good to hear

PJ Wassermann
Remember to Forget
PJ’s music has an ecstasy feel to it this time, reminding me somewhat of Ray Lynch’s Deep Breakfast. For those of you who don’t know PJ yet – he’s a Swiss pioneer of psychedelic electronic music. Active for more than forty years. PJ hails from Basel but spends most of the year in Ibiza. He does not only compose electronic music but also sings and plays the guitar, pursuing a series of musical projects, such as Ibango Tribe in Ibiza and Space Bike back home, both fully improvised.
Hyper Music

Maggie Rogers
Don’t Forget Me
“My friend Sally’s getting married and to me that sounds so scary. I’m still trying to clean up my side of the street. Can’t imagine what would happen cause I’m still acting out of habit. Hoping dirty words just don’t escape my teeth. Oh and every time I try just a little. Promise that I’ll meet in the middle. I always find my way back to my feet. So close the door and change the channel. Give me something I can handle. A good lover or someone that’s nice to me. Take my money, wreck my Sundays. Love me til your next somebody. Oh but promise me that when it’s time to leave, Don’t forget me.”
Capitol

Mei Semones
Inaka
Mei Semones’ sweetly evocative blend of jazz, bossa nova and math-y indie rock is not only a way for her to find solace in her favorite genres, but is an intuitive means of catharsis. “Blending everything that I like together and trying to make something new – that’s what feels most natural to me,” says the 23-year-old Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and guitarist. “It’s what feels most true to who I am as an artist.” Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Semones began playing music at a young age, starting out on piano at age four before moving to electric guitar at age eleven. After playing jazz guitar in high school, she went on to study guitar performance with a jazz focus at Berklee College of Music.
Bayonet Records

Madi Diaz
KFM
Covering mostly music and books. Focus on alternative/indie and women in music, literature and the arts. feminist. Vegan. mostly alternative, a bit bohemian. Masters in journalism from Boston University. BA from Simmons College. After high school, Diaz was accepted to Berklee College of Music. At Berklee, she began working with Kyle Ryan, the Nebraska-raised guitarist who would be her songwriting collaborator for her early career. The two began their collaboration when a fellow student, a producer looking for a project, offered Diaz the chance to record an album in Hawaii. Shortly after, Diaz dropped out of the program at Berklee.
Anti-Records

Daymé Arocena
A fuego lente (featuring Vicente Garcia)
“Since the release of her 2015 debut album Nueva Era, Cuban singer Daymé Arocena has established herself as one of her country’s most expressive voices. Encompassing everything from nimble jazz scatting to luscious orchestrations and breathy phrases that soar over bata drums and Santería folk rhythms, Arocena’s four albums have explored the joyous range of Afro Cuban music.” (Ammar Kahlia, The Guardian) She grew up Havana, with a family immersed in rumba folklore. She entered the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory at age 10.
Brownswood Recordings

february 2024 – good to hear

Lalon Fakir
Zahra, the Highest Diamond Jewel 
Lalon Fakir takes his name from a famous predecessor, the long-lived Bengal Sheik Lalon Shah (1792-1890). Here, Lalon Fakir plays two instruments simultaneously, while singing traditional Bengali folk songs. On his YouTube website he reveals that he is a sibling of Rajan Fakir and Sumon Fakir both Sufi, Folk, Qawwali, Classical & Pop singers, songwriters & composers. He is a very popular singer back home. Here you’ll find 50 of his songs interpreted by various male and female singers.

Ghédalia Tazartès
Diasporas
An extraordinary musician in the musique concrète genre, “Tazarès was was born into a Judeo-Spanish  family in Paris’ 10th arrondissement. He quickly ascended into a musical career, with musician David Fenench defining his music as ‘unclassifiable’. He rarely performed in concerts and released few albums, but was still able to make a living from dance, theatre, and cinema.” (Wikipedia) Theatrical and poetic in a highly unexpected and often humorous way, the more I listen to him, the more I like him. (SGS)
Bisou Records

Various traditional healers
Shamanic Icaros from Peru
“Shamans believe drinking ayahuasca brew puts you in direct contact with the spiritual plane, opening you up to both beneficent and bad spirits. Ultimately, the purpose of icarosis guidance. Shamans use the song to invoke the good spirits of plants and animals, as well as to keep the bad spirits away.» (Psychedelic Times). Their healing effect results from their power to ground us and touch our hearts.
Spirit Way

