"The United Debased" #125 ALTER.NATION.MiX - weekly favtraX 19-04-2021 (15trx 1h 15m)

 ALTER.NATION #125(15trx 1h 15m)

Motorpsycho, Liquid Tension Experiment, PONY, Fake Fruit, Clamm, Orions Belte, Winds, Silver Synthetic, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

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1 9 - 0 4 - 2 0 2 1

"The United Debased"

Named for a movie by American sexploitation auteur Russ Meyer, Motorpsycho are an eclectic Norwegian band whose music is an adventurous amalgam of progressive rock, psychedelia, alternative rock, folk-rock, hard rock, jazz, country, and old-school heavy metal. 

Motorpsycho - Kingdom of Oblivion / The United Debased / At Empire's End

...a carefully constructed, seamless new album that brings together all of Motorpsycho's sonic hallmarks -- from heavy riffs and melodic hooks to progressive interludes, and electronic and textural experiments, to wildly exploratory vanguard, prog, and psychedelic rock. Bent Saether, Hans Magnus "Snah" Ryan, and Tomas Jarmyr were assisted during the process by longtime collaborator, guitarist Reine Fiske (Dungen)... "The United Debased" offers Deep Purple-esque guitar and organ vamps that introduce a soaring vocal amid thudding tom-toms, ratcheted snares, thudding kick drums, and a throbbing bass line. Mellotrons waft in and out as the guitar riff carves room for the lyric and a vocal bridge. Wailing six-string solos, jagged organs, and plodding bass riffs rule the day...  "At Empire's End" offers intricately textured, tense, sonically elastic musical connections that exist in the no-man's-land between King Crimson-esque prog, serpentine acid folk, and vanguard baroque pop...Kingdom of Oblivion organically grafts trademark elements from Motorpsycho's previous work and influences onto literally spontaneous musical discoveries. The album is a pillar of 21st century rock, adding dimension and depth to the band's visionary legacy.

Liquid Tension Experiment is an American instrumental prog rock "supergroup." Founded in 1997 by drummer Mike Portnoy, then a member of Dream Theater, their sound offers complex compositions -- sometimes of protracted length -- wedding riff-laden hard rock and heavy metal to knotty jazz fusion, and meaty funk with constantly shifting dynamics, rhythms, time signatures, and textures. The lineup also includes King Crimson bassist/Chapman Stick master Tony Levin, and Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess and guitarist John Petrucci. 

Liquid Tension Experiment - LTE3 / The Passage of Time / Rhapsody in Blue (George Gershwin')

...Apparently, the mandatory downtime imposed by the global COVID-19 pandemic provided the individuals with the necessary scheduling space to write and record together for the first time in 22 years. Socially distanced in a New York studio, the band composed and recorded LTE3 in July 2020... Rudess' pianism almost steals the show on "The Passage of Time." His consummate melodic invention weds jazz, rock, blues, and classical tenets. Petrucci indulges a winding, expansive solo appended by driving fills from Portnoy and Levin, but Rudess anchors the song, offering the guitarist an advanced tonal palette to play off... A 13-minute read of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is resurrected from the band's last tour. Gershwin's episodic pomp and circumstance is followed to the letter, but LTE punctuate it with maniacal shredding, angular countermelodies, circus prog time changes, and a hard-grooving funk interlude... It's breathtaking. Ultimately, LTE3 doesn't register the same degree of awe the earlier outings did, but it may be the most musical in the bunch, and therefore, well worth the wait.

Grungy, melodic power pop from this Toronto outfit led by singer/guitarist Sam Bielanski.

PONY - TV Baby / By the Way

PONY spent the first half-decade of their career dishing out a succession of pleasantly crunchy singles and EPs that blended the snarkier side of '90s grunge and alt-rock with the energy of pop-punk. Led by Toronto-based singer/guitarist Sam Bielanski, the project has cycled through its share of members in the years leading up to this full-length debut, but exists here as a hearty power trio thanks to ace rhythm battery Matty Morand and Lucas Horne.

