For fans of electronic music, 1977 represents a sacred frontier. It was a time when synthesizers were massive, unpredictable walls of cables and knobs, and live performances were high-wire acts executed entirely without a safety net.
Among the most legendary documents of this era is Tangerine Dream’s performance at the Place des Arts in Montreal on April 9, 1977, during their iconic first North American tour. Performed by the definitive “Sonic Trinity”- Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann- this breathtaking two-hour set captures the absolute zenith of the Berlin School of electronic music, serving as the final, radiant hurrah of their classic lineup right before Baumann’s departure.
Originally broadcast by Montreal’s CHOM-FM…
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Life is rarely linear, and the record reflects that push and pull between highs and lows. While in Goa in 2023, Jon McClure – the fabled Reverend – experienced what he describes as an “unexpected moment of contentment”- one of the album’s brief emotional peaks, a fleeting sense of stability that soon gives way to grief and upheaval.
The album emerges from a period of profound personal change, following his father’s death after a sudden lung cancer diagnosis. Alongside navigating grief, McClure was also diagnosed with ADHD, which he cites as key to understanding his lifelong emotional extremes.
Musically, that shift is immediate. The record moves towards a more live, roots-driven sound steeped in soul, a clear pivot from…
…Lemoncello, returning with their second album, still carry the quiet confidence of a duo who have already carved out a distinctive place in contemporary Irish folk. Since their debut, Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella have continued to refine the intimate, instinctive interplay that first brought them to our attention, the kind of vocal and instrumental chemistry that seems to snap into focus the moment they perform together. Their rise has been steady as they have deservedly earned wider audiences, while their songwriting resonates far beyond the grassroots circuit. That first record, also released on Claddagh, was captured directly to tape under the guidance of analogue devotee Julie McLarnon. It revealed a duo drawn to texture, tactility, and the human…
Past albums from New York-based guitarist and singer-songwriter Chris Bergson have often straddled the line between blues and soul, especially those with vocalist Ellis Hicks. Yet, there have also been jazz tracks on his previous albums. After all, Bergson was a student of jazz great guitarist Jim Hall and has consistently expressed an affinity for Grant Green’s soul-jazz. Now, on East River Blues, Bergson collaborates with two of the most sought-after musicians in jazz. They are bassist Larry Grenadier (who has played with the likes of John Scofield, Brad Mehldau, Charles Lloyd, and the recent debut from Gabrielle Cavassa, released just two weeks ago), and drummer Herlin Riley, the premier New Orleans drummer, who has backed such giants as Dr. John,…
Boundary-crossing jazz and Afro-Caribbean traditions come together on tenor saxophonist and percussionist David Sanchez‘s 2026 album, Tambó. A spiritual companion to 2019’s Carib, Tambó was born out of Sanchez’s continued travels, exploring the connections between improvisational jazz and the rhythms of not only his native Puerto Rico, but also Haiti and San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia; each locale offering musical inspiration and collaborative opportunities. Here, he is joined by his longtime band, including bassist Ricky Rodriguez, pianist Luis Perdomo, and drummer Tony Escapa. Also on board are master percussionists Franklin Tejedor, Jhan Lee Aponte, and Camilo Molino. Together, they conjure a vibrant sound that blends nuanced modal…
The collaborative projects of Austrian experimental double bass player, guitarist, and sound artist Werner Dafeldecker (of Polwechsel) and Australian sound artist, composer, head of the Room40 label Lawrence English, have consistently concerned themselves with processes of transformation. Their new sound work, Fathom Tides, is made of English’s field recordings collected from diverse coastal environments, with some preparations, later treated extensively by Dafeldecker, who added subtle layers of electronics.
Fathom Tides is an LP of incremental change. Best heard as a single, slowly-developing piece, the album reflects the pace of nature over that of humanity. The earth is in no hurry; the trees are not multi-tasking; the streams do have…
Virga III continues the series established in the early 2020s by two of Eluvium‘s most purely ambient releases. Virga I was created following a temporary evacuation from the artist’s home due to a snowstorm, and Virga II emerged from a dream sequence during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to escape all the unspeakable horrors of the world, Virga III takes refuge in small ecosystems and other natural spaces. As such, it’s a lighter and more calming effort than Virga II, though it still has its haunting moments.
