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Artist, producer, composer, and keyboardist John Carroll Kirby presents Blowout, his new album out June 30th with his latest song “Oropendola.” The record is inspired by a period in Costa Rica spent playing with local musicians while Kirby imagined “failed utopias.”
In 2021, Kirby visited Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica to film an episode of his Kirby’s Gold travelogue series with the Kawe Calypso Band. Here, Kirby wrote the majority of Blowout between the early-morning wake-up calls from the local oropendola birds and psychedelic sunsets. Kirby says, “The oropendola is a very cool bird that lives in a sac-like hanging nest. There was a tree full of them outside where I stayed that woke me up every morning at 5 am, so I had to write a song about them.” The album was finished upon Kirby’s return to Los Angeles with a stripped-down band at 64 Sound Studios.
Blowout sways between the title’s two definitions – a moment of destruction and one big party. While writing the album, Kirby thought of episodes of collective madness or delusion, like Fyre Festival and the Heaven’s Gate cult. The album imagines “a festival where everyone gets beamed up to utopia or heaven instead of starving or dying unfulfilled.” Kirby says, “I’m trying to use imagination in music to create my own myths, and keep things playful and funny and not too sanctimonious.”
A Note from Lawrence English TripleAkuma is the third in a series of essential live documents from Merzbow. The stage and the studio are not the same place, and Merzbow has an acute understanding of this juxtaposition. Whilst the sheer density of the music might be maintained across both spheres, the live experience of Merzbow is truly something that exists as profoundly physical and moreover, overtly performative. Merzbow’s live methodologies draw not just from a saturation of frequency at all levels, but a recognition of how frequency can be used to affect the body. Working at the extremes of both low and high sonic energies, he creates a situation within which the fullness of the body can be tested; the aural body, that of our ears (and importantly our mind’s ear), and the physical one (after all, the body itself is an ear). TripleAkuma, recorded in his hometown of Tokyo, captures a particularly fierce and free performance. There’s a morphic and lava-like quality to the sounds he creates here and the very room itself bares into the recording, adding a certain excessive intensity to the way the sounds carry in space, and time. There is no one exposure that could capture the true force and presence of Merzbow live, but each capture, like this one, deepens our understanding of his truly unique and provocative sonic universe.
Released in 2021, Country Tropics was the first offering from Old Saw. At the time, no one was really certain who was behind the lush and textured arrangements of a soon to be beloved ensemble of New England based musicians. 5 years and 4 albums later, the group announced that their fall 2025 double album, The Wringing Cloth, would be their last. An outpouring of affection and adoration for what the group had accomplished followed, with many noting just how unique a space Old Saw occupied within an increasingly saturated sphere of Americana drone music It’s with great pride and enthusiasm that we announce this 5th year anniversary pressing of Country Tropics to coincide with the group making a U-turn and rather than closing up shop, they are planning their very first live performances slated for later this summer across the northeast US. Country Tropics has been highly in demand over the years and it feels appropriate to give it new life 5 years after its release, featuring deluxe packaging and wider global distribution. ***below album description from initial release*** Devotional music and its devotees all do a bit of "buying in"; that while one's on the ground reality may appear anything but celestial, through this music, one can reach ecstatic space, ecstatic peace. However, devotional music is not solely concerned with a skyward glance - what does it look like to raise up the rust, look upon fractured branches, gaze at the density of a low fog across a field? Instead of us looking up at the land, what if the land was looking back at us? Old Saw brings together a brigade of New England silt sifters to raise up the land not as excavators, but as preparators. Tending and caring for the simple mess that our world discards. Throughout "Country Tropics" four pieces, the crew stretches and bends chords to their resting place before setting forth towards a new one. Fiddle drone, wistful tape loops of pedal steel, pipe organ hums, and clattering bells call us to scenes of observation, a water tower, a mechanical bull rental agency, a back porch, a taxidermy shop, a local church choir, a garden with singing vines, voltage hum of the electric fence on Pulp mill bridge road. The funny thing about devotion is the absence of sight, of source. We place trust in the guide or guides to bring us to a place of seeing, feeling, and hearing. The music on "Country Tropics" calls out to those in search of such places, but also doesn't demand we conjure some fantastical, celestial vision of understanding. Rather, Old Saw points our gaze downward towards the terrafirma unconsidered, and guides our hands into the dirt.