Conceived in New York and raised in Vancouver, Fake Fruit has its roots in two artistically vibrant communities. Frontwoman Hanna Amato moved to Canada for a nannying job and brought her music with her, picking up Jess Lebenburg on lead guitar, Tom Waelen on drums, and Gabe Ragel on bass to keep the band going strong.

Fake Fruit - Fake Fruit  / Don't Put It on Me

Fake Fruit distill Pink Flag era Wire, Pylon, and Mazzy Star to expound on the absurdity of modern life. Front woman Hannah D’Amato leads the group through three minute clap backs of minimal, moody post-punk.

Intense punk trio from Melbourne, Australia made up of members of Dragoona and Gamjee.

Clamm - Beseech Me / Beseech Me / Bossman

Melbourne musicians Jack Summers and Miles Harding were already making loud, cacophonous music as members of both the mercurial Dragoons and synthy garage pop band Gamjee, but they still wanted to explore even more visceral sounds. They did just that with the formation of Clamm, a red-lined punk trio who deal in feedback, abrasive riffs, and blown-out blasts of power and aggression. The group's debut album, Beseech Me, rolls by like an avalanche of intensity...Beseech Me recalls the energetic peaks of psychedelic punks Thee Oh Sees or Ty Segall freak-rock side project Goggs. Clamm's storm of cathartic energy disguises how intricately constructed the songs are and makes Beseech Me both exhilarating and engaging.

An eclectic Norwegian trio who cite influences like dub, blues, soul, lo-fi psych, and 1970s Nigerian rock.

Orions Belte - Villa Amorini / Bean / how long is... cold pizza good for

When guitarist Øyvind Blomstrøm (Bare Egil Band, El Cuero), bassist Chris Holm (Young Dreams, Sondre Lerche), and drummer Kim Åge Furuhaug (Young Dreams) -- all working musicians from Bergen, Norway's music scene -- got together to rehearse a new instrumental project for the first time, the result of the weekend was their debut album, 2018's Mint. The largely improvised, mostly instrumental album offered a playful, laid-back mix of influences spanning everything from dub and funk to jazz and '70s Nigerian psychedelic rock. Hard to pigeonhole but easy to digest, Orions Belte followed up with a pair of EPs before returning with Villa Amorini, their second full-length... "Bean" serves as an atmospheric, midtempo prelude that welcomes audiences to their beanbag chairs with a sauntering, amplified guitar melody that's backed by acoustic rhythm guitar, vibraphone, and lightly syncopated drums. Strings, various effects, and a livelier bass eventually come into play on a track that ends on slow-fading sustain... "how long is...cold pizza good for" is a circular, six-minute jam with multiple solos, pitched electronic drums, and sound effects in the realm of lasers and spacecraft engines. Full of melodic instinct throughout, Villa Amorini provides a cool and trippy 40-minute ride along basslines that chills out without ever getting sleepy.

Light and catchy psychedelic pop delivered with sure-handed versatility by members of Lucille Furs and Triptides.

Winds - Look at the Sky / Return of the Jive / Winds

Winds' debut album Look at the Sky is a perfect combination of psychedelic textures, pop hooks, Baroque arrangements, and memorable songs. Not a huge shock considering the other bands their members play with. Vocalist Trevor Pritchett is in Lucille Furs, whose 2019 album Another Land is a neo-psych gem, Glenn Brigman and Brendan Peleo-Lazar (who was also with the Furs) both make great music with Triptides. Add in well-known visual artist John Zabawa, who sometimes collaborates with Pritchett on songs, and the result is a group with the experience and vision to craft an album that stands out from the psychedelic hordes crowding the airwaves in the early 2020s. The record has a tight, live feel, and the bass and drums snap with understated power while a cavalcade of reverb-heavy guitars of both the six- and 12-string varieties strum and slash... 

New Orleans group featuring members of Bottomfeeders and JEFF the Brotherhood who specialize in '70s-style, pop-infused country-rock.

Silver Synthetic - Silver Synthetic / Out of the Darkness

New Orleans combo Silver Synthetic's self-titled debut album is a treat for fans of loose-limbed rock & roll with country-rock overtones and plenty of candy-sweet vocal harmonies. Made up of members of BOTTOMFEEDERS and JEFF the Brotherhood, the band dedicated themselves to making a live-feeling record with minimal overdubs and fuss, and that's exactly what they delivered. The group takes on various forms of straight-ahead good-time rock & roll and knocks each one into the bleachers...

