Working with guitars, drum machine, sampler, self-built electronics, and all manner of percussion, BASIC, the trio of Chris Forsyth, Mikel Patrick Avery, and Douglas McCombs, synthesize the vast influences and distinct histories of each member, producing a boundary-less, rhythm-forward amalgam of art rock, trance jazz, collective improvisation, and humming electronics on their new eponymous full-length for No Quarter.
Philadelphia’s Chris Forsyth, known for his lyrical guitar compositions and mercurial improvisations as leader of the Solar Motel Band, founded BASIC in 2022 naming the project in homage to the 1984 Robert Quine/Fred Maher album “Basic,” yes, but also to indicate a desire to get down to fundamentals rhythmically and musically.
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A landmark recording in British modern jazz. The 50th anniversary of Kaleidoscope of Rainbows by Neil Ardley. Newly remastered with new liner notes by Sid Smith.
This marvellous work completed a trilogy of works composed by Neil Ardley that had begun with The Greek Variations and continued with A Symphony Of Amaranths, works which were based on a sequence of notes that provided the basis for composition and improvisation.
Originally released in 1976, Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows was a series of pieces based on the five note scale of Balinese Gamelan music. The recording sessions featured contributions from such luminaries as Ian Carr (Nucleus), Paul Buckmaster, Barbara Thompson…
A superstar of Tzadik’s Radical Jewish Culture and the mastermind of the popular band Pharaoh’s Daughter, Basya Schechter returns with her greatest work yet, a gorgeous and sensual musical setting of the Biblical “Song of Songs.” Sung in Hebrew, English, Yiddish, Arabic, Spanish, and French, Basya has put her heart and soul into this project and it is evident in every song, solo, and arrangement. Eighteen years in the making, this is a towering achievement by one of the most passionate, sincere, and creative musicians in Jewish music today. Songs of Desire is an utter delight!“
Pharaoh’s Daughter is a genre-bending “world folk-rock” 8 piece ensemble led by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Basya Schechter. Formed in 1995, the band merges Hasidic chants…
When MONO recorded their previous album, OATH, with longtime production partner and friend, Steve Albini in 2023, they never fathomed that it would be the final studio album they made together. Albini tragically died the following year, and that loss left an incalculable void in the lives of not just everyone who ever knew Steve, but everyone with an attachment to any of the thousands of records he helped bring into world over the past four decades. He brought a clarity to the chaos, and a selfless sense of service to art and artists that was unrivaled. On both a personal and practical level, the loss left MONO faced with profound grief and uncertainty. Albini had become a fundamental part of MONO’s unmistakable sound, and the thought of replacing him was daunting…
Hit That Perfect Beat: The London Records Story is a double-CD companion to a podcast of the same name, charting the history of the label from the early 1980s, after the British branch of Decca Records was acquired by PolyGram. Though the label was reopened in the 2010s, the compilation stops in the early 2000s, bringing highlights from more than 20 years of hit releases.
The set starts out in the new wave era, with a few classics like Bananarama’s enduring “Cruel Summer” and Bronski Beat’s queer anthem “Smalltown Boy,” along with U.K. hits by acts drawing from folk (the Bluebells, Hothouse Flowers) and soul (Total Contrast, Carmel). Bronski Beat appear again with the compilation’s namesake tune, and leader Jimmy Somerville’s…
Having a solo project has been Josh Conway’s dream since he was a child. Between then and now, he has found international acclaim with The Marías, of which he is the drummer, primary producer and co-writer of nearly all of their material. With this outfit, Conway broadcast his distinctive production style, blurring bedroom-pop and dream-pop hallmarks with psychedelic undertones. There is an ethereal, understated and cohesive quality to The Marías, whilst still retaining a penchant for pop capacity and heterogeneous production. As many listeners of Conway will likely have come from The Marías’ fanbase, there will be trepidation about how similar it may sound, how far he will drift from the band sonically, or whether his production style works without his band.
