Kansas - On the Other Side

Monolith is often pointed to as the beginning of the slide for Kansas, and in some ways it was. But the album as a whole is extremely well arranged, and considering it was the band’s first attempt at self-production in the studio, pretty well constructed overall.
There have been many reviews written stating that the clear distinction between the Steve Walsh and the Kerry Livgren penned tunes as well as the ongoing internal squabbles in the band were a result of Walsh’s impatience with Livgren’s insistence on cranking out Christianity-inspired lyrics. This is not quite right. In fact, Monolith released in May 1979, and was recorded largely between February and March of that year. Livgren has stated many times that he converted to Christianity during the 87-city tour supporting the Monolith release, not before (on July 29, 1979 to be exact – one month after Monolith was certified as a gold-selling album). In fact, most of the Livgren tunes on the album (as well as “No One Together”, which was written during this time but released on Audio-Visions) were written while Livgren was still an ardent supporter of the Urantia Book, a cosmically spiritual alter-Bible of sorts that surfaced in Chicago in the mid 20th century. The Christian lyrics would come with Audio-Visions and Livgren’s solo debut Seeds of Change in 1980. Livgren was, to be fair, pretty much always inclined to mystic lyrics and arrangements bordering on the spiritual though.
There were certainly divisions in the band, but they were more because of Walsh’s desire for the band to pursue a simpler, more rock-infused musical path and less of a spacey, progressive one (and also probably because of Walsh’s liquid-consumption-plus-short- temper problem during this period). In fact, Walsh had penned some tunes during this timeframe that were not included on Monolith for whatever reason, but did end up on his own solo debut Schemer-Dreamer in 1980. It is interesting to note that this is the first Kansas album that did not include any co-authored works between Livgren and Walsh.
Coming off three consecutive multi-platinum selling albums, Monolith was a bit of a letdown for the band, but the period of 1979-1980 was a watershed period for many progressive bands, what with the competing genres of punk, new wave, and disco. It’s worth noting that the #1 album in America the day Monolith went gold was Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls”. Still, the album went on to sell nearly 900,000 copies, and will more than likely still top the platinum mark at some point anyway.
The songs themselves are somewhat varied, but most of them are pretty good. “On the Other Side” is pure Kansas, with a lot of spacey moog, gorgeous violin work by frontman Robbie Steinhardt, and some great guitar work by Livgren and Rich Williams. This is just as good as pretty much anything Kansas had done previously, plus it features the timeless lyrics – “The answers are so simple and we all know where to look, But it’s easier just to avoid the question”. Amen.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=3207

Tardigrade Inferno - Arrival Of A Train

They say that music soothes the savage beast but in the case of Black cabaret Avant-Garde Metal quartet Tardigrade Inferno that should perhaps be altered to music cheers the unhinged clown. The Russian quartet hail from St. Petersburg and have been slicing and dicing since 2016’s set titled EP, following it with a full length album in 2019’s “Mastermind” that features a cover of a cut by The Doors as well as one from the hit children’s TV series Lazy Town… which probably tells you all you need to know, but perhaps you should never judge a book by its cover. 2021 saw EP “The Worst Of Me” and single “Spooky Scary Skeletons” drop before all went quiet on the Eastern front. Mixed and mastered by Vladimir Lehtinen (Grima, Neorhythm, Ultar) at Blastbear Sound, “Arrival of a Train” marks the groups return, with vocalist Darya Rorria, bassist Maxim Belekhov, drummer Andrew Drew and guitarist keyboard player Alexander Pavlovich looking they escaped from Arkham Asylum having somehow got free from their straight jackets.
The aesthetics of Tardigrade Inferno feel like they’re in a similar vein to Avatar with a macabre sense of unhinged fun written all over the band with each song elevated into more of a theatrical performance at a dark circus or grotesque carnival. This chapter in their story begins with the title track, a stomp-y Alternative Metal chugging as the band marches into town, Rorria using a variety of voices to deliver deranged vocals as if she’s suffering from a split personality. One moment she’s Sever from Canadian Alternative Metal act Sumo Cyco and the next she’s Tatiana Shmayluk from Ukrainian Progressive Death Metal act Jinjer – and everything in between. The metaphors flow thick and fast with a sense of gallows humour and yet it’s fearfully addictive and hilariously good fun at the same time, especially when the colossal breakdown hits. How can you not want to sing a long to lines like “The train is coming and everything you love will perish, I’m the last thing you will hear, chug, chug chug!“? The dance macabre continues with “Fire, Plague and Locust“, it’s off kilter groove and buried keys a master class in setting a mood, the intelligence of the lyrics and their delivery setting the band apart from the pack with verve and swagger. A stylish decadent black joke or bloodthirsty philosophical parable, Rorria is unstoppable as the ringmaster of this group of musicians and for her they have created a soundscape perfectly fitting.  From: https://metalnoise.net/2023/05/review-arrival-of-a-train-by-tardigrade-inferno

Emperor Penguin - Maserati

MFP: Where did it all begin? Where and how did you all meet?