Raw, full-bodied roots rock trio whose sound is influenced by rural blues, old-school country, and rock & roll swagger.

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Dance Songs for Hard Times / Sad Songs / Nothing's Easy but You and Me

It's hard to think of an album title that more accurately reflects the record's contents than Dance Songs for Hard Times, the 2021 LP from Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band. Like so many musicians, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band was rocked hard by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. They lost gigs, their future was hazy, the band and its immediate family were bested by illness. Reverend Peyton coped with the stress by writing a dynamite set of new songs, then the group had the good fortune to team with producer Vance Powell, an engineer who took home Grammys for his work with Jack White, Buddy Guy, and Chris Stapleton. Powell decided the best course of action was to cut Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band live in the studio, adding some overdubs for color later. It was the right move...

Motorpsycho, Liquid Tension Experiment, PONY, Fake Fruit, Clamm, Orions Belte, Winds, Silver Synthetic, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

"Scratchcard Lanyard" #124 ALTER.NATION.MiX - weekly favtraX 08-04-2021 (19trx 1h 30m)

 ALTER.NATION #124(19trx 1h 30m)

Dry Cleaning, Ghlow, Mythic Sunship, La Femme, Du Blonde, Moontype, Flock of Dimes, Ryley Walker, Gary Bartz, Ali Shaheed Muhammad,Adrian Younge, Luca Yupanqui

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0 8 - 0 4 - 2 0 2 1

"Scratchcard Lanyard"

Wry, spoken word post-punk from South London four-piece. Combining Florence Shaw's detached spoken word vocals with intense post-punk instrumentation, Dry Cleaning's music contrasts the surreal and the mundane. 

Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg / Scratchcard Lanyard / Every Day Carry

...Working with producer John Parish, the band polishes their style like a blade on their debut album New Long Leg, and they contrast Shaw's understated delivery and their fired-up playing more sharply. When it comes to deadpan yet nuanced vocalists, Shaw rivals Kim Gordon and Laurie Anderson. With the way she casts a critical eye on the world with erudite confidence, it only makes sense that she has a background as a university lecturer, and as she subverts the usual expectations of female vocalists to be emotive or decorative, her profound, mundane, and odd observations unite in a surreal blur. On "Scratchcard Lanyard," one of New Long Leg's finest moments, she intones "I've come here to make a ceramic shoe...I've come here to learn how to mingle" and its putative chorus "Do everything/Feel nothing" with the same emotional weight, brilliantly conveying her feelings of ennui and overwhelm... the transporting solos guitarist Tom Dowse contributes to almost every track. And while Dry Cleaning downplays pop music's most familiar techniques -- easily identifiable verses, choruses, and vocal melodies -- New Long Leg never really feels alienating, even when the band takes tension and release to extremes on "Every Day Carry." They know exactly what they're doing, and the risks they take result in a debut album that brings a fresh energy to post-punk that's equally challenging and rewarding.

Swedish-Russian duo who merge post-punk, electroclash, and industrial influences into a heavy blend. Dark alternative duo Ghlow twist industrial, post-punk, electronica, and metal influences into a potent blend that recalls acts such as the Raveonettes, Crystal Castles, and Curve. 

Ghlow - Slash and Burn / Not Fit For This / Hollow

Four years after their conception, Swedish-Russian alternative duo Ghlow released their official debut full-length, Slash and Burn. A potent blend of their varied influences -- post-punk, electronica, industrial, and doom metal, to name a few -- the set makes up for brevity by offering a tight, corrosive assault that recalls acts like the Raveonettes, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and Curve. Vocalist Emille de Blanche is a force, holding her own atop the noisy release crafted by Nikolay Evdokimov as expertly as Toni Halliday, Shirley Manson, and Jehnny Beth in their own respective groups...

Heavy instrumental band from Copenhagen taking notes from the limitlessness of free jazz and the volume of '70s psych. Danish psych-rockers Mythic Sunship look to the cosmic journeying of the 1970s Krautrock and free jazz scenes as well as the volume of early proto-metal for a sound that hedges toward the heavier side of exploratory instrumental rock.

