Mitsoura - Live in Szczecin, Poland 2009

Six years after the self-titled debut of the band around Hungarian singer Mitsu, Mitsoura deliver their second album. Was it worth the wait? Indeed it was. As it turns out the intriguing mix of traditional lyrics and music with modern arrangements that was already present on their debut was only a preview of what the new album has in store. Connecting original Roma lyrics from Hungary, Romania, Serbia and even Egypt with modern (electronic) music seems nice on paper but, as we have seen in the past, can turn out completely wrong. Not so with Mitsoura who display the ability to create a whole new musical genre on their own. You will recognise of influences from Nordic groups like Mari Boine and Värtinna, gypsy brass band music but also modern electronic music that we hear from artists like Mercan Dede or Transglobal Underground. Even fans of Lisa Gerard and Dead Can Dance will find strands back. The sum of all this is not a copy but a highly original musical approach. Of course the typical voice of Mitsu is the centre point but the contribution of Andras Monori (a.o. bansuri, sax and sitar), Peter Szalai (percussion) and Miklos Lukacz (cymbals) is substantial. To top it of the modern twist comes from the programming of Mark Moldvai. ‘Dura Dura Dura’ is a diverse musical journey around Eastern Europe. From the epic titletrack to the hotblooded ‘Tutti Frutti’, from the stomping ‘Kelushka’ to the powerballad ‘Ederlezi’, from the raga influenced ‘Pala late’ to the introvert closing track ‘Le shavore’.  From: https://rateyourmusic.com/music-review/europopmusic/mitsoura/dura-dura-dura/21922389 

 

 

Moon Mother - Wilderness

Despite being packed full of “joyous” holidays, the winter months tend to sink a lot of folks into a time of despair and with that comes self-reflection. It is a period for the earth to be reborn and for people to atone and make amends in hopes that the new year is different from the last.  This haunting section of life between despair and revitalization is the exact pocket that the new record from Moon Mother rests in. The dark-folk duo from Sweden has released a new album that is held down by darkness but consistently reaches for light. The project has a Nordic disposition that feels like being snowed in and is filled with slow melancholic tones that pull the listener into an unlit space, but at the same time there is a glimmer of fire that crackles and sparks just out of warmth.  
This is the second record for the band after launching their debut album in 2023, entitled She’s A Starry Night.  The new album is Meadowlands, and it pulls from topics of grief, despair, and isolation. Sara Mehner and Patriec Ahlström tell a vivid tale with metrical words and solemn tonality. Think of the avant-garde proclivity of The Velvet Unground & Nico garnished with Mazzy Star and stir in the experimental art-rock guitar stylings of Ahlström, Sara’s gorgeous imagery, and guiding backbeat by drummer Robert Hall and a novel of emotional expression is outlined. It is a story worth being told, and with producer Hans Olsson at the helm, the band is dialed back into a minimalist recording that is layered in simplistic depth.
The eight-track LP starts with a 3:29 journey through a menagerie of ethereal storytelling about psychological scars from the past in “High Houses.”  The opening lyrics breathe to life the songs beginning with “Down on that street my past self once met the present/ What my eyes couldn’t see had left footsteps all over my spine/ And it was the fall before a decade of winter/ It’s so strange, I was burning but the world has never been more cold”.  The words revitalize a time gone but not forgotten by the bard. Underneath these lines, the instrumentation looms softly with gentle brush strokes from the kit and lightly framed guitar.  The vocalization is highlighted through the softness of the players.  Mehner’s voice accent’s themes of depression with want for resolve and acceptance. 
The entirety of the record transports the listener into an atmospheric haze of gloomy, yet pleasing lullabies. One such single resonates with that theme.  The track is called “It Comes With Shadows” and it is a lovely orchestration of divine euphoria.  Although the pacing gives thoughts of defeat, the words battle that notion with aspiration. Poetically placed this thought come through with lines like “The abyss, it laughed as I was swallowed by the shame/ and the sun hung so low but still it poured the purest gold/ My hope was never as strong as in the midst of letting go/ In my last breath of despair, that’s where I dared to face the darkness”.  She is still seeing the beauty between all the black.  There is a driving force gained when facing agony, and its pure embrace becomes recognizable.
The other single that was released before the record drop was “World in a Glass Jar” and there is a mood that Slyvia Plath would find calming.  Piano keys bounce across the background before the blissful crooning of the lead singer comes forth to take hold of the production.  Her voice is angelically soothing.  This song is wrapped up in trying to understand wrongdoing and not necessarily holding the doer totally accountable but recognizing that their actions may have been misguided.  However, the takeaway is that she needs to get out of this place of pain. 
The record is a gorgeous jaunt through a woodland of feverish sentiment.  There is some absolve from hurt that happens with the recognition of trauma.  The message is quite clear that lessons can be learned, and that growth is possible if you choose to accept that things can get better.  “Meadowlands is without a doubt the most powerful thing we have ever created. It is a world for itself and we have undergone a kind of inner revolution in the making of this record. A death and a rebirth, I think it can be felt throughout the journey of listening to this album. Meadowlands – the place outside, the place within,” says Mehner.  From: https://im-musicmagazine.com/f/album-review-moon-mother-meadowlands/ 

