As Prairiewolf explores how to play together, only the Korg remains apart, it's programmed beat as distinct and inexorably alien as ever. At a time when computers have begun to usurp the few remaining vestiges of the human, it's good to hear a machine that knows its place . . .
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Ned Collette got his start in Melbourne’s experimental underground, and threads of improvisation and jazz still run through his work. Collette distills complicated ideas into clarity. He does this musically, letting cross currents of jazz and psych run through his folk melodies without muddying their purity. He does it lyrically, unspooling a novelist’s notebook of observation and conjecture in his songs with ease and a startling lack of drama . . .
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Following in the footsteps of the "End Is At Hand" mixtapes, "Country In The Clouds" digs into music from the 60's & 70's Jesus People movement, but this time with a focus on the cosmic country side of the niche subculture. Like holy hippies baptized in the Bakersfield sound, earnest vocals, far out lyrics, and waves of pedal steel beckon listeners to tune in and take the Jesus trip . . .
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Nick Cave wrestles with the darkest parts of the human experience in Wild God, churning up doubt and fear and grief and blasphemy from the muck at the bottom and distilling it, somehow, into transcending clarity. A meditation on humankind’s first crime—the murder of Abel—turns into a rhapsody over frogs jumping up in the rain . . .
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Saxophonist Josh Johnson's name pops up in a wealth of interesting places: he's collaborated with everyone from Meshell Ndegeocello to stadium rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers. He joins us to discuss his jazz fusion epic, Unusual Object and other musical adventures . . .
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A fine fit for the coming turn of the season, Brazilian singer and guitarist Werther’s 1970 self-titled album is a warm and inviting document of gentle, airy bossa-nova, the music lively and eclectic with folk and Tropicália inflections and adorned with sumptuous orchestral arrangements and choral gatherings . . .
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For many years Zappa’s best selling record, 1974’s Apostrophe holds a weird place in Zappa’s large discography. Rather than being a snapshot of where he was at the time it's a jumbled patchwork. But looks are deceiving. The success of the goofy “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” drove this record into the top ten and remains one of Zappa’s best-known singles. But buried beneath the silliness you find tight soulful blues, R&B, and jams. A new 50th anniversary edition expands it further with alternate takes and live sets . . .
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It's a joyous comfort to know that Nick Lowe is still at it. With a title and appearance harkening back to archetypal exotica motifs, Indoor Safari is the musician's first full length since a seasonal offering over a decade ago. In many ways, it's a culmination of Lowe's prolific solo career being revamped when he began touring with instrumental surf outfit Los Straitjackets as his backing band . . .
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It feels somehow wrong though to refer to the particularly vibrant brand of Tuareg rock played by Etran de L’Aïr as blues, desert or otherwise. There’s an exuberance in their adrenaline-fueled anthems and frenzied jams that resists the term. The band has its roots as a touring wedding band in central Niger, and the group’s songs more often than not feel buoyed by the ecstasy of celebration, conjuring scenes of late nights dancing beneath the desert stars. 100% Sahara Guitar is the clearest vision we’ve had yet of Etran de L’Aïr’s . . .
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Independently released in 1985, Steve Brenner’s Signals is a dark and haunted electronic voyage through a future that never happened. A multifaceted composite of synths and drum machines, Signals has been called everything from “Ferrari-crime music” to “space-rock.” We shed some light on the album’s ominous history and anachronistic music . . .
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Six Organs’ Ben Chasny handed over the keys to Twig Harper for this remix album, giving the noise/electronic experimenter total freedom to remake his 2020 album Companion Rises. The result is something entirely different in this reconfiguration; its warm, clear guitars, its eerie, attenuated vocals, even its forays into digital noise and dissonance have morphed beyond recognition . . .
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This week on Transmissions, we're sitting down with a genuine legend: Joe Boyd, author of And The Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey Through Global Music, out September 24 from ZE Books. On the front cover of the book Brian Eno—a venerated saint in the Aquarium Drunkard canon—declares, “I doubt I’ll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.” Boyd joins us to discuss the book and his work with Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, and much more . . .
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On their sophomore album, On the Hill, the quartet combines the shaggy dilettantism of '90s indie rock with the pristine haze of earlier shoegaze bands, looking for new things to make with old tools . . .
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2022’s Boat Songs propelled North Carolina string-bender MJ Lenderman into the vernacular. A marriage of witty lyrics, twanging guitars, and indie pomp with a mountain drawl delivery and a grungy attitude. Since, Lenderman has been bouncing about and building up a reputation as a spontaneous livewire guitarist when placed in front of a crowd. In between all of this – somehow – he has pieced together a record of significant growth. Manning Fireworks not only showcases the further-honed guitar pyrotechnics Lenderman is becoming best known for but displays his notable development as a literate songwriter with a 21st century . . .
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Josephine Foster’s 2023 album Domestic Sphere is a collection of songs that reflect Fisher’s understanding of haunting as failed mourning. The idea of being haunted within Domestic Sphere is conveyed most fully in the songs “Pendulum” and, naturally, “Haunted House.” But Foster’s haunted expression goes beyond the lyrical content of the songs—it also encompasses the way she sings those words, her overdubbed vocals, and the comprehensive sonic experiences of the two songs . . .
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