originally released 1999. "Well, never mind--as long as people love it, here's another few sides of long-ago and far-away O'Rourke back on vinyl for the first time since way back in the mid-aughties. It's the Halfway to a Threeway 12" EP back to set turntables a-spinnin'! Fans of Eureka and Insignificance (not to mention Jim's tomfoolery as part of the Loose Fur band) will appreciate the analog pressing of these four slices of the pop music party-pooper combination of folk, classic rock, smooth jazz and a bit of the old avant-garde to help communicate the twisted ways of the misanthrope that made Jim such a perennial in the fickle world of record sales. A quick listen to the title track will hip you to our meaning: Halfway to a Threeway exposes our sweet soul-crusher as a lustful man-beast on the make. The song is a straight folk number--straight, that is, until you listen through the haze of those six-string overtones and chirpy harmony vocals to hear the true perversity of O'Rourke's fantasies. The decadence of stardom seems to have turned Jim into not only a sex freak, but also a man who loves women of all persuasions--particular the crippled and brain-dead kind! Don't listen to this song alone--at least, not with the drapes open."
Forest Factory is the duo of fellow nomads Elvin Brandhi and Andreas Trobollowitsch. Each using self-made turntables, sampler and voice to create a unique acoustic repertoire, suffusing computational and organic tonalities. Their vinyl debut HOLZWEG is a compositional amalgamation of recording sessions made in diverse ecosystems: Auditorium Novecento, Naples (2023), Ruang MES 56, Yogyakarta (2024), and their Japan tour in 2024. Redefining themselves in a range of contexts lends fluidity and plurality to the topology of their aesthetic.
A pure shakuhachi work by Katsuya Nonaka, a shakuhachi player and organic rice farmer whose deep relationship with nature forms the very foundation of his musical express
Having studied under Takehisa Kosugi in 1975 and participated in the legendary improvisation group East Bionic Symphonia, Tomonao Koshikawa—now also a member of Marginal Consort and an artist who performs experimental music, jazz, rock, Indian classical music, and even Kanze‑school Noh chanting—presents his second solo work, following his ato.archives debut Footprint
SUDA Seishu (1947–) is a master of the Satsuma-biwa and Heike-biwa, traditional Japanese instruments. He was born in Tokyo and studied Satsuma-biwa with Tsuji Seigo and Heike-biwa with Kindaichi Haruhiko. In 1970, he won the Biwa Music Competition and has been a leading performer in the biwa world for over 50 years. The biwa is a Japanese string instrument with a long history. It came to Japan during the Nara period (710–784 AD) and is thought to have originated in Iran. It is related to instruments like the lute and oud. There are several styles of biwa, such as Gagaku-biwa and Heike-biwa, but this recording features the Satsuma-biwa. This type was created about 500 years ago in Satsuma (modern Kagoshima prefecture) under the orders of a samurai lord, Shimazu Tadayoshi. He asked a blind monk named Fuchiwaki Juchoin to develop it. The Satsuma-biwa grew as the music of the Satsuma samurai class and is known for its strong, simple, and bold style.
FIRST-EVER VINYL REISSUE OF HADLEY CALIMAN'S 1971 MODAL/ SPIRITUAL JAZZ CULT CLASSIC, IAPETUS. COMPOSED AND ARRANGED BY BAYETÉ TODD COCHRAN, FEATURING REMASTERED AUDIO, ORIGINAL GATEFOLD ARTWORK WITH UNISSUED SESSION PHOTOS AND NEW LINER NOTES WRITTEN BY TODD COCHRAN
Wewantsounds continues its reissue program of Bob Shad's cult jazz label, Mainstream Records, with Hadley Caliman's superb 1972 album, Iapetus. Recorded in LA and featuring a heavyweight lineup of West Coast players including Todd Cochran, Woody “Sonship” Theus, Luis Gasca, and Victor Pantoja, the majority of the album was composed by Todd Cochran (aka Bayeté) soon after he had composed Bobby Hutcherson's Blue Note classic, Head On. A true hidden treasure, it is reissued here on vinyl for the first time since 1971, featuring its original gatefold artwork with rare first-generation photos. This edition comes with newly remastered audio and a two-page insert with exclusive liner notes by Todd Cochran, reflecting on Hadley Caliman and the making of the album.
