aarbor 5/5/2021 CD, International
Karsh Kale [pron. Kursh Kah-leh] was born in the UK and raised in the US. This is his very first solo album from 2001 (after he appeared in Laswell’s Tabla Beat Science lineup). Some call this style the “Asian Massve Movement”, a new breed of Indian-classical fusion, as opposed to Talvin Singh’s “Asian Underground”. The music is engaging and well worth a listen. AArbor
aarbor 5/5/2021 CD, International
#4 of Francois Falceto’s Ethiopiques series which features Ethiopian Instrumental hits from 1969-1974. Mulatu Astatke plays keyboards here with two different ensembles tracks 1-6 are from one record and 7-14 are from another. Note that the revolution which brought down Emperor Haile Selassie began in February of 1974. Track 9 Yekatit (February) is Mulatu’s mandatory tribute to the burgeoning revolution. To Ethiopians, February stands for the end of the old regime. The last track Dewel was originally issued in the US in 1972. A very fine and tuneful collection! AArbor
Hemroid The Leader 4/27/2021 A Library, CD
Churning, shattering, rupturing, stuttering string improvisation as fast as possible with no repetition from Alan Sondheim on Public Eyesore. “I am riding the contour of what I am hearing And my fingers flailing about As if I wear(sic) under control.” He plays a diverse assortment of guitars, Arabic and Central Asian lutes and a viola. This is Sondheim’s 4th full-length in our library. Feat. vocal chants from Azure Carter on 4, 8, 12: “This is a prelude to a song/ Or is it an accompaniment to a song/ Or a prelude to …”
mickeyslim 4/27/2021 A Library, CD
This project, formerly The Human Quena Orchestra, is the duo of Nathan Berlinguette and Ryan Unks, who are well represented in our library in various other projects. It may also be good to know that destratification is the process by which air or water is methodically mixed in order to normalize temperature.
This 44-minute long excursion buzzes and hums its way across a barren night sky. A lush wind’s murmur and metallic sandpaper scratching, haunted nightmare drones and inner-ear itches. Everything, all at once, coalescing into a final, subtle sound that you’ll find already has you hypnotized.
Seminal Berzerkly Hardcore
Palm mutes, velocity, anger, squealing guitars, sneering optimism cloaked in nihilism, counting, D-beat, Oooogh
West coast icons of heaviness spray out fourteen tracks of thrash/proto-war metal in the vein of Crass Records, Profane Existence, and Discharge.
Sonic dissidence, disorder, and destruction that calls for an end to empiric violence, war, and classism on this, their only full-length. Crucifix was heard by thousands of aspiring crust lords on the 1982 compilations, “Not So Quiet On The Western Front” and “Rat Music for Rat People” inspiring thousands of disenfranchised middle-class youth to leave suburbia and hit the gutters of Amerikkka to beg. Beer, drugs, leftovers, food for their dogs, and anything that might help them to focus their one true passion, the collection and sewing of patches on their filthy stinking clothing. However, many other fans would form bands and engage in humanitarian efforts like feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and fighting oppression and inequity for a little while anyway before being consumed by their addictions or quietly martyring themselves on the altar of capitalisms before Our Blessed Mother of Patriotic Perversion, drunk with power, greed, and mad beyond reason.
Dehumanization was an integral album that included, Sothira Proudflesh né Pheng (vocs) a refugee of Cambodia, Jake Smith (guitar), Matt Borusso (bass), Christopher Douglas (drums), and is finally being added to our library in 2021 38 years after being released and just prior to America’s prophesied adoption of Thoughtcrime as part of our JurisPrudence.
Pairs well with 1984 (the year and the novel), skateboards, and empty swimming pools.