JT: “I first met Rich countless years ago in a cellar and have been irritating him ever since. He introduced me to the others.

“Nigel: “Rich and I met age 14 at school and formed a covers band with his older brother. After graduation from university we shared flats in London. At this point Rich was in two bands – one with JT, and another with Neil. I was asked to join both.”

Neil: “Before the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars. Barnsley with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Cudworth with its shadow-guarded tombs, Aberdeen, silver city of the frozen north, whose riders wore steel and furs and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was London, reigning supreme in the dreaming south. Hither came the Penguins, shaggy-haired, sullen-eyed, guitars in hand, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jewelled thrones of the Earth under their Doctor Martened feet.”

Rich: “I met Nigel at school in Yorkshire in 1977 through my brother, Vince Berkely, who knew him from the school production of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. My brother’s mate had a drum kit but his mum wouldn’t allow drums at their house, so my brother got hold of them and made me play them.  We formed a band with Nigel, playing instrumental versions of chart hits. Few of the eight-year old schoolchildren present at our first ever gig at Stockingate Primary School would forget our version of ‘Rockin All Over The World’.
I met John from Devon in Oxford in 1981, when he joined a nerdy Wire-sort-of-band I was in (Agent Orange) that had advertised for a keyboard player. John said he didn’t have a keyboard but could play his guitar with a screwdriver, in the manner of Godley and Creme’s  Gizmo. John soon went off to found his own post-punk Magaziney/Echo and the Bunnymen-y-style band called Ears To The Ground but by the time I met him again in ’83, Ears To The Ground had developed a busking 50’s/60’s covers alter ego, called The Rockin Raja Brothers, who needed a snare drum. 
We moved to London in 84/5 and while John was kipping on a sofa in my lounge he met my flat-mate Nigel and we drafted him into the Rockin’ Rajas, as his mastery of all the Shadows hits would widen our repertoire considerably.
Meanwhile I’d met Neil at the ad agency where we both worked. He’d brought with him from the wilds of Aberdeen the remnants of a punk band called He’s Dead Jim but he had no drummer and a large bedroom with a drumkit-shaped space in it. Luckily I needed somewhere to keep my drums at the time, so in return for storage space, I joined his band called The Waltons – in our better moments a hybrid of the Flying Burrito Brothers, Crowded House and Lloyd Cole and The Commotions. As often happened, people noticed Nigel was quite a good guitarist, so we stole half of him from the Rockin Rajas and expanded The Waltons into a five-piece in 1987.
After 10 critically-acclaimed but commercially disastrous years, The Waltons (briefly The Treens) all got married and jacked it in. The Rockin’ Rajas continued to play 50s and 60s covers at weddings until even the parents of the happy couple were too old to remember any of the songs and they also ground to a halt.
In 2000, somebody had the idea of forming Emperor Penguin – a power-pop combo of Neil, Nigel, me and Adrian from the Rockin Rajas. Adrian’s brother was a tip top BBC sound engineer and snuck us into Maida Vale Studios to record several tracks which became product number 1: Crumhorn. The arrival of babies restricted Emperor Penguin’s live work to one gig at a rowdy ad agency party where the sound man was skunked to the eyeballs and I was likened by hecklers to the sitcom character Father Ted.  Adrian eventually left London for the West Country and Emperor Penguin went into hibernation, although of course penguins don’t do that, do they? Let’s say we sat on an egg.
Many years went by until someone suggested an idea which had been staring us all in the face for a long time – get John in. So in 2015, or was it 2016 we began rehearsing covers of bands we liked – Fountains of Wayne, BeBop DeLuxe, Dave Edmunds, and er The Beatles – until one day, Neil turned up with a song called Moth Meet Flame. All of a sudden no-one could stop writing great songs (except me – I don’t do that) and here we are, three albums later. A fine musical and geographical journey was had by all.”

MFP: What made you all start Emperor Penguin, and is there a story behind the name?

JT: “I always wanted to be in the band, but pride made me wait until they asked me – It only took 14 years.

Neil: “We noticed that there was a shocking shortage of groups composed of four middle-aged white men playing Beatles-inspired guitar pop and thought we’d fill the gap in the market. I don’t think there’s a story behind the name but many other names were considered and rejected, including: Fishy Wishy; Egg the Egg; Draw My Dog; Cheesequake; Roast.”

Nigel:“The current line up is an evolution of several earlier versions with different personnel. The name also; previous names being The Waltons, The Treens and Roast before (I seem to recall) we decided that everyone loves penguins, so let’s name ourselves after the grandest sounding one.”

MFP: Has Emperor Penguin continuously been active since the beginning, or was there ever a break in between?