Tenor saxophonist and flutist Hadley Caliman was a key figure in the West Coast late 60s underground scene, whose versatile style made him a first-call collaborator across genres. A fixture of the San Francisco music scene, Caliman’s rich tone and musical creativity saw him crossing over into the city's lively jazz and psychedelic rock circles, contributing to recordings by Gerald Wilson, Mongo Santamaria, Santana, and the Grateful Dead. By 1971, he had established himself as a prominent member of this creative community, which led to his signing with Bob Shad’s Mainstream Records.
Following his 1971 self-titled debut, Caliman returned to the studio later that year to record Iapetus. The session featured a heavyweight lineup of fellow West Coast fixtures, including trumpeter Luis Gasca, bassist James Leary, and a powerhouse percussion section of Woody “Sonship” Theus, Victor Pantoja, and Hungria Garcia. The album’s sophisticated modal structures were captured by pianist and composer Todd Cochran (aka Bayeté). A visionary in his own right, Cochran was concurrently establishing his own legacy on Prestige Records with two acclaimed albums, including Worlds Around the Sun (1972), (featuring both Caliman and Leary), later sampled by De La Soul and Kendrick Lamar. Cochran went on to collaborate with Julian Priester on his landmark Love Love album on ECM, as well as working with Mtume, Peter Gabriel, Herbie Hancock, and Aretha Franklin.
The Iapetus sessions are Fender Rhodes-heavy, with Cochran’s electric keys providing a shimmering, cosmic foundation for Caliman's inspired explorations. From the driving modal intensity of the title track to the spiritual "Quadrivium," featuring Caliman’s superb flute work, via the funky "Watercress," the album's profile has steadily grown over the decades, attracting an ever-increasing following among '70s jazz lovers and deep-catalog diggers. Reflecting on the group's creative telepathy in the new liner notes, Cochran writes: "We were a circle of friends, and the music was our shared language—a way to translate the high-velocity energy of San Francisco into something timeless."
This first-ever vinyl reissue of Iapetus in over fifty years has been newly remastered for the occasion. Having become increasingly rare and pricey on the collector's market over the years, this long-overlooked spiritual jazz gem is set to ravish fans of deep '70s jazz around the world.
HIGHLY SOUGHT-AFTER 1978 INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM RELEASED ON CULT LEBANESE LABEL BYBLOS. CURATED BY DIKRAPHONE'S AHMED KHALIL AND FEATURING THE DANCEFLOOR KILLER "AL GHABA".
Wewantsounds continues its Middle East reissue series with Assa’d Khoury’s 1978 rarity, Electronic Touches Belly Dance. Reissued for the first time in nearly 50 years in partnership with Byblos Records founder Mozart Chahine, the album features Oriental classics reimagined through Khoury’s pioneering funky, electronic keyboards together with the monster breakbeat of cult track "Al Ghaba." This definitive edition includes original artwork, remastered audio, a new introduction by Ahmed Khalil (Dikraphone), and an exclusive interview with Chahine conducted by Mario Choueiry (IMA)
Long a highly coveted find for DJs and vinyl collectors worldwide, Assa’d Khoury’s 1978 album has earned its cult status as one of the most sought-after instrumental LPs from the region. This release marks the very first reissue of the album, which has remained virtually impossible to find since its original pressing. Khoury (1953–2020), a Syrian virtuoso pianist, violinist, and leader of the "Spring Band," bridged Levantine tradition with the cosmic, psychedelic textures of the late 1970s. As Dikraphone's Ahmed Khalil notes in his introduction, the music serves as "a sensory portal to a bygone Damascus, where a psychedelic Farfisa and mesmerizing rhythms create a unique groove" that remains remarkably fresh today.
