Taiwan’s 草莓救星 (We Save Strawberries) are dream pop which would make Hope Sandoval smile, I’d gather.
Month: February 2018
[Music] The Thing With Five Eyes – نور
The Thing With Five Eyes is the new project of Jason Kohnen of the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble. It’s a good-sized EP of electronic music, the aforementioned darkjazz and a touch of drum & bass besides. A worthy release.
[Music] Female Musician Makes Waves in Male-Dominated Afghanistan
Global Citizen has launched a campaign called Chime For Change, and one of the first projects they promote is Fazila Zamir, a rebab player making waves in what was normally thought to be a man’s world.
Read more here on Fazila, courtesy of Global Citizen. For a sample of her work, check out the video here.
[Music] Keiko Shichijo – Six Dances (Komitas Vardapet)
Keiko Shichijo is a Japanese pianist based in The Netherlands. In this album, she interprets the work of the Armenian priest, musicologist, composer, arranger, singer, and choirmaster, Komitas Vardapet.
[Music] Funked Up East #28 – The Evolution of Czecho-Slovakian Jazz
A magnificent podcast out of Estonia, this current session by Funked Up East features smooth, sultry Czech and Slovak Jazz.
Track List:
Czechoslovak Radio Jazz Orchestra – Passacaglia
Karel Velebný – Ztráta Nalezeného Syna
SHQ – Epitaph for George Dillon
Jiøí Mráz – Danyáda
Karel Krautgartner – 31° ve stínu
Rudolf Dasek – Rambles
Václav Zahradník Big Band – Jazz Goes To Beat I
SHQ – Lori
Jazz Cellula – Zmoklá Voda
Jazz Ze Studio A – Ogarské Hry
Gustav Brom – If Only
[Music] Mediterranean Deconstruction Ensemble – Day De Senar
This is a magnificent find for me. The Mediterranean Deconstruction Ensemble is a solid improvisational/experimental troupe out of Moscow led by pianist Gregory Sandomirsky.
The music is a great combination of freaky jazz, Mediterranean rhythms, and Sephardic/Ladino time shifts. A very nice effort.
[Music] Katarína Máliková – Pustvopol
There’s not a lot of music I could compare Slovak chanteuse Katarína Máliková to. Her sound is utterly unique, and I could only imagine bands like Dead Can Dance as sharing her ethereal vibe. The instrumentation could fit somewhere comfortably between folk, fusion and Fourth World Ambient (think Jon Hassell).
For fans of these genres and of artists like Loreena McKennitt.
[Music] Air Liner – The Dream of Machine
Air Liner is a band out of Karachi, Pakistan who play a very dreamy, mellow, post-rock inflected bedroom pop that you can simply chill out to.
[Music] Various Artists – The B-Music of Jean Rollin 1968-1973
I can’t imagine a cooler soundtrack compilation than this one unless Jess Franco’s sountrack works also get reissued.
Jean Rollin was the master of sleazy Euro-horror with a career span of five decades. This comp covers some of the best partners he had in conveying a blood-splattered, gruesome, erotic, cheesy mess onscreen.
Nothing but love for Finders Keepers, who released this gem as a download as well as vinyl.
[Music] Bryan Ferry on how Roxy Music invented art pop: ‘We were game for anything’
Jon Savage does a bang-up job discussing the history of Roxy Music and perhaps the suavest of front-men from the 1970s, Bryan Ferry.
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 