Mythic Sunship - Wildfire / Maelstrom / Landfall

Copenhagen-based instrumental quintet Mythic Sunship have explored the intersection of psychedelic rock and free jazz prolifically, releasing sprawling albums almost once a year since their inception around the start of the 2010s. Sixth album Wildfire finds the band in a state of chaotic upheaval as always, but pushes their sound to even more frenetic places than usual... As Mythic Sunship continue to evolve at a rapid pace, this chapter of their development is one of the strongest and most immediate. Wildfire is alive with euphoric joy, and the energy is both unrelenting and contagious.

Avant-indie-electronic collective led by main songwriters Marlon Magnée and Sacha Got. The Parisian collective La Femme combines its French heritage with sounds from across the globe in surprising and appealing ways.

La Femme - Paradigmes / Paradigme / Cool Colorado

With each album, La Femme's musical horizons have widened significantly -- an impressive feat, considering that their 2013 debut album, Psycho Tropical Berlin, already blended Krautrock, surf, coldwave, psychedelic rock, and yé-yé... they discover plenty of new territory on Paradigmes... More often, though, La Femme take their listeners on a style-hopping journey. In its first few songs alone, Paradigmes ranges from the silvery processed vocals and wailing brass of the title track, which feels like a number from a retro sci-fi musical... "Cool Colorado" is a laid-back homage that drifts along like a puff of pot smoke, and hearing about cowboys and Sweet Georgia Brown in a thick French accent over groovy brass and tambourines goes a long way toward making them seem cool again... La Femme's passion for seeking out new (or vintage) sounds to add to their omnivorous pop is contagious, and never more so than on Paradigmes.

The fiery, fearless rock project of musician, composer, animator, and video director Beth Jeans Houghton. Du Blonde 's swaggering, heart-on-sleeve rock came into being when musician, composer, animator, and video director Beth Jeans Houghton reinvented her music.

Du Blonde - Homecoming / Pull The Plug / Take Me Away

On the gritty, underappreciated Lung Bread for Daddy, Du Blonde's Beth Jeans Houghton dove into the messiness of heartache and mental health issues; on Homecoming, she looks at them from the other side. Just as her previous album's grungy textures heightened its angst, the slick shine she uses here adds layers of resonance. Homecoming is pop on Houghton's terms: She puts a candy coating over her anxiety and frustration... 

Indie trio who fuse fuzzy alt-rock, punchy guitar pop, and intimate singer/songwriter fare under the direction of songwriter Margaret McCarthy. A fusion of fuzzy alt-rock, punchy guitar pop, and yearning singer/songwriter components, Moontype evolved from the spare, voice-and-bass guitar demos of songwriter Margaret McCarthy.

Moontype - Bodies of Water / Anti-Divinity / Stuck On You

Beginning life as the skeletal bass guitar demos of vocalist/songwriter Margaret McCarthy, Bodies of Water is the debut album of Chicago-based indie rock trio Moontype. What the songs evolved into is something not only fleshy and urgent but often raucous and shape-shifting, with the band noting that they often let McCarthy's intimate lyrics dictate rhythms. As a result, tracks like "When Will I Learn," "Blue Michigan," and the lonesome "Stuck on You" are among others that feature subtly shifting meters. The latter song also reveals some of the country music background of guitarist (and one-time jazz performance major) Ben Cruz and drummer Emerson Hunton, who also play together in projects spanning jazz and avant-garde music. The track's quiet, galloping rhythm manifests in skittering snare, a lively bass line, and rhythmically animated guitar, albeit with a limited range, at least until Cruz breaks out a solo to end the song. .. Throughout the album, McCarthy's vulnerable confessions and airy vocals unite an ultimately compelling set of songs that may appeal to noise rock and indie singer/songwriter fans alike.

Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner explores more-intimate, dreamy pop with her solo side project. The solo project of Wye Oak singer/guitarist Jenn Wasner, Flock of Dimes finds the songwriter exploring the more intimate, atmospheric side of pop with her dreamy musical excursions.

