The band’s second album since returning from the dead in 2017, Transmissions From Mothership Earth doesn’t rework the formula as much as reiterate that it still functions properly.
Enlisting master guitarist Ben Monder and ex-Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip as co-producer, the New Orleans-born/New York-based Despommier takes a trip through the catalog of Swedish composer Lars Gullin, whose work he encountered in Italy in 2005.
For her first solo album, AACM member Armstrong presents The Antidote Suite, a soundtrack to the Black Index art exhibit at the University of California Irvine (where Armstrong also happens to be a PhD candidate).
Paying tribute to the airline workers, pilots and employees of the sky, this new single host’s heartfelt lyrics, ballad-style instrumentals in an ode to flight attendants, and airline resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Known as well for their incendiary live shows that featured banging steel percussion on oil cans, metal pipes, and other unusual items that earned them a cult following amongst fans of industrial music back in the ‘80s, this 2 CD/2 LP edition features the original album on the first disc with pre-Tragic Figures recordings when they were known as Africa Corps featured on disc 2.
Norwegian drummer Gard Nilssen, sideperson to Macej Obara and Mathias Eick and leader of Acoustic Unity and the Supersonic Orchestra, follows in the footsteps of a legacy – specifically that of late Norse drum legend Jon Christensen.
A mainstay of the Canadian rock scene, singer/songwriter/guitarist Ian Blurton led Tornonto’s beloved and influential postpunk/alt.rock act Change of Heart, before shifting to more straightforward hard rock with C’Mon.
Rising from the ashes of the much-missed Astra, who released a pair of psychedelic proto-prog albums in the early 2010s, Birth, well, pretty much picks up where Astra left off on its first full-length album Born.
Galvanized by his return to San Francisco after a decade in NYC and named after the word for the smell of earth after rain, Petrichor blends Redier’s influences – jazz, classical, stride – into a seamless whole.
With the gorgeous and gentle tracks “Montecito,” “Can You See it,” and “New Design” already out in the world as a taste of what’s to come, singer songwriter and Grammy winning producer Rich Jacques returns with a new collection of music in the form of a six-track EP called Everything Must Change.”
British power trio Josiah was a reliable stoner/hard rock force in the early 2000s without ever really hitting stardom, even in that world.
This New York City-raised singer/songwriter’s new single is more in the vein of the hushed, Nick Drake-like folk displayed on her 2021 Not Yet EP, but with a rustic, down home alt-country/Americana feel.
Dublin synthpop artist Circuit3 (AKA Peter Fitzpatrick) presents the ‘Overview Effect’, a five-track EP offering a scintillating taster ahead of the artist’s third album Technology For The Youth LP, slated for release on July 15 via Manchester’*s *AnalogueTrash label and mastered by Richard Dowling, known for his work with Paul McCartney, Kylie Minogue, Motorhead, David Bowie, Foo Fighters, New Order and Sparks.
Bassist Brian Bromberg boasts a career going back over four decades, starting as low-ender for saxophonist Stan Getz and going on to a long career in smooth jazz, fusion and straightahead jazz.
Putting aside his own work, Mesmerism finds Sorey alongside his friends Aaron Diehl on piano and Matt Brewer on bass for an engaging spelunk in the Great American Songbook.
Like his first three “Black Cat Trilogy” LPs, Missoula, MT-based Henderson K. Shatner’s fourth album as Catnyp is wildly unpredictable and varied, so much so that no two songs sound alike.
Legendary Dead Can Dance vocalist and highly acclaimed film composer Lisa Gerrard has joined forces with Los Angeles*-based composer/ record producer *Marcello De Francisci for the stunning new album Exaudia, presenting a vivid collection of epic and empowering compositions. The first single “Until We Meet Again”, now out and the album is available to order.
NYC*-based post-punk/alternative rock collective *London Plane’s sophomore album Bright Black is now out via Declared Goods.
Soulful art-rock outfit Seal Party has released their new single “Maison”, a rich and captivating taster of their forthcoming debut album MMXXII, which will be released this summer. An appearance by R&B organ wizard Chris Rob (Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Anita Baker, Talib Kweli) brings “Maison” to a soulful, timeless place.
On its third LP Turf Ascension, Bubblemath makes no bones about its preferred musical methods, opening with “Surface Tension,” a seventeen-minute epic of shifting time signatures, speculative fictive lyrics and, most importantly, ear-catching melodies.
For its second LP Brown Leather, New York City’s rollicking Sweet Things have undergone some alterations.
During the pandemic the clarinetist developed a new artistic vision, centered on blowing his horn while manipulating electronics live, and it’s that aesthetic he documents here.
Belanger has carved out a niche with a unique delivery and down-to-earth lyricism that is entirely his own, and This Moment Is Gone is sure to help find comfort and solace for many listeners.
The Sound of the Winter Sun completely ignores any and all current music trends, and it is all the better for it as Brynilde creates an album that is as timeless as it is mysterious.
It sounds like hype, but it’s the truth: there’s no one like Steve Tibbetts.