Year of the Dragon 2024
Chinese New Year Traditional Music
Spirited, confident and just plain fun, this music is composed and played for each new year. This year the fiery dragon is celebrated. Dragons are strong and independent but also long for support and care. “Dragon is powerful, endlessly energetic and full of vitality, goal-oriented yet idealistic and romantic, and a visionary leader. They know exactly who they are and possess the keenest sense of self among the 12 zodiacs of Chinese astrology.»
Year of the Dragon, online

The Young Gods
Play Terry Riley In C (Documentary & Live)
(You can always skip the intro in French.) The Young Gods are a Swiss industrial rock band from Fribourg, formed in 1985. The original lineup of the band featured singer Franz Treichler , sampler Cesare Pizzi and drummer Frank Bagnoud. Says Treichler: “Our encounter with the «  Sasha Waltz and Guests » dance company on Terry Riley In C  has been mind blowing. Thank you to the Elbphilarmonie to have provoke it. Thank you all of you the incredible dancers and everyone involved in this crazy collective trip.”
Tangram Music

january 2024 – good to hear

Aurora

B. Ashra
For 30 years, Berlin-based B. Ashra has been producing electronic music outside the mainstream with his solo project. His musical spectrum ranges from meditative ambient music to sound experiments and acid techno.The label Klangwirkstoff offers access to experimentation in contemporary harmonic. Through numerous live concerts in many clubs and at open air festivals, B. Ashra has made a name for himself in the international electronic music scene with his solo project.
Klangwirkstoff Records

A Horse with No Name (feat. Blake Colie)

Dirtwire
The artwork for this video is psychedelic, the arrangement solid, the song not new, but well-liked. “Dirtwire consists of Evan Fraser, David Satori, and Mark Reveley, who all play a variety of uncommon musical instruments. They perform a form of swamptronica experimental music that incorporates electronic music and instruments from around the world, are is based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where they began as a duo of Evan and David, with Mark joining in 2016. All three met at the California Institute of the Arts.» (Wikipedia)
Ingrooves

The Greater Wings

Julie Byrne
Melodious and melancholy are the adjectives that come to my mind when listening to Julie Byrne wistful voice and poetic lyrics. The singer songwriter and guitarist hails from Buffalo, New York. she was influenced by her father’s guitar playing. Spoiler: his first name was not David, and Julie began to play when she was seventeen because he no longer could due suffering from multiple sclerosis. She began to tour when she was eighteen but also studied environmental sciences, feeling a strong connection to nature. To date, she has recorded three albums.
Ghostly International

This Can’t Go On (from the album Iechid Da)

Bill Rider-Jones
An up- and coming musician, Bill Rider-Jones grows on you if you keep on listening. He was born in West Kirby Merseyside, England, and his debut album, If…  featured the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, garnering positive reviews. His 2nd album, A Bad Wind Blows in My Heart, was released 2011, and was also well-received. His 3rd album documenting his departure from orchestral music to embrace minimal folk songs as well as alternative folk rock. His latest work Iechid Da, is out this month.
Domino

Celestial Candyfloss (from the album Sadness Sets Me Free)

Gruff Rhys
Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys, born in 1970, is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, film maker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals, a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993, which obtained mainstream success. “‘Celestial Candyfloss’ is a classic example of the Rhys trademark knack for wrapping up the familiar and classic with the weird, wonderful and unexpected.» (Juno)
Rough Trade Records

december 2023 – good to hear

Mon Laferte
Tiny Desk Concert
on Laferte reminds me of Amy Winehouse, but her music is more like Latin  Swing with a good touch of Django Reinhard or Stéphane Grappelli thrown is, as well as more Mexican traditional flourishes. Mon favors a burlesque look; her singing is sure and pure. The Chilean Mexican musician, singer, composer, and painter is known for her diverse musical style and captivating stage persona. She has won four Latin Grammy Awards and two MTV Europe Music Awards. (Wikipedia)
Universal Music

Margaret Glaspy
Act Natural
The twenty-two-year-old singer songwriter was born in Sacramento California Her album Echo the Diamon was released last August. “This record came from trying to meet life on life’s terms, instead of looking for a happy ending in everything,” says the now New York-based musician. “The whole experience of creatin g it felt like effortless catharsis.” Margaret Glaspy sounds like someone who’ll go far to me.
ATO Records

