If you are a fan of “The King” (and I am, certainly), tomorrow will be a great day. Elvis would have turned 80 years old today. The thought boggles the mind. Could you imagine him doing Vegas in this day and age?
I take a tremendous amount of pride bringing interesting (dare I say, tasteful?) things to my friends and subscribers. This is one of the most unique offerings I’ve been fortunate enough to come across in quite a while. Mongolia offers many great styles of ethnic music, but I never thought I’d see Khöömei (throat-singing) paired with rap. I’m not much of a fan of modern hip-hop at all, but this really has me fascinated.
Points for anyone who can find the name of the band and the actual name of the song. I’d love to hear more from these guys.
UPDATE: The band is called Zagasan Shireet Tamga. The song, apparently is ‘Eki Attar’ (Good Horses).
Today is Christmas Eve on the Julian Calendar, and one of the holiest days of the Eastern Orthodox calendar. The Nativity of Jesus (Christmas) is celebrated tomorrow, and though tonight is spent preparation for the great feast, I had enough time to drop two small gifts under this digital Christmas tree.
The first is the music of Arvo Pärt, a world-famous Estonian composer who is surely well-known to regular readers of this page. He is also a devout member of the Estonian Orthodox Church, and you can hear this influence in his compositions.
Gift two is the article attached to it. The author, Fr. Ivan Moody, happens to be a fine composer in his own right, and his works will soon me gracing these pages. He also happens to be an Orthodox priest, and the article is hosted by the Orthodox Christian Network, which can be read here.
For me, personally, it is the most wonderful thing in the world to wed two subjects I have a great passion for: Orthodoxy and the avant-garde. May you who partake have a wonderful Nativity.
It seems that The Dream Syndicate, who are local boys in my current neck of the woods, are getting back together again for a series of performances. It’s hard to believe this is about two-and-a-half decades old now. Good for Steve Wynn and company reuniting!
Composer, pianist, percussionist and all-around good guy Joseph Benzola has been hiding quite a few treasures. He’s done the world a favor by releasing some of his sketches through his Bandcamp site.
Cold Dark Matter Records taps into the one thing I respect about this new Doom Metal scene – they exhibit raw power. Every track on this compilation is a bruiser. I think I’ll have a lot of fun exploring this label!
Foltin are one of the most innovative groups in the Republic of Macedonia. I’ve always wondered why those into Rock-In-Opposition music didn’t gravitate to their quirky music much sooner. Nikola Kodjabashia is a Macedonian pianist currently based in the United Kingdom who works primarily composing avant-garde music. How this pairing could produce such sumptuous, smoky trip-hop not out-of-place in any New York jazz bar is beyond me. Well worth seeking out!
Julio Gutiérrez (Cremadelic in this guise) has few side projects which will eventually be featured on these pages. This one is something akin to shoegaze music touching base with IDM.