Having shifted from the iconoclastic rock & roll of their early/mid-seventies work to a slicker, adult-oriented (and commercially viable) new wave pop, Roxy Music had set aside many of their quirks and most of its adventurousness to become a group of working professionals, rather than a gang of rock radicals.
Truthfully, there is really nothing else out there like there so it is incredibly difficult to define, but Minds is subtly confrontational and rewards attentive listening as much as it demands it.
London-based alternative rock artist Grace Solero presents “Metamorphosis”, the lead track from the forthcoming album by the same name. Raw, grungy, dreamy and atmospheric rock, this follows earlier singles “Orange Sky”, “Awake” and “Lucid Dream” with the latter recently played on BBC 6 Music.
Light Roars plays like the most crystallized realization of Husmann’s concept.
It’s awesome to see some great new music come from Seattle again, and Welcome to My World is a fantastic debut EP that doesn’t really sound like anything ever before made in that city.
Given the reputations of Knuffke’s cohorts here, one might expect free jazz cacophony. And while there are plenty of spontaneous compositions here, everyone here keys in on the presence of melody, making even the more rollicking free improvisations accessible to the unacclimated.
Finnish prog rock outfit Pennies By The Pound are back with their new single “Burning Wish”, an invigorating sonic offering and beautiful expression of optimism and adventure, channelled through the prism of fantastic British progressive rock. It is now available via the Lilith label. This is the first taste of their sophomore album, expected later this year.
It’s music that, perhaps, could only be made in Los Angeles, it invites the listener, wherever they are, to step back and appreciate life away from the recent events of the last two years
On World Construct, his umpteenth album in a career so prolific there’s no point counting, the jazz giant is in top form with his latest trio.
Following up their debut single “Fragile”, cinematic rock duo The Caughtery present “The Uninvited”, a stellar offering showcasing the talents of long-time Austin music veterans Lisa Tingle and David Gayler. This is the second offering from their forthcoming debut eponymous EP, set for release on July 15.
Grace is such an exciting album that reminds the audience of the fun playfulness to be had with the genre.
Glittermxxth is a singer, producer, auteur, multi-instrumentalist, lover of matcha tea, and hairless cats. A cyber-punk Sound Hunter who collects, collides, and complements wide-ranging sounds cooking them together in a Park Chan-wook – Ren Hang – esque bedroom overlooking pink glaciers. The first single, HIM, landed on 17th June 2022 and features the mixing and mastering skills of Richie Beretta (Diplo, Jillionaire, Beyonce) and Dave Kutch (Billie Eilish, The Weeknd, Alicia Keys) respectively.
Merdinger’s lifelong connection to these songs is immediate, making Troubadour a statement that is both a personal journey for the artist as well as representative of the story of American music since the 60s.
Composer Todd Marcus has two things that immediately set him apart: he’s one of the very few bandleaders to focus on the bass clarinet as his main instrument, and he draws on his Egyptian American heritage for textures not usually found in the jazz idiom.
The Eargoggle Regales, the Eargoggle Revels is a captivating, imaginative, and immersive experience. Is it an expansive double-vinyl set with a comic book that illustrates each of its 17 songs, or is it a comic book rendered by top talent that has a soundtrack song for each of its vignette-sized stories?
Fans of the Genius may wish for deeper cuts or signature songs like “One Mint Julep” of “Hit the Road Jack,” but the band follows Charles through every playful twist and dynamic shift.
The brainchild of the late drummer and Corrosion of Conformity co-founder Reed Mullin and HR guitarist Jason Browning, Righteous Fool added Mullin’s erstwhile COC bandmate Mike Dean on bass during the stoner punk icons’ hiatus, and Righteous Fool was born.
With a large turn to socially conscious music lately, the Bomb Cats are a refreshing blast of fresh air, reminding the audience to still have some fun occasionally.
Unless you were a dedicated reader of the British music press circa 1991-1993, you’ve probably never heard of Fabulous.
Manchester art-rock quartet Weimar is set to release their debut album Dancing On a Volcano on CD via German Shepherd Records and digitally via the band’s own imprint Marlene’s Hat Records, 12 tracks exploring an eclectic range of styles and moods.
Liverpool-based indie rock outfit Ernest Moon will be releasing their new album ‘Skipping to Maloo’ on June 15, offering us a preview of the lead single ‘Unkind’ in the meantime.
A mere eighteen years old, pianist Joey Alexander already has five albums, three Grammy nominations and performances for two presidents on his resumé. Origin earns a special place in his discography, however.
Is Ramon a thoughtful, intricate study of queer relationships in twenty-first century culture, or is it just an excellent pop record? The answer, unsurprisingly, is both.
An outgrowth of the lauded National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, NYO Jazz is, obviously, the organization’s jazz outreach arm, recruiting hardworking and prodigious 16-19 year olds to keep the flame of one of America’s greatest contributions to culture burning.
It’s been more than a year since I last sat down to chat with the eloquent and fascination Afton Wolfe and so it was high time to catch up with him, his music and what he has been up to in the intervening 12 months or so.
