Let me tell you the story of what was sounding in Buenos Aires’ FM radios almost exactly 40 years ago. “Oktubre”, by “Patricio Rey y los Redonditos de Ricota” released in its entirety in October 1986, is widely considered to be one of the greatest albums of Argentine rock of all time. During that year they released various singles off the album, among them one called “Ji Ji Ji”, a song which has become the signature song of the band in the decades that followed. As you can see on the cover, the…

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others. Caitlin Shetterly’s The Gulf of Lions is an enchanting novel of motherhood, family, and France. Booklist wrote of the book: “Shetterly writes with intimate, journal-like immediacy, threading humor and…

Ὅρκος ἐκλεκτῶνOut 30th April on Zombi Danz Records After five years of silence, Greece’s Caedes Cruenta return with an unprecedented document dump of material, spanning an hour and a half in length, a runtime only permissible after the extended period of silence they have subjected us to since the celebrated ‘Of Ritual Necrophagia and Mysterious Ghoul Cults’. More than any Greek act, Caedes Cruenta appear capable not only of revitalising the style championed in the genre’s halcyon days but of…

gonna rank from worst to best song ranking system 😇- need to have a looong conversation with whoever made this song 🥹- teared up a little 🥰- i love love love 😊- very good 🙂- good with some issues 🤔- i would let it play in the background ig.. 😪- not feeling it 😠- no this is bad. 😡- this is really bad. 🤬- play this around me and im taking a gun out. for both of us. gam3 bo1 😡 i could slap EVERYONE rn. heaven's cloud 🙂 i was quite indifferent to this song but my mama loves it. i really like the…

Not really feeling in the ‘weekly Boston-area events post’ mood, but I’m gonna push through. This thing is already a day late, and if I don’t do it right now, I won’t at all. Honestly, hearing that people actually read and value this thing is what keeps it coming, so that feedback is always appreciated. […]

There ain't a more entertaining early Carcass-worshipping force in the modern underground than Tokyo-based duo Pharmacist (among the many, a lesser known but totally admirable case is Finland's Galvanizer). The band has been around since 2020 and immediately made impact with the scene through the debut Medical Renditions of Grinding Decomposition, a true grindfest of grotesque medical imagery and pathological terror in the most Symphonies-of-Sickness-esque manner possible. While having been…

Yesterday I was at my favorite library and was about to buy Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert vinyl. I resisted the temptation and put it down. Here’s the problem: I don’t have a turntable. Part of me is convinced that certain fundamental vinyls are worth having, no matter what. They’re just beautiful artifacts (and TKC happens to be one of the finest). And then there’s the fact that albums such as this one, I feel they really made me, very much like the books I read. The famous Ralph Waldo…

Bob Dylan - Headin’ SouthEarlier this week, we checked out what Bob Dylan was doing 60 years ago. Now, how about 50 years ago? Ray Padgett has put together an alternate Hard Rain collection, which — like the OG — is made up of SBD recordings from Rolling Thunder shows in Fort Worth, TX and Fort Collins, CO. And it is excellent, including such choice ‘76 remakes as “Going Going Gone,” “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” and “Mozambique.” Best of all is the insane electric “Tangled Up In…

Tuesday's post about a late sixties technology that attempted to build a home theater revolution on something similar to super-8 film got me thinking about how clever 20th Century artists played with the media.Wednesday, February 11, 2015Analog recording without analogs [slightly edited repost] And now for something completely different... Two examples of artists who manually created their works on media normally used for analog recording. Conlon Nancarrow Nevertheless, it was in Mexico that…

"Down In the Valley to Pray" by Doc Watson Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. Post a song that's a different speed than you're used to - Down In The Valley to Pray by Doc Watson This solo dirge by Doc Watson is a definite break from his usual lively bluegrass and folk flat picking style, but it's my favorite version of the sone, even more than the one from O Brother Where Art Thou. Seeing Doc Watson twice was one of the highlights of my concert going career.…

Welcome to the Thursday Pressing Concerns! We have an album from Phosphene that came out earlier this week, plus three new records coming out this Friday, May 22nd (new LPs from Radhika and Trevor Sloan and a new EP from Marbled Eye). Check them out below, and if you missed Monday’s blog post (featuring Me at the Zoo, Rob & Ellen, Avery Island BCE, and FOND), check that out too. If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately.…

I've been in a massive reading slump for the past few months. It's not just been reading, I've been in a slump in general for most of this year. I think a combination of changing jobs and wedding planned has overwhelmed me and I've been unable to focus on anything. That slump seemed to come to an end last week. I read a couple of books that I really enjoyed (though I haven't reviewed them), and decided to pick up a book I've been meaning to read for years - Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.…

Maisy Kay Bitter With muted, steely guitars, the new single from British-born, LA-based alt-pop artist Maisy Kay’s wears its heart on its sleeve from the beginning. Picking over the wreckage of a terminated relationship, Kay portrays herself as fragile, ‘Like a hummingbird trapped in a cage of porcelain’, and drinking again. That muted guitar is gradually surrounded in a wrapping of deep bass and loose, textured percussion, much as Kay’s lyrics gradually strengthen her fragility with something…