Nicholas Krgovich and Joseph Shabason’s shared musical journey began in 2020 when, along with Chris Harris, they released Philadelphia, one of that year’s best and most highly acclaimed albums. In the six years since, the pair have joined forces with a series of other notable collaborators, including M. Sage and, most recently, Japanese avant-pop heroes Tenniscoats. Four Days in June, though a Shabason and Krogovich album by name, sees the pair enlist a wide range of musicians, including fiddle and banjo player Sam Amidon, guitarist Thom Gill, bassist/keyboardist Bram Gielen and drummer Phil Melanson. Krgovich sings and writes the lyrics, while Shabason plays synth, piano, sax and flute. The result is an album of subtle, often delicate layers, borrowing…
In addition to her delicate, spacious arrangements; gentle, articulate vocals; and affection for unusual melodies and harmonic progressions, Vermont singer/songwriter Ruth Garbus has become known over the years for her eclectic approach to assembling albums. The onetime member of acid folk group Feathers and indie pop outfit Happy Birthday — both of which also featured King Tuff’s Kyle Thomas — added quirky touches like finger cymbals, vocoder, synthesizer, and samples of a Rodgers & Hammerstein song to her mostly folk-oriented second solo LP, Kleinmeister. Her third album, the Thomas-produced Profound, navigates wistfully earnest material like “The Lost Soul” (“Everybody seems to want some…thing/Everybody seems to know”), the humorously…
Being in an independent punk rock band can be fun, but it can also be hard work without a guaranteed reward, and The Bobby Lees got to know that better than they hoped while on the road in support of 2022’s Bellevue. Long stretches of low-budget touring and recording albums without recouping their expenses put enormous stress on the group, and founder and leader Sam Quartin was beginning to buckle mentally and physically under the strain; the Bobby Lees went on hiatus in 2023. Fortunately, they had a fan who was willing to help and also happened to be rich and famous — actor Jason Momoa, who featured the band on his HBO series On the Roam, and offered to finance their next album. 2026’s New Self reflects the pain and frustration in the years leading up…
Our good-faith assumption that the slow placidity of part one of this ultimately 5-hour epic was a means of introduction turns out to have been wisely made. Year of the Monkey, the second part of Fucked Up‘s quintuple-album-length trilogy also comprising its second and third hours, takes the increased eventfulness of “Rivers and Lakes,” the closing track of Year of the Goat, and builds from there as the base. “Looking for Heaven and Not Finding It,” opens with the striking of a temple bowl, a common preface to Buddhist prayer, as all of the tracks of this cycle have thus far. The following half-hour is spent in the land of light charted by Yes, with major-key joy and brimming golden dewdrops sprinkled everywhere. This is fitting: the story at this point…
In a cultural world with no frontiers, French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf has a musical CV that ranges very widely: collaborations with Angélique Kidjo, Sting, Quincy Jones, Amadou et Mariam, Archie Shepp and countless others. While rooted in Lebanese and Arab tradition, he moves with ease through jazz, rock, hip-hop and other genres. His new album, Vol 2 of the Michel-Ange project dedicated to his trumpet-playing father Nassim whom he revered as a kind of musical Michelangelo, is once again focused on a contagiously festive brass sound, part-Balkan Roma, part-Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass.
Maalouf’s trademark sound is the quarter-tone or microtonal trumpet, an instrument with an instantly recognisable tinge of longing…
Founded in Long Island, New York in 1969, Mountain were one of the most influential American rock bands of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Their musical style fused blues, hard rock and progressive influences and was anchored around the virtuoso guitarist Leslie West, the producer, writer and multi-instrumentalist Felix Pappalardi, drummer Corky Laing and keyboard player Steve Knight.
Taking inspiration from the legendary British band Cream, West had approached producer Pappalardi (who had worked with Cream and Jack Bruce) with a view to him producing West’s first solo album. The resulting album ‘Mountain’ was released in July 1969 and saw West backed by Felix Pappalardi on bass and keyboards and drummer N.D. Smart.
Looking for a relaxing evening after a rough day? Turn the lights down, sit back in your favorite cushy chair and let the calming, soothing sounds of George Thorogood and his Destroyers, recorded in concert, waft over you for an hour’s worth of introspective, peaceful, tension-releasing music. OK…just kidding…. you’ve no doubt guessed, that’s not what we have here.
As the title The Baddest Show on Earth: Greatest Hits Live implies, this eleven song traipse through some of Thorogood’s roughest, toughest, sweatiest, most heart-palpitating music, recorded live at various venues from 1978 until 2024, is not for those looking to achieve a Zen meditative moment. The pounding beat of the opening cover of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love,”…
When Samantha Fish plays your town, or someplace nearby, on one of her 250 or so yearly dates, it’s to do one thing; kick out the jams.
