SARGAM.
Antwerp-based project (from a couple of years ago)
- Nicolas Mortelmans : Sitar
- Jordi Geuens : Drums
- Ralph Hermans : Bass
- Willem Heylen : Guitar
SARGAM.
Antwerp-based project (from a couple of years ago)
"Kokoro," (こゝろ), a piece for piano, contrabass, and percussion. «The title translated literally means "heart", but also translates as "affection", "spirit", "resolve", "courage", "sentiment", or "the heart of things"». Mr. Zappa would say "The crux of the biscuit." The apostrophe, then, or maybe his honker.
"Gumboot Soup" was KG&TLW's 5th release in 2017.
And there was no messing around. Two of my favourite KG&TLW albums were released in 2017.
And "Gumboot Soup" is not far behind.
True, it's not the usual concept album, but the album presents a fine set of songs.
Here's the opening track, 'Beginner's Luck'.
It's the odd one out, a beautiful pop song.
I first heard about the Fuse ensemble when they were appearing on Dutch television as the house band of Podium Witteman, preforming a Frank Zappa piece.
The piece in question, 'Echidna's Arf', also found its way to the ensemble's first album, and I remember seeing them in concert shortly thereafter.
A few years later, they performed 'G-Spot Tornado' during the Podium Witteman tv-show (with Dweezil in the audience. He was touring Europe.)
And then it's fast forward to July 2024 with Fuse performing both pre-Zappanale in Hamburg as well as at Zappanale in Bad Doberan. On both occasions with Napoleon Murphy Brock and performing a nice set of Frank Zappa compositions.
These recent Zappanale concerts persuaded me to pick up where I had left off. I bought their most recent album at Zappanale (= their fourth release), and I ordered albums two and three when I got home.
Fuse's second album, "Studio 2", presents pieces by Ravel, Bach, Manuel de Falla, Ligeti, and Monk to name those who sound familiar to me.
Amazing music and brilliant performances.
Fuse: Stick-to-it-ive ness (Fussell Ferrante)
Don Preston will be doing some solo concerts in Europe.
A first concert date has been announced:
October 6, 2024, at the 'Theaterhaus' in Stuttgart, Germany
The Off record label's stream of Panopticon releases continues with "Revenge".
Improvised music.
Domenico Solazzo's PaNoPTiCoN
Recorded in concert in 2009.
New Single: "This Life As We Know It"
Presspop produced a Sun Ra figurine, celebrating 110 years of Sun Ra.
https://www.presspop.toys/products/4560247870775
The upcoming ProgJect tour (with Mike Keneally) has been delayed.
Drummer Jonathan Mover hurt his back and needs surgery...
European dates probably delayed until June 2025, or later.
Published last year, both in hardcover and in paperback edition, this square (21 x 21 cm) 80-page book presented an illustrated Frank Zappa biography.
"30 years without Zappa"
Black and white picture on the right page, explanation on the left page.
In German.
I like the concept, and the pictures are nice (and also well-known).
So, nothing new but nice to browse through.
Brand-new (and beautiful) compilation album on red vinyl.
Out on Rhino Records.
A1 I'm Gonna Booglerize You Baby
A2 Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
A3 The Smithsonian Institute Blues (Or The Big Dig)
A4 My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains
A5 Click Clack
B1 Low Yo Yo Stuff
B2 Too Much Time
B3 Clear Spot
B4 Lick My Decals Off, Baby
B5 Big Eyed Beans From Venus
"Earth To Moon", Moon Unit Zappa's book / bio has also been made available in the German language.
And here's Moon on her brother Ahmet's "Rocktails" show...
In my mind, "Here If You Listen" is a team effort.
I understand that David Crosby was a legend, but still, the contributions of Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis and Michael League can not be underestimated.
So I think that it's a pity that the album cover does not have all the names in the same size.
Other than that, "Here If You Listen" is a perfect album.
If you have a sweet spot for vocal harmonies, this is your thing.
David Crosby, Michael League, Becca Stevens & Michelle Willis - Woodstock (2016)
"Epics"
Men & Volts
The band started out as a Captain Beefheart cover band. That should say enough.
Scott Chatfield, the road manager on the Taylor tours, made pristine digital recordings of the shows on this particular run, and it’s from these recordings – unheard for over two decades! – that the tracks on this album are drawn.
I spent a good chunk of time mixing these songs over the past few weeks, and I am entirely happy (I think the 45-year-olds nowadays might say stoked?) with how this album has turned out.
I suspect that you’ll get a kick out of it as well, or my name isn’t Boseman Willacow, and it isn’t!
https://mikekeneallymusic.bandcamp.com/
I’M GUESTING AT PROGSTOCK IN RUTHERFORD, NJ, OCTOBER 17-20
I played at the ProgStock festival with The Zappa Band in 2022 and had a wonderful time, so I’m exceedingly happy to be returning there this year as a roaming troubadour: I’ll be popping up here and there, guesting with different bands and participating in different sessions.
