Ukryte Zalety Systemu is an incredible post-punk band out of Poland who maintain the spirit of the genre’s heyday in the early 1980s.
Alternative/Indie
[Music/Film] Elektro Moskva
Elektro Moskva, directed by Elena Tikhonova & Dominik Spritzendorfer, shows the history of electronic music in Russia from the works of Léon Theremin to the ANS synthesizer used by such luminaries as Eduard Artemiev (famous for his soundtracks to the films of Andrei Tarkovsky) and beyond. I’m very much looking forward to seeing this when time permits.
[Music] Neil Finn – Don’t Dream It’s Over (live with strings, Auckland 2015)
Neil Finn’s band at the time, Crowded House, made Don’t Dream It’s Over, this gem of a pop song an international hit in 1986. Finn recorded this interpretation in 2015, with help from a string choir, and the man sounds the same, if not a touch better. It’s as beautiful a song now as it was then.
[Music] The Orchestra of Mirrored Reflections – Dead Beat
This has to be the release of 2017, as least as far as March!
Our friends The Orchestra of Mirrored Reflections have graced our blog once before, in April of 2016 for a review of an incredible live performance in Odessa. The band return with a new, seven-track album which is as rich, dark and sumptuous as anything released by groups like the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Bohren & der Club of Gore and other such acts. In fact, I’d be willing to say that the beauty of this album surpasses these stalwarts.
The album consists of smoky jazz that sits somewhere between fusion and trip-hop. The guitar playing is minimal, gentle, but totally in keeping with the darkness of the music. The drumming, however, is what makes the release for me. It is sparse, minimal, with singular beats, serving as a wonderful linchpin to the rest of the instrumentation floating above.
After such a splendid release, we wait more magic from the band
[Music] Cermaque – Neboj (i.e. Don’t Worry)
Indies Scope Records is one of my favorite record labels in the European continent. Their latest comes from poet, director and songwriter Jakub Čermák (doing business as Cermaque). The album is a wonderfully heady mish-mash of indie folk, alternative pop, elements of hip-hop, all held together by Čermák’s lyrical oeuvre.
Check out the album here.
[Music] “Bust Free 20” by Various Artists from Cold Busted
compilation international various artists downtempo electronic instrumental hip-hop beats freedl funky trip hop Los Angeles
via “Bust Free 20” by Various Artists from Cold Busted — Free Trip Downl Hop
[Music] The Durutti Column – Domo Arigato [FBN 52 / CD]
Wonderful news for Durutti Column fans! Factory Benelux has given the royal treatment to the band’s Factory Records live album, which was the first work of theirs I ever heard. The set has been expanded to three CDs, which includes archive material as well as a DVD of the concert, which was held in Japan in 1984.
[Music] David J. & René Halkett – David J. & René Halkett (20th Anniversary Edition)
Bauhaus bassist David J collaborated with an original member of the Bauhaus movement, painter and poet René Halkett, for this rather interesting collaboration.
[Music] Geometric Vision – Joy
Geometric Vision are a post-punk band out of Naples, Italy whose grungy sound fits their home terrain rather fittingly.
[Music] Moreno Veloso – Coisa Boa
It looks like Moreno Veloso is the chip off the old block, said block being the legendary Caetano.
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 