Unique collection containing authentic rhythms of Haitian Voodoo drumming. Recorded in Port-au-Prince, Haiti by Soul Jazz Records, this album features The Drummers of the Societe Absolument Guinen.
Voodoo is the African religion at the heart of Haitian life. The complex rhythms of the drums are used to bring down African spirits in Voodoo ceremonies. These drums are the link between the music of Africa and the Caribbean. With links to Cuban Santeria, Jamaican and Trinidadian Afro-religions, Voodoo rhythms are the heaviest, most intense of all.
This record, which consists entirely of recordings of voudou drumming made in Port-Au-Prince, is one of a series of Soul Jazz releases exploring…
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After releasing two strong albums for Slash, the Blasters had plenty of critical acclaim and a sizable hometown following, but they hadn’t come especially close to landing a hit record, and on the 1985 album Hard Line, they overhauled their approach in the studio in hopes of creating something that sounded more contemporary.
Producer Jeff Eyrich pumped up the sound of Bill Bateman’s drums (and for a few tracks replaced him with Stan Lynch of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), Dave Alvin’s guitar tone got thicker and harder and the emphasis was put squarely on new songs. “Trouble Bound” and “Help You Dream” showed Dave Alvin’s gift for writing in traditional styles was as strong as ever. Alvin’s songs took on a darker tone on Hard Line, especially the tale…
When punk rock began exploding in the late 1970s, more than a few fans of the new music declared the only hope for rock & roll was to throw away its past and start over, but thankfully, a few people knew better than that. Dave and Phil Alvin were a pair of brothers from Downey, California who’d been raised on a steady diet of what they called “American Music” – blues, rockabilly, country, jazz, swing, R&B, and early rock & roll.
The Alvin brothers formed a band called the Blasters that approached the classic styles of the past with the energy and insouciance of punk rock, and their music taught a new generation that rock & roll was hard, wild, and manic fun even before it was called rock & roll. The Blasters, the band’s second album, is divided roughly…
Dan Snaith’s evolving relationship with dance music has been fascinating to watch over the years. As Manitoba — renamed Caribou after a legal snafu in 2004 — he incorporated all manner of experimental electronics alongside dreamy, band-based psychedelia. Sometimes those aspects were woven together, which loosely aligned him with the folktronica movement at the time; but more frequently, as on early anthem “If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be an Airport” or his remix of Seelenluft’s “Manila,” he would make out-and-out dancefloor slammers. At the time, he was notably one of only a tiny handful of leftfield producers who could successfully incorporate the shuffle and warp bass of UK garage with unhinged glitch, discord, and free jazz.
In a world where the surface has become a trope for glistering repetitions of self, pompous explosions of short-reeled extremes, digital debris and its ephemeral, disconnecting and intoxicating comfort, a form of distanced, attentive and (perhaps hauntological) listening can serve as an antidote to the madness of “being connected”.
Somewhere between Derrida’s, Deleuze’s and Fisher’s (post-)nostalgic ruminations lies the solace of silence and remoteness as a way of connecting and belonging. Rafael Anton Irissari’s Points of Inaccessibility is a line of flight towards this reconfiguration of reality and an exploration of the way the present is haunted by all the futures that never arrived.
The album’s core material was recorded as…
Most of us have had enough of winter now. But wait. Shout “Taxi” – here’s a band offering a balmy chink of summery light.
vegas water taxi, led by Ben Hambro, have spliced an EP from last year and an EP from last month to form one fantastic LP. long time caller, first time listener, their second album, follows 2023 debut things are gonna be alright and offers a joyful alt-country promise of a social life. Hambro has the sardonic cultural wink of Lou Reed and the melodic ear of The Lemonheads.
The album opens with ‘brat summer’, which imagines the police rounding up folk who hadn’t participated in Charli xcx’s world with the echo of the guitar line from Five’s Keep on Movin’. Backed by some great steel guitar,…
“We’re gonna light it, we’re gonna burn it down” this veteran roots rocking trio shouts in unison on the opening track of the band’s seventh offering. And that’s the blueprint for the next 30-plus minutes on ‘Barnburners!’.
