Inspired by the last several years of national crisis and political turmoil, Freedom Over Everything finds him using the Czech National Symphony Orchestra as the main vehicle for his compositions, with guests drawn from other musical worlds.
The Virtualistics is undoubtedly a product of the COVID age, but it is also a light at the end of the tunnel.
While it’s no surprise, given the nearly forty years of experience these guys have making music, the consistent level of craft and attention to detail never fail to impress.
Drummer Jason Nazary has a resumé that glides all over the map, from the indie rock of Bear in Heaven to the avant-jazz of Anteloper to side person work with the likes of jazz musicians Darius Jones and Noah Kaplan.
Included are 4 studio tracks and 9 live tracks, all among the best American no wave/post-punk material of the era.
J.P. Shilo has been around the block a few times, as leader of atmospheric instrumentalists Hungry Ghosts, member of the Black-Eyed Susans, associate of Mick Harvey, Rowland S. Howard, the Triffids and more. Jubjoté, however, may be his most unusual project yet.
Release is one the truest, most mature accounts in contemporary folk of what it means to struggle, to persevere, or to just get by.
Ellen Foley returns, and she means buisness on her latest album ‘Fighting Words’
The Music Therapy Experiment is a place where mental health, music therapy, and great sonic vibes co-exist and their latest release is a gorgeous affair that goes by the name of Art and Science. Not just great songs but technically brilliant playing and some exceptional wordplay and punning too.
Joined by stalwart drummer Jon Wurster and ex-*R.E.M.* bassist Mike Mills, Narducy essays his usual approach: taking pop hooks, witty lyrics and punk energy, and turning it all into something more than mere power pop.
Sleater-Kinney return with an album that defies expectations, and proves how they will not simply disappear.
Garbage release album #7, a statement of consistency that displays a heavy amount of social consciousness
Guitarist, singer and songwriter Marc Ribot has been a tear of late – his last pair of albums, Ceramic Dog’s YRU Still Here? and his own Songs of Resistance 1942-2018 were both overt broadsides against the bow of the then-presidential administration. Recorded with the Dog (AKA drummer Ches Smith and bassist/jack-of-all-trades Shahzad Ismaily), Hope continues the trend, reflecting the struggles of living through the pandemic.
The sonic chanteuse Róisín Murphy returns with the same energetic class as 2020 with Crooked Machine
NYC quartet Nortonk takes its inspiration from classic chord-free quartets like Ornette Coleman’s classic foursome of the fifties and sixties, or more recent practitioners like Broken Shadows.
There’s a real joy to these performances – you can easily imagine the musicians grinning the whole time the tapes rolled.
Fifth LP Eternal Life finds leader Guts Guttercat and his merry crew eschewing irony, flash and trendiness for sincerity, style and classicism.
Everything Happens to Be. just happens to be a perfect example of adventurous jazz in the twenty-first century.
The songs serve up memorable hard bop melodies over infectious rhythms, while the group’s interest in Latin and African music gives every cut buoyant grooves that make the songs danceable without being anything so crass as crossover.
Worlds and generations collide, with breathtaking results.
What makes the record stand out isn’t just the confident swing of the band or the easy melodicism of the leader. It’s also the thought put into the programming.
Though Kansas City foursome Knife Crime has been together a decade, Lovely is only their first LP. But founding brothers Byron and Brad Huhmann, Jeremiah James Gonzales, and Jake Cardwell have honed their skills in 16 bands between them.
On album #2, Lawrence, KS trio Chess Club sharpens their songwriting and attack – and ditches the sporadic lapses into screamo – over 2018’s haphazard Hit the Ball.
Westward Bound! is a prime showcase for Land’s talents as a bandleader and improviser.
Madness on Repeat which fantastically showcases the tight, telepathic communication between the members and their impressive musicianship.
Moullier’s focus here is on the song, rather than virtuoso displays – not that there aren’t a few of those.
A 2000 psychedelic gem from Argentina resurfaces in the material world.
When Australia’s Scientists reunited for wildly received tours and performances in support of their massive 2016 boxed retrospective A Place Called Bad, a new record seemed inevitable.
This is no blowing session, where he shows off every style he can play. Instead Lage uses just the right bits of his experiences to serve each song.
The seventh album from Lanterna, Hidden Drives finds Frayne in top-notch form, spinning dreamy, tuneful webs of six-string sorcery that recall wide vistas, sunny mountainsides, and rivers running alongside green shores.
Bay area pianist Dahveed Behroozi has long split his time between jazz and classical music, and it shows on his second album Echos.
The producer with the midas touch John Owen Williams releases his debut album Out Of Darkness, and all expectations are fulfilled
The record may have been intended to celebrate its legendary timekeeper’s birthday, but it sounds instead like the inauguration of jazz’s latest great new band.
His third LP, Looking For Trouble keeps the faith with the vision he established long ago – raw, melodic ditties with touches of glam and Americana for extra flavor.
Perched somewhere between dark pop and the avant- garde, Endgame is a tricky work of art to unravel, but there are plenty of rewards for those who try.
Armed only with three varieties of kantele (a Finnish table harp that’s like an autoharp, but with a much wider range) and her rich voice, Langeland essays a program of traditional and original tunes, plus poetry set to her own music.
The debut album from Montreal garage pop quartet Pale Lips is a perfectly sweet ‘n ‘ sour gumball of tight melodies and trashy energy.
Jay Som + Palehound = a gentle, idiosyncratic gem.
Like the “old cedar box” described in “Polaroid Parade,” Songs from the Briarpatch plays like a collection of memories—some good, some bad, some in between—and the resulting feelings that emerge are not easy to pick apart.
Knoxville, TN singer, guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist Jared Colinger began The Enigmatic Foe with 2005’s self-recorded The Titular Project; having since expanded to a full band, this 14-song double LP is their fifth album.
For Sharvit, all facets of this diamond called jazz have something to offer, and he’s happy to indulge in all of it…all at once.
Every song on Open Sesame is like some song you heard on the radio in the 70s once and blew your mind even if you never found out the name of the artist. And I think that’s the point.
Multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker and bassist Leah Buckareff eagerly but gracefully take bits of shoegaze, noise rock, ambient electronics, doom metal and early nineties post-punk and mix them into a thick, plangent hellbrew that somehow manages to be both luscious and noxious.
Race Against Time acknowledges that such a race as its title suggests is ultimately impossible to win, and thereby the album ends up one of the genre’s most thoughtful and intelligent entries in a long time.
With only three solo LPs since 2001, this June 12, 2021 Record Store Day EP from Winston-Salem, NC singer/guitarist Foster (ex-Right Profile/Carneys/Pinetops) is welcome.
Take three guys with loads of experience in jazz, rock, funk and anything that jams, put ‘em in a recording studio (or onstage), and you might well get something like WRD’s The Hit.
Though the music was collectively improvised (with the exception of the title track, which is based on a Norwegian folk tune), the trio avoids discord – everyone plays with like minds, seeking out spontaneous melodies and arrangements and sticking to them.
Released June 4th on deep red vinyl and digital, Strawberry Birthmarks is a collection of unreleased recordings from post punk artist Jowe Head