Neil: “Emperor Penguin went into hibernation from about 2001 to 2016 after original member Adrian Long moved out of town. Like King Arthur’s knights, the remaining Penguins fell into a sleep under a mountain somewhere in Avalon, with our guitars by our sides, until the hour of Britain’s need (2017), when we returned to claim our kingdom.”

Nigel:“The initial activity began in the late 1990s with sessions that became ‘Crumhorn’. The original bassist then moved out of London, we became quite busy with our covers/function band ‘The Rajas’ and life got in the way until we picked it up again about 5 years ago.”

MFP: Do you remember when it all just clicked, and when you knew your chemistry was spot on?

Rich: “Rehearsing ‘Maid In Heaven’ and it not sounding at all bad”

JT: “When I heard the first mix of (The Theme From) Falling Tree with Nigel’s lead vocal”

Nigel: “For me it was the first time David Bash invited us to play The Cavern at the Liverpool IPO and the release of second album Rum Pop Engineer.”

MFP: Have any of you ever fought over a girl?

Nigel: “No but plenty of girls continue to fight over us. Shameful really but they’re only human.”

JT: “Not with each other.”

Neil: “I’m a lover not a fighter.”

From: https://mycholsfabulousplayground.wordpress.com/2021/02/12/emperor-penguin-behind-the-curtain/

Glass Hammer - Anthem To Andorath

Glass Hammer is a symphonic-progressive rock band from the United States. They formed in 1992 when multi-instrumentalists Steve Babb and Fred Schendel began to write and record Journey of the Dunadan, a concept album based on the story of Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. To their surprise, the album sold several thousand units via the Internet, The QVC Shop-At-Home Network and phone orders, leaving Babb and Schendel convinced that the band was a project worth continuing.
While many musicians have appeared on Glass Hammer albums over the years, Babb and Schendel have remained the core of the band. Both play a variety of instruments, but Babb mainly concentrates on bass guitar and keyboards while Schendel plays keyboards, various guitars and drums until the addition of live drummer Matt Mendians to the studio recording band in 2004. They also sing, although a number of other vocalists have also handled lead vocal duties including Michelle Young, Walter Moore, Carl Groves, Susie Bogdanowicz and Jon Davison. Worthy of mention, Yes vocalist Jon Anderson provided backup vocals on two songs from 2007's Culture of Ascent.
Lyrically, Glass Hammer is inspired mostly by their love of literature (most notably Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and John Krakauer) and Babb's love of Victorian prose and medieval mythology. 
Musically, they lean towards 70's driven symphonic rock, with strong keyboard orientation; specifically Hammond organs in the tradition of ELP. They have a superb melodic flow to the music they make, encapsulating real power and dynamics without ever becoming overpowering. Their most apparent influences are Yes, ELP, Genesis, and, to a less noticeable extent, Camel. While Glass Hammer have, for the most part, combined those influences into a characteristic style of their own, they made much more direct references to the aforementioned bands on their 2000 album Chronometree and the 2010 release If. Without a doubt, GH remain one of the most popular groups in the progressive rock genre. All the albums are very conceptual, and there is great musicianship overall.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=129 

Big Scenic Nowhere - LeDu

Culled from the same sessions that birthed the Lavender Blues EP in 2020, Big Scenic Nowhere’s second full-length expands the supergroup’s jammed out take on Desert Rock. However, The Long Morrow (Heavy Psych Sounds) sets itself apart from Vision Beyond Horizon by means of a more grounded approach. There aren’t as many songs as before and the album is about ten minutes shorter than its predecessor overall. The guest list also isn’t as loaded this time around, only featuring keyboardist Per Wilberg and The Cure/David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels on the colossal title track.
Fortunately, what could’ve been a letdown ends up being one of the album’s biggest strengths. The Long Morrow is a rather uniform listen compared to the last album’s more off-the-wall nature as the individual tracks often feel like segments of a greater whole. The dynamics may fluctuate with each song but there’s a loose flow that makes for an easygoing experience. I can get into the almost Soundgarden-esque swagger on ‘Murder Klipp’ and the calming psychedelia that comes halfway in has an even more ethereal effect on ‘Lavender Bleu.’ The title track is an inevitable standout with its twenty-minute runtime, largely revolving around fluid modifications of a meandering desert-friendly jam.
This attitude also reflects in the musicianship as the dynamic is loose and the playing is colorful without getting too self-indulgent. The rhythms are rock solid with the prominent bass often providing the most weight as the guitars generally waft off into abstract textures supplemented by gorgeous synth work. As much as I miss the multi-vocalist format that came with the last album, multi-instrumentalist Tony Reed does an excellent job of giving the somewhat sparser lines a little extra character with his robust howl.  From: https://ghostcultmag.com/album-review-big-scenic-nowhere-the-long-morrow-heavy-psych-sounds/

Frente! - What's Come Over Me

Frente! was formed in 1989 in Melbourne, Australia, by guitarist Simon Austin, lead vocalist Angie Hart, bassist Tim O'Connor, and drummer Mark Picton. The band's name, which means "forehead" or "front" in Spanish, quickly became synonymous with its unique blend of folk-pop and indie pop in the Melbourne music scene. Its acoustic sound and Hart's distinctive vocal delivery set it apart from the grunge trends of the day, giving it a fresh and honest appeal.