CocoRosie - Cut Stitch Scar

As adventurous and idiosyncratic as ever, the Casady sisters are back with their singular brand of expansive, inscrutable art rock. Alternately heavy and restrained, changing rhythms and tones at will, “Cut Stitch Scar” traffics in one of CocoRosie’s superpowers, which is the capacity to be experimental and accessible at the same time. Even as it takes a while to get one’s arms around this one as a whole experience, the song’s initial urgency brings the listener in without hesitation. Bianca Casady sings with that child-like warble of hers, but rather than hesitancy it conveys authority. The lyrics urge us to “Take a leap of faith,” and that’s just what listening to CocoRosie demands. You’re not going to know what they’re singing about, you’re not going to anticipate or necessarily vibe with all of their musical choices, but it’s so clear that they know what they’re doing that I see no reason not to jump in with them.
That said, this song maybe needs a few listens. It starts blippy and glitchy, quickly acquires a satisfying percussive groove, and starts, lyrically, in the middle of some sort of dramatic, dimly understood circumstance, perhaps a dream. The tempo, and much of the instrumentation, disappears at the tail end of the verse and into the chorus. Electronics mix with heavenly backing vocals. The lyrics, as ever with the Casadys, may often baffle but they always always scan. The groove returns, vanishes, returns. Rubbery synths are heard. Vocals get distorted. But we never get too far away from satisfying chords. That may be one of the things that keeps the song legible to the ear, however weird it gets: those satisfying chords.  From: https://fingertipsmusic.com/2025/01/31/cut-stitch-scar-cocorosie/  

 

Mandrake Handshake - King Cnut

The wonderfully named ‘Flowerkraut’ act Mandrake Handshake have released King Cnut, the follow-up to summer’s equally cosmic Charlie’s Comet. The group, who vary anywhere from seven to ten full-time members, are dishing up quite possibly the most intriguing music of our times.
King Cnut is the shimmering, stomping, psychedelic fever dream 21st century music has been waiting for, somewhere between a Caligula-esque orgy of colours and light and hypnotic shoegaze. In seconds you’ll be drawn into the kaleidoscopic rhythm of droning backbeats, ethereal vocals and King Gizzard-esque licks. 
Quite simply, it’s one of those few Bacchinalian tracks that refuses to leave the cerebral cortex, instead lingering somewhere in the subconscious; fusing to your very soul. While the titular ruler proved unable to push back the tides, Mandrake Handshake have gone one step further; making the very fundamentals of nature bend to their sonic will.  From: https://www.theindiescene.co.uk/single-reviews/mandrake-handshake-king-cnut 

 

Preoccupations - Disarray

Preoccupations - "Disarray" (Flemish Eye/Jagjaguwar): It hasn't been easy, but the Calgary band formerly known as Viet Cong has managed to survive the clusterfuck that surrounded the controversy over its earlier moniker.
A third full-length album under the new name, New Material, comes out this Friday, preceded by this third single and video. The song is a little more atmospheric and less aggressive than much of Preoccupations' previous material, with a tinge of psychedelia present. The ringing guitar, driving percussion, and intense vocals of Matt Flegel results in a sound decidedly evocative of British post-punk in the early '80s. That was a highly fertile period, so to be transported back there as convincingly as this is a definite pleasure.
Describing the song in a label press release, Flegel says: "When I was writing 'Disarray' it started off with an image of a mother combing her daughter's hair. I liked the metaphor of splitting the braids and combing through the tangles and wrote the rest of the lyrics around that image. This song sat untouched for close to 6 months as a recording with just bass and drums before we came back to it and wrote and recorded the guitar line while out of our minds one night in the early AM."
The track is enhanced by the eye-catching video, directed by Ruff Mercy and shot at Saunton Sands in North Devon in the UK. The director explains that "Disarray conjures up images of a mind unravelling chaotically. I wanted to physically show that inner turmoil without having to have Matt or an actor run around with a painted face looking distressed so to cut up and distort and draw over Matt’s image felt like an interesting way to show this."  From: https://ca.billboard.com/fyi/preoccupations-disarray 

