FREAK OUT AND MORE

Saturday had two surprises for me.
Not only did I receive the (delayed) ZAPPAtite package, but the FREAK OUT package arrived as well.

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GU-RU

I received these little snippets of music by GU-RU in my reels while scrolling Facebook.
In this particular case, I'm glad that the algorithm worked.

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD - FLIGHT B741

• King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Flight B741
      (2024, download / streaming, --, bandcamp)
      (2024, cd, --, )

After "Alien Metal", the latest KG&TLW album, I absolutely needed some recalibration.
"Flight B741" is a 2024 album by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.
More 1970s rock oriented.
Love it.

Tapping into the country-fried 70s American rock on which they were all raised – along with the ornery garage-rock roots from which their mighty discography sprang – Flight b741 is lightning caught inside a bottle. Across its 10 ragged, glorious barnburners, King Gizzard flesh out rough skeletons of songs with their inspired improvisations, inimitable grooves and a unique pass-the-mic approach to vocals that saw every member of the band raise their voice and sing. “We’re having a lot of fun, but we’re often singing about some pretty heavy shit,” Mackenzie adds, “and probably hitting on some deeper, more universal themes than usual. It’s not a sci-fi record, it’s about life and stuff. But the record is like a really fun weekend with your mates, you know? Like, proper fun.”

ANDY SHEPPARD - SALT CATCHERS

• Andy Sheppard, Rita Marcotulli, Michel Benita: Salt Catchers
      (2026, cd, --, ecm)

British saxophonist Andy Sheppard returns with "Salt Catchers", a collaboration with Italian pianist Rita Marcotulli and French double bassist Michel Benita.
No guitars, no drums, just saxophone, piano and double bass.

Beautiful but also sounding almost sad, with Carla Bley's 'Lawns' fitting in perfectly alongside Andy Sheppard's original pieces.

-- info: Danny Mathys

MAGMA - LIVE

• Magma: Live
      (2017, 2cd, France, seventh rex X-XI)

My recent trip to Brussels added two Magma albums to the shelves. Next to the "Retrospectiw I-II-III" set, I also bought the "Live" 2 CD set. It's re-issue of the 1975 2 LP set with two bonus tracks.

Remastered and in a beautiful digipak.
And a superb concert.
Recorded in 1975 at L'Olympia in Paris, France, and featuring two keyboard players, Benoît Widemann and Jean-Paul Asseling), a (at the time) new bass player (Bernard Paganotti), the mesmerizing Kobaïan vocals of Klaus Blasquiz and Stella Vander, and, of course, violinist Didier Lockwood and bandleader Christian Vander.

This remastered re-release is from 2017 !
Out on the Seventh record label.

TERJE RYPDAL - CONSPIRACY

• Terje Rypdal: Conspiracy
      (2020, cd, --, ecm)

Having released "Melodic Warrior" in 2013, Norwegian guitar maestro Terje Rypdal only returned to the studio in 2019 to record "Conspiracy".

Blasting through the speakers of the United Mutations Headquarters at this very moment, this album is right up my alley.
Rypdal teamed up with keyboardist Ståle Storløkken, drummer Pål Thowsen, and bassist Endre Hareide Hallre. Together, they craft a beautifully dark, meditative, and texturally rich environment.

Terje Rypdal's long and weeping notes have a sharp edge to them. Not in an aggressive way, but perfect to give them extra emphasis. What a great sound.

At just 35 minutes, "Conspiracy" is a short, punchy album.
It will absorb you.
Recommended listening.

-- info: Danny Mathys

GEOFFREY BURLESON - BEBOP TANGO (F. ZAPPA)

MOSTLY MODERN FESTIVAL
Skidmore College, Arthur Zankel Music Hall
Saratoga Springs, New York (USA)
6/10/2026

 

MORE INFO ON THE RESIDENTS' "ESKIMO FOLK TALES"

The Residents return with an all-new EP - Six new pieces picking up where their 'Eskimo' masterpiece left off!

In the 1970s, as The Residents worked on their Eskimo masterpiece, their mentor The Mysterious N. Senada sent them a collection of handwritten Inuit folk tales, suggesting they incorporate them into the album. But the group shelved them, having gathered more than enough stuff themselves by that point, leaving them to gather dust.

Here and now, almost 50 years later, The Residents have revived those folk tales as part of their forthcoming 'Eskimo' live performance, blending them with familiar elements of the original 'Eskimo' album and new music to produce the soon-to-be-classic show.

Here is a studio recording of those new songs, alongside read-along stories, as written down by Senada almost half a century ago.

This is not a new side of 'Eskimo', but a modern interpretation of material which might, in another universe, have found its way onto the original.

ANDY EDWARDS INTERVIEWS NAPOLEON MURPHY BROCK

 

KVÅRK

KVÅRK are a four-piece instrumental progressive metal band from Marseille, France, building long-form journeys from rhythmic dislocation, death-metal weight and atmospheric transformation.
Originally created as a studio collaboration between longtime friends and guitarists Eric Lamblot and Christophe Gervasi, the project released the five-track EP "Here Comes Trouble" through Tentacles Industries in 2020.

The subsequent expansion into a full quartet fundamentally changed the scale and physicality of the music. Four distinct instrumental voices now interact in real time, turning a composition-led studio project into a collective organism.

Their forthcoming debut album, "The Astral Maze", documents that transformation. Its pieces move between rhythmic instability, dissonant experimentation, oppressive weight and sustained atmosphere, allowing tension, repetition and movement to perform the role usually assigned to a vocalist.
“Lost in a Quiet Place” is the first track revealed from 'The Astral Maze'.