The National
Laugh Track (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
Formed in Brooklyn in 1999, The National are from Cincinnati, Ohio. Made up of vocalist Mark Berninger, the twin brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner, as well as the brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf, later joined by Karl Resniak, Mark Berninger’s wife, Carin Besser, contributed to the lyrics from the beginning. The band’s style has been called “literate Rock” by the Guardian: 2dark, melancholy, and difficult to interpret.” Over the years, they’ve received many awards and gone on many tours.
4AD

André 3000
Trapped (from the album New Blue Sun)
Known as one part of the Southern hip hop du Outkast, André Lauren Benjamin (1975) has had a spiritual awakening. In the wake of recent experiences, he embarked on a musical journey of his own where he expresses his creativity freely as never before. The trip seems to lead through various landscapes of the mind, taking us to an actual jungle of sounds from the choral to the animal, in an intricate symphony about the interconnected of all being.
Epic Records

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Semyon Bychkov
Mahler Symphony Nr. 9 (Trailer)
Semyon Bychkov’s Mahler series, the first from a Czech orchestra in 40 years, is tackling the symphonies in no particular order and with varying degrees of success. This instalment proves something of a triumph. Whatever weight you place on Mahler’s Bohemian and Moravian connections, the First is a late 19th-century composition envisioned initially as a large-scale symphonic poem.
Deutsche Grammophon

 

 

november 2023 – good to hear

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Theia / The Silver Chord / Set
The Australian band has been a fixture with us ever since their formation. They are made up of Stu Mackenzie, Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Crook Craig, Joey Walker, Lucas Harwood, and Michael Cavanagh. “The band’s early releases blended surf music and garage rock… They released several psychedelic and progressive rock albums in the early 2010s, and incorporated a broader range of musical styles later in the decade, such as jazz fusion… and the folk-inspired Paper Mâché Dream Balloon.
KGLW

________________________________________________________________________

New Age Doom & Tuvaband
There Is No End
Critically-acclaimed experimental band New Age Doom has teamed up with Norwegian indie singer Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser, known as Tuvaband, to create There Is No End. This record showcases New Age Doom’s evolution towards a more melodic direction while retaining their signature freewheeling chaos. Tuva’s ethereal vocals elevate New Age Doom’s genre-bending, densely-layered sound with lyrical themes about rebirth, emergence from the underground, living fearlessly, and the subjective nature of time.
We Are Busy Bodies

________________________________________________________________________

Black Pumas
Chronicles of a Diamond
In 2017, singer and songwriter Eric Burton made his way from the San Fernando Valley, in California, to Texas. He grew up singing in church and got involved in musical theater. Burt traveled through the Western states and developed his performance skills, studied music at New  Mexico State University before settling down and busking in Austin. Black Pumas is an American psychedelic soul band, led by Burton and guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada. (Wiki)
ATO

________________________________________________________________________

Martina Herlop
Busa
An angelic voice in experimental mode doesn’t let us sink too comfortably into a depth of expression that draws us into a world of many concerns. Marina Herlop, born Marina Hernández López, is a Catalan experimental musician. History. A classically trained pianist, Herlop released her debut album, Nanook, in 2016. About hermusic she says: «When you take away the chromatism, and leave a wider space between the intervals, the emotion is more indeterminate. There’s more room for you—they don’t tell you what you’re supposed to feel, and that’s interesting.»
PAN Records.

________________________________________________________________________

Desire Marea
The Only Way
Desire is the latest of the greatest to come out of Johannesburg, South Africa, a whirlwind made for the big stage. “As one half of South African duo FAKA, Marea drew on local dance music sounds like gqom, but on Desire, their exploration of the divine takes them in a many-splendored multitude of stylistic directions, often within the span of a single track: liturgical drone, galloping club beats, existential noise.» (Pitchfork) The track we’re hearing is from the upcoming album The Baddies of Isandlwana.
Izimakade

october 2023 – good to hear

Cesia Sáenz
X Ti Ya No!
Cesia Sáenz was born on December 27, 1998 (age 24) in Honduras and is best known for winning La Academia 2022, a Mexican musical competition show. She is the first singer from Honduras to have won on the show. Cesia is an Instagram star with more than 300’000 followers. Known as the Lioness of Honduras for the strength and power she has in her voice, Cesia plays play the guitar, ukulele, and violin. She is also a painter. Originally from El Porvenir, Comayagua, she has four sisters and
toured with world singer Ricardo Arjona.
Sony