Mama's Broke - October's Lament

Halifax duo Mama’s Broke describes their music as “crunchy instrumentals and haunting harmonies.” Lisa Maria (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar) and Amy Lou Keeler (vocals, guitar, banjo, fiddlesticks) have been making music together for more than a decade. Their style incorporates everything from folk to bluegrass to Eastern European sounds.
“We met in Montreal, about eleven years ago,” says Keeler. “We met through some musician friends, and we did a lot of performing on the street. Then I gave Lisa a ride to Halifax one time. The genesis of the band was right after that.”
After some busking in Canada, the duo decided to take a new route–literally. “We booked a cheap flight to Ireland,” says Keeler. “We did a DIY tour with another group, through community centres and punk houses and things like that. And we performed on the street a lot, too.”
Both women grew up playing piano. Maria says this gave her “a solid foundation” and “a musical ear.” Keeler adds, “I grew up with a guitar player for a dad, so guitar was my first instrument.”
With two albums recorded, Mama’s Broke wants to continue making music. Their second record, Narrow Line, was recorded in Montreal in 2022. It received a CFMA nomination for Vocal Group of the Year at the 18th Canadian Folk Music Awards, and a JUNO nomination for Traditional Roots Album of the Year in 2023.
Throughout their musical collaboration, Maria and Keeler have been able to cross borders and find new places to play. “We recorded Narrow Line in Montreal,” says Maria, “but it was created in many places. We wrote it in all different parts of the world. ”
The album is full of gorgeous vocal harmonies. The pair says that their approach to singing together is “very intentional.” It’s clearly resonating with listeners. Folk Radio UK describes Narrow Line as “raw, rootsy and alive–uplifting and a joy to hear.”
Maria says, “It’s something we spend time doing together. We spent a lot of years traveling in a car together, singing, and practicing our harmonies.”  From: https://ckua.com/read/mamas-broke-harmonious-travelers/

Lyle Lovett - Penguins

Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you “Penguins,” one of the out-and-out funkiest songs ever laid down by someone generally classified as a country artist. But if you took a country music fan – the Coors Light-drinking, NASCAR-watching, truck-driving, ATV riding type of country music fan – and asked him about Lyle Lovett, chances are he’d look at you like my dog does when he’s confused about what I’m asking him to do.
That’s because on the radar screen of your average “hot” country radio listener, Lovett isn’t even a blip. He’s too funny looking (real country stars are pretty-boy handsome with a rustic edge), he’s too bluesy (real country stars have twang galore and don’t use all those annoying horns and … what the hell is that – a cello?) and he sings about the wrong stuff (no songs about getting wasted on cheap beer from a Solo cup while partying in a field), etc.
Add to that the fact that some of his songs are actually funny, obviously taking an opportunity to tweak the country music stereotypes that remain so pervasive, and he seems tailor made to piss off typical country fans.
On the other hand, if you as people who write about music and work in the music biz, they’ll say Lovett is in fact one of the best modern examples of how country music is rendered. They’ll tick off his excellent songwriting (ranked among the best of his Texas peers), his dry sense of humor, his unique voice and delivery, and his ability to switch back and forth between traditional country structure, the blues, jazz, swing and pop. And a few might even mention his stellar fashion sense, noting that he can pull off a bespoke Calvin Klein suit (Klein is his uncle, by the way) with a cowboy hat and boots like no one else I’ve ever seen. So you’ve got two groups telling everyone what you aren’t and what you are. What’s an artist to do?
Lovett’s answer is usually “ignore it and do what I want.” As a result he gets limited airplay on radio – because radio thrives on being able to pigeonhole an artist. If he’s not country, what is he? Americana? Roots? What do those things even mean to someone who’s not an Adult Album Alternative radio station program director? Incidentally, AAA radio is about the only place Lovett does get played on air, simply because the format has the flexibility (and the open-minded listeners) that allows them to throw the Beatles, Elvis Costello, Elvis Presley and someone like Lovett into the same 15-minute bloc of music.
The funny thing is, if you happen to come across someone who says she’s a Lyle Lovett fan, it usually doesn’t matter to them what box the radio programmers and record producers want to put him in. He is whatever he needs to be at any moment to satisfy his creative jones. It feels like Lovett tours almost constantly, and in the cruel reality of today’s music industry, he probably makes more money on the road than he does in record sales. But when you’ve got a legion of loving listeners ready to come see you at any given opportunity, the compensation (both financially and creatively) is significant.
So to you the writer, struggling with where you fit in this genre-obsessed literary landscape, I suggest working on your 30-second pitch rather than trying to figure out what genre box you should check. Tell people what your story is about, rather than what box you think it belongs in. Sure, you should know your general audience and respect them, but don’t pander to them. What I find as a reader is that I respect a writer’s style, voice, sense of humor and general outlook far more than whether he or she is hard sci-fi, urban fantasy or literary fiction.  From: https://scottbpruden.com/2014/05/09/funky-friday-lyle-lovett-proves-genre-only-means-something-if-you-let-it/

 

The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud - Rest on Your Arms Reversed - Untitled XII / Untitled XIII

 The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud - Rest on Your Arms Reversed - Untitled XII

 

The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud - Rest on Your Arms Reversed - Untitled XIII

 

