With a sensibility informed by horror flicks and Satanism, especially the variety of both found in the underground pop culture of the seventies, leader/drummer Tas Danazoglou leads his band of devilish brigands through a set of songs so scuzzy they irrevocably stain any rag that tries to clean them.
What truly sells the album is an emotionally charged desire to capture a snapshot of modern life at a singular moment in time.
We’ll admit it: it seems kind of ridiculous to review Roxy Music at this point.
Commissioned by the City of Gent and the Handelsbeurs Theater to pay tribute to Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, the song cycle draws deeply from an overtly spiritual library, including the Latin Mass, the poetry of Christine de Pisan and, yes, one of the Psalms.
Gerald Clayton’s last album for Blue Note was the joyous concert record Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard, which served as a clearing of the decks. That means it’s time for a Major Artistic Statement, which the pianist/composer delivers with Bells of Sand.
Paris*-based *American artist Julia Gaeta presents her debut single “Weight of You”, an adrenaline-packed song inspired by the juxtaposition of dark reverie and grit that is Paris, tastefully combining sweeping hooks and industrial textures with ethereal sensuality and sultry grit.
The first album from the Hellacopters in fourteen years kicks off with exactly the kind of bang you’d want from this reunited Swedish action rock institution.
Her twenty-fifth record Life is Beautiful continues down the path on which she’s most comfortable: melodic hard bop and third stream compositions performed masterfully with her stalwart rhythm section.
Sly folk-pop trickster from New Zealand plays intriguing head games.
Not just a compilation and collaboration featuring an international cast of musicians interpreting the black jazz tradition, Black Lives: From Generation to Generation is also a statement about racism, its continuing prevalence and impact on twenty-first century Earth, and what to do to combat it.
A great film is one thing. A cool soundtrack is another. Put the two together and you have a fantastic combination. Knights of Swing, watch it now and revel in its story and fall in love with its music.
Starting from a place of classical piano, the duo add electronics courtesy of Begin’s sound library for a set of songs that honor the traditional and the contemporary.
Following the overwhelmingly positive global reception to Keeley’s debut “Brave Warrior” EP, London-based Dimple Discs is releasing the 4-song set on 10” vinyl via Shellshock Distribution on February 25. Limited to 500 copies, the EP features artwork by award-winning designer Bruce Brand at Arthole (The Darkness, White Stripes).
Return From the Stars spotlights an exceptionally strong set of Turner originals played by a remarkable band.
Vonamor is made up of sisters Giulia Bottaro, Francesca Bottaro and Luca Guidobaldi, with Francesco Bassoli and Martino Cappelli joining in for live performances. This project started in 2016. Initially focused on communicating images and composing scores for short films, they morphed into the trio we know today with their style, literary echoes, imperious art-pop and enigmatic aesthetics.
Veteran pianist Jean-Michel Pilc regularly takes the stage with no setlist or plan and delivers a captivating set of jazz improvisation, and Alive: Live at Diése Onzé, Montréal is no exception.
London-based label Happy Robots Records has released the sophomore album ‘Music For Underwater Supermarkets’ by Brooklyn*-based electronic artist *Roman Angelos. This ten-track collection paints a sonic dreamscape where the mundane act of grocery shopping meets the future.
Bassist Michael Bisio prefers to ride the edge when he makes music, sometimes taking it like a bucking bronco and sometimes coaxing it into minding his vision.
The Panamanian native creates his own international jazz ensemble the Global Messengers, pulling players from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute for the cosmopolitan statement Crisálida.
Perhaps the vibraphonist of the moment, Joel Ross sublimates his oft-stunning technique on his instrument on his third album The Parable of the Poet in favor of emphasizing his skills as composer and bandleader.
As the release date of her debut album Immortalised creeps closer, Dublin alt-rock / postpunk artist Ava Vox presents the single ‘Alone Again’, featuring bassist James Blennerhassett, who has worked with Elvis Costello, The Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithful and Van Morrison, as well as drummer Robbie Casserly (Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler, The Commitments, Riverdance). This haunting hymn is the second taste of the long-player, out March 25.
Decades of varied adventures come together on Eubanks Evans Experience, the debut album by the duo of guitarist Kevin Eubanks and pianist Orrin Evans.
Scribing another chapter in the book Garage Rock Will Never Die, Velvet Starlings gets with it on debut LP Technicolour Shakedown.
Inspired in particular by native composers Milton Nascimento and Toninho Horta, Keberle and his new band Collectiv do Brasil lean into the country’s penchant for refined euphony.
Austin-based electronic outfit Panjoma presents the single ‘Sun and Moon’, ahead of their new EP of the same name, which marks the band’s return to the music scene after a eight-year break and they return with what they feel is their best work ever.