She makes that clear covering the MC5 classic starting most of the shows on last year’s ‘Paper Doll Live’ tour promoting her recent release. It was also opened her previous run, sharing billing with roots rocker Jesse Dayton. This document of a typical gig, recorded at Knoxville, TN.’s Bijou Theater, exemplifies why Fish has become one of the finest and most vibrant contemporary blues/rock acts, of either gender, currently grinding out endless one-nighters.
Paper Doll is the first album she has recorded with her road band, the same three musicians on these shows. They are not only tight and…
Ever since a 2024 reshuffling of band members, one which saw drummer Cotter Ellis added to the fold, Goose has experienced something of a creative renaissance. In addition to a pair of 2025 full-length studio album releases, the critically-acclaimed Everything Must Go and the stealthily released Chain Yer Dragon, the Connecticut-based quartet has also undergone some stylistic changes. While the group’s primordial years focused more on an “indie-groove” sound (think Fleet Foxes song structures meet Phish’s extended, improv-laden jams), there has recently been a concerted effort to lean more toward a dance-party vibe at their live shows. That trend continues in full force on BIG MODERN!, Goose’s sixth full-length studio effort out via No Coincidence Records.
…Cream’s third album Wheels of Fire was originally released on 14 June 1968 in the US; less than a month later, the three-piece – Ginger Baker (drums, vocals), Jack Bruce (bass, lead vocals) and Eric Clapton (guitar, vocals) – announced that they were going their separate ways…
The 5CD super deluxe edition features a 2026 remaster and a previously unreleased phase-corrected version of the entire album. The latter version was achieved by using software to reverse the Haeco-CSG effect originally applied to the album. This was a ’60s audio processing technique intended to make stereo recordings compatible with mono turntables but had a side-effect of ‘blurring’ the stereo imaging. The first CD offers the remaster of the original…
After three excellent but generally underappreciated albums in what is more or less the Americana/singer/songwriter genre, Sam Morrow was ready for a change.
On his simply titled fourth release, and first in two years, he leaves most of the country influences that informed those discs, cranks up the guitars and charges into a stronger, sonic punch implied by the collection’s name.
While there are plenty of Southern red clay guts here, he sells himself short on the “boogie” part. Like Blackberry Smoke, which this resembles in the best ways, Morrow is too sharp of a songwriter to delve into the clichéd beer, booze and broads mode most associate with the title. Even when name-checking the “party all night/…
The polarizing songs of contemporary troubadour Jesse Welles have always been stubbornly present and blunt. His prolific nature has seen the release of many loose singles and celebrated LPs, landing Welles Grammy nods and placing him amongst some of the more talked-about figures in modern folk. At a time when folk music, in a popular sense, was beginning to sound formulaic, Welles’s scorching political takes and dedication to the mysterious songwriters that came before him quickly separated him from a burgeoning scene. Not that Welles’s music is some innovative leap, but it has become the center point of controversy within folk music for some years now, and the artist seems hellbent on getting his point across, uploading acoustic vignettes to…
The four words no one thought they would ever see appeared last year. They were “GRAMMY nominee Jon Spencer.”
But that’s what happened when Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton’s 2023 album Death Wish Blues was up for one of those iconic awards. And by extension, so was producer Jon Spencer.
It’s worth noting that his career spans over four decades crafting some of the edgiest, most frictional and at times discordant roots music ever appearing on major or indie labels. A variety of sonically boundary-pushing outfits such as Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, Heavy Trash, Jon Spencer & the HIT Makers and, probably the most popular one, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion were all helmed by Spencer.
Meltt is a psych-ish rock band from Canada that is set to drop its third album, Pathways, on June 12. The 13-song album is preceded by the release of no fewer than eight singles, the earliest of which, “Hesitate,” dropped almost a year ago, in July 2025. All eight were collected in the order of appearance on the “In Good Time” single, the last one released on May 28 of this year.
There’s a method here of giving each single the chance to capture the attention of the non-album-oriented public before releasing the complete album, a strategy the band began experimenting with for the rollout of Eternal Embers in 2023. If album-oriented folks tilt their heads in anti-climactic wonder, well, that’s too bad. They’re not a big part of the music-streaming…