Flock of Dimes - Head of Roses / Price of Blue / Hard Way

On her luminous and sometimes piercing sophomore LP, Jenn Wasner struggles through the overwhelming nature of heartbreak, coming to grips with the conflicting roles of both the breaker and the broken. Written in quarantine and recorded with a trusted cadre of collaborators, Head of Roses builds on the singer/songwriter's growing canon of intimate yet approachable art-pop which she releases under the name Flock of Dimes. Ultimately more layered and complex than Wasner's work as part of Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes' material manages to express an acute vulnerability without becoming stuck in the quagmire of deflated confessionalism...

An accomplished fingerstyle guitarist and singer/songwriter whose recordings run the gamut from folk to rock to experimental music. Ryley Walker is an accomplished fingerstyle guitarist, singer, and songwriter from Chicago whose music and evolution as an artist have proven mercurial...

Ryley Walker - Course in Fable  / Striking Down Your Big Premiere / A Lenticular Slap

At some point during this busy stretch, he also found time to compose and record some of his most intricate and satisfying solo material to date, released here as Course in Fable, Walker's fifth album. An artful nexus of impressionistic songwriting, prog-rock vision, and melodic nuance...Album opener "Striking Down Your Big Premiere" leans heavily into its progressive nature, shifting seamlessly between time signatures and conjoined micro-suites to create a surprisingly effective whole. The musical interplay between Walker, guitarist Bill McKay (another Chicagoan), bassist Andrew Scott Young, and drummer Ryan Jewell is simply electric, and his increasing confidence as an ace bandleader makes it all feel effortless... Walker may tip his hat to Chicago's experimental underground or prog behemoths like Genesis, but with this release, he's very much his own man.

Gary Bartz - An assertive and agile post-bop alto saxophonist who has dabbled in fusion and funk. / Ali Shaheed Muhammad - Pivotal player with A Tribe Called Quest, and also a successful producer (D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar") and collaborator with Adrian Younge, among others. / Adrian Younge - All-around talent with an uncanny ability to transform his obsession with late-'60s and early-'70s music into unique, impeccably made projects.

Gary Bartz / Ali Shaheed Muhammad / Adrian Younge - Gary Bartz JID006 / Spiritual Ideation / Blue Jungles

The Jazz Is Dead project curated by producer/multi-instrumentalists Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge operates with a particular m.o. The duo enlist a revered jazz musician whose work and influence have reached past the genre. They surround him with players -- including themselves -- and the same vintage equipment used on their storied catalog dates to create new music. Alto giant and composer Gary Bartz checks all the boxes. In addition to early stints with jazz masters Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner, Bartz cut a series of groundbreaking albums under his own name and with his N.T.U. ... Opener "Spiritual Ideation" is introduced by a harpsichord and a funky snare shuffle. A gently bumping bassline welcomes Bartz's alto. He enters on the modal melody, and immediately begins to embellish, append, and expand it. The backing singers wordlessly create an ethereal dimension... 

Gary Bartz

Child of artists Elizabeth Hart and Iván Diaz Mathé, who used MIDI technology to record an experimental album while their baby was in utero.

Luca Yupanqui - Sounds of the Unborn / V5

Sounds of the Unborn was recorded by Psychic Ills bassist Elizabeth Hart and Argentine producer Iván Diaz Mathé while Hart was pregnant with their daughter, Luca Yupanqui. Using biosonic MIDI technology, the pair attached devices to Hart's belly and translated the vibrations and heartbeats into sound waves, controlling synthesizers and producing improvised, free-flowing electronic music. .. The audio itself is a strange mélange of rapidly pulsating heartbeats, amniotic textures, and reflexive movements, resembling an unstructured blend of dark ambient, post-industrial, and glitch. It's entirely at home on a label that sometimes releases horror film scores -- the clattering, swooping opening piece "V5" could easily soundtrack an intense psychological thriller...