One of my favorite tricks that musicians use is the manipulation of modern technology to create a relatively antiquated sound. Granted, I probably only like it because it's so incongruous with reason; it's so ironic that someone would use the "latest-and-the-greatest" to produce something which sounds just so old. Unless it's just some mordacious way to propose that revivalist movements are indeed fresh and new (or perhaps a mordacious way to propose that they're not; it's all very confusing), it comes across just another way to expand upon sound. With that being said, most artists who make use of this technique go back to a time that's retro, but no further. The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud was just far too ahead of their time (or stuck too damn far in the past) in that aspect, for they didn't go back to the sixties, the seventies, or the eighties, they ventured centuries further. Their sound was an innovation on European medievalism, making full use of not only "obsolete" folk instruments like the shawm, but tape loops, samplers, and a variety of electronic devices as well. But this technique, for them, was not at all an attempt to sound "hip;" it was a technique which served the sole purpose of furthering all aspects of their beautiful sound.
The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud was certainly eccentric, emphasizing not only clerical and ritual chants, stomping court music, and bouncy acoustic ballads, but distortion, tape loops, and samplers as well. But they didn't limit themselves to this amalgam; they incorporated a welcomed sense of the martial, ambient, and gothic in each of their tracks, nay, they fused them into a style rooted in European medievalism. Alzbeth's exaggerated female vocals, sung in archaic languages (Old French, Latin, and Middle High German), notarized this fascination with said time period; however, she was not without the help of her partner, Albin Julius. Granted, he took an ancillary role while Alzbeth took the reigns, but his affinity with distortion didn't go unnoticed.  From: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/37162/The-Moon-Lay-Hidden-Beneath-a-Cloud-A-New-Soldier-Follows-the-Path-of-a-New-King/ 

 

 

 

Stevie Wonder - As - Live In The Studio 1976

Stevie Wonder’s experiences during his humanitarian tour in Ghana from 1974 to 1975 greatly influenced the creation of “As.” He has stated that his time there gave him a renewed perspective on life, nature, and humanity, which is reflected in the song’s lyrics. Lines like Until dear Mother Nature says her work is through (always) / Until the day that you are me and I am you (always) illustrate Wonder’s belief in the lasting power of love and connection.
While in Ghana, Wonder engaged in cultural exchanges, immersed himself in the regional environment and connected deeply with the people. He gained a new perspective on life, finding that love and nature are synonymous. “As” is a poetic statement that his love will also be sustained because it’s the work of God.
The recording of “As” featured a collaboration with jazz legend Herbie Hancock on the Fender Rhodes electric piano and showcased Wonder’s well-known musicianship, as he handled the composition, lyrics, lead vocals, and all other instruments himself.
On May 13, 2024, Wonder’s 74th birthday, a lifelong dream was realized when he received Ghanaian citizenship at a ceremony in Accra. Organized by the Ghana Tourism Authority and Beyond the Return, President Nana Akufo-Addo presided over the event at Jubilee House and personally handed Wonder his certificate.
In his speech, Wonder highlighted his 50-plus year desire to become a Ghanaian citizen, revealing it was part of his dream to unite people of African descent and the diaspora. He spoke about Ghana representing a spiritual home where he feels an intrinsic ancestral bond: “I’ve said for many years, the only way the world will come together is that we unite as a united people of the world,” Wonder said.  From: https://www.theroot.com/black-music-month-the-meaning-behind-stevie-wonders-be-1851543509

 

Momma - Lucky

Smile Politely: I’ve been listening for a couple of years and some of my favorites are from Household Name. I love “Speeding 72.” I speed down our 72 all the time. So I’m kind of curious: What is 72?

Allegra Weingarten: I think it’s supposed to be the miles per hour, but I honestly don’t remember. I think it just rolled off the tongue, so we put that number there. 

Etta Friedman: I have a brief memory of us writing the words to that and being like “72 just sounds good, let’s just use it,” and then being like “Speeding 72 is like not even that fast.” But then I think we were just kind of like “It doesn’t actually matter, it just sounds good. Who cares?”

SP: I read that you signed to Polyvinyl after they cold-emailed you. I think that’s so cool. Are you willing to talk a little bit about that interaction? 

Weingarten: It was just in 2020, and we had released Two of Me earlier that year and I had just moved to New York. We kind of didn’t really know what our game plan was as a band. Two of Me kind of flopped; only because we couldn’t tour it and there was a lot going on in the world. We felt like it just wasn’t getting the attention it deserved. But we were gonna keep writing and making music regardless. 
And then it just so happened that Polyvinyl just emailed us. They were like, “Hey, we like your music, we’d love to get on a call.” We didn’t even have a manager yet. So we just talked to them and months later circled back once we had demos. We got a manager and a team together, and talked to them, and ended up landing on them and signing with them.

SP: What did a typical day in the studio look like for you while working on Welcome to My Blue Sky?