Drea Dury
Bandida
Colombian-born Dréa Dury developed a passion for music at an early age. Thanks to a school system that encourages extra-curricular activities, she discovered singing and was soon performing on stage. From the age of 15, she successfully took part in numerous competitions in her native country. At 18, she decided to study industrial design in Belgium. Today, this young songwriter knows that she wants to make music her profession. Overflowing with energy when she’s on stage, Drea likes to get her audience dancing. Her sound is predominantly Hip-Hop, R&B with Latin rhythms.
Wagram Intenacional


Jimmy Humilde
Desde Abajo
Jaime Alejandre, better known as Jimmy Humilde, born in Los Angeles on 21 July 1980 of Mexican descent ,is a highly successful American music artist, music composer and entrepreneur. He’s the CEO and owner of the popular record company  Rancho Humilde Records, which has its own YouTube channel, and with which he produces regional Mexican music, and especially a style called corridos tumbados, songs that narrate the exploits of real and mythical heroes and antiheroes. Fuerza Régida, Natanael Cano, Junior H., or Arsenal Efectivo have signed with him.
Humilde Music


Natanael Cano
Mas Altas Que Bajadas
his is a great example of a corrido. Natanael Cano (Natanael Ruben Cano Monge), born in 2001, is best known for blending corrido and rap, known as corridos tumbados. Born in Sonora, he started singing at parties and festivals when he was nine. Today he is the number one regional Mexican artist in his category of music. The fusion of trap music and regional Mexican corridos, known as corridos tumbados were born in Los Angeles where Cano first signed with Rancho Humilde. (Wikipedia)
Humilde Music


Eslabon Armado featuring Peso Pluma
Ella Baila Sola
Eslabon Armado is a Mexican American regional Mexican group formed in 2017. The group consists of Pedro Tovar (lead vocals), Brian Tovar (bass), Damian Pacheco (twelve-string guitar) and Ulises González (acoustic guitar). They have released six studio albums and have received several awards and nominations including two Billboiard Music Awards, two Billboard Latin Music Music Awards and two Latin American Music Awards. In early 2022 Damián Pacheco joined the group. In March 2023,they released the song “Ella Baila Sola”  featuring singer and rapper Peso Pluma.
Del Records

august 2023 – good to hear

Cypress Hill
Tiny Desk Concert
One of my favorite hip hop bands has been given a horn section! These boys have aged well – and their music sounds as fresh as ever. Cypress Hill hails from South Gate, in Los Angeles County. The formed in 1988 by the originally Cuban brothers Senen ‘Sen Dog’ (photo) and Ulpiano Sergio ‘Mellow Man Ace’ Reyes, joined by Lawrence Muggerud (DJ Muggs), and Louis Freese (B-Real). They soon became hugely popular.
NPR Music


Minyo Crusaders
Kushimoto Bushi (Cumbia)
Minyo are traditional Japanese folk songs. The Minyao Crusadres breathe new life into them by either turning them into instant jazz classics or by giving them an African or south American twist. The band was co-founded by Katsumi Tanaka and Freddie Tsukamoto, who, together with the ten-piece ensemble create some of the most exciting cross-continental music around. Their goal is to reinvent popular music for the people.
Mais Um


Blur
Live @ St. Charles Square
Blur debuted in London in 1988. Here, Damon Albarn (vocals), Graham Coxton (guitar), Alex James (bass), and Dave Rowntree (drums) regale their fans with a fantastic set showing they are still highly relevant  with their new album, The Ballad of Darren. You can listen to some of it on their website blur.co.uk. Best known for his collaboration on the movie Trainspottin Damon Albarn enjoyed on a successful solo career. The band broke up and reunited several times.
Parlophone


Juanes
Mayo
Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez (born 9 August 1972), known professionally as Juanes, is a Colombian musician who was a member of the rock band Ekhymmosis and is now a solo artist. Since releasing his solo debut album Fijate Bien in 2000, Juanes has won 24 Latin Grammy awards and sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. Raised in Columbia, Juanes began playing piano at age two. (Wikipedia)
Universal Music


Tony Allen & Adrian Younge
No End 
Tony Oladipo Allen was a world-class Nigerian drummer and songwriter and one of the founders of Afrobeat. As its musical director, he worked closely with Fela Kuti. Allen was born in Lagos in 1940 and died in Paris in 2020. He taught himself to play the drums and was inspired by the jazz greats he emulated, as well as by African musical traditions and the highlight scene in his homeland. Much of his music is still unreleased. Adrian Younge promotes it.
Jazz is Dead

july 2023 – good to hear

Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily
Tiny Desk Concert
disorder that produces abnormalities at the body’s surface, including fingernails and teeth. Five decades later, Ismaily has become one of music’s most in-demand collaborators, flitting like a mischievous butterfly through genres as diverse as honeyed folk, rambunctious free jazz and spectral meditations sung in Urdu. He does not think these facts are unrelated.» (Grayson Haver Currin in The New York Times)
NPR Music