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align. Tracks are added to…

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Meghan Dowlen “New Shoes” Imagine a version of St. Vincent that retains Annie Clark’s gift for melody, tightly controlled theatrical vocals, and taste for sleek aesthetics, but instead of a guitar virtuoso, it’s an extremely gifted bassist. A bassist who is clearly well acquainted with the intersections of new wave and funk in the early 80s, and has probably spent a lot of time thinking about “Funkytown” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” and ESG and anything Tina Weymouth ever played on. That’s…

I’m excited to report we’re again teaming up with Musikfestival Bern this year, thanks as always to Tobias Reber. The festival will run in Bern, Switzerland, from September 2 – 6, and we’ll be doing four projects in advance, playing in various ways — direct and indirect — with the theme for this year’s events, which is «Blitz» (or “Lightning”), and we’ll be responding, as well, to concepts introduced by various composers and musicians involved this coming season. Some of the music we create…

Back in 2009 I picked up a copy of Disrupt’s “The Bass Has Left The Building” solely for its incredible art work. As eye-catching as those super sumos were, it was noticing Jimmy Cauty designed the sleeve, being a bit of a KLF obsessive, that sealed the deal. I knew nothing of the label, Jahtari, which launched in 2004, probably because until 2008 their releases had been files and the occasional CD only. Once I’d gotten over the gatefold, the music was just as striking. Sci-Fi skanking, that…

We appreciate the love, y'all. The post Ahwlee – FTRS_pt.6 appeared first on Sampleface.

Not always, but sometimes when I need[1] to concentrate™, I put some music/noise on. Either through headphones or the speaker. FIP often fills silence satisfactorily. Brown noise also works. Sometimes I turn to youtube for long background tracks like the ten-hour long White Noise Sounds of Frozen Arctic Ocean with Polar Icebreaker Idling. Or, clichéd as it may be, I do also quite like the lofi girl streams, specifically the "lofi hip hop radio beats to relax/study to". the problem It's not…

There's a new mobile sampler coming to your town very soon! The post CASIO SXC-1: a cute portable sampler appeared first on Sampleface.

The second Chapterhouse reunion officially kicked off last month in the UK and is currently on its North American leg, with the band set to perform their 1991 debut Whirlpool in its entirety tomorrow night in Toronto. I was there the last time they came around in October 2010 and while it was not formally […] The post Chapterhouse – “We Are The Beautiful” appeared first on Space Echo.

All One Song - “From Hank to Hendrix” with Jerry David DeCiccaIf you haven’t realized it yet, I love talking about Neil Young. And I’ve been fortunate enough to have some great guests on All One Song to help me dissect some of Neil’s most interesting creations. It’s always fascinating to see where these free-form conversations go, whether it’s deep dives into lyrical obsessions, personal history, chord progressions, Shakey lore … or some indefinable blend of all of that.And this week’s episode…

It rained hard during the night and it was damp and raw as we left Pontevedra headed for Caldas de Reis in the early morning. Colorful murals bid us adieu as we walked out of town. The streets were wet and the cobblestones a bit slippery as we wended our way through the city streets. We weren’t alone. The closer we get to Santiago, the more crowded the path has become. We passed by the 14th century Convento e Iglesia de San Francisco. According to local tradition, the Convent was founded by…

I've published my first piece of original music under my MachinesMachines moniker. It's a short, plunderphonic-inspired track called Ancient, Modern. It's part of an EP I'm working on separate to all the games stuff which is inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin's unrivalled fantasy series, Earthsea. This track, however, isn't so much about wizards and dragons and the Old Speech, rather, it's a meditation on making art for an asynchronous and disparate audience. I saw a webcomic the other day which…

The First GeometryOut 26th April, self-released Somewhere between the arcane mysticism of formative Greek black metal and the barbaric militarism of early Graveland sits this self-released debut. Richly textured keyboard lines dominate the landscape, leaving the guitars to flesh out a more visceral physicality, with ponderous, mid-paced drums furnishing all with a threateningly understated momentum. The solid marching rhythms maintain an almost anthemic quality throughout, an effect offset by…

The concept of “suicide contagion”—the phenomenon where exposure to suicide or suicidal behaviors influences others to commit or attempt the act—is a heavy, complex reality to unpack. This five-track A.I. audio series explores that exact ripple effect. By tracing a narrative thread from the initial, isolated act through the collateral damage, the dangerous romanticization by onlookers, and ultimately, the necessary intervention, this project dismantles the illusion of a victimless departure.…

Cover versions of the month #119 & #120 White Stripes and Whitney Houston cover Dolly PartonI have a list of songs and cover versions I intend to research and blog about when time allows. The White Stripes ferocious take on Dolly Parton's Jolene has been on that list for a while. As I set out to finally write about Jack and Meg White's ferocious garage band cover version, I stumbled across something astounding that made me decide to also write about Parton's I Will Always Love You.Whitney…

"White & Nerdy (Parody of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire feat. Krayzie Bone)" by "Weird Al" Yankovic Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. Pick a song that matches what you are really thinking about just now - White and Nerdy by Weird Al Yankovic I'm a big weird Al fan. My wife stood ina Taco Bell line with him, so there's only one degree of separation between us. The lyrics are a but dated but the ethos remains strong. I still find it hilarious that Chamillionaire…