Unavailable for almost 30 years in its own right, this collection from the Cold Spring archive has been repackaged and remastered with new art. This classic album exists as a document of the soundtrack work Psychic TV created for the many films and videos of Derek Jarman.
A Prayer for Derek Jarman is a contemporary revision and recollected edition of unreleased material intended for use on a series by Psychick Television titled Themes. In this original form, Themes 2, intended ”to be used as a facilitator of internal psychic states and cataylse an integration of the conscious and subconscious minds,’’ is an extension of the ideas interrogated on Themes 1 (later Cold Dark Matter), ‘’primarily assembled to be used as a facilitator of internal psychic…
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A companion album to 2024’s critically acclaimed My Light, My Destroyer, on My Light, My Massage Parlor Cassandra Jenkins conjures a wonderfully calming set of instrumental music/field recordings.
…For the insatiably curious songwriter, the world-building exercise of creating an album implies the existence of infinite wormholes that lie within. Quietly accompanying her primary releases, Cassandra Jenkins crafted companion albums — (An Overview on) An Overview on Phenomenal Nature (2022), and the soon-to-be-released My Light, My Massage Parlor. Listeners are invited to follow along on her side quests as she deepens her investigation of the paths not taken in her initial artistic statements. While her last follow-up revealed extended voice notes and songs from…
For a young (or at least inexperienced) Western gay man, few places hold the combination of loaded history, excitement, and terror like the bathhouse. These hallowed public sex spaces have survived decades of on-and-off-again state targeting, and are often associated with a previous generation of gay men but always fetishized by an underdog contingent of the next. They’re places where people explicitly go to have sex while coyly pretending that’s not why they’re there — maybe they sit on gym equipment covered in cobwebs, or halfheartedly take a shower even though they did all their preparation beforehand. The lines of consent can become blurred, so you might have one of the best hookups of your life, or maybe get chased around and cornered by…
Sitting On the Moon is a low-key statement of purpose for the longrunning, Brooklyn-based independent label Mexican Summer. Fresh off of the imprint’s 15th anniversary in 2024, the largely instrumental compilation asks “where to next?”
Label luminaries like Connan Mockasin and Dungen make eagerly anticipated appearances, while the new school, Zsela and Natural Wonder Beauty Concept, present standout tracks — the former written with Daniel Aged and Casey MQ during a recording retreat in Hawaii, the latter a cover of Chris Isaak’s eternal “Wicked Game” that’s become a live favorite for DJ Python and Ana Roxanne. Fresh off the release of his acclaimed album Gift Songs, label mainstay Jefre Cantu-Ledesma also returns with a sprawling, ten-minute…
Years ago, we would record the soundtrack of our lives on cassette. A blank tape became filled with not only the music that we listened to but also what surrounded that music, the breadth of our experiences. As part of a limited edition, the Chicago-based clarinetist will release her debut album, The Oracle, on cassette tape. It evokes how the album itself was conceived — Angel Bat Dawid overdubbed, mixed, and performed almost all of the voices and instruments herself, and recorded and produced the album mainly on her cell phone as she trekked across the globe. The result is a spiritual opus of one’s refusal to accept the cards that life has dealt her.
After a brain tumor diagnosis halted her music studies at Roosevelt University, Dawid…
80s synth magic for the four-track mind. DIY outsider Rick Cuevas was a post-punk refugee on a vision quest for a hit. Tracked at home in 1984, “The Birds” is that 40-year-delayed viral smash, one of eight retro-futurist anthems that make up Cuevas’ debut album. Remastered from the analog masters, this 40th anniversary edition replicates the 200-copy original for max teleportation value.