Friedman: I feel like we’re a band with weird routines. We like to set weird little things for us [in the studio] because it’s just entertaining. We did half the record at Studio G in New York and then the other half at our friend Sebastian [Jones’] studio, Wasatch Studios in Santa Monica. 
First of all, we had to bring lights, because the lighting there was not great. We all brought lights, literally like lamps from our room, to set a vibe. We brought color changing lights and stuff like that. We would put on King of the Hill at a certain point in the Studio G recording.
But typically, in terms of how we were actually doing it: Drums go first, then me and Allegra are just kind of there like playing along. We have a lot of trust with Aron [Kobayashi Ritch] and he knows how to achieve the sounds that we want and we definitely don’t necessarily know all that it takes to get that. So we get to go shopping for pedals and stuff like that, and I don’t know, get a good lunch. That’s pretty much our day in the studio. 

Weingarten: Yeah, we all have our things that we do when we’re not actively doing something. If Etta’s tracking guitars, Preston [Fulks] and I will play Geoguessr together. 

SP: Are there any songs that didn’t make the cut? Any we might hear later?

Weingarten: There’s plenty of songs that didn’t make the cut that will never see the light of day. Unfortunately, they’re not great songs, but there are a couple B-sides that we’ve kind of revitalized, and those will be heard eventually. I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, to be completely honest, but yes, it will be heard in some capacity. 

SP: I know that you both met when you were younger in California, and it seems like you lived separately in New York and New Orleans for a few years. What did your collaboration look like during that time? Was there a home base?

Friedman: Going to school in separate places and even in our separate places, [we both] still needed musical outlets. We both like people to play music with, which I think really kept a spark going to generally keep making music, and the drive of it.  
And then — we have always, we just write. We would send each other little ideas, like “I think this would be a fun thing to work on together,” or “Do you have an idea for this?” And then, during winter break, spring break, summer break, we would always be back home in LA. And then that’s when we would flush things out, play some shows if we could, record if we could, stuff like that.

SP: You mentioned that Aron came into the process and was helpful. I read that Aron also produced Welcome to my Blue Sky. How did y’all get involved?

Weingarten: It’s really funny because Aron did our very first project when we were still in high school, called thanks come again. And Sebastian, too, who has the studio where we did Welcome to my Blue Sky. We just knew them from high school. I’ve known Sebastian since I was a kid.
We asked them to do Two of Me. Or, I guess we didn’t really know what it took to make an album at that point and we didn’t really know what a producer does. We had no idea. We weren’t doing pre-production, we weren’t demoing anything. We were kind of like, “Here are the songs, let’s go into a studio and do it.”
We enjoyed working with Aron so much that when we relocated to New York and we needed a bass player, we wanted him to be in the band. It also made sense to have him produce with us as well. He opened up our entire world in terms of how a record should be made. We did a really intense demo process with him, and we were writing with him. It really became like a true collaboration, and it still is now. The band definitely changed for the better when we brought Aron into the fold.

SP: What are your current influences? What are you listening to?

Friedman: Musically, I’ve been listening to this artist that Allegra showed me, Graham Hunt. My friend showed me this band called The Pillows. They’re from Japan, they’re really cool. And then I’ve been listening to Yeule and the new Alex G. I’d say, those are probably my four right now.

Weingarten: I’ve been listening to this band that we’re taking out this fall called Villager. I found this band on tour called Sandpit, and I’ve been slowly putting everyone I know onto them. They’re Australian and kind of sound like Pinback, but just really interesting, angular guitar music. It makes me want to write leads again, because I feel like most of the time when I write, I’m writing chords, like singer/songwriter stuff. Then last night, I got home from the bar, and I listened to Taylor Swift for an hour.

From: https://www.smilepolitely.com/music/momma-talks-recording-touring-and-musical-influences/ 

 

Mr. Elevator & The Brain Hotel - Sunshine Daydream

After five years as Mr. Elevator & The Brain Hotel, the Psych-Pop trio from Los Angeles has decided to shorten their moniker to just Mr. Elevator in conjunction with their sophomore release When the Morning Greets You. While there is no shortage of bands in the modern psych-pop scene, Mr. Elevator differentiates themselves by abjuring the electric guitar, instead creating their soundscapes with organs, synthesizers, electric pianos and bass guitar. The way that co-founders Thomas Dolas and Justin Martinez use effects on their keys and vocals create a sound that harkens back to the golden age of psychedelia with a heavy dose of The Doors. Though When the Morning Greets You does not stray very far from their debut album, Nico & Her Psychedelic Subconscious, it feels like a continuation of the musical journey that that first album started the listener out on.
When the Morning Greets You plays out like a journey through someone’s day-in-the-life. The album opens with “When the Morning Greets You With A Smile,” an upbeat track where the listener can’t help but feel that someone has just woken up in a great mood. The subsequent tracks “Madeline” and “Sunshine Daydream” continue in the vein of up-tempo and optimism. It’s on “Dreamer” and “Are You Hypnotized” that one feels like the reality of the day starts to set in. The waltzing polka tempos of the tracks bring to mind mad carnivals and haunted houses. After the instrumental interludes of “A Lullaby” and “Intro” the rest of the album feels like a descent into madness. The tempo and key effects remain largely the same and tend to meander quite a bit through much of the second half of the album creating a common thread to follow to the last song. The album ends with the appropriately named “Ending”, which puts the listener in mind that the end of the journey has come upon us. The organ drones along in the background as the singer laments how “Everyday you’re getting old/There’s nothing you can do/ It all comes down to you”.
All in all, Mr. Elevator’s sophomore album doesn’t bring much new to the table in regards to innovation within psych-pop, but it still remains a solid album. Feeling like you are being taken on a journey or living out someone else’s day is not something that can be done easily, and When the Morning Greets You manages to not only pull it off but make it sound easy. Like most groups under the umbrella of psychedelia, it is also probable that ingesting or inhaling certain things might even increase the experience.  From: https://glidemagazine.com/179868/mr-elevator-spin-psych-pop-dreams-morning-greets-album-review/