Dry Cleaning, Ghlow, Mythic Sunship, La Femme, Du Blonde, Moontype, Flock of Dimes, Ryley Walker, Gary Bartz, Ali Shaheed Muhammad,Adrian Younge, Luca Yupanqui

"YOU SO DONE" #123 ALTER.NATION.MiX - weekly favtraX 30-03-2021 (19trx 1h 27m)

 ALTER.NATION #123(19trx 1h 27m)

Noga Erez, tUnE-yArDs, Xiu Xiu, chelsea wolfe, Liz Harris, Special Friend, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Iggy Pop, New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers, El Michels Affair, The Shacks, Tim Cohen, Death from Above 1979, Jane Getter Premonition, The Writhing Squares

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3 0 - 0 3 - 2 0 2 1

"Y O U   S O   D O N E"

Israeli producer/songwriter making experimental, politically charged electronic pop. Tel Aviv producer and singer/songwriter Noga Erez makes electronic pop experimental that pairs bold sonics with astute social commentary.

Noga Erez - Kids / YOU SO DONE / End of the Road

Noga Erez first attracted attention with her 2017 album Off the Radar, and its funky, mischievously defiant title track. She's even more confident on Kids, a sleek set of songs that is far from predictable...  However, Erez's style is more distinctive than ever on "You So Done," where squealing strings and squalling trumpets are the equal and opposite reaction to her deadpan sneer. On songs like this and "End of the Road," where she puts the guarantee that we're all going to die in a surprisingly positive light... With Kids, Erez makes a significant leap forward from Off the Radar. Though she still sounds like an outsider, the skill she displays on these songs suggest she shouldn't be one for long.

The brainchild of Merrill Garbus mixes pop, folk, lo-fi beats, and field recordings in fresh, unpredictable ways. The duo of Merill Garbus and Nate Brenner, tUnE-yArDs combines soulful vocals, unusual percussion and trenchant social commentary into uniquely vibrant music.

tUnE-yArDs - Sketchy. / nowhere, man / hypnotized

...Garbus and Brenner reinforce these messages without rehashing them, and they spend as much time reconnecting with the primal force of their music as they do refining it... That goes double for "nowhere, man," which gives the impression that she turns over every rock and shines the light in every corner to root out injustice and hypocrisy... Imagining love as a healing bond, "hypnotized" instantly makes itself known as one of tUnE-yArDs' finest songs with its bear hug-sized harmonies...  tUnE-yArDs haven't sounded this infectious since Nikki Nack, and Sketchy. captures the inflection point where frustration becomes positive action in funky, happy, angry, and inspiring ways.

The confrontational, often lovely experimental noise pop project of Jamie Stewart and an ever-changing cast of collaborators.

Xiu Xiu - Oh No / One Hundred Years feat. chelsea wolfe (The Cure cover) / A Bottle of Rum feat  Liz Harris

Nearly everyone, musicians included, longed for connection in 2020, but not many incorporated it into their work as purposefully as Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart and Angela Seo... On Oh No, Seo and Stewart put a little bit of hope in companionship and humanity, and the results are more than merely therapeutic. These collaborations present a calmer, more introspective incarnation of Xiu Xiu than the one that appeared on Girl with a Basket of Fruit, but the band never sound complacent...The heartache from the separations that sparked the album reverberates throughout all of Oh No, but reaches a peak on the caustic version of the Cure's "One Hundred Years," which finds Stewart and Chelsea Wolfe magnifying the anguish of the original... All of Xiu Xiu's collaborators honor the bravery and vulnerability of their music, and as Oh No comes to a close, its feeling of hopefulness grows with "A Bottle of Rum," a radiant duet with Grouper's Liz Harris. Embodying hard times as well as the way friends lift each other out of them, Oh No also exemplifies the drama, mystery, and deeply felt emotions that have made Xiu Xiu a vital musical force for decades.

Formed in 2017, the duo of Erica Ashleson (American, drums, vocals) and Guillaume Siracusa (French, guitar, vocals) follow up their debut EP from September 2019, with an album unveiling a singular talent for minimalistic pop.

Special Friend - Ennemi Commun / Ennemi Commun / Hazard

...If you love Indie Music, especially the variety which includes fuzz-laden layers of guitar and glowing vocal harmonies, a road previously trodden by the likes of Lush and Ride with just a touch of The Sundays thrown in for good measure, you’ll love this. If you close your eyes when you listen (or even better listen through headphones) each songs takes you on an introspective trip. The recent single, for example, the title track, is ambient and hypnotic with looping guitars, layered airy vocals, and urgent drums that you lose yourself in. Then there is the track Hazard, with its almost Mogwaiesque quiet/loud/quiet/loud/quiet structure. It took me back to seeing the aforementioned in the mid 90’s at the Roadhouse in Manchester and being emotionally and physically moved by the performance...

