Author name: Ash

Pentangle – Basket of Light

Style: British Folk Rock, Folk Baroque, Blues-Influenced

Vibes: Uplifting, Intertwined, Romantic, Flowing, Sentimental, Rootsy, Intricate, Responsive, Spring, Warm, Energetic,, Groovy, Traditional

Musical Qualities: Melodic, Polyphonic, Lush, Uncommon Time Signatures, Improvisation, Acoustic

Instrumentation: Acoustic Guitar, Vocal Harmonies, Upright Bass, Drums, Glockenspiel, Sitar, Banjo

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Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly – Mestizx

Style & Influences: Latin Jazz, Bomba, Cyber-Jazz, Plena, Trip-Hop, No Wave, Cumbia, Experimental

Vibes: Ritualistic, Ancient, Futuristic, Introspective, Brooding, Sensual, Intertwined, Grimy, Psychedelic, Moody, Eclectic, Healing

Themes: Decolonization, History, Ancestors, Alienation, Roots, Tradition

Musical Qualities: Polyrhythmic, Studio-as-an-Instrument, Electro-Acoustic, Percussive, Progressive, Uncommon Time Signatures

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly – Mestizx Read More »

White Boy Scream – Bakunawa

Style: Electro-Acoustic Opera, Sound Collage, Neoclassical Darkwave

Vibes: Ritualistic, Mythic, Decolonial, Cathartic, Spiritual, Intense, Chaotic, Powerful, Suspenseful, Personal, Storytelling

Musical Qualities: Operatic Vocals, Noise, Chants, Extended Technique, Vocal Processing, Sampling, Suite

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Meredith Monk – Dolmen Music

featuring Julius Eastman, Collin Walcott, and others

Style: Abstract Choral Music, Sound Poetry, Modern Chamber Music, Post-Minimalism

Vibes: Mysterious, Ritualistic, Mystical, Somatic, Impressionistic, Nocturnal, Spiritual

Instrumentation: Experimental Vocals, Percussion, Cello, Piano, Vocal Harmonies, Violin

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Ghost – Temple Stone

All tracks recorded live in sacred places (Seiryu Temple, Waseda Salvation Church)

Style: Ritual Folk, Acid Folk

Vibes: Mystical, Ancient, Ritualistic, Spiritual, Forest, Psychedelic, Mysterious, Medieval, Haunting, Dreamy, Eclectic

Instrumentation: Chants, Flutes, 12-String Guitar, Cello, Drums, Organ, Hurdy Gurdy, Harp, Piano, Horn

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Amon Tobin – ISAM

Style: Sound Sculpture, Experimental Electronic, Epic Collage

Vibes: Otherworldly, Futuristic, Eerie, Abstract, Surreal, Visceral, Mechanical, Nature

Musical Qualities: Sampling, Dense, Instrumental, Digital, Studio-as-an-Instrument

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Led Zeppelin

Style: Hard Rock (Blues & Folk-Influenced)

Vibes: Confident, Rebellious, Passionate, Energetic, Hedonistic, Bombastic, Raw, Complex, Psychedelic, Summer

Musical Qualities: Riffs, Groovy, Melodic, Dynamic, Bluesy, Heavy

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Meril Wubslin – Faire ça

Styles: Slowcore, New Folk, Trip-Hop, Neo-Psychedelia

Vibes: Brooding, Hypnotic, Haunting, Cryptic, Focused, Shadowy, Sombre, Psychedelic

Musical Qualities: Repetitive, Dub, Percussive, Beats, Loops, Rhythmic, Atmospheric

Instrumentation: Vocal Harmonies, Acoustic Guitar, Percussion, Keyboard

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Richard Thompson – (guitar, vocal): A Collection of Unreleased and Rare Material 1967-1976

This eclectic compilation features Richard’s work with Fairport Convention, Linda Thompson, and solo. The first LP has a few great tracks (“A Heart Needs a Home”, “Poor Will and Jolly Hangman”, “The Ballad of Easy Rider”), but also a lot of unoriginal and dated filler that were “unreleased” with Fairport Convention for a reason (especially the Chuck Berry cover). The real magic happens on the second LP, where each side comprises a short solo instrumental paired with extended live renditions of passionate classics with Linda (Calvary Cross, Night Comes In).