 

Jex Thoth - Obsidian Night

Alchemical doom. That’s the tag I read the lead vocalist use to describe California-based Jex Thoth’s sound in a Decibel Magazine piece on the band. Sounds about right. I don’t love genre tags, but this band was causing me all kinds of confusion before alchemical doom clicked with me and made sense of the tunes on their debut full-length here. This isn’t exactly proto-doom – but fans of all things heavy, slow and early 70s should dig it. And it’s not just throwback psychedelia because there’s something more, well, pagan involved in the acid-drenched, forest-dwelling jams here. Alchemical doom, then.  But genre tags don’t matter and I’m sorry for dragging that old skeleton out of the closet. On to the music.
It’s awesome. I can’t stop listening to it. You may recognize the name of a band called Totem. Well, they changed their name to Jex Thoth (the singer’s stage name). So if you picked up Totem’s debut EP (also quality), get this. Another reason to check this out: Albert Witchfinder (ReverendBizarre) provided the cover art for the album. For those of you unfamiliar with Totem, the band is fronted by a female vocalist and she plays a central role in the proceedings, musically and in the mix, which might be a deal breaker for you if you don’t particularly jibe with her unique and powerful clean style. (At times friends in the car thought I was listening to some unreleased Jefferson Airplane track). The music is heavy and laid way back, led by organs and Sabbath-inspired riffs, full of flutes, spaced-out effects and synths, and a generally fuzzed-out, drugged, lumbering but light-headed feeling. There are bongos, too, just so you know that healthy amounts of green were involved.  From: https://yourlastrites.com/2008/04/28/jex-thoth-jex-thoth-review/

Knifeworld - Destroy The World We Love

Q: I know you were working as a solo artist after having been in several bands over the years. Did you call yourself Knifeworld back then or did you only come up with the band name when you formed the band as it is today?

Kavus Torabi: I wasn’t really working as a solo artist. I’d recorded an album of songs and I suppose I felt a little wary of putting it out as ‘Kavus Torabi’, it had a few guests and friends on it anyway, so I called it Knifeworld. I was a full time member of Cardiacs while I was making it and the plan, originally, had been for Tim Smith  (Cardiacs leader) to play bass in the live band . Nonetheless the awful circumstances that befell Tim put Cardiacs on hold indefinitely. Once the album came out in 2009, I put the band together to promote it without any real plans as to what would happen next but after a few gigs we realised we really had something and so the band was born.

Q: Has Knifeworld always had eight members or have you just gradually kept adding them as your vision has expanded?

KT: We started out as a six piece, with a different druQer and bassist. It was after we released the Clairvoyant Fortnight EP in 2012, on which Chloe had overdubbed multiple horns, that we thought it’d be fun to do some gigs where we could replicate that sound live. Charlie, our then new bass player, knew Josh and Nicki and brought them over to rehearsals. It was never the plan to be an eight piece. As you can imagine, for an underground band, it’s pretty impractical. Nonetheless, I’ve never been one to let practicality stand in the way of an insane idea, besides, once I heard the band with the the horn section it was like taking crack, there was no going back. Nicki, who played tenor sax on the last album, had to leave and was replaced by Olly who plays baritone sax, that changed the sound a great deal. It’s such an unusual horn section, Alto, Baritone and bassoon. It sounds really unique and it’s wonderful to be able to write for them. They’re a lot more up front on this record,  it’s almost as if the horn section play the part of a guitar at some points. I sort of wrote myself out a little. There’s bits where the horns play the chords and riffs while the guitar sort of weaves a line through them.

Q: What does the name Knifeworld mean to you? Is there a story or meaning behind it?

KT: There’s not much of a story. My friend Jo Spratley came up with it at the tail end of an improbable conversation at about four in the morning. As soon as I heard those two words together, I knew it had to be the name of the thing I was working on. It had such a spooky resonance.