Quickly following up last year’s understated gem Serenade to Highland Park, guitarist Doug MacDonald expands his lineup for Overtones.
With his new album, Mendip Soul Stew, Vol 1 set to drop shortly, Charlton Lane offered me a taste of his mercurial music to pick through and evaluate. All I can say is that you, the listening public are in for a bit of a treat.
One of the most interesting and fruitful ongoing projects in jazz, the In Common series from saxophonist Walter Smith III and guitarist Matthew Stevens brings together a new set of players for every album.
Spurred on, like so many others, by the lack of live activity during the pandemic, the Australian legends got down to business writing and recording new songs for their first album in a dozen years.
With Allhallowride, arch Londers the Monochrome Set enter their fifth decade of recording, and no worse for wear from the passage of time.
Manchester-based electronic artist Richard Evans presents his debut album ‘Sentinel’ via Cold Star Media, an eight-track collection that tells the story of humanity at a tipping point and a world trapped in a climate crisis.
As they hit the road with The Dangerous Summer to tour The US, and with UK and European dates scheduled for later in the year, The BRKN have dropped the perfect single to whet your musical appetite. Whether you are new to the band or have been following them for a while now, “Not The Same” sums up their song-crafting prowess and energy brilliantly. Soak up the musical vibes and then book your tickets to the live shows…immediately.
We Weren’t Here, the band’s sixth LP, serves as an unofficial twentieth anniversary disk, and it’s more than worthy of any extra attention that accolade might bring.
Iconic alternative pop artist Jenn Vix is back with a new retrowave single “You Are A Star”, a collaborative track featuring Ali Score, original drummer of legendary Grammy-winning new wave – synthpop band A Flock Of Seagulls.
Nar, the fourth album from jazz singer Christiane Karam, means “fire” in Arabic – a title directly related the 2020 bombing of Beirut native Christiane Karam’s home city.
“A fine ending to the wonderful reissues of Game Theory and Loud Family releases from Omnivore Recordings.”
From the Irish borderlands emerges Friendmaker, a five-piece indie alt-folk pop-rock band, fronted by singer, songwriter and producer David Marron (Sanzkrit, Somefinn). Their debut single “You, Me and Everything Else” will be released on March 3. This endearing and infectious indie-folk offering is accompanied by a stark meaningful video with cinematography by Darren Finn and Fiona Marron and choreography by Orla Sheridan and Paige Cunningham.
The pandemic affected everyone – there’s no question about that (though plenty of denial). For artists, though, that pain often turned into beauty.
The energy and revelatory portraits captured in New Adventures in Hi-Fi are often considered to be the culmination of R.E.M.’s aim for Monster and the band’s last truly great work.
Spontaneous composition is a challenge to any jazz player, but it’s an especially difficult proposition when the musicians aren’t a working band.
Superchunk’s latest licks sociopolitical wounds while revisiting a more tunefully ambitious era of the band.
Recorded in the first summer of lockdown, Screen Time finds guitarist/songwriter Thurston Moore in a contemplative mood.
British indie-pop artist 22 Oceans presents their new single “Home”, a beautiful slice of Americana-tinged minimalist electronica previewing their new 5-track Home EP, released via 72rpm Records and mastered by renowned producer Marc Joy at Ferndale Studios in Wales.
Led by guitarist John Leon (formerly of Roky Erickson’s ‘aughts backing band and Austin psych rockers Summer Wardrobe) and drummer Lyle Hysen (late of Das Damen and NYC hardcore legends Misguided), the Royal Arctic Institute functions as sort of a Northeastern counterpoint to California’s desert soundscapers Scenic.
LA-based label 33.3 Music Collective has announced the release of Behind The Veil, the highly-anticipated new album from Beauty In Chaos. Recorded, mixed and produced by Grammy nominated producer Michael Rozon, this all-female featured collection brings back three BIC alumni – Tish Ciravolo, Cinthya Hussey and Betsy Martin – as well as new family members Whitney Tai, Elena Alice Fossi and Pinky Turzo. “Grasp The Stars” is the first release from this forthcoming album.
Would it be too much of a cliché to say that pianist Andrew Boudreau brings the Northeastern territories of North America to life on Neon, his leader debut?
It’s a tour de force of technicality, but more importantly, SE3 is so fantastically addictive and challenging that it firmly lodges itself in your brain like a work of art you have known your entire life.
It’s a fantastic document of a band captured in what is seemingly a transitional period, and leaves the door wide open for more great music on the horizon.
The Other Side of Midnight is a timeless work which could have been released in any number of eras and still have held a great depth of artistic significance.