I can tell you now that I’ll be participating in the Last Call Live Pro-Am Showcase on October 17, as well as sitting in with ABACAB: The Music of Genesis earlier that same evening, but I’ll also be making several other appearances throughout the festival, and you’ll just have to come and find out when and with whom!
There will also be ample opportunity to just hang out having a good time and wallowing in the pure progginess of it all. Hope to see you there, especially you crazy east-coasters. You know how you are! I know you know!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
Love to you and your families! And your pets!
See you out there,
Mike
Beautiful !!
CD available from the Lu Label website:
https://www.lulabel.ch/product-page/lockdown-circus-luzia-von-wyl-this-is-pan-cd
Kraan's "Sandglass" album is a fine and relaxed way to start one's day.
Mostly instrumental, dreamy, jazzy,...
I received this album as a digital download from a friend and I am quite happy with it as I need to do some catching up when it comes to German krautrock / jazz / fusion band.
Out on LP (9 tracks) and on CD and digital platforms (13 tracks).
dvdmovies123 goes Zappa and it's not the first time.
a message from Jezus Factory Records:
A Clean Kitchen Is A Happy Kitchen; the Noise Rock pioneers made up of Craig Ward, Butsenzeller and Paul Lamont released their second and last album back in 2013 - now for some explicable reason I have (with their agreement) decided to allow the music in the digital realm....
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard released "Murder Of The Universe" in 2017. It was their tenth album, second release in 2017, and a bizarre tale in three movements.
An energetic musical approach, with accentuated rhythms, that supports a fantasy tale (including a voice over).
Quite predictable, there's no happy end to the story that's being told, but the message fits, and the music sounds great.
Cellist and vocalist Janel Leppin and guitarist Anthony Pirog have just released "New Moon In The Evil Age".
The Mandaï newsletter adds:
New Moon in the Evil Age is a captivating album by Janel & Anthony, released by Cuneiform. This mesmerizing collection of music showcases the duo's unique blend of experimental folk, post-rock, and classical influences.
With haunting cello melodies by Janel Leppin and intricate guitar work by Anthony Pirog, each track on the album takes the listener on a journey through ethereal soundscapes and emotive compositions. The interplay between the two musicians creates a rich tapestry of sound that is both introspective and expansive.
The atmospheric quality of the music on New Moon in the Evil Age invites listeners to immerse themselves in its dreamlike textures and evocative harmonies. From delicate acoustic passages to dynamic electric moments, each song unfolds with a sense of purpose and depth.
Listeners will find themselves drawn into a world where tradition meets innovation, where familiar sounds are reimagined in new and unexpected ways. Janel & Anthony's musical chemistry is palpable throughout the album, creating a sense of intimacy that resonates with every note.
Overall, New Moon in the Evil Age is a masterful work that defies genre boundaries and invites exploration. It is a testament to the creative vision of Janel & Anthony, showcasing their talent for crafting evocative and immersive music that lingers long after the final notes fade away.
Released on the Cuneiform record label.
Out on 2 CD, on 2 LP and available as download / streaming album.
2017 was yet another busy year for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.
It was also the year when I bought my first two KG&TLW albums, "Flying Microtonal Banana" being one of them.
Yes, microtonal.
The band had already experimented with it on one track on the previous "Nonagon Infinity", but it's the central theme on "Flying Microtonal Banana" and I love it.
Recommended listening !!
More Belgian improvised music by PaNoPTiCoN
BACKBONE - Live @ L'Os à Moelle
by Domenico Solazzo's PaNoPTiCoN
Out on the Off record label.
Opus 26 is this time closer to space jazz and a bit psychedelic at times.
Improvised and recorded live at L'os à moelle, Brussels, Belgium, January 22nd 2010.
"Lost Rivers 2", released by the Klanggalerie record label.
The Fruits De Mer record label has just released a 2 LP set with recordings of the 19th Dream Of Dr Sardonicus Festival Of Psychedelia.
A message from Strut records:
Today we announce a very special deluxe edition of Sun Ra's 'Lanquidity'.
The classic album, housed in a tip-on sleeve with OBI strip, including liner notes, and an A2 poster featuring a rare photo of Sun Ra in his home.
https://sunrastrut.bandcamp.com/album/lanquidity
This new deluxe LP edition of ‘Lanquidity’ features the widely distributed version of the album originally released on Philly Jazz and reflects the album’s original packaging with a metallic foil / magenta sleeve, housed in a tip-on sleeve with OBI strip and featuring both liner notes and a limited edition poster, to celebrate 25 years of Strut records.
I fondly remember my first encounter with Yang. It was their "Designed For Disaster" album from a couple of years ago. On the Cuneiform Records label.