Q: What is the intended meaning of the new record being called Bottled Out of Eden?

KT: The title can be interpreted in a number of ways, it seemed to shiQer with a strange magic. I had the title before I’d written any of the songs. That’s always been the case, I have the title for the next album too. Once I’d come up with it then it gave me a general idea about the shape and vibe the album was going to have. It helps give a cohesiveness to the material because, even if fairly abstract and nebulous, you can identify what will and won’t work with the album as a whole. I wrote some songs that didn’t fit with the overall idea so I put them aside to use for something else. Nothing ever gets wasted.

Q: To my ears, Bottled Out of Eden sounds a bit more accessible than The Unravelling. Were you trying to write something that would iQediately grab the listener this time around? (It almost seems like there’s a pop vibe there.)

KT: Absolutely. We wanted this to be our pop album. After our last record, The Unravelling, which was pretty maudlin and introspective, I wanted to make something joyous and upbeat. The real events that surrounded the making of it tried to pull it in a more melancholy direction so it ended up being a bit of both. I think it’s our best album.

Q: Do you write all of Knifeworld’s songs alone or does the whole band get together and write or how does it work?

KT: I write all the songs, and generally the arrangements too although I gladly ceded control a little on this one and we worked on a lot of the arrangements together. I’m a fairly benevolent control freak but this line up of the band has been playing together for a while and we’re all used to each other’s idiosyncratic way of playing. Everyone gets what Knifeworld is about so it’s more a case of showing the other guys the tunes, suggesting a general arrangement and saying, “Well, you know what to do”. The buck stops with me, and I’ll certainly be very vocal about something that isn’t working but this album felt far more like a group effort.

Q: Do you usually write the lyrics or the music first or do they come to you at the same time or?

KT: Almost always music first. Usually as I’m writing the melodies, little phrases and lines will appear and sometimes I’ll keep them. That said, If I happen upon little phrases that I like, I’ll make a note of them to use later in lyrics if I can. I tend to talk far too much and, owing to the law of averages, while most of what I say is largely pointless and annoying, occasionally I might find myself on a particularly florid or colourful rant, and stop myself and say “Oh, that’s good…I’ll keep that” and make a note of it before continuing to talk at whoever happens to be in my vicinity.

Q: How old were you when you wrote your first song? Do you remember what it was called?

KT: A piano turned up in our house when I was seven and I wrote a very rudimentary tune on it called Highway Hotel but I’d been inventing tunes in my head for as long back as I can remember. I used to have theme tunes for all my toys, as if they had their own TV programs.

From: https://loveispop.com/interviews/an-exclusive-interview-with-kavus-torabi-of-knifeworld/ 

Delaney & Bonnie - Poor Elijah - Live TV 1969

I say Delaney and Bonnie (D&B) were amazing. Why? Because they were such a great band? Well, sure they were. But while quite popular for a time (late ’60’s – early ’70’s), they were never in the top echelon of rock/blues bands nor did they have a string of hits.
So, amazing at least as much for how many players came into and out of their band or were associated with them. The short list includes Dave Mason, Joe Cocker, Clarence White, Duane Allman, Gram Parsons, Rita Coolidge, Billy Preston, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, George Harrison. And briefly, Jimi Hendrix.
I think of Delaney and Bonnie as the rock n’ roll “glue.” In a sense they were similar to John Mayall in England who, while widely regarded in his own right, is likely best known for the guitarists (Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green) who played with him.
So who were Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett? Delaney was a Mississippi-born singer/songwriter who moved to LA in the Sixties and became a member of a group called the Shindogs, an in-house band for an American music variety show called Shindig. He later became a producer, cutting albums with the likes of Etta James and the Staples Singers.
Shindig was similar to Britain’s Top of the Pops and guests included The Stones, The Beatles, the Four Tops and pretty much anybody who was hot in music at that time. The Shindogs were no slouches themselves. Other members included Glen Campbell, Billy Preston, James Burton, and Leon Russell
Illinois-born Bonnie Lynn O’Farrell started singing backup at thirteen years old, ultimately becoming the first white female singer to work with Ike and Tina Turner. She moved to LA, met Delaney at a Shindogs gig and married him within the week.
I saw Bonnie recently on a documentary (Eric Clapton – The 1970’s Review) and boy, she is one funny, outrageous hot ticket. Also a songwriter, she co-wrote (with Delaney and Leon Russell), the classic “Superstar,” and (with Eric and Delaney) Clapton’s “Let it Rain.”
Delaney’s work in the Shindogs provided him with connections, enabling him to secure a contract with Memphis’ Stax records, home to, among others, Otis Redding. In 1969, Delaney and Bonnie released their debut album, Home. It was part of a flurry of Stax records and was somewhat lost in the shuffle. Among the musicians on the album were Leon Russell and another Tulsa guy, bassist Carl Radle.
But it was their second album, The Original Delaney and Bonnie and Friends (also 1969) that got attention and great reviews. On hearing it, George Harrison offered them a contract on Apple but for whatever reason, that never happened.
Legend (and Wikipedia) has it that Delaney later taught George Harrison how to play slide guitar. But Delaney himself says that no, George could already play and Delaney just gave him some tips on his style. Maybe George considered that “teaching.”
Eric Clapton said he, “immediately loved the album”, calling it “hardcore R&B and very soulful, with great guitar playing and a fantastic horn section.” In addition to their usual coterie of musicians, joining them were Memphis-born Bobby Whitlock (keys, vocals) and Rita Coolidge. Whitlock “learned Hammond organ peering over Booker T’s shoulder at Stax studios.”
Eric Clapton, by now tired of long, endless jams, had formed the band Blind Faith with Steve Winwood and Ginger Baker. This band toured in 1969 with Delaney and Bonnie as their supporting act. Eric had arranged this based on hearing an early acetate of the album.
Clapton, wearying of the egos and the drama of his supergroup, found himself hanging out with Delaney’s band where he enjoyed much greater camaraderie. Bonnie says Clapton and Baker were just worn out by the Cream thing. But the label wanted another Cream and so, put them on the road.
Clapton later said, “For me, going on with Blind Faith after Delaney and Bonnie was really, really tough, because I thought they were miles better than us.” Clapton dug D&B so much he later toured with them. (I think too, that Clapton was at this point very much sick of being “the guy” and just wanted to be a sideman for a while). This tour was recorded and the result is a 1970 album called Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, On Tour with Eric Clapton.
In addition to Clapton, this band included Dave Mason (Winwood’s Traffic bandmate), Bobby Keys and Jim Price (Stones horn players), George Harrison (on the English leg of the tour), and Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, and Jim Gordon.  From: https://musicenthusiast.net/2016/07/15/the-amazing-story-of-delaney-and-bonnie-and-friends-pt-1/