Numero’s timeless pop antenna are practically bristling at this one; a fully formed but lost classic that has taken a lifetime to finally find its audience, received in fresh remaster that seals its charms for posterity. It’s not hard to hear precedents for Ariel Pink’s DIY lo-fi channelling of major AOR sounds and tekkerz inside, from the widescreen Fleetwood Mac-isms of his titular beauty…
East of West, a world jazz trio based in Brisbane, Australia, has a new record, Pastorale, where they infuse each of the six tunes with pictorial vividness. Featured on piano here is Australian pianist Romano Crivici — also a contemporary classical violinist and leader of the Elektra String Quartet — who adds a gorgeous touch to the jazz-meets-Balkan/Mediterranean influences of the trio, led by Bosnian-born bassist and main composer Goran Gajić. Oud player Philip Griffin and percussionist Malindi Morris complete the lineup.
“Where Is Your Accent From” sets an inviting tone, opening with an oud introductory section before an arpeggiated piano riff and ‘singing’ bass lines substantiate the whole through colorful layers. Crivici digresses, subtly accompanied…
Truce is New Yorker Robert Scheffler’s third album; however, it is his first in almost twenty years. During that time, he worked as a freelance research editor and writer for a national American magazine; now, he has returned to music, and Truce is the result. Despite his background as a writer, he found the process of penning these songs not an easy one, until he came across a quote from short story writer George Saunders, whose very straightforward philosophy was “If it’s not fun, don’t do it.” This mantra enabled him to write eleven songs that document his life, feelings, and hopes in a charming manner that is a very engaging listen.
The album starts with a very relaxed acoustic song, ‘Excuse the Mess’, which frameworks…
Those struggling with anxiety or depression will find that Pacing, the project of San Jose-based songwriter Katie McTigue, makes embarrassingly relatable music. Often, it can feel like a soundtrack to accompany the running chatter in your brain. Even if you’re not anxious, you’ll find plenty to enjoy on Pacing’s latest LP’s PL*NET F*TNESS, due to its chaotic sonic nature, broader themes and quirky, upbeat sense of humor. At 12 songs in less than 30 minutes, this follow-up to Pacing’s strong 2023 full-length album debut, Real poetry is always about plants and birds and trees and the animals and milk and honey breathing in the pink but real life is behind a screen, will not disappoint, despite McTigue’s attempts to prove the contrary in her opening track.
Teddy Abrams is a restless, creative spirit.
While occupying the world of contemporary classical music, his works – ranging from his Grammy-winning Piano Concerto (2022) to the esoteric song cycle The Order of Nature (featuring vocals from My Morning Jacket‘s Jim James) – are unique and boundless. For his latest work, Abrams is working on a much smaller scale, as Preludes comprises 16 solo piano pieces, ranging in style, mood, and execution.
As Abrams explains on his Bandcamp page, each piece “comes from an improvisational exercise that turns into completed work by refining the spontaneously created material, stripping away unnecessary and superfluous elements”. He further describes Preludes as “a study in…
Fabio Mina uses his flute as a playground.
The Rimini-born musician’s compositions grow from improvisations on his instrument that flit from ruminative melodies to breathy rhythms to dance beats. With Existence / Resistance, made in collaboration with producer Manuel Volpe, Mina presents a survey of his genre-blending, exploratory style in ten compositions inspired by the current of wind and the ideas of freedom and resistance. It is, at its heart, a showcase of the many different textures and techniques possible on the flute in conversation with techno-ambient electronics.
Existence / Resistance comes at a time in which the flute is reaching peak popularity. Andre 3000’s oft-discussed new age flute album…
Scattered notes seem to stretch time, their repetition and countless combinations evoking (or invoking?) the infinite iridescence of light that accompanies dawn — a ritual as inevitable as it is unpredictable. With his Musique pour le lever du jour, composed over two years and completed in 2017, Melaine Dalibert once described his aim as creating “an infinite piece,” without beginning or end. Subtle, intangible, both complex and minimal, the variations forming this hour-long composition — dedicated to Belgian pianist Stéphane Ginsburgh — allowed silence and resonance to blossom into shades of color.
Released on the American label Elsewhere Music, led by Yuko Zama, the album was ranked among France Musique’s 100 best of 2018.