Arooj Aftab
Tiny Desk Concert
Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab is the first female artist of her country to win a Grammy Award, in 2022, for the ghazal Mohabbad. Born 1985 in Saudi Arabia, she was ten when her parents moved back to their native Lahore. He family moved to the United States in 2005, where Arooj attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston. She works in various musical styles and has won a number of prizes for her increcible music and extraordinary voice. (Wikipedia)
NPR Music


King Krule
Flimsier
Archy Ivan Marshall (1994), known by various names, Zoo Kid being one of them. He is an English singer, composer, and musician who writes poetic texts and lyrical music. He has mental issues he openly writes about and struggled with discipline from an early age, before learning to adapt go at least some of the time. No doubt he is highly talented, and very special. He takes his name from the Elvis Presley film ‘King Creole’.
Matador Records


Mdou Moctar
Full Performance (Live on KEXP)
I fit weren’t so trite, one might call this Tuareg guitarist the new Jimi Hendrix, though you can hear his African Roots in everything he plays. Mdou Moctar’s home is Agadez, a desert village in rural Niger. Inspired by YouTube videos of Eddie van Halen’s six string techniques and traditional Tuareg melodies, he mastered the guitar which he himself bult and created his own burning style.
Sahel Sounds


Olivia Rodrigo
Vampire
Olivia Rodrigo (2003) is from California and is half Filipina, half German. She started playing the piano at the age of seven and began writing song lyrics at 12. Her debut single, “Drivers License,” broke records. “When I wrote ‘Drivers License,’ I had heartbreak that was so confusing and so varied for me, combining all those feelings into one song made everything seem so much simpler and clearer, and at the end of the day, I think that’s really the whole purpose of songwriting.” (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia)
Geffen Records

june 2023 – good to hear

Phoebe Bridgers
Wasted – video by Rob Moose
Phoebe Bridgers, born 1994 in Pasadena, California, has lately been enjoying huge success both as a solo artist, and as a member of the band ‘Boygenius’. She plays the guitar and names the late Elliott Smith as a big influence. Her style has been called a mix of indie rock, emo folk, and indie rock. (Wikipedia) Her music has lately lost some of its unhappiness but still deals with topics such as loneliness, gender rights, and racial justice.
Libera Awards


Clark
Medicine (feat. Thom Yorke) – from the album Sus Dog
«Sus Dog… creates songs you’ll replay because you can’t get their comforting weirdness anywhere else. Clark’s falsetto, reminiscent of Caribou’s Dan Snaith or executive producer Thom Yorke, is used carefully as a texture that neither distracts nor dominates, counterbalancing the occasionally abrasive electronics.» (The Observer) Radiohead’s Tom Yorke has a long history of contributing to other people’s albums.
Bandcamp


JAAW
Total Protonic Reversal – from the album Supercluster
JAAW is a post-industrial supergroup featuring Andy Cairns (Therapy), Jason Stoll (Mugstar, KLÄMP, Sex Swing), Wayne Adams (Death Pedals, Big Lad, Petbrick) and Adam Betts (Three Trapped Tigers, Goldie, Squarepusher). JAAW glories in big riffs and massive hooks, while also pushing the boundaries of what that even means thanks to its uncompromising strangeness.
June Records


Lola Young
My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely
«On her debut project, ‘My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely’, it’s gratifying to hear Young push her idea of pop beyond the spacey atmospherics of her earlier material – this is the overdue arrival of a completely credible new talent. Much of the 10-track collection was inspired by Young’s schizoaffective disorder diagnosis, a condition marked by intrusive thoughts – though it’s also about grace and the illusion of effortlessness.» (New Music Express)
Island Records


Peter Fox
Eine Auge blau (‘One Eye Blue’)
The German producer, hip-hop and dancehall musician was born in Berlin in 1971 and is actually called Pierre Baigorry. His family comes from the Basque country. He is one three musicians of the band Seeed. He started playing the piano at an early age and also played the recorder and even the trombone. He has been writing idiosyncratic lyrics to catchy music for a long time.
Warner

Posts navigation

1 2 3 4 6 7 8
Scroll to top