The album’s history is tied to the legacy of the venerable Lebanese Chahine family. Mozart Chahine, son of the inventor of the quarter-tone keyboard, founded the Byblos label to champion music from the region. In an exclusive interview conducted by Mario Choueiry (IMA), he recalls encountering Khoury at his Damascus music store and recording the entire album in a single day. "The musicians were seasoned, much like jazzmen," Chahine reminisces, noting that the session captured a rare, immediate energy between the ensemble members.
The musical journey spans the Arab world, offering electronic reinterpre-tations of Arabic standards and paying respect to Egyptian master Sayed Darwish. From Mohammad Abdel Wahab’s "Ahwak"—rendered here in an almost psychedelic version—to the Lebanese traditions of Melhem Barakat, the record culminates in the avant-garde "Al Ghaba." An original Khoury composition with a killer breakbeat, "Al Ghaba" is a very funky highlight that has become particularly popular among Arabic music crate diggers. Closing the album in style, it perfectly fulfills Khoury's intent: a sound for modern times, reaching toward a futuristic energy that remains as potent now as it was in 1978. A cult classic which Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue and which will surely please all Arabic funk lovers.
ALL-TIME CITY POP CLASSIC PRODUCED BY MAKOTO MATSUSHITA IN 1979 AND FEATURING YASUAKI SHIMIZU, RELEASED OUTSIDE OF JAPAN FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH REMASTERED AUDIO, ORIGINAL ARTWORK AND NEW LINER NOTES
Wewantsounds is delighted to present the first official reissue of the highly sought-after 1979 classic, Summer-Time Love Song by The Milky Way. Originally released on the Seven Seas label in Japan and produced by the legendary Makoto Matsushita—the visionary behind the cult masterpiece First Light —the album is a premier example of the sophisticated sound that defined the era. Featuring the cream of Japanese musicians, including Yasuaki Shimizu, the record offers a superb mix of AOR, jazz fusion, funk, and bossa nova. Remastered for vinyl by Colorsound Studio, this deluxe reissue features the original artwork, an OBI strip, and a new introduction by Paul Bowler.
Wewantsounds is delighted to present the first official reissue of one of the most sought-after City Pop albums out of Japan, the 1979 classic Summer-Time Love Song by The Milky Way. Originally released on the Seven Seas label, the album was produced by Makoto Matsushita with Kazuo Nobuta, representing a peak of the sophisticated studio craft that defined the late-70s Japanese transition into high-fidelity AOR and Jazz-Fusion.
The album serves as a vital precursor to Matsushita’s own 1981 cult masterpiece First Light. Here, he and Nobuta lead the cream of Japanese session musicians—including the renowned Yasuaki Shimizu—through a superb mix of AOR, funk, and Brazilian music. From the sun-drenched bossa nova rhythms of the Jobim classic "Wave" to a sophisticated rendition of Boz Scaggs’ classic "Harbor Lights," finishing with the dreamy rhythms of "Endless Summer," the record is a masterclass in elegant funky arrangements and relaxed harmonies.
As music journalist Paul Bowler writes in the liner notes for this release: "Summer-Time Love Song represents a fascinating bridge in Japanese pop history; a moment where the breezy aspirations of the 70s met the meticulous studio perfectionism that would soon take over the world."
This deluxe edition features the original artwork, showcasing classic photography by the cult photographer Shinpei Asai—famed for his iconic work on the Pacific album by Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita. Newly remastered and including its OBI strip, this reissue finally makes one of the most coveted albums of the 70s Japanese scene accessible to Japanese music fans worldwide.