Virtuosic funk-jazz organist whose teaching career limited his recording output. In the mid-'60s, the Hammond hero earned recognition for his membership in George Benson's classic quartet before going on to play with Lou Donaldson (contributing some memorable solos to the alto saxman's hit 1967 album Alligator Bogaloo) and recording enjoyable dates of his own for Blue Note. 

Dr. Lonnie Smith - Breathe / Why Can't We Live Together feat. Iggy Pop / Sunshine Superman (Donovan cover) feat. Iggy Pop

Veteran Hammond B-3 master Dr. Lonnie Smith pairs with punk icon Iggy Pop on his inspired and deeply funky 2021 album Breathe. Smith initially came into his own in the 1960s, releasing a string of groove-based albums for Blue Note, including 1968's Think!, that helped define the sound of forward-thinking organ jazz... Breathe again finds him working with producer Don Was, and backed by an energetic ensemble of all-stars including guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg and drummer Johnathan Blake, who make up his core trio. He also expands the group to a septet on several tracks, bringing trumpeter Sean Jones, tenor saxophonist John Ellis, baritone saxophonist Jason Marshall, and trombonist Robin Eubanks on board. Smith's work with Pop bookends that album as they offer a smoky, Doors-esque rendition of Timmy Thomas' 1972 soul anthem "Why Can't We Live Together" and a relaxed, boogaloo-style work-up of Donovan's '60s classic "Sunshine Superman." Both of these songs were recorded in studio and feature added percussion from Richard Bravo. They are wry, ebullient recordings that make a surprising case for Pop as a jazz crooner...

A makeshift blues supergroup comprised of Jim, Luther, and Cody Dickinson, Charlie Musselwhite, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Jimbo Mathus.

New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers - Volume 2 / Blue Guitar

While rolling through the vast American night on a ramshackle tour bus, legendary blues harmonica boss Charlie Musselwhite and North Mississippi Allstars' guitarist Luther Dickinson were engaged in a deep conversation. At one point, the sage elder bluesman nodded at his companion, looked out the window, and pointed at the rising moon. "New Moon Freedom Rockers" was all he said. Back in Mississippi, Cody & Luther Dickinson joined Musselwhite and their dad -- roots legend Jim Dickinson, who added "Jelly Roll" to their name -- at the Zebra Ranch recording studio, with old friends Alvin Hart, Jimbo Mathus, NMA bassist Chris Chew, and washtub bassist Paul Taylor. They pulled their chairs into a circle, arranged microphones, and hit "record." The completed tapes were archived after the elder Dickinson's passing. Years later, Stony Plain's Holger Peterson, who had heard about these apocryphal tapes, contacted Dickinson's sons about releasing them...

Luther Dickinson

Led by Leon Michels, a flexible R&B-rooted band mixing groove-oriented jazz, soul, funk, rocksteady, Afrobeat, and hip-hop.

El Michels Affair - Yeti Season / Sha Na Na feat. The Shacks /  Silver Lining

And now they’re back, after rumours swirled like the cryptozoological being of the title, with Yeti Season; everything great about the band’s aesthetic – and more. Whereas Adult Themes played out as the soundtrack to the best Cinemascope release made on the Continent in 1970 still yet to be filmed, Yeti Season casts its gaze further east, to the minarets and the cradle of civilisation, to Persia, India and points more exotic, following in the cutting edge of crate-diggers who’ve uncovered astonishing nuggets of Turkish funk, Bollywood psych and more in recent years. It’s also a deep, beautiful eternal music, and one ripe for new recording life...

A major figure in San Francisco's 2000s psychedelic/garage revival scene, best known for the Fresh & Onlys, Magic Trick, and solo material.