Cadillac Sky - Live at Romp Festival 2008

Cadillac Sky should be a lot more tired. It’s early Saturday afternoon at MerleFest and the band–Bryan Simpson, Matt Menefree, Andrew Moritz, Ross Holmes and newest addition David Mayfield–has already logged two performances on the day, including a bleary-eyed 9:45 a.m. set on the main stage, not to mention a show on Friday. (By the way, they killed it at the Saturday morning slot.)
MerleFest is kind of like South By Southwest for bluegrass bands. Everywhere you turn, there’s music being played, and many of the buzzed-about bands play multiple shows each day. For Cadillac Sky, the excitement is nothing new. Or, then again, maybe it is.
Back in 2002, when Cadillac Sky formed in Texas around Simpson’s songwriting and the bluegrass chops of Menefree, Moritz and Holmes, the band featured veteran bluegrass flatpicker Mike Jump on guitar. After a couple of outings on the conservative Skaggs Family label (2007’s Blind Man Walking and 2008’s Gravity’s Our Enemy), it became obvious that something needed to change.
Simpson, somewhat perplexed at having to find a new guitarist, called to see if Tyler Grant, a versatile bluegrass guitarist, wanted the gig. Grant declined but sent a list of serious recommendations. “At the very top of the list in triple bold was David Mayfield,” says Simpson. Grant knew he was the perfect guy for Cadillac Sky and when Simpson and the rest of the band heard Mayfield play, “the auditions were over.”
With a renewed faith in Cadillac Sky–Simpson’s got a side gig writing songs for country artists like Blake Shelton and Billy Currington–the band was reborn. “Once you lose the record deal, you do whatever you want,” Simpson says. “Because what’s the worst that can happen?” With Mayfield onboard, the band seems completely reenergized. Their live show is a festering, rambunctious affair with Mayfield leading the charge and riling up the rest of the band.
In another symbolic gesture of change, the band hired The Black Keys’s Dan Auerbach to record Letters In The Deep. When I recently spoke to Auerbach about his band’s newest album (Brothers), I also asked him about Cadillac Sky. “I think with Cadillac Sky, I sort of was there to give them the confidence to record it [more experimentally] because modern bluegrass is not very organic,” Auerbach said. “It was weird because they had been so trained to think about it, and I was there to just tell them to be at ease, sit in a circle, and record these songs. If you feel the song needs electric guitar, let’s put it on there. If you want to try it with a fuzz pedal, let’s try that, too. Here’s this drum kit; you can play that, also. I introduced those guys to the Mellotron, so I think it was all over then.”
And the record plays like a cross-section of old-time bluegrass and, well, something else. “As far as a writer, I feel like I’m just now starting to write songs that I really want to write,” Simpson says, citing the more contemporary influence of songwriters like Jeff Tweedy. “You have to break through that mold of how have much of yourself you can put on tape,” he says.  From: https://americansongwriter.com/sessions-cadillac-sky/