Reason enough to be exited for "Rejoice".
From Cuneiform :
According to most professional journalists, comparisons are odious. And according to most professional musicians, critics are useless. But what happens when a critic makes a comparison that turns out to be useful and also transformative in the most positive way?
Look no further than Rejoice!, the fifth album—and third for Cuneiform Records—from the masterful French progressive-rock quartet Yang.
This, naturally, needs some explanation, and in fact there are two intertwined origin stories that can be applied to what is possibly Yang’s most accessible yet most deeply felt full-length.
We’ll get to the first later. But what primarily gave Rejoice! its sound and its shape came when an online reviewer compared Yang’s previous album, Designed for Disaster, to the dark and psychologically disturbing work of the Bay Area band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. And while there are similarities, for sure, the notion struck Yang guitarist and composer Frédéric L'Épée as odd, given that he had never heard—or even heard of—his American counterparts. Intrigued, he decided to listen, and found not just a team of kindred spirits, but the perfect singer to bring life to his songs.
“I didn’t know them, so when I saw this review, I said ‘Okay, what is this band? Is it something that I’ve missed?’” L'Épée notes, laughing. “ And, yes, it really was something I’d missed."
“I don’t like the sound of my own voice,” the bandleader continues, and so for most of its existence Yang has focused primarily on instrumental music. On Designed for Disaster, however, the German singer Ayse Cansu Tanrikulu added her jazz-inflected phrasing to five tracks, and now on Rejoice!, Sleepytime violinist and singer Carla Kihlstedt has come on board for most of the album.
It’s an ideal match, and one that wound up shaping Rejoice! far more than L'Épée had intended. In writing Designed for Disaster, he explains, he concerned himself with lyrics that were “meant to communicate an impression but not a meaning”. But after having discovered Kihlstedt, he opted to follow a different path.
“It’s interesting,” he says now. “I started to write the words like I did with Designed for Disaster; not with apparent meaning, but through the sound more than anything. But as soon as Carla accepted, I started to have her voice in my mind. So as soon as I started to write, I heard her singing at the moment I was writing. This forced me to search for the reason inside, because I realized that I wanted her to understand what I was saying, to give all the expression that I wanted. So this is one of the many reasons I started to write things with meanings, because I wanted her to be driven by these meanings.”
At the same time, circumstances were giving L'Épée plenty to write about. The world was coming out of lockdown, new wars were starting, fascism was on the rise, and all of these things were having a profoundly negative effect on some of the musician’s associates.
“In 2023, several of my friends had a kind of breakdown,” he reports. “They started to have dark thoughts, bad ideas, and they were really bad with themselves. And I wanted to help them, actually. I wanted to make them feel better. It was really with this idea, this mood, that I started to write Rejoice!”
It wasn’t therapy for himself that he was after, he stresses. “I have had the chance to live an ideal life, I would say,” he notes. “I’m living with the love of my life and I’m making music all the time, so I am someone who’s pretty happy. But I would also say that I’m empathic, so when I see someone or I hear someone that feels not right, I feel that suffering as well. So I want to help these people to get above whatever it is. And this is maybe why the album is named Rejoice!, because this is a dark time. It’s a dark age for everyone.
“It’s not a happy time, but we have to rejoice in what we have,” he adds. “Everything is wrong, nothing is going properly, but there are so many things to enjoy anyway, if you know what I mean.”
L'Épée considers Rejoice! to be “healing music”, but with its surging polyrhythms, intricately conjoined guitar parts, and Kihlstedt’s fiercely committed singing, it’s not like any music you’d hear in any spa on earth. Consider the record’s final track, “The Final Day”, which opens with fingerstyle guitars and breathy vocals that present a comforting, lullaby-like ambience. But once a powerful bass ostinato kicks in a darker mood emerges, and it becomes clear that L'Épée is describing some kind of mass extinction. “Over the land, fiery sand falls,” Kihlstedt sings. “Everyone’s horizon burns.”
The intimation of a final, climate-change-induced “fire season” is clear. And yet it’s impossible to encounter this performance without also feeling a sense of joyous release. The end is nigh—but the end is always nigh, and it’s never really the end. In that light, “The Final Day” is a perfect finale to Rejoice!, because once it’s over you’ll want to return to Track One, “Step Inside”, and play the entire record again.
Highly recommended !!
Today, Sonic Hug will be performing at De Bijloke in Ghent.
Sonic Hug = a project by Louise van den Heuvel.
It's a free, open air concert.
Again, the album cover and the album title give it all away:
Nine tracks that can be played in random order, with transitions that you can hardly hear, which means that you can play it as one long piece for an infinite time.
Oh, how these guys must have fun inventing every new project.
And it's an excellent album, with the first track, 'Robot Stop', displaying the microtonal guitar, an instrument that will return on some of the next albums.