The booklet coming with Just Like Gold: Live at The Matrix frequently refers to the band as “The Solution.” It will be the same here.
With respect to the name this pioneering San Francisco psychedelic outfit did choose, their drummer John Chance is quoted in the booklet as saying “My mother was really upset about it [the band’s name], and I knew why.”
Lead guitarist Ernie Fosselius adds “We knew vaguely somewhere back in history it was heavy. I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t realise how much the name could mean to a Jew.” Or, Ernie, anyone else. One person who realised the resonance of the name was leading San Francisco concert promoter Bill Graham, a Jew who as a child had escaped Nazi Germany. Graham booked…
A new wind reaches the sails of one of yacht rock’s defining masterpieces, courtesy of Omnivore Recordings. The label offer an expanded reissue of the self-titled debut album from Christopher Cross, the unforgettable 1979 release that became a commercial juggernaut and propelled the unlikely star to the music business’ upper echelon. The CD release will feature 11 bonus tracks including the rare non-album single “Mary Ann” and a slew of demos, six of which are made available for the first time anywhere – including several songs never before issued by Cross. (The set uses Bernie Grundman’s impeccable original album master, with engineer Michael Graves restoring the bonus material to prime condition.)
The story of Christopher Cross’ breakthrough…
Distopia is the debut album from Italian sextet Saihs, formed in Florence, Tuscany, in 2023. Although each track is credited to a single composer, the process of shaping each piece was the result of two years of intensive rehearsal sessions at the Scuola di Musica in Campi Bisenzio, under the guiding hand of director Massimo Barsotti. Under his mentorship, the group defined their nine original compositions, along with a reinterpretation of Bud Powell’s “Celia.”
With their typical sextet lineup of piano, bass, drums, trombone, saxophone and trumpet, Saihs’ fusion of modern and contemporary jazz influences has seen them win a host of awards. Individually, the members of the group have performed with artists such as Alex Sipiagin,…
…the Oregon-based oddball’s 21st album Love & Ponystep combines two things that might seem diametrically opposed: cute ponies and crazed wubs. But this music is so clever and so admirably unhinged, it’ll hook more than just the bronies and the brosteppers.
At the core of Zelda Trixie Lulamoon’s work is a love of subculture in all its glory and garishness, and on a deeper level, the winding route to self-acceptance. Love & Ponystep is an ode to internet ephemera and cringe culture, yes, but it’s also memeing as a defense mechanism, fantasy as allegory for things too uncomfortable to say openly. In a 26-page lyric booklet, Lulamoon credits part of her inspiration to a breakup, an experience mirrored in the narrative of her…
The shadow cast by Tricky is a long one. But beyond the raspy, roach toke vocals, what does a Tricky tune look like? What shape does it take? It’s hard to say. You can point to the downtempo bass and murk, but that foundation leaves you with plenty of room to roam. His spirit can be felt in Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland, Tirzah and Coby Sey, Young Echo and Space Afrika. The list goes on.
More than one of these artists show up on All Our Knives Are Always Sharp, the latest album by the British Nigerian self taught musician Tony Njoku. Indeed, Tricky himself appears on the track ‘Depleted’, connecting the sonic dots, an extended school of slouched shapeshifters.
That diffuse lineage can be heard on the record, but the textural fog is punctured by a sense…
At first, it’s tempting to think that folk artist Odette Michell might be singing about herself on the title track of her second album – she’s from Cambridge – but the song turns out to be a tribute to a first world war troop ship, one of several songs here with a maritime theme.
Michell has an instinct for a narrative – all the songs here are originals – which, together with her bright voice, won acclaim for The Wildest Rose, her 2019 debut. Lowlands is a confident step on, its songs steeped in tradition but not trapped by it.
‘Flowers’, for example, is a greenwoods murder ballad with a twist, co-written and sung by Daria Kulesh, one of several guest appearances. The lilting ‘Hourglass’ strikes a winning partnership with Scotland’s Calum Gilligan, and…