“The Fires at Night” feels like a safe space far away from danger, with a supremely calming melody drifting in and out. “Remains” is desolate and forlorn, however, and “Hallucination II” revisits the lurching malaise of the opening…
Schemes progresses from Kreidler‘s run of albums during the 2010s and ’20s which explore spaces informed by dub, funk, and Fourth World fusion. The tracks here are heavily spacious and atmospheric, yet rhythmic and kinetic. There’s pronounced grooves, but they saunter rather than drive. On a few songs, like opener “Beads,” there’s synth patterns or basslines that seem like they could be intros to dance tracks, but the group decide to hover in that space rather than move forward with a beat. Other tracks have drumming which is detached and unhurried, with airy guitar and synth sequences floating above the rhythms. “Bellboy” is a particularly curious track with haunting voices and a general feeling of a mischievous spirit snooping around.
The band, made up of Delphine Lucy Lam and Vlad Swann, are originally from France and are now based outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The album follows the single ‘Surrender,’ with ‘Qui manque dans ce pays’ as the focus track. Across 11 songs, Fleur Bleu·e move into a more direct sound. The vocals are clearer and more upfront, the reverb is reduced, and the guitars have a rougher edge, while the band’s dream-pop and new-wave melodies remain in place.
The album was written across France, Bulgaria, Mauritius, and the US, during a period of movement between countries and emotional states. After years in cities such as Paris and Los Angeles, the duo moved to a wooded part of Pennsylvania, where the album’s themes of displacement…
Eleventh Dream Day created a monster of an album where ferocious guitar rock collided with ramshackle cowpunk, neatly held together by the irresistible vocal harmonies of Rick Rizzo and Janet Beveridge Bean – think John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X. There’s a blistering, untamed energy hovering over Lived to Tell, perfectly exemplified by one of several standouts, “It’s Not My World.
Lived to Tell, the middle record of Eleventh Dream Day’s three album run with Atlantic Records, is back in business! While critically acclaimed at the time of its 1991 release, the band was never satisfied with the mastered sound of the original record. This new issue of Lived to Tell, which will also be coming out on vinyl later this year, is remastered by Carl Saff from the original DAT archives…
Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band return with their first new album in a decade III – and their first ever recorded inside a professional studio. Produced by Tommy Brenneck (known for his work with Amy Winehouse, Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones, Beyoncé, Mark Ronson, and The Budos Band) at Diamond West, the album captures the band with a depth and clarity never heard before – without sacrificing the ecstatic propulsion that defines them. The group does not simply perform songs; they create momentum.
Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band are a multi-generational psychedelic powerhouse from rural Thailand whose ecstatic, amplifier-blown folk music has quietly become one of the most unlikely global cult phenomena of the last decade.
Paradise Metal is a sleight of hand. The music within has very little to do with metal in the conventional sense, and everything to do with the genre’s outer limits-the kind of undulating drone movements practiced by Earth and SUNN O))). The folks at Heat Crimes and their partner label Elhellel will have you know that this music is created by one Father Dionysios Tabakis, an Orthodox priest who serves at the Church of the Panagitsa in Nafplio, Greece. His instruments include the ney, oud, and lyra, among others. The idea is that Paradise Metal is a kind of ancient trance music that addresses age-old maladies: depression, alienation, and isolation.
Opener “Relaxation Music with Tanbur” recalls choice moments from…
There is of course an extensive history of improvisational live jazz being mined for samples for beats. There’s perhaps a less of an established tradition of live improvisation being steered by the ethos of hip hop-orientated groove construction.
Based on the hypnotic, slow-burning workouts of Happy Today, Los Angeles-based guitarist Jeff Parker is willing and able to narrow (if not totally eradicate) the gap between jazz’s historic position as a ‘serious’ improvisational art and its potential for locking in on a robust head-nodding groove. Initially, the only thing that seems to have changed since Parker’s previous two live albums with the ETA IVtet – 2022’s Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy and 2024’s The Way Out of Easy, both superb – is the duration and…
As a follow-up for their Live feat. Annie Golden album Brooklyn’s power pop meets New Wave band The Shirts look back at their first act again with another rambunctious in concert release. Live at Paradise 1979. The show was recorded for a radio broadcast by local station WBCN at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club on August 27, 1979, shortly after their second album Street Light Shine. The tapes were digitized by Wout de Kruif (Dutch Tape Transfers) and demixed/remastered by retired sound engineer Prof Stoned.