Strut Records proudly presents a new reissue of the original Afrobeat classic Low Profile (Not For The Blacks), recorded and composed by Afrika 70 saxophonist and bandleader Lekan Animashaun and produced by Fela Kuti. After years touring the world as Fela’s baritone saxophonist, Animashaun stepped forward to lead the legendary Egypt 80 band following Tony Allen’s departure, remaining the group’s musical director until Fela’s death in 1997. He continued on subsequent tours with Seun Kuti until 2016. Lekan began recording his only solo project, Low Profile, in 1977. The album was composed and recorded across sessions at home in Nigeria and on tour with Fela, who both produced the recordings and added keyboards to the album’s title track. ‘Low Profile (Not For The Blacks)’ referenced a government campaign during the country’s 1970s oil boom: “It was inspired by a speech by Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s military Head of State, when he urged black people to keep a low profile about their wealth and not to behave in a vulgar, arrogant way,” explains Lekan. “I argued that low profile is not just for the blacks, as everyone is human, regardless of race.” On the flip side, the simmering Afrobeat anthem ‘Se Rere’ (which translates as ‘Do Right’) delivers Animashaun’s message of living with integrity: do right, and you will reap what you sow. The song later became the band’s opening number during Fela’s live performances both in Nigeria and internationally throughout the 1980s and ’90s. Despite recording beginning almost two decades earlier, Low Profile did not receive an official release until 1995, when it finally surfaced on Fela’s Kalakuta label. One of only a handful of albums led by core members of Kuti’s band, Low Profile captures a pivotal moment in Afrobeat history. Over time, the original has become a rare and highly sought-after record, and this new reissue places the spotlight back on a modest but influential Nigerian legend. Strut’s reissue features the complete original artwork, is fully remastered by The Carvery, and includes brand new liner notes by Lekan Animashaun himself.
‘still slipping vol.1’ is the debut full length project from Joy Orbison. Fans of Joy O’s DJ sets and radio shows will already be aware of his diverse tastes and inspirations, represented here through a roll call of delicately curated, mainly UK, collaborators that include Herron, James Massiah, Bathe, Léa Sen, Goya Gumbani and TYSON. Just as important are the voices of Joy Orbison's family - mum, dad, sister Sarah, uncle Frankie, uncle Keith (recently departed), auntie Helen and cousins Lola and Mia, as well as Leighann, who was the first person to introduce him to drum and bass and garage as a kid and stars on the mixtape’s cover art. They appear throughout the record via a series of voice notes, his only contact with his family during this year of worldwide lockdown and an intimate, vicarious glimpse into the personal world of an artist who has generally side-stepped the public gaze.
Ancient Infinity Orchestra return with their third album, It’s Always About Liberation, a new record that deepens the vision of their acclaimed recent work while moving into darker, more searching emotional territory. Conceived as a partner to It’s Always About Love, this new body of work shares its predecessor’s generosity and spiritual openness, but carries a different charge. Where the previous album focused on healing and warmth, It’s Always About Liberation is largely animated by struggle, perseverance and the desire for transformation while still offering a path to betterment. It is music made in full awareness of a fractured world, yet unwilling to surrender to it. Like It’s Always About Love the album title draws inspiration from words spoken by Moor Mother during their 2024 We Out Here festival performance that deeply affected bandleader Ozzy Moysey: “It’s always about love / It’s always about liberation.” Those twin ideas became a framework for the two albums Ancient Infinity Orchestra were creating. If one album explored love as repair, this one explores liberation as movement, continually striving toward freedom, clarity and deeper connection.
“Life is nothing without love. Love is the force that drives our journey in life. Life is love and love is life.” UK jazz master Chip Wickham follows last year’s brilliant soulful long-player Cloud 10 with a deftly crafted, reflective EP of beautiful spiritual jazz influenced by the soulful sounds of Yusef Lateef. Chip’s music has always drawn on a broad world of influences: from hip-hop to Roland Kirk, and from classic funk to the ‘60s Brit-Jazz of Tubby Hayes. But Love & Life finds him foregrounding his wonderful flute playing, producing a perfect four-tracker of reflective, peaceful jazz that elevates and inspires as well as a trademark slice of boppish soul jazz – the jaunty Space Walk. Elsewhere lead single Love & Life is a joyous jazz waltz with an uplifting, bouncing groove and Slow Down Look Around is introspective and intimate, featuring Chip’s signature flute with a beautiful solo from UK trumpeter Malcolm Strachan. Chip explains that the track presents “a big lesson for us to learn as the world changes around us with such speed. The technology changes but our human needs remain the same: peace, tranquillity and time to think.”
