Troubadour

Dorothy Carter began her musical career in the avant-garde and ended up an early music revivalist/popularizer. In between these two poles, she made two records that fittingly reside somewhere in the middle. For her first solo album, Troubadour, originally released in 1976 on her own label and now reissued by Drag City, she explored more traditional zones, evoking and interpreting gnostic hymns, ancient airs and cosmic carols with fidelity and freshness . . .

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Peter Rowan (Old and In The Way) :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Peter Rowan’s brand of bluegrass has always been hard to pin down. He’s always been near the genre but always pushing the form forward, past the forefathers of the genre and into something new. In 1973, he moved out West, returning to his roots of straight bluegrass. Working with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, John Kahn, and Vassar Clements, they created a short-lived but widely celebrated outlet: Old and In The Way. He joins us to discuss . . .

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Setting :: At Eulogy

With just one studio album, and now two live releases under their belt, North Carolina's Setting trio of Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly and Joe Westerlund is rapidly becoming one of the most rewarding improvisational outfits on the American music scene. This new one, from a June 2024 show in Asheville, showcases Setting as some kind of postminimalist jam band--all driving rhythms and humongous, multicolored drones . . .

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Cereus Bright :: Seven Wonders

Tyler Anthony's Cereus Bright project has always been personal, but with "Seven Wonders," the opening selection from his latest LP Anything, he sets a course for the cosmic. Inspired by readings of Polish philosopher Zygmunt Bauman, who described modernity as a liquid-like state in which constant change makes it's impossible to maintain a frame of reference, the song utilizes simple phrases that nonetheless carry profound weight: "Everything we know/melts away, there is/nothing left but a/face without a frame . . .

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Dummy :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

What if Dummy made an electronic album with rock instruments? What exactly would that sound like? The result is Free Energy, a driving blast of dance floor physicality. We caught up with all four members of the band to discuss this sonic transformation and what's next. Said, guitarist Joe Trainor, “We tapped into some things that I feel like we’re just scratching the surface of, in terms of what we could do in the future . . .

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Jon Hopkins :: Ritual

Jon Hopkins builds shimmering, subtle shifting textures in this extended ambient symphony. Ritual comes in eight parts, though the divisions seem arbitrary, and you’ll miss them if you’re not watching track titles. This is one composition which develops almost imperceptibly over time, as layered cadences of percussion, synths and altered vocals pulse and repeat . . .

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Krononaut :: Krononaut II

While their 2020 debut featured a clutch of out jazz ringers from both Europe and the US on a set of fourth world excursions, the new Krononaut album pares down to the core duo of guitarist Leo Abrahams and drummer Martin France. The results, a series of evolving conversations between Abrahams's chiming guitar peals and France's restless free jazz rustle, are nothing short of sublime . . .

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Maxton Hunter :: Dhara / Jaya

In need of some sitar radiance as the crispness of the weather slowly begins to turn? Single “Dhara / Jaya” comes via California-based musician and studio maestro Maxton Hunter, a lifting mini-suite that floats into the ether with a hovering quality of west coast ambiance . . .

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

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 . . .

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

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