All credit goes to my friend Thomas for hipping me to Assa’d Khoury, the king of Syrian electronic belly dance groove music.
Instrumental
[Music] Un Festin Sagital – La Procesion de la Noche Solar
Un Festin Sagital were one of the finest ritualistic ambient bands to ever come out of Chile. In fact, I can’t think of another, save the related band Thanatoloop.
[Music] Kashmere Stage Band – Take Five (The Dave Brubeck Quartet Cover)
This is easily the funkiest take on a jazz standard I’ve ever heard. Apparently, the Kashmere Stage Band were famous for making funky sounds which were the equivalent of the JB’s and the Bar-Kays during their peak in the 1960s. Really amazing stuff.
[Music] The Durutti Column – Snowflakes
Not quite “Jingle Bells,” but it’s still some lovely post-punk/new wave music which fits the season nicely, courtesy of Vini Reilly and the Durutti Column.
[Music] Vince Guaraldi Trio – O Tannenbaum
San Francisco’s Vince Guaraldi’s contribution to Christmas is this evergreen, O Tanenbaum, part of the soundtrack to “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
[Music] Silent Island – Equator EP
István Csarnogurszky leads Silent Island, an outfit from Hungary which combines post-rock, progressive rock, alternative and ambient music into a seamless product. Really mellow listening.
[Music] Taylor Deupree & Marcus Fischer – Wake
Taylor Deupree is practically a legend in the world of electronica. Marcus Fischer is a very new name to me. Judging by how well these two work together, I can’t wait to hear more collaborations like this one.
[Music] Vyacheslav Potapov (VP) – Water World
Prog is alive and well in… Kazakhstan?! Yes! Thanks to incredible labels highlighting talent worldwide like Cuneiform and MoonJune Records, we’re finding out about avant-progressive music from places like Indonesia, Belarus, and other faraway locales. VP is based in Kazakhstan’s former capital city, Almaty, and his music reminds me of such groups like Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, and modern bands like Rational Diet from Belarus. We need to hear much more from them.
[Music] Disen Gage – Snapshots
All credit goes to Vyacheslav Lunarin for introducing me to Disen Gage, a Russian progressive rock group whose album reminds me of a lot of the classic Rock-In-Opposition groups of the past.
[Music] OORSPRONG curators series/OCS edition November 28
I envy my friends in Amsterdam, as they tend to have a full range of incredible concerts and performance series. For more information, contact our friend, Raoul van der Weide, via e-mail or directly through his website for more information on Oorsprong.
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 