The threesome emerges out of upstate New York, but you’d never know it from the deep swamp groove they wallow in with all the energy and integrity of a group that was eating polk salad greens for three meals a day. As if to acknowledge that, they cover Tony Joe White’s hit “Polk Salad Annie” (the woman whose tough qualities likely came from her mama who was working on a chain gang) with an authentic soul/blues straight out of the deep South. Lead singer/guitarist Jamison Passuite (the band’s founder and…
The pairing of West Side Chicago vocalist and harpist Omar Coleman and Brazilian guitarist Igor Prado is another great signing for the rapidly growing NOLA Blue label. Old, New, Funky & Blue is a testament to America’s original art form, increasingly becoming a universal language.
Prado, one of the most exciting guitarists on the international scene, familiar to U.S. blues fans through the defunct Delta Groove label, has continued to record albums since 2015’s Way Down South, but has received relatively little notice in the States. We last heard from Coleman in his pairing with guitarist Eddie Roberts on their 2024 Strange Times.
As the album title suggests, this collaboration extends beyond strictly 12-bar blues and…
Strolling down memory lane is something Marc Broussard enjoys. And it has proven more popular than even he likely imagined.
Since 2007s S.O.S. (Save Our Soul), the New Orleans-bred blue-eyed soul man has been sporadically releasing additional discs in an ongoing series revisiting some of his favorite songs, all between albums of his material.
The music covers a diverse span; from children’s ditties (2017s Vol. 3: A Lullaby Collection) to deep soul/blues (the Joe Bonamassa-enhanced Vol. 4: Blues for Your Soul). There was also a Christmas set, 2015s Magnolias and Mistletoe, not under the S.O.S. moniker but with a similar approach.
This side-road has been remarkably rewarding. The majority of Broussard’s most played…
Since 2023’s Doom Loop, Dream Nails have changed. After slimming down to a three-piece, they’ve lost a bandmate but gained a new lead vocalist with bassist Mimi Jasson stepping into the role. Consequently, their third album, You Wish, feels different. On ‘The Only Way Is Through’, the opening guitar stabs and intensifying drums give way to a laid-back bassline and soothing vocals, rather than bursting into fury, while ‘This Is Water’ presents an infectious stream of dreamy alternative rock. ‘Organoid’ brings back that familiar anarchic intensity, with lyrics reflecting on the merciless march of technology, and the delivery flipping between detached acceptance and vicious emotional turmoil.
Modified vocals, notably on the thumping…
The fact that the London-based singer-songwriter Alice Costelloe, the great-great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, is, on her debut album Move On with the Year, probing into her unconscious to conjure up memories of her estranged father might seem too on the nose or a send-up.
Don’t worry, it isn’t either. Instead, it’s a gallant portrayal of a child of a parent battling substance abuse — in other words, it’s an indie pop record with a subject matter barely acknowledged, let alone expressed with such finesse and stoicism. Yet, despite the heaviness of its themes, you could be floating.
The post-war English poet Philip Larkin wrote, in his customary sardonic tone, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean…
A year on from Puma Blue’s low-key releases ‘antichamber’ and ‘extchamber’, and almost three from previous full-band record Holy Waters, Croak Dream comes with studio-based lore: that he – aka multihyphenate Jacob Allen – and production collaborator Sam Petts-Davies introduced parts of songs to the full band to work with in the room. Not a unique scenario, of course, but it just might be in this switch-up of Jacob’s working methods that the most interesting parts of his latest full-length lie.
For while his often melancholy, occasionally pretty, singing voice excels in projecting an inward-looking ennui (see ‘Heaven Above, Hell Below’ in particular for the OG jazz vibes, his use of vibrato and tone sitting in a cross-section…
Yamila Rios is a kind of sound vessel — a composer, singer, and cellist who has the ability to conjure ethereal beauty in multiple contexts, carving out a space where gauzy textures, elegant melodic gestures, an almost subversive rhythmic presence, and trippy incantations mingle, collide, and pull apart. While she makes drifty, ambient pop as Yamila, she’s also been actively collaborating with choreographers and dance companies. Despite placid surfaces, her music pulses with movement. Splitting her time between Madrid, in her native Spain, and Brussels, Belgium, Yamila has found strong collaborators in the Echo Collective, whose founding duo — violinist Margaret Hermant and violist Neil Leiter — has established it as one of the go-to string ensembles in…
Deluxe Edition is an expanded digital release by Record Kicks that includes three brand-new bonus tracks.