Richard Thompson – (guitar, vocal): A Collection of Unreleased and Rare Material 1967-1976 Read More »

Sunn Trio / Sam Shalabi – Trippin’ on Coleman

Each artist fills an entire LP side with their own improvised interpretation of Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” . Shalabi channels the tune through a solo oud meditation, shaped by his characteristically searching and sensitive improvisations. On the other side, Sunn Trio performs an undulating percussive ritual, overdubbed with a wide pallet of tangled acoustic instruments, dub psychedelia, and hypnotizing drones.

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Batsumi – Batsumi

Style: Cape Jazz, Afro-Jazz, Spiritual Jazz

Vibes: Warm, Communal, Groovy, Spiritual, Sunny, Warm, Uplifting

Instrumentation: Group Vocals, Tenor Saxophone, Percussion, Flute, Multiple Drummers, Jaw Harp, Upright Bass, Organ, Bongos, Guitar

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BOOK REVIEW: No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred (by Klee Benally)

“A reverberating despair echoes through dry canyons and off distant concrete walls filled with ancestral subversions, it is the far crying conspiracy of anti-colonial dissonance. It is the conflict of Settler cognition in discord with itself, resonating against its contours and contradictions. It is the overbearing sound of desperation and failure weaponized into a pedagogy of negation. Our defiances, our subterfuges, our anti-colonial antagonisms all have a natural resonant frequency. This is the indelicate strategy of breaking glass with sound. This is part of how we make sense of this world, again. I offer that it is the responsibility of those who wage anti-colonial struggle to break the static infrastructures of settler colonialism.”

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Keiji Haino / Jim O’Rourke / Oren Ambarchi – With Pats on the Head, Just One Too Few Is Evil One Too Many Is Good That’s All It Is

On their twelfth live recording, the electrifying power trio continues to expand the vocabulary of their improvised sonic sorcery. One LP of mysterious duo invocations, followed by two LPs of primordial free rock. Through concentrated force and harnessed chaos, the trio patiently pushes primordial riffs to their noisiest, most visceral limits, striving to become the sound itself.

Keiji Haino / Jim O’Rourke / Oren Ambarchi – With Pats on the Head, Just One Too Few Is Evil One Too Many Is Good That’s All It Is Read More »

Beak> – >>>>

Style: Space Rock, Krautrock-Influenced, Neo-Psychedelia, Minimal Wave

Vibes: Motorik, Sci-Fi, Retro-Futuristic, Cryptic, Hypnotic, Menacing, Dystopian, Brooding, Psychedelic, Playful, Restrained, Gloomy, Focused, Eerie

Musical Qualities: Analogue Recording, Repetitive, Rhythmic, Riffs, Droney, Bass Lines

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Rex – C

Style: Country-Slowcore, Grunge-Influenced

Vibes: Autumnal, Moody, Intertwined, Reflective, Passionate, Twangy, Contemplative, Rural, Drifter

Musical Qualities: Riffs, Dynamic, Lush, Slow, Vocal Harmonies, Climactic

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Gary Higgins – Red Hash

Style: Loner Folk, Singer/Songwriter, Acid Folk

Vibes: Autumnal, Alienation, Reflective, Warm, Melancholy, Stoned, Rural, Lonely, Mellow, Psychedelic, Loner

Instrumentation: Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Cello, Flute, Mandolin, Organ, Piano, Electric Bass

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Bröselmaschine

Style: Acid Folk, Kosmische Folk, Progressive Folk

Vibes: Pastoral, Flowing, Surreal, Dreamy, Warm, Psychedelic, Sunny, Fantasy, Mellow

Musical Qualities: Acoustic, Progressive, Vocal Harmonies, Lush, Raga-Influenced

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Water Shrews – Widening Spaces

Style: Drone, Free Improvisation, Psychedelic Ambient

Vibes: Journeying, Amorphous, Introspective, Woozy, Exploratory, Earthy, Washy, Hypnotic, Psychedelic, Murky, Rhizomatic

