Another big loss in music today. Ska legend Prince Buster passed away today at the age of 78. In memoriam, we play one of our favorite songs by the master.
Author: Rudy Carrera
[Music] Santiago Fradejas – Sketches For Sarah, Vol. 2
I had the pleasure of reviewing Mrs. Fradejas a couple of days ago, and now it’s time to review Mr. Fradejas! Santiago’s new release sits in an equally unique point on the music reference chart. One can find something akin to post-Industrial noise, a brutalist interpretation of contemporary classical music, improvisation in the fine European-American free jazz tradition, and avant-progressive rock which labels like Cuneiform Records champion. Another masterpiece by one of the best young composers operating in Europe today.
[Music] The Fifth Path Magazine Now Online And Scanned
Many thanks to Kenn Wilson for taking the time to reintroduce the public to The Fifth Path, one of the most important magazines documenting post-Industrial music and the genre which would come to be known as Apocalyptic Folk.
[Art] Franz Stuck: Dark Female Figures in a World of Anxiety and Lust — Byron’s muse
If you gaze at dark and richly textured paintings of a German Symbolist painter Franz Stuck for too long, you become spiritually drowned in a world of ‘anxiety and lust’, to quote Carl Jung. That peculiar mood of his paintings is as intoxicating as it is heavy and suffocating, radiating the typical turn of the […]
via Franz Stuck: Dark Female Figures in a World of Anxiety and Lust — Byron’s muse
[Music] Shoom – Tried To Sing But Couldn’t
Thirteen years ago, I was given an opportunity to work with Shoom, an Israeli band whose sound nestles comfortably within the realm of Mediterranean ethnocore, avant-rock and ethno-rock, a term I’ve not heard in quite some time, but which seems appropriate for this band.
Lots of percussion and guitars flow quite nicely with a duduk making melodies on top. Definitely worth a listen to this album, as well as their back catalog.
[Music] Tomáš Kočko & Orchestr – Velesu
Tomáš Kočko and his orchestra hail from the Czech Republic, and have been storming their way up World Music Charts Europe recently. It’s pretty easy to see why. The music mixes Moravian music elements in an updated framework, adding touches of progressive rock, neo-folk, and even trends in electronic music. Ancient Great Moravia comes to life in this album, and its sound is breathtaking.
Here’s a taste from the upcoming album:
[Music] Troum – Acouasme
Stefan Knappe is a man who wears many hats. He runs Drone Records, which releases some of the best in dark ambient and experimental music, and serves as both a mailorder and distributor of music not directly found on his label as well.
The talent we wish to concentrate on is as a composer with his project TROUM. In this release from 2015, Knappe unleashes a cascade of some of the darkest experimental music I’ve heard in some time. It is dark, however, in a way that is not vulgar or cheap, as too so-called ‘noise’ bands are wont to be. You won’t hear any children with vile fetishes for rapists or serial killers who turn on their vacuum cleaners and try to sell this as ‘music’. No, in this case, Knappe actually goes through the process of crafting something worthy of being a soundtrack to a very intense film. There is a lot of sub-bass throbbing and pulsating, but all of it done with the precision of a master surgeon who knows how to weild his scalpel. TROUM is always releasing music of note, or collaborating with others to do the same.
If you have a Bandcamp account, follow his work. You will find no disappointments there.
[Music] A.M Ferrari Fradejas – Dominique Worships The Sun
A.M Ferrari Fradejas is a composer based in France who also happens to be the wife of noted guitarist and composer Santiago Frajedas, whose amazing work has graced these pages in the past. Ferreri Frajedas’ new release is an absolute delight to listen to, and it came as a shock to my ears.
I was expecting progressive rock, and I was rewarded with that in spades. What I didn’t expect to find was a deep thread of ethereal music, some of which reminded me of past bands like Chandeen or Love Is Colder Than Death. There is also a touch of cabaret music here, as well as reminisces of groups like Slapp Happy, Henry Cow and Dagmar Krause’s solo work. Fans of Laurie Anderson might find something familiar here as well.
It was weird, hazy, and utterly fun listening for me.
[Music] Dead Can Dance – In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed Are Kings
Dead Can Dance at their most sublime.
[Music] The Wedding Present – Going, Going…
The Wedding Present have a brand new album out! This one is very strange, as the first half has more of a weird ambient or even post-rock-ish feel to it, nothing like what one would expect. From Track 5 onward, despite David Gedge’s voice thinning out a touch, it’s the great guitar playing one expects from the Weddoes.
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 