Joshua Abrams’ Music for Pulse Meridian Foliation is the aural manifestation of an art event described as “an in-between space and access point to a pulsating experience that connects body and land.” Like the action of a slow-spiraling coil, the music information here revolves in dappling light, an evolution drawn slowly, magnetically forward, resonating there and back again. Deep-reaching in elemental movement, it leaves traces and echoes in the air—and in our ears, as our own experience evolves. Joshua originally created this music as a 4 channel installation to accompany Lisa Alvarado's Pulse Meridian Foliation exhibition at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles. Written for two violas (both played by James Sanders), harmonium (Lisa), & electronics (Joshua), it was designed to play on a loop throughout the gallery's open hours between April 1 and August 20, 2023. And it did. When playing with Natural Information Society, Joshua’s writing is directed toward the form of the music as uniquely occupied by the group. Here, he wrote in strict dialogue with the exhibit, responding with choices in composition, performance and production on Music for Pulse Meridian Foliation. A key interpretation of the exhibition is voiced by Josh in the hand-off of information between the two violas as they weave together from oppositional points across the sound stage. In mixing the original surround sound down to two channels, Joshua worked toward the small details from left to right, placing former residents of triangulated speaker planes in a congenial spot on our present stereo azimuth—realizing, in the careful growth of this auricular border ecosystem, an essential aspect of the Pulse Meridian Foliation exhibit. Daniela Lieja Quintanar, REDCAT Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Programs, on Pulse Meridian Foliation: A threshold composed of a new immersive mural, a collection of double-sided paintings, a series of photos, and a sound installation. The exhibition explores how memory can be transformed through the body’s relationship to geography and geology, as well as engaging with Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of Nepantl (in-between): "the midway point between the conscious and the unconscious, the place where transformations are enacted." In her exhibit, Pulse Meridian Foliation, Lisa Alvarado inhabits the process of foliation, in which extreme environmental pressures upon rocks evoke a new crystallization and a changed minerality. For Alvarado personally, this is a matrix through which she can consider time and changes, specifically the politics of change, and dialogues that multiply over distinct chapters of history. A way to view her family’s intergenerational memory of “Mexican Repatriation”, a 1930s US policy that pushed millions across the border into Mexico, including many U.S. citizens. The weight of these things shudders through the bones of the music here slowly, almost incalculably. Details come and go, light and shadow flickers as horizontal and vertical planes gently intersect… an ambient space in constant change. Constant MINIMAL change, with the recurrent events and slight returns cascading in slo-mo arcs all around. On Music for Pulse Meridian Foliation, Lisa Alvarado asks, “How does memory transform and live within the body?” and, in collaboration with Joshua Abrams, a transformation is enacted.
Sir Richard Bishop returns for a new spontaneous six-string meshing of people’s music, recollections and psychic intentions. Are y’all ready for some Hillbilly Erotica? Migration from last album’s Ragas to this new Erotica is another chapter in Bishop’s progress, drifting via songs into the further frontiers of his pappy’s hometown sounds, trancing over and out in their hand-me-down clothes. As with the ragas, the ‘rotica’s hung round the neck of John Fahey’s infamous dubbing of certain traditional American folk sounds as “American Primitive.” A perfectly good thought, but Sir Richard picks his own axe and chose a separate path. Rushing through gutters & picking pickled brains in the saucy headwaters of the down-low & literal American primitive, his hillbilly music is a mash of brined cultural inheritance, mini-ragas and moonshine-drunk savagery breaking out on the frets. As a conception for Sir Rick’s acoustic guitar music, it’s a dynamite means and frame, centering his improvisations in a place overflown with pagan desire and unbound in deliverance. Here he flies up and down the neck, his manner less pristine, yet more exquisite, a flailing, flowing-on-the-river medley through stubborn whitewater turbulence, post-grass and folk’s classical gas. Anybody who takes a snort of this here Hillbilly Erotica will find a frankly spellbinding richness of intent and execution in their ear-mouths. And may thereafter find brain and blightness. It’s fine! As Sir Richard reminds us, Hillbilly Erotica is: “…still exploring the areas around these parts with a similar type of aggression [as Hillbilly Ragas], but as morning light approaches, a clearing or two present themselves, with hills and valleys viewable in the distance inspiring a slightly different sonic landscape. One could be forgiven for feeling a sense of relief from finally arriving from out of the night-time woods to a place which may seem less threatening in the daylight, but it’s a trap - the darkness of night is always right around the corner. Enjoy the postcoital smoke but tread carefully!” Like with Hillbilly Ragas, Sir Richard plays one acoustic guitar on all eight Hillbilly Erotica cuts, no overdubs and, but for the closing “Postcoital Serenade,” improvised entirely. The not-so-sexy ‘sexy’ angle of song titles like “Lick Skillet,” “Sweet Lips,” “Hookers Bend,” and “Finger, Tennessee” is actually actual names for dots on the map in rural TN, each one just five minutes removed – by horse, of course – from Richard’s dad's remote Enville homestead, its town name purloined previously for a song on 2020’s Oneiric Formulary. This ancestral interzone’s a venue of interest for Rick, allowing him to ask the deep questions, like “What the hell has been going on around here with place names like these?” while running down the changes like no one else before. Hillbilly Erotica promises unspoken wonders of the world around each and every dark corner, revelations of legacy, a new spyglass to sight your forebears! Imagined American music at it’s most gorgeous and violent, simply achieved by Sir Richard Bishop through a powerful application of steel-stringed instrumentation and delightfully exhaustive flights of speculative thought.
Sir Richard Bishop returns for a new spontaneous six-string meshing of people’s music, recollections and psychic intentions. Are y’all ready for some Hillbilly Erotica? Migration from last album’s Ragas to this new Erotica is another chapter in Bishop’s progress, drifting via songs into the further frontiers of his pappy’s hometown sounds, trancing over and out in their hand-me-down clothes. As with the ragas, the ‘rotica’s hung round the neck of John Fahey’s infamous dubbing of certain traditional American folk sounds as “American Primitive.” A perfectly good thought, but Sir Richard picks his own axe and chose a separate path. Rushing through gutters & picking pickled brains in the saucy headwaters of the down-low & literal American primitive, his hillbilly music is a mash of brined cultural inheritance, mini-ragas and moonshine-drunk savagery breaking out on the frets. As a conception for Sir Rick’s acoustic guitar music, it’s a dynamite means and frame, centering his improvisations in a place overflown with pagan desire and unbound in deliverance. Here he flies up and down the neck, his manner less pristine, yet more exquisite, a flailing, flowing-on-the-river medley through stubborn whitewater turbulence, post-grass and folk’s classical gas. Anybody who takes a snort of this here Hillbilly Erotica will find a frankly spellbinding richness of intent and execution in their ear-mouths. And may thereafter find brain and blightness. It’s fine! As Sir Richard reminds us, Hillbilly Erotica is: “…still exploring the areas around these parts with a similar type of aggression [as Hillbilly Ragas], but as morning light approaches, a clearing or two present themselves, with hills and valleys viewable in the distance inspiring a slightly different sonic landscape. One could be forgiven for feeling a sense of relief from finally arriving from out of the night-time woods to a place which may seem less threatening in the daylight, but it’s a trap - the darkness of night is always right around the corner. Enjoy the postcoital smoke but tread carefully!” Like with Hillbilly Ragas, Sir Richard plays one acoustic guitar on all eight Hillbilly Erotica cuts, no overdubs and, but for the closing “Postcoital Serenade,” improvised entirely. The not-so-sexy ‘sexy’ angle of song titles like “Lick Skillet,” “Sweet Lips,” “Hookers Bend,” and “Finger, Tennessee” is actually actual names for dots on the map in rural TN, each one just five minutes removed – by horse, of course – from Richard’s dad's remote Enville homestead, its town name purloined previously for a song on 2020’s Oneiric Formulary. This ancestral interzone’s a venue of interest for Rick, allowing him to ask the deep questions, like “What the hell has been going on around here with place names like these?” while running down the changes like no one else before. Hillbilly Erotica promises unspoken wonders of the world around each and every dark corner, revelations of legacy, a new spyglass to sight your forebears! Imagined American music at it’s most gorgeous and violent, simply achieved by Sir Richard Bishop through a powerful application of steel-stringed instrumentation and delightfully exhaustive flights of speculative thought.