Musical Qualities: Noisy, Improvisation, Lo-Fi, Loops, Slow, Pulse, Analogue, Atmospheric

Instrumentation: Keyboards, Electric Guitar, Electronics, Synthesizers, Field Recordings

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Water Shrew Trio

Style: Drone, Free Folk

Vibes: Meditative, Forest, Peaceful, Contemplative, Nature, Soothing, Hypnotic, Psychedelic

Instrumentation: Harmonium, Hammered Dulcimer, Electronics, Acoustic Guitar

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Cassia Streb – Marginal Habitats

Style: EAI, Reductionism

Vibes: Meditative, Desert, Ecological, Desolate, Meandering, Lonely, Contemplative, Morning, Intimate, Lethargic, Primordial, Raw, Restrained

Musical Qualities: Graphic Score, Sparse, Slow, Soft, Instrumental, Improvisation, Dissonant, Electro-Acoustic

Instrumentation: Field Recording, Viola, Small Objects

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(Blouseusa) – Stimulus Overnclusion

Stimulus Overconclusion wastes no time in launching you into an otherwordly space where even familiar textures feel alien and mysterious. Throughout the first side, aquatic percussion loops on tabla or drums are submerged in strange electronic smears and warbly acoustic strings & flutes, suggesting a shapeshifting noise-folk beat tape. The flip side features overcompressed drum blasts, fractured noise rock and sci-fi electronics.

Recommended if you dig Nuke Watch, Fourth World, or This Heat

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Robert Wyatt – Cuckooland

LPx2, Domino Recordings, 2003 / 2008 repress featuring Karen Mantler, Annie Whitehead, Gilad Atzman, David Gilmour, Brian Eno, Paul Weller ON THE SURFACE Style: Progressive Pop, Jazz-Rock, Canterbury Scene Vibes: Surreal, Sombre, Conscious, Dystopian, Ethereal, Ominous, Absurd, Colorful, Gloomy, Mournful, Plaintive, Restrained Themes: Liberation, History, War, Political (Anti-imperialist Critique, Socialism), Existential, Philosophical Instrumentation: Vocals, Keyboards,

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Different Every Time – the Authorised Biography of Robert Wyatt [book review]

This review was recently published as part of Bedcrumbshow newsletter (issue 002), follow them on substack to get updates from our music & radio community “How long can I pretend that music’s more relevant than fighting for a socialist world?” -Robert Wyatt (from Matching Mole’s “Gloria Gloom”) In this thorough biography on the influential singer

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The Pentangle

Style: Folk Baroque, British Folk, Acoustic Blues

Vibes: Intertwined, Rootsy, Pastoral, Breezy, Playful, Bluesy, Intricate, Uplifting

Instrumentation: Upright Bass, Vocal Harmonies, Drums, Acoustic Guitars

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Esmerine – Dalmak

Whilst in Istanbul for an artist residency, the adventurous Montreal chamber rock group recorded Dalmak with an ensemble of Turkish musicians, augmenting their core sound of cello, marimba, and drums with the saz, darbuka, bendir and several other instruments used in Turkish and Arabic folk music. Epic, modal themes emerge from watery beds of minimalistic polyrhythms and suspenseful string arrangments. While often sombre, mournful or foreboding, the musi seems driven by a collective sense of spiritual determination and hope.

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Autechre – Confield

Style: IDM, Glitch, Experimental Electronic, Generative

Vibes: Metallic, Wet, Mechanical, Cold, Woozy, Disorienting, Surreal, Abstract, Spectral, Complex, Futuristic, Hypnotic, Mysterious, Suspenseful, Monochromatic, Detached

Musical Qualities: Polyrhythmic, Glitchy, Digital, Percussive, Dissonant, Dense, Instrumental

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Off World – 2

featuring Sandro Perri, Eric Chenaux, Drew Brown, etc

Style: Alien Electronics, Tribal Ambient, Kosmische

Vibes: Spacey, Surreal, Imaginative, Exploratory, Impressionistic, Abstract, Cinematic, Meandering, Messy, Mysterious, Warm

Off World – 2 Read More »