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Paul Desmond :: Glad To Be Unhappy (1965)

Midnite Jazz Paul DesmondPosted on

Our Midnite Jazz series returns. Intended by RCA Victor to plug into the jazzy side of the budding mood music market of the 1960s, Glad To Be Unhappy is at its best when Desmond's light, melodic tone on the alto sax takes the lead line — a signature tone that Desmond once described as "trying to sound like a dry martini . . .

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Posted on Midnite Jazz Paul Desmond

Sun Swept :: Germinations

Sun SweptPosted on

Denver multi-instrumentalist Sarah Christiansen is cautious about labeling the processed flute music she makes as Sun Swept "new age." She's probably right to be. Sun Swept's beautiful debut album Germinations takes the formula of an old new age cassette tape and comes up with something altogether more haunting . . .

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Jakob Bro :: Taking Turns

Jakob BroPosted on

Recorded in 2014 but somehow only released late last year, this multi-generational session delivers ensemble playing and collective improvisation at an extraordinarily high level. Danish guitarist Jakob Bro is joined on Taking Turns by a murderer’s row of talents — Lee Konitz (alto/soprano sax), Andrew Cyrille (drums), Bill Frisell (guitar), Jason Moran (piano) and Thomas Morgan (double bass) — for seven marvelously moody pieces . . .

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Bert Jansch :: Nicola

Bert JanschPosted on

Tis the season. As those chilly winds pick up, the sonic migration toward the isles is near unavoidable. While any Bert Jansch LP is certainly fitting this time of the year (and any time of the year, mind you), one in particular deserves its time in the limelight during the shorter days. It may be the most overlooked of Bert’s early run of classic records, but Nicola is certainly worthy of a bit of reappraisal. Maybe it was the strings? The electric guitar? The horns? Whatever, the reason, the record rarely comes up in the Jansch conversation . . .

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The Power of Zeus :: Uncertain Destination

The Power of ZeusPosted on

Another gem from the heavy rock underground brought to light by the fuzz lords at Ancient Grease Records, Uncertain Destination unearths a batch of previously unheard demo recordings that revisits, reframes, and rewrites the legend of Motor City heavy psych quartet Power of Zeus. These recordings got the group signed to Motown’s fledgling Rare Earth imprint in 1970, and led to their lone album the same year, The Gospel According to Zeus, which soon became a cut-out bin mainstay . . .

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Posted on The Power of Zeus

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

SIRIUSPosted on

Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. 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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Julie Beth Napolin :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Julie Beth Napolin The AD InterviewPosted on

At its best, art develops its own associations as it moves through the world. With Only the Void Stands Between Us on Silver Current Records, Julie Beth Napolin delivers a singular debut, one that cuts new trail through the cosmic and the colloquial wilds while adding to the amorphous canon of psych-folk . . .

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Posted on Julie Beth Napolin The AD Interview

Dorothea Paas :: Think Of Mist

Dorothea PaasPosted on

A constant figure in the Toronto music scene, it's a bit surprising that Think of Mist is only Dorothea Paas' second solo record following 2021's post-folk odyssey, Anything Can Happen. As an album, its 10 tracks present as wholly mature, fully-formed and intentional---a dense but highly replayable, bubblegum baroque record. She calls it "choral freak folk," with reference to Judee Sill and Linda Perhacs, but one could describe it as a Weyes Blood for that fertile group of Canadian pop experimentalists that includes Joseph Shabason, Thom Gill, Sandro Perri, and many others . . .

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Jantar :: Background Moods

JantarPosted on

“Moly Snowdrop” is not so much a musical composition as an ecosystem, a shimmering, vibrating garden teeming with sonic life. The 19-minute centerpiece of this latest album from the ambient ensemble Jantar ripples still surfaces of liquid sound, with musical tones like bells and vibraphones and soothing but indefinite textures that mimic the rush of surf, the chittering hum of insect life. The track evokes Jon Hassell’s fourth world sound, Laraaji’s ecstatic meditations, and, of course, the motherlode, the ambient soundscapes of Brian Eno . . .

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Posted on Jantar

Agharta Deluxe: Live Miles in Japan, 1975

Miles DavisPosted on

The Miles Davis septet’s 1975 tour of Japan produced the bandleader’s final definitive statements of his electric era with the Agharta and Pangaea double live LPs. Until a Bootleg Series entry celebrates the tour with a much-deserved box set, unofficial tapes of the 3-week run remain our deepest look into this expanded universe. Here’s a primer on the best of the lot. The shows that burned the hottest and those that explored the furthest reaches of terrain to which no artist has returned . . .

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Posted on Miles Davis

Grooves Outside The Academy: An Interview with Peter Gordon from Love of Life Orchestra (Part 2)

Peter Gordon The AD InterviewPosted on

An almost Zelig-like figure whose life and career has seen him careen from postmodern rock and jittery Downtown dance music ensembles, to opera and theater pieces, orchestral works, contemporary DJ culture, and so much more, Peter Gordon is the type of multifaceted artist whose wide range of interests have made him something of a cornerstone of underground music culture in New York City for well over four decades now. Even if few people outside of New York know who he is. And even there he’s not a household name. But that hasn’t stopped him from casting a . . .

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Posted on Peter Gordon The AD Interview

Lynch People: Remembering David Lynch

David Lynch VideodromePosted on

In tribute to David Lynch, we reached out to a variety of musicians, writers, directors, and artists within the AD orbit to share their thoughts on working with Lynch, watching his films, and the many ways he influenced their own art and life . . .

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Posted on David Lynch Videodrome

Dialup Ghost :: May You Live Forever in Cowboy Heaven

Dialup GhostPosted on

Nashville’s Dialup Ghost have an uneasy relationship with their hometown, celebrating country music while gleefully corrupting its wellsprings. Adding orchestral flourishes and old-timey touches to eccentric indie rock ballads, Dialup Ghost investigates the idea of the South as both a metaphor and a sound, finding potent new territory amid a tangle of old paths and forgotten byways . . .

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Neil Young :: Honey Slides V

Honey Slides Neil YoungPosted on

Somehow, Neil Young turns 80 this year, and we're getting the celebration started early with the fifth edition of Honey Slides, our annual Shakey rarities roundup — this one focused on the acoustic side of things. Even with the outrageously expansive Archives Vol. III being released just a few months back, there are plenty of dusty cabinets of the man's discography (both official and semi-official) to rummage through. From live oddities to unusual arrangements, from solo performances to full band renditions, Honey Slides V covers plenty of ground, despite its generally stripped down vibes . . .

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Posted on Honey Slides Neil Young

The Dave Pike Set :: Infra-Red

Dave PikePosted on

The Detroit-born vibraphonist and marimba player Dave Pike was a veteran of flautist Herbie Mann's early 60s soul jazz groups, and a leader who had recorded with Bill Evans, Reggie Workman and Herbie Hancock, when he decamped for Europe in the late 1960s. There he hooked up with stellar guitarist Volker Kriegel, bassist J.A. Rettenbacher, and drummer Peter Baumeister to form the short-lived Dave Pike Set and record for the adventurous German MPS Records label. The Pike Set's recently reissued third album Infra-Red from 1970 reveals a psychedelic groove band as capable of trippy . . .

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Posted on Dave Pike