Klaus Schulze started out as a drummer with Psy Free (1967-’69), Tangerine Dream (1969-’70) and Ash Ra Tempel (1970-’71). In 1971 he started a solo career an an electronic musician. He released several very experimental electronic albums including “Cyborg” and “Irrlicht” (both in the KFJC library). Schulze says that for him electronic music is totally sensual. He describes his approach as very physical and playful. This recording is from a tour of Poland which he did with Rainer Bloss in 1983. Poland was still behind the “Iron Curtain” and the audiences were very grateful. The tracks are long and live. AArbor
Ashley Henry, who will turn 30 this year, is a part of the New London Jazz scene, but his style is more traditional than his compatriots. This is gentle piano jazz. I didn’t find it very challenging but it’s authentic, well played and composed by Henry himself. Henry’s musical resume is impressive for musician his age. Be sure to check out the track Battle which features Binker Golding and Moses Boyd, it is much closer in sound and spirit to what I consider the sound of the New London Jazz scene. Makaya McCraven is featured on Dark Honey (4TheStorm). AArbor
SlartiBartfast 4/20/2021 A Library, CD
Hard driving, mesmerizing psychedelic rock and roll out of Estonia? This 2020 release will leave you with a fuzzy frame of mind as you search for that astral plane that contains your carbon based life form. This is Centre El Muusa’s debut album out on Sulatron Records, and is an ear blistering jaunt into some of the best new psyche sounds out of Europe. Originally the brain child of Misha Panfilov and co-founder Volodja Brodsky, the experimental electronic duo vaults into the heavy psychedelic sounds with the addition of Monika Erdman on bass and Aleksei Semenihhin on drums. Sit back in your bubble bath and enjoy the cosmic waves.
SlartiBartfast 4/20/2021 A Library, CD
Blue Circle is a fantastic collection of late 80’s early 90’s garage punk, post punk, experimental cassette recordings from Austin,TX. The Blue Circle origin begins with the formation of SPASM Cassettes in 1984 after a trio of student/musicians were faced with a final exam challenge to write a paper on a rock band, or start one. Of course, they started one, a band called Elegant Doormats. That decision to forgo the final exam lead to a long history of an underground music scene that traded in cassette rips. What a flurry of underground sounds that followed. The best of that catalogue is brought to us here on this CD collection of cassette delights. Step back in time, and catapult yourself into the now with this re-release of cassette rips from the early 90’s era. For those willing to play for their final exam, no test required just play on. The experience is the point.
aarbor 4/14/2021 A Library, CD
Nephew Lagoon is based in Michigan. This is their latest project [self-released 2021] which contains 5 extended pieces rather than the brief sketches of the previous releases. It’s kind of a dreamscape of disconnected thoughts loosely flowing in and out of each other, with synth explorations and Negativland-esque sound bytes and news clips. There are clear references to the COVID pandemic on track 5 weddow [and the lack of sufficcient health care, loneliness and isolation]. AArbor
aarbor 4/14/2021 CD, International
The Afro Yaqui Music Collective describes themselves as “a postcolonial big band dedicated to activating the histories of resistance and collaboration between African diaspora and indigenous peoples..the voices of pan-Asian revoutionaries and working class allies have… added to this chorus which celebrates the radical legacies of Maroon Societies — multiethnic societies built by escaped slaves.” They sing in various languages, play instruments from East and West, and clearly articulate messages completely relevant to the world of 2021, while paying tribute to some musical forebears. Core messages: replace the current reality with one that is Ecosocialist and Matriarchal. Despite their unapologetic political agenda the music is excellent. AArbor
Dark, harrowing ambiance with Middle Eastern influence.
Where a haunting spell is left to bleed the saint and to propel the Imam through an atmosphere filled with exotic spice, myrrh, and the prayers of the pious to a remote and vacuous space where God is honored amid the oceans of sand and waves of heat. Nearby a concubine eats pomegranate and watches the Eagle-Owl in its ornate geometric cage made of gold and olive wood while she waits for the arrival of her Sultan. However, he won’t be coming. His thickening blood seeps into the elaborate robes he wore for the hunt, his body swaying back and forth inside the palanquin on the party’s return to the palace having been slain by a great marauding cheetah, or alfahd, that sprang from concealment in the dry, wispy grass before being killed herself in a chaotic eruption of musket fire. The Sultan’s soul will never again cross the threshold of his qasr, where the rusty gate swings morosely in the wind.
Sorrowful viola, dulcimer, lilting guitar, drone, bells, samples, abstractions, a myriad variety of percussion (could be anything), and echoes everywhere.
Cedars of Lebanon are, Anthony Couri ( Lake of Violet), Jamie Drier (on You, The Swan King), and Mike Ricketts (Dismiss, Larva, onYou, Planes Mistaken For Stars). Recorded June 18, 2001 in the Platte River tunnels of Colorado.
Released in September of 2020, Arvo Zylo lays down some harsh heavy drone with meaty durations and song titles I look forward to back announcing.
Unnerving themes to nightmares. Slipping out from a synthetic cocoon woven with the itchy fibres of psychosis. Fissures, machines, terror.
Unfurl your dusty wings and fly like Icarus toward the brilliance of your imminent demise. The instrumentation is irrelevant. Close your eyes and die.