It was a weird time for the band. Lead singer Annie Golden had a part in the movie adaptation of Hair and was under pressure to leave the band and become a full-time actress. She turned it down, but in hindsight this period…
Mountain of Youth – the moniker for Hunter Morris’ latest project – mines a slew of classic influences from ‘90s lo-fi rock to folk and Americana on his debut, making for a mix that manages to sound musically nostalgic but with enough of a contemporary feel that it’s not wasting time wallowing in the past.
That doesn’t necessarily pertain to the characters that populate Nowhere, NW, though. “Atomic Days” opens the album with whistling and a steady 4/4 drum beat, before Morris jumps in with lyrics about an aging couple cycling through thoughts of “what if” looking at where they are in life right now. And while the song could just as easily have been a ballad, Morris’ decision to opt for a mid-tempo rock vibe creates a far more…
“I got a feelin’ this party’s just about to begin” sings Americana singer/songwriter Ryan Bingham in his world-weary, gravelly voice as a fiddle saws behind him chased by rocking piano chords. And on this, his sixth studio platter, there’s plenty of raw, tough, country rocking to back up that exhortation. Bingham emerged from semi-obscurity to practically household name status when in 2009 he provided the Oscar, Golden Globe and Critic’s Choice winning “The Weary Kind” tune for the critically acclaimed film Crazy Heart. That trifecta is pretty far in the rearview mirror these days, but Bingham never stopped working, delivering gutsy, unvarnished albums (now on his own Axster/Bingham imprint) overflowing with soulful sounds mixed into country, folk, rock…
Mia Rocha writes music for herself. Releasing songs under the moniker Mia Joy, the Chicago-based artist is the daughter of a poet and a musician, and since a young age, she was encouraged by her father to channel her feelings into music as a way of understanding them.
Taking the advice, she wrote her debut ethereal dream-pop album Spirit Tamer over the course of several emotionally tumultuous years. It captures Rocha’s inner loneliness, cultivates healing, and creates a safe space where she can work through her darkest moments.
“The beginning of writing this album was an incredibly low, dark period and it was also a period where things were just pouring out of me,” she said in a recent episode of Jessica Risker’s…
Flying Mojito Bros released The Swamp Fox, an album featuring their remixes of recordings by late singer-songwriter Tony Joe White. Tony Joe White, known as The Swamp Fox, was a native of Louisiana and wrote such noteworthy songs as “Polk Salad Annie,” “Undercover Agent for the Blues” and “Rainy Night in Georgia.” White died in 2018 at age 75. White’s son and official archivist, Jody White, contacted Flying Mojito Bros (London-based duo Ben Chetwood and Jack Sellen) to collaborate with them on the remix album.
…”During the late 70’s and early 80’s, Tony Joe was blending country, swamp and disco into his own recipe of funky dance music,” Jody White explains. “With some help from the Flying Mojito Bros, these songs are about to see the light…
Jethro Tull released their debut album in 1968, titled This Was. Shortly after the release, guitarist Mick Abrahams left the band to embark on his own solo career and play a more blues-based rock. Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull was leaning towards incorporating more folk and rock in their sound, leaving behind the blues influenced rock of their debut album. Although there were no ‘Mick Abrahams is God’ statements spray painted around London, he has always been recognized as one of the great guitarists of that era. He formed the band Blodwyn Pig, and they released their debut album in 1969. By 1970, following their second album, Blodwyn Pig had run its course and basically split. It is worth noting that both albums made the U.K. top 10 album charts and were…
There’s a reason Greg Lake deemed Trilogy “such an accurate record” when looking back at it decades later. Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s third studio album teems with exacting arrangements, copious overdubs, and multi-hued colors that showcase the band’s willingness to experiment and desire to put everything in its proper place without becoming too self-serious. Expanding by distilling the ferocious power of its debut and epic leanings of the preceding Tarkus into a more accessible whole, Trilogy stands as the most representative example of the ensemble’s trademark styles.
Mastered at MoFi’s California studio and housed in a mini-LP-type gatefold sleeve, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD of Trilogy presents the gold-certified effort in audiophile sound.