The first OM album, featuring Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, produced by OM and Billy Anderson. (2005)
The first OM album, featuring Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, produced by OM and Billy Anderson. (2005)
Originally released on Philip Glass's own Chatham Square label in 1971, 'Music with Changing Parts' is a minimalist set text, a work for multiple electric organs and woodwind that deserves to be filed alongside Terry Riley's 'A Rainbow in Curved Air' and Steve Reich's 'Four Organs'. Glass suffers from discography bewilderment - he's released so much that it's hard to know exactly where to go. Do you opt for his soundtrack to 'Koyaanisqatsi', his prophetic pseudo-opera 'Einstein on the Beach' or go for something even more widely known? He's one of those artists who's understood more as a reference; someone you've heard, whether you're aware of it or not. And listening back to 'Music with Changing Parts', it's quite clear that he's had an overwhelming impact on so much experimental music, especially as we hit the twilight of the organ revival. Riley and Reich, who was long Glass's sparring partner, often take the critical flowers and yet, listening back to this one you can hear just how it's Glass's melodic sensibilities, the ear that got him a seat at Hollywood's top table, that ripple throughout so much contemporary avant-garde music. 'Music with Changing Parts' is an early example of Glass's very specific brand of minimalism, where interlocking repeating melodies create eerie phasing patterns, leading to psychoacoustic phenomena that would become hallmarks of the wider "new age" genre. Glass was inspired after a rehearsal of his 1969 piece 'Music In Similar Motion' where he noticed the rhythmic pulses were creating the illusion of sustained tones. So writing this one, he concentrated on the keyboard patterns, varying their rhythm while accepting that the three Farfisas and electric piano would create phantom sounds. There are no solos, exactly, and as the hour-long piece evolves, Glass coolly adds woodwind, electric violin and voice to reinforce the psychoacoustic elements, creating a haunting flux that's still rarely been bettered. Listening back 55 years later, it's alarming how perfect it sounds having absorbed so much that's been directly and indirectly inspired by its lattice of electronic chimes. Even if you think you've got a handle on Glass's output, this is an album every enjoyer of minimalism - whether it's Steve Reich's 'Music for 18 Musicians', Kali Malone's 'The Sacrificial Code' or Charlemagne Palestine's 'Strumming Music' - needs to own.
Generic Flipper, the debut album by Flipper, remains the most absorbing full-length LP to emerge from the early San Francisco punk scene. A constant source of imitation for so-called "noise rock" bands, it has yet to be surpassed in its nihilistic glee. Recorded between October 1980 and August 1981 and released in 1982 on the indispensable Subterranean Records, this album functions as a chaotic, sticky mass of individual personalities: the magma-like bass eruptions and dual vocals of Will Shatter and Bruce Loose, Ted Falconi's icy guitar scraping and the relentless beat of drummer Steve DePace. At times playful and taciturn, paranoid and absurd, Generic charts a deliberate path that willfully chances destruction. In early '80s punk, when the hardening default was "faster-shorter-louder," Generic subverts the nascent hardcore scene with a strictly applied regimen of turgid-slower-heavier. The lyrics are bleak, yet unnervingly beautiful. "Ever" sets the tone with trademark restraint – "Ever wish the human race didn't exist? And then realize you're one too?" – while closer "Sex Bomb" is a churning, 8-minute epic with looping bass, saxophone accompaniment and electronic effects of dropping bombs. Tons of indie bands have attempted to recreate Flipper's mix of acidic guitar, metallic bass sludge and sardonically brilliant lyricism, using the seemingly effortless template they pioneered; however, the effect usually drives listeners right back to Generic. While most of their contemporaries wilt under direct comparison, No Trend, the Butthole Surfers, feedtime and Church Police are a few who can stand the frigid heat.