Preview of a two-part Substack post on jazz and hip hop poetics. The next two posts here will explore some background to two book chapters I worked on in the past few years, both just published in edited collections. In the next post, I’ll write more about “A Question of Form: Jazz in Joans, Kaufman, and Cortez”, a chapter in The Cambridge History of African American Poetry, a monumental volume edited by Keith Leonard. This first post, though, focuses on “Nation Time(s): Jazz and Hip-Hop’s…

Some shows are difficult to review because the performance in the room is not quite the performance that was intended. Unfortunately, audience disruption significantly affected the opening of TITCLOWN: daddy’s little girl, breaking the fragile compact that clowning relies upon. Clown is perhaps the most responsive of theatrical forms, constantly negotiating with the audience in real time, and regaining momentum after interruptions is no easy task. Even allowing for that, however, Jessica…

"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" by Bob Dylan Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. What's your favorite song about letting go? - Don't Think Twice, It's Alright by Bob Dylan It's the archetypal letting-go song: no bitterness, no melodrama, just a clear-eyed walking away. "It ain't no use to sit and wonder why" is about as economical as songwriting about acceptance gets. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile

“The Cave” by Mumford & Sons Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. What’s your favorite song about letting go? For all they have been pilloried, their first album was wonderful. My favourite track leapt out at me on my first listen, although it took a few more listens to figure out why. My first marriage was coming to an end, I think we both had started to feel it but hadn’t yet figured it out. In hindsight I put a fairly negative spin on something that wasn’t…

This is my wife’s fauxito.

Yes, the mushroom dolsot for lunch was excellent, and at some point the sound of the sizzling dipped below hearing level.

Tangerine sorbet. Summertime in a cup.

How the blog somehow missed the centenary of the birth of wacky and imaginative comedian Milton Supman, known professionally as Soupy Sales, back on January 8, we'll never know! Let's rectify that error RIGHT NOW, shall we! Here's Frank Nastasi, one of the supporting players from The Soupy Sales Show.Do we love Soupy and White Fang? Yes. Soupy was a jazz and blues fan, so the guest on the following show is guitar ace B.B. King!Soupy Sales is responsible for the ONLY television appearance of…

There really is nothing like live music. Second best thing to being there in-person is getting to watch the video of the live takes.Loving Cory Wong's and Joshua Redman's live recording of On A Random Tuesday: Live At The Blue Note (Apple Music). You can watch the great live recording of it at the link below.On A Random Tuesday: Live At The Blue Notehttps://youtu.be/1WKzbrsz0wM?si=WUyBdiLXUKbLeXa6Here is another of my favorite live-recorded albums I've come back to often (also featuring Cory…

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 19th June 2006 When the ball finally dropped with me and black metal, I devoured every classic band’s discography as quickly as I could find them, but when new stuff appeared, I was as voracious too. Gorgoroth were one of those bands whose new material led me to their older stuff, and in 2006 came ‘Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam’, probably the band’s last great record and certainly the last one with the classic lineup (including a special appearance from Frost…

I haven’t done a Cure post in a while, nor an Iterations, so let’s do both! “Boys Don’t Cry” was released as a single in 1979 but, as was the custom at the time, did not appear on the band’s debut album Three Imaginary Boys on its initial release. For the band’s introduction to the […] The post Iterations: The Cure – “Boys Don’t Cry” appeared first on Space Echo.

By SJ Groenewegen Atrocities in East Pakistan The news out of East Pakistan has been appallingly bad. Back in June, David Levinson reported on the violence and the political situation, and Gideon Marcus acknowledged the horrific images in the news of starvation and illness, and a burgeoning refugee crisis. In Britain, where I live, The … Continue reading [August 14, 1971] George Harrison and Friends Play for East Pakistan (The Concert for Bangla Desh) → The post [August 14, 1971] George…

A vote of confidence for my new songs from Gary Trueman at www.devolutionmagazine.co.uk 'Helen McCookerybook wins the room over with her beautiful voice and brave, deeply personal songwriting. Tackling serious themes with pure heart and soul' Just what I need to hear today!

Finally on the shelf. View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize This is actually my first vinyl copy of Blue Train believe it or not. I never really went after it like it was something more special than for example a Lee Morgan, Thad Jones or Sonny Clark on Blue Note. It’s a great album, an iconic album and Trane’s only one as a leader on Blue Note, the music is great,…

Write about escape. When do you need to escape? How do you escape in healthy ways? How do you escape in unhealthy ways? What can you learn from this? I need to escape when the terrible ambiance of the local cafe gets to me, and my earbuds aren't enough. Times like that, when the nervous system is overloaded and about to crash out.Music can help, especially a track on repeat. Or I can just go outside! There is such thing as Too Noisy. Other ways to escape: reading, at least when I can…

Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard - August 2026Coming rrrrrrright up this Sunday at 4pm PST — another edition of Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard! Freeform transmissions to soundtrack the end of your weekend. Airing every third Sunday of the month, RFAD on dublab features the pairing of Tyler Wilcox’s Doom and Gloom from the Tomb (that’s me) and Chad DePasquale’s New Happy Gathering. This month, I’m kicking things off with some cool new digs for August and Chad is following it up with an hour of…

I’ve spent some time this week reading an excellent textbook called “The Recording and Reproduction of Sound” written by Oliver Read. The second edition that I have was published in 1952. In it, he has a chapter called “Magnetic (Tape and Wire) Recording where we get a close-up view of the playback / record head of a wire recorder, as shown below. This drawing of the head is almost identical to the Beocord 506 (seen below with and without its protective cover), which is good, because it taught…

Death is the Master of this WorldOut 8th July on New Era Productions From the mind of Jan Kruitwagen of Sammath and Kaeck fame comes this new dark ambient project. Split neatly into two fifteen minute segments, in essence what we are presented with is a re-evaluation of ambient black metal. Paradoxically by removing any percussion – save a distant timpani rumble – it updates the subgenre with a more active, affirmative spirit. The wandering nature of tremolo driven black metal, another step…

“Little Fluffy Clouds” by The Orb Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. What song makes you feel connected to nature? Nature, to me, is something to bask in, something to enjoy. I love spending time in nature, wandering through woods, cycling trails, but my earliest memories of connection to nature were formed in my childhood home. Summer evenings, a rug on the grass, the heat of the day simmering down, lying back and watching the sky. Acres of blue, spots of…

Another week of hot hot temperatures requires some scorching riffs to match. Hopefully there’s some good stuff in this bunch. Hails! Abyssal Rift - death - USAMegascavenger - death - SwedenBurial Ruthless - death - VenezuelaInvocation Ritual - death - USASuffocate the Skies - melodeath - USABeyond Defiance - melodeath - SwedenThe Absolution Sequence - tech death - AustraliaMaidenhead - thrash/death - USAComa Control - prog/death - FinlandWarforged - black/death/prog - USAGleichmacher - black -…

As the band celebrates the 20th anniversary of this album with a 30-day tour and the release of a remastered version, coupled with the roll we have going on here with related posts, it is high time we discussed one of the foundational deathcore releases, and undoubtedly one of the best. I don't think I'm mistaken, but All Shall Perish's live shows around 2005–2006 were among the first instances in which the genre term itself was even being uttered, alongside Despised Icon's "Montreal deathcore"…

I finished The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams yesterday, and it's the seventh book from this year's Booker longlist that I've read. *(As I mentioned in my review of May We Feed The King I'm transcribing these over from tiktok, so they're a little out of sequence on the blog.) It's taken me a little while to sit down and actually write this up, because I needed to work out how I feel about the book first, and if I'm honest, I'm still not sure I know the answer. Of everything I've read from the…

Doris Troy, 1969 Soul and R&B singer/songwriter and pianist Doris Troy is perhaps best known for her hit “Just One Look” and as a session singer after she relocated to Britain in 1969. Her popularity in Britain prompted her first tour in the summer of 1965. It isn’t clear who backed on these dates so we’d welcome any further information in the comments below. Record Retailer, 8 April 1965 This isn’t a complete list Tour dates: 11 June 1965 – Flamingo, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with…

I often wake up with a random song as an earworm – and now I note them down for your enjoyment. This morning it was Go by The Chemical Brothers. Reply by email

DNGDNGDNG & Prisma – “Ripio” ft. Jaijiu not even noticed – “chrone” not even noticed – “Murano” Asmus Odsat – “Channel of the hunters part 2 (Oligocenic)” The post New Hots Hots 27 first appeared on Palms Out Sounds.

Pukka prose by Patrick Syms. When I was three my family moved to Ramsgate. More specifically, to a farmhouse that overlooked Pegwell Bay. The end of our garden was steps away from the cliff edge. It would have been hard to live closer to the coast. At Little Cliffsend Farm there was no electricity, no mains sewers and no bathroom. No fridge, either. None of this was due to neglect or malfunction. It was how it was advertised. The only concession to 1970’s modernity was a tall gas cylinder…

A sampler is supposed to be an index with music attached, a practical device for turning curiosity into sales. ECM’s eleven official sampler albums, issued between 1978 and 1982, are stranger objects. They advertise a catalogue, certainly, but they also interpret it. Each sequence makes an argument about what may belong beside what, allowing jazz, chamber music, folk memory, electronics, ritual, and improvisation to recognize one another before the listener has had a chance to constellate their…

in spanish :/

A fragment of Michael Stipe’s speech (from 12 years ago!) for Nirvana’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction that’s stuck with me for some time: Nirvana captured lightning in a bottle. And now, per the dictionary—off the Internet—in defining “lightning in a bottle” as, “Capturing something powerful and elusive, and then being able to hold it and show it to the world.” It’s that lighting in a bottle bit that gets me. Lightning striking the ground isn’t all that uncommon, happening roughly 37…