I mentioned a little while ago that Podcaster Tony Trombo published a book with a selection of his podcast interviews with several musicians who worked with Frank Zappa.
"Talking Zappa".
The book is now also out in a hard-cover version.
I got my copy from Amazon.
"Paper Mâché Dream Balloon".
Both the title and the album cover give the impression that it's a collection of children's songs.
It even sounds like an album of children's songs.
Mostly acoustic, sweet songs.
It's only upon closer listening (and upon checking the lyrics online) that my view changed...
Stuck in a daydream
Under a moonbeam
Head on my pillow at home
Drunk are the people
Outside my window
Full of testosterone
Anyway, upon first listening, "Paper Mâché" is a short and sweet album :-)
Catchy melodies with not so singalong lyrics.
After a couple of listening sessions, I like it even more.
Revisiting Utopianisti as the LP arrived yesterday.
Multiple layers of rhythms and catchy vibes combined with beautiful melodies.
Perfect to get in a good mood.
Finnish / Ethiopian big band jazz.
Markus Pajakkala adds:
Utopianisti’s new 9-piece incarnation dives into Afro influenced jazzrock/prog driven by pitiless walls of percussion, brutal grooves, jazz psychedelia, rhythmic curve balls and ruthless horns! All recorded live in the studio with a supergroup from Tampere-Senegal-Mauritius axis!
Essential listening !!
Album number six for KG&TLW.
A vinyl-only release. A CD release only followed in 2021.
Four tracks, and each track lasts 10 minutes and 10 seconds.
The first track has a nice jazz / fusion / latin groove, which is yet another side of KG&TLW that pops up.
The third track, 'God Is In The Rhythm', could be KG&TLW's version of doo-wop. Who knows?
Fun.
In recent year, the Zappanale festival has been blessed with amazing expos.
Located in the center of Bad Doberan, the expo room is a place you must visit when you're attending Zappanale.
Helmut King is one of the returning artists. Always fun.
Here'ss Helmut's artwork on the poster:
Dutch ensemble Fuse recorded FZ's 'Echidna's Arf' and released it on their first album in 2016.
In the meantime, the sextet has released 3 more albums, with "Mikrokosmos" being released earlier this year.
For "Mikrokosmos", Fuse invited 12 composers from all over the world to write a piece for them.
The result is a beautiful album that blends contemporary classical music, jazz, minimal music, and much more.
Composers: Bryce Dessner, Gabriel Kahane, Miho Hazama, Joey Roukens, Thomas Beijer, JacobTV, Morris Kliphuis, Nathalie Joachim, Kinan Azmeh, Julia Philippens, Xavi Torres and Gabriella Smith.
I saw the ensemble perform in Hamburg and at the Zappanale festival recently, where they performed a set of Frank Zappa tunes, next to material from Mikrokosmos.
The album is out on 2CD and on 2LP. I went for the 2CD set.
Another day, another King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard album :-)
"I'm In Your Mind Fuzz", album number five for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, was the band's international breakthrough.
It got released in Australia on Flightless, in the USA on Castle Face, and in Europe on Heavenly records.
Re-releases and various coloured vinyl editions followed.
As the music, for me, this is the typical KG&TLW sound. Raw, but with a psychedelic touch.
The band released a 3D music video on YouTube, but I don't have my 3D glasses at hand, so I'm going for 'Satan Speeds Up', the other official video for this album.
The Bandcamp link for the album:
WTF - Waiting For The Punch
podcast by Marc Maron
episode 1564 - Moon Zappa
https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1564-moon-zappa
Ten years ago, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard released "Oddments", a collection of outtakes from their previous albums.
It was their fourth release.
Reading random comments, some people found it a pity that "Oddments" wasn't a conceptual album. I don't mind. It's a fine set of songs.
And to show the band their sense of humour, near the end of track number number 7, 'Sleepwalker', it sounds as if there's a problem with the record as the needle skips a beat, but that's intentional...
It's astonishing how an a cappella version leads to a completely different listening experience.
And it's the entire album !!
This is superb.
Vocal arrangements by David Minnick.
Out on CD, and through Bandcamp.
Great packaging and artwork, by the way. The CD arrived yesterday, and it looks great.
& don't forget to check out the 180 Gs "Commercial Album". (CD released by Klanggalerie)
FIDOplaysZAPPA has just put one of their older releases on Bandcamp.
In case you missed the CD in 2011 :
Arthur added:
“My latest track! Bandcamp followers get to hear it first! It will go up on Youtube, etc. soon.”
from The Sunday Times
by Hadley Freeman
https://archive.is/Voria#selection-2165.0-2169.64
September 5, 2024, in Heerlen NL
the program:
from The Washington Post
by Geoff Edgers
The (Belgian) Off record label continues its series of Domenico Solazzo's PaNoPTiCoN albums.
Download / streaming-only.
Improvised & experimental music.
Featuring