Tim Cohen - You Are Still Here / Almost Enemies

The sixth solo album from West Coast psychedelic/garage pop stylist Tim Cohen (the Fresh & Onlys, Magic Trick), You Are Still Here is notably his first to be recorded in a proper studio. It was produced by James Barone (Beach House, Tennis), who fans will be glad to hear not only honored but has augmented Cohen's unpolished, spontaneous-sounding, often kitchen-sink approach to recording and arranging. Barone also played drums on the album. A particularly varied set that barhops through sub-styles of mid- to late-'60s psychedelia... He dives into surf as well as Rawhide-era Western vibes on "Almost Enemies," one of the album's more urgent entries. Its trippy lyrics include lines like "You know how ghosts can be" and "One road wasn't even paved/Led me to a grave/Where my old soul couldn't shed a tear/For I had no memories."... Despite its capricious quality and production upgrade, You Are Still Here remains distinctly Tim Cohen, and should be a welcome installment for followers.

High-energy, high-volume duo influenced by punk, hard rock, and dance music.

Death from Above 1979 - Is 4 Lovers / Modern Guy

Death from Above 1979's fourth full-length, 2021's Is 4 Lovers, is a sonically vibrant production that finds the Toronto duo further pushing their riff-heavy sound. Once again, the album features the combined talents of singer/drummer Jesse F. Keeler and guitarist Sebastien Grainger. While it's still only the two of them on each track, there's a dynamically textured and widescreen aesthetic to the album that feels bigger and more robust than you might expect... The opening "Modern Guy" kicks off with a hot pink drill-bit guitar arpeggio that gives way to a galloping glitter rock number, perfectly setting the tone for all that follows...

New York-based guitarist, singer, composer, and bandleader whose sound weds fusion, metal, prog, funk, and post-bop.

Jane Getter Premonition - Anomalia / Still Here / Kryptone

Anomalia, their second studio outing, was six long years in the making. The core band consists of Getter as composer, co-producer, guitarist, and vocalist; husband Adam Holzman (Miles Davis, Steven Wilson) on keyboards and co-production; and Testament's Alex Skolnick on guitar. Getter employs two rhythm sections: former Frank Zappa/Allan Holdsworth drummer Chad Wackerman and fusion and prog bassist Stu Hamm in one; jazz bassist Mark Egan and drummer Gene Lake in the other... "Still Here" commences as a ballad, but Lake's jazzy drumming offers a left turn that opens the frame for instrumental interplay. Getter's arpeggiated chords weave a mysterious backdrop which she and Skolnick populate with punchy, alternating solos appended by a boisterous Holzman organ break that would not have been out of place on a Tony Williams Lifetime record... The knotty architecture in opener "Kryptone" offers an unmistakable tribute to King Crimson's "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 2." Holzman's keys juxtapose jagged chordal vamps amid passages of pure lyricism. Skolnick and Getter intersect mathy prog and overdriven metal atop the syncopation engine of Hamm and Wackerman... 

Philly duo with a gnarled take on space rock that includes pulsing drum machines and galactic saxophone leads.

The Writhing Squares - Chart for the Solution / Geisterwaltz / Epilogue

Armed with little more than bass, saxophone, a few synths, and spartan drum machine rhythms, Kevin Nickles and Daniel Provenzano made uncontainable and enormous psychedelic punk songs that breathed, gasped, and grumbled. Third proper album Chart for the Solution finds Writhing Squares reaching new dimensions of chaos and excitement...   The band continue their approach of shouty vocals doused in Suicide-esque delay, angular bass riffing, and primitive drum machine rhythms meeting with blasts of noise from sax, synths, and sources unrecognizable... Grimy rocker "Geisterwaltz" is tough and nervy, but doesn't rush, as the band move casually from growling verses to interludes of saxophone freak-out... "Epilogue," an unhinged, jammy finale featuring guests John Schoemaker on live drums and Alex Ward on organ. It's a fitting end to Writhing Squares' most ambitious output to date, one that pushes every angle of their already interdimensional sound even further out.

Noga Erez, tUnE-yArDs, Xiu Xiu, chelsea wolfe, Liz Harris, Special Friend, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Iggy Pop, New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers, El Michels Affair, The Shacks, Tim Cohen, Death from Above 1979, Jane Getter Premonition, The Writhing Squares