Legendary Milanese combo Calibro 35 continue their journey into the world of cinematic jazz-funk with their new album Exploration.
Exploration marks their return to independent label Record Kicks after their last studio album “Nouvelle Aventures” released on Universal Music in 2023. The band picks up from their latest EP, “Jazzploitation,” released on Record Kicks last October.
“Exploration” is a deep dive into the universe of cinematic jazz-funk, showcasing both the band’s reinterpretations of timeless classics such as Roy Ayers’ “Coffy” or Bob James “Nautilus”…
Big Big Train, the award-winning, progressive rock band, issue their 16th studio album. Woodcut is a landmark release for the international group, whose line-up draws together members from England, Scotland, Italy, the USA, Sweden and Norway, in that it marks their first ever full-length conceptual piece. “The story isn’t set in any particular timeframe, but it’s about The Artist, who is struggling with life,” founding member Gregory Spawton begins. “He takes a stroll and finds this piece of heartwood and creates something that he considers beautiful and different. Maybe it’s a dream or maybe it’s real life, but he finds himself stepping into this Narnia-style woodcut world.”
A more band-based effort, ‘Woodcut’ sees all seven members making stunning contributions…
“These performances, by Heinz Holliger and Marie-Lise Schüpbach, are simply astonishing in their fluency,” wrote UK magazine Gramophone of Holliger’s album Zwiegespräche, and the description applies with equal pertinence to con slancio, with its inspired and inspiring play of energies.
The title piece, which opens the programme here, was written by the Swiss composer and nonpareil oboist as a tribute to musical partner Schüpbach: “Since I began playing in duo with Marie-Lise, I’ve been fascinated by the way our two instruments expand each other’s range and palette of tone colours. New sound paths have opened up for me.”
The album includes premier recordings of six Holliger compositions written between 2018…
Written in the 1970s, Zorn’s earliest game pieces are legendary (often discussed and workshopped in secret but rarely performed in public) and Curling from 1978 is one of the most elusive and hermetic.
Focusing exclusively on long tones, it is quite unusual in Zorn’s canon-meditative, minimalist, and hypnotic.
Performing here are two ensembles from the Bay Area that have had close ties with Zorn for over forty years and are perfectly suited to execute this challenging and beautiful work.
This recording brings together two Bay Area ensembles with deep, decades-long ties to Zorn’s music: the Rova Saxophone Quartet and the William Winant Percussion Group.
On February 10, Roberta Flack would have celebrated her 90th birthday. Though Flack passed away in February 2025, the occasion is being marked with a new box set from Rhino. With Her Songs: The Atlantic Albums 1969-1978 brings together the late artist’s first eight studio albums in one compact package.
With Her Songs kicks off with 1969’s First Take. Upon its expanded release in 2020 – still the only time an album of Flack’s has received a physical expanded edition – The Second Disc wrote, “Recorded in February 1969, the aptly titled First Take introduced the world to Flack’s talents. But it wasn’t until 1972 – after her version of Ewan MacColl’s ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ was featured in Clint Eastwood’s…
Dive deep into the raw power of rock history with Nuge Vault Vol. 2, a rare and electrifying collection that opens the vault on Ted Nugent’s iconic 1975 self-titled debut solo album.
This release features never-before-heard demo versions of fan-favorite tracks including “Stranglehold,” “Just What the Doctor Ordered,” and “Motor City Madhouse,” offering an unfiltered glimpse into the creative fire behind Nugent’s explosive solo breakthrough.
Also included are previously unreleased live recordings from 1975, capturing the primal energy and guitar fury of Nugent in his early solo prime. Nuge Vault Vol. 2 is a must-have for hardcore fans and rock historians alike—an untamed ride through the birth of a legend.
The Dahlak Band honed their sound as the resident musicians at the Ghion Hotel, a historic building in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa that was first constructed by long-time ruler Emperor Haile Selassie as an intended residence for his son. At the band’s red-hot core was Tilaye Gebre, a heavyweight of Ethio-jazz, whose story intersects with many of the close-knit scene’s key players. As press notes to this new reissue of Tilaye’s Saxophone with the Dahlak Band assert, “Chances are that if you pick up any gem recorded in Addis Ababa during those times, it features Tilaye on saxophone and his arrangements.”
The Selassie era was brought to an end by the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974 and the dawning of a new military regime that imposed…