From 2018 another very fine compilation from Cologne, Germany’s Kompakt label (based in a record store of the same name and owned by Wolfgang Voigt, Michael Mayer and Jugen Paape). What I like about these compilations is that usually each artist gets only 1 track – so they’re picky about what’s included. There are artists who are already in our library (Gui Boratto, John Tejada, T. Raumschmiere, Terranova plus the label owners) and ones I wasn’t familiar with. Dig in and enjoy! AArbor
Max Level 4/7/2021 A Library, CD
One 46-minute solo electric guitar drone piece. Lovely floating waves of distortion rise and fall, guiding the listener into a meditative headspace. A hill with a tree on it, from which you can see the ending of the sea.
All the way back in July 2019, Phillip Greenlief planned to perform at KFJC with the Social Stutter Quartet to promote their performance at that year’s Outsound New Music Summit. Unfortunately, one of the quartet wasn’t able to make it, so Greenlief pulled out this gigantic book of graphic scores, and the then trio performed from the pages of this book. Little did we know, we were getting a live sneak peak into what would become this first-in-a-series album of improvised works to these graphic scores.
Whether the trio consists of more traditional instruments or live electronics, these trios bring to life these graphic scores that, while they look like twisted barbed wire, don’t have that harsh, scratchy, metallic feel. Each track is quite different than the last, but all maintain a certain placidity that momentarily gets disrupted, only to lull you back into that oh-so-comfortable false sense of security.
Ingeniously designed, masterfully-executed, perfect for KFJC. Enjoy!
Fugly Bedroom Black-metal
Strange ambient tides of murk and gloom that allude to the Witches Sabbath layered between tirades of atonal, blaring guitars distorted into oblivion.
buried trash-can drums that lurch and lick at cymbals / plaintive wails, beastial growls, and screeches / rumbling abstraction / misery, despair, asymmetric dissonance / moribund sound collage
Thin and hollow oddities dance before melancholy interludes before plunging once again into unfettered, blackened rage.
Lone gunman, Wrnlrd (who states in interviews, “can be pronounced any way you like”) of Arlington, VA is informed, influenced by, and once played American traditional music (probably still does) and has employed the instruments of this heritage including banjo and accordian in his compositions and recognizes parallels to Blind Lemon and Dock Boggs in USBM. Yup, works for me. However you get there man, but with the genuine ingenuity and sprawling variation on “Mask of Hate”, will make a misery aligned volunteer eager to hear more from this buried giant.
SlartiBartfast 4/4/2021 A Library, CD
Post-punk, electric, loud rock and roll, psychedelic fusion from Sapporo Japan. This three piece comprised of Tomoya Murosaki (guitar, voc.), Genki Tsusaka (b.), and Yudai Takasago (dr) have given us a self-titled debut album filled with delicious fusional noise. With Tomoya’s vocals screeching at times, CARTHIEFSCHOOL provide a modern lesson in a melding pot of post punk, psyche, and that certain ingredient Japanese psyche bands always bring to push boundaries and delight unsuspecting ears. CARTHIEFSCHOOL do not hold back on the brashness or energy. This is some great, in your face Japanese rock-n-roll. I hope our ears are delighted by this trio long after this debut release.
aarbor 3/31/2021 A Library, CD
Leila Arab is an Iranian-born music producer who moved to London in 1979. She played keyboard and sound engineered for Bjork’s eaerly releases before releasing her own first album on Rephlex Records (Aphex Twin’s label). This release on Warp from 2012 is her 2nd for Warp and her 4th overall. The sound is heavy and dark with much diversity from track to track and little consistency throughout. I’m left wondering why she made the choices she did and wishing for more consistency. Typically, I preferred the instrumental tracks [6,9,10, 13] AArbor
aarbor 3/31/2021 A Library, CD
E-Dancer is Kevin Maurice Saunderson – one of the bright lights of Detroit Techno. Born in Brooklyn, Saunderson went to high school in Belleville, MI with Derrick May and Juan Atkins. Heavenly from 1998 is considered his seminal album -it’s a classic. You hear his house roots, funky machine beats and humming baselines. It’s an abstract, Motor City Afro sound. The remixers are a veritable who’s who of Detroit Techno: Carl Craig, Juan Atkins, Kenny Larkin, and D-Wynn. In recent years Saunderson has gone back to the E-Dancer moniker releasing 2 more albums under that name. AArbor
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