Friend of and brother to Townes Van Zandt, Roxy Gordon was a Texan-born outlaw poet who used the spoken word medium to highlight the contentious relationship between European settlers and native Americans. Working with other marginal Texan musicians, his dry as a bone drawl, ancient as the dusty earth from which he came is perfect for these cheaply produced but supremely moving and historically fascinating vignettes.
Monthly archives: May 2023
15 posts
Containing four trumpeters and five trombonists as well as an array of sax, clarinet, percussion and electronics, it really does contain an army of noise makers ... feels a little like being poked in the chest as someone makes a strenuous point while travelling on a roller coaster.
Perhaps you have an AshNav bingo card. If you do, you can cross out "sounds '80s Miles Davis if he was a bit dirtier" and "I swear that was Tangerine Dream" with this release.
Guitarists Sylvain Chauveau and Joel Merah, along with percussionist Stephane Garin, conceived Ensemble 0 with a self-imposed rule that the instruments for all the pieces written for the trio should fit into a suitcase so that touring abroad would be a lot easier.
There's nothing nice or fun here, but the sheer apocalyptic rage is exhilarating. Remember how dirty Whitehouse felt the first time you heard them and didn't realise how much fun they were having?
...allowing the octet to straddle the borders of swinging, classic jazz with a freer, more progressive approach, shading in the areas between and generally having a fine old time if the smiles on the album photograph are anything to go by.
That wonderful louche coolness that epitomised the last Terry album is still here in droves on their fourth longplayer, but you have the feeling that there is a little anger and frustration in the mix. The album pointedly mentions that it was recorded on unceded Aboriginal land and they seem to be drawing the listener's attention to elements of Australia's shady past.
This is the sixth album for the Brighton-based band of Lisa Jayne and Andy Pyne, and is a collection of tracks they have been piecing together between 2021-2022 and features nine songs.
Clearly, although the interconnectedness of the players is as rich as before, they have chosen to take things in a more contemplative and languid manner, letting the music to reflect back on the listener, raising the beaded curtain and allowing them to peer through into their uniquely glazed realm.
ÉlianeRadigue started her career way back in the 1950s, studying as part of the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC) in Paris, helmed by those frolicsome twin Pierres, Schaeffer and Henry, from whom she received a firm grounding in electroacoustic music and musique concrète. Gradually, however, Radigue’s interest in electronic music began to take her away from this orbit, and off onto a trajectory of her own, one which she has been following now for some five or six decades.
Computer Students have uncovered the only album produced by Boston-based Lynx, a turn of the millennium instrumental quartet whose silverfish flourishes and head-spinning interplay shared some elements with the likes of Don Caballero and Polvo from the Touch & Go camp and Sonna and Rumah Sakit from the Temporary Residence family...
...for his first release on the Glacial Movements label, it sounds as though he has uncovered a cocooned world, with electronic sounds thrumming and reverberating, half-heard through gauze, oblique movements that hint at places unknown...
Thanotosis Produktion I was intrigued to discover that, as well as performing in various small ensembles over a twenty-five year career, Tomas Hallonsten has offered his skills to such diverse acts as Fire! Orchestra and The Concretes. I can’t think of two more disparate acts and neither group really sheds […]
Soul Song The pairing of bassist Yosef Gutman Levitt and guitarist Tal Yahalom is an intriguing one, both wishing to bring greater attention to those melodies of the Hasidim that might otherwise escape the attention of the average gentile listener. This is their second album together and here, they turn […]