Discography and Notable '90s Albums

"Marvin the Album" (1992): Frente!'s debut album was a critical and commercial success, featuring hits like "Ordinary Angels" and "Accidentally Kelly Street." The album peaked at No. 5 on the ARIA Albums Chart and received Platinum certification in Australia. It also included their cover of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle," which became a hit in its own right.

"Shape" (1996): The band's sophomore album showcased a more sophisticated sound, blending acoustics with technology and innovative songwriting. The album peaked at No. 35 on the ARIA Albums Chart and included singles like "Sit on My Hands" and "What's Come Over Me”

Influence and Legacy

Frente!'s debut album, "Marvin the Album," was praised for its "quirky, irreverent, acoustic-based sound," which was at odds with the guitar-heavy trends of the time. The band's presentation, though twee, was offset by its genuine freshness and honesty. Their influence extended beyond Australia, as they were handpicked to tour with international acts like Alanis Morissette, the Beautiful South, and Everything But The Girl.
After disbanding in 1998, Frente! reunited several times, most notably in 2014, to celebrate the 21st anniversary of "Marvin the Album." In 2023, they marked the 30th anniversary of the album with special performances and a vinyl release. The band's legacy continues with their timeless music and enduring appeal to fans of '90s alternative music.

From: https://www.digmeoutpodcast.com/p/frente-history-of-the-band

The Amorphous Androgynous - The Isness & The Otherness

 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Isness & The Otherness - Part 1

 

 The Amorphous Androgynous - The Isness & The Otherness - Part 2

 

The Amorphous Androgynous - The Isness & The Otherness - Part 3

 

Occupying the blurred line between electronica and prog, Garry Cobain of The Amorphous Androgynous talks yoga, enemas and his “disrespect” for musical history. In hindsight, there was more shared ground between our beloved prog heroes and the 90s musicians behind techno, ambient, electronica and IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) than first met the ear and eye. And we’re not just talking about their long hair.
It is quite legitimate to make a connection between the 70s prog brigade and the grandiose, expansive structures and textured, trippy atmospheres of The Chemical Brothers, The Orb, Orbital, Moby, Leftfield, Aphex Twin, Underworld, 808 State, The Shamen, Ultramarine and The Future Sound Of London (FSOL). Indeed, ‘progressive dance’ was a term bandied around at one point as a suitable umbrella for these acts; ‘hippie techno’ was another. As features editor at Melody Maker, I remember setting up a summit in 1993 between Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and Alex Paterson of The Orb, so that they could discuss in depth their similarities of sound and vision, ideology and intent.
Future Sound Of London were Brian Dougans and Garry Cobain, and were steeped in prog and psychedelia: their 1994 album Lifeforms even featured contributions from Robert Fripp, Klaus Schulze of Tangerine Dream, and Ash Ra Tempel. A year earlier, FSOL had transmogrified temporarily into Amorphous Androgynous and released Tales Of Ephidrina, which sampled Peter Gabriel’s Passion: Music For The Last Temptation Of Christ.
By 2002, the duo had moved in a less electronic, more organic direction for The Isness, hailed by some as a latterday neo-prog classic. With songtitles such as Go Tell It To The Trees Egghead, Her Tongue Is Like A Jellyfish and The Galaxial Pharmaceutical, the album invited comparisons with the Moody Blues, Aphrodite’s Child, Donovan and Pink Floyd, while reviewers proclaimed it, variously, “a modern progtronic rock opera” and “the most intelligent, coherent, ‘collage-ist’ summing up of everything that was wonderful about progressive rock and psychedelia that one could wish for.”
And now, The Amorphous Androgynous have travelled to the furthest reaches of the planet (Australia and New Zealand) to bring us the latest in their series of A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind… mix CDs. Their 2008 instalment so impressed Noel Gallagher that he invited AA to collaborate on an album.
The Amorphous Androgynous’ latest prog/psych purée ranges from the Hendrixian thunder of New Zealand guitarist Doug Jerebine to the proto-kraut rock of The Missing Links; is subtitled The Wizards Of Oz and is devoted exclusively to mostly obscure music of the cosmic kind from the Antipodes, from the 1960s to the present, from “Kiwi Krautrock to Aboriginal space jazz to OZ dream pop to cOZmic funkrok”, according to the press release accompanying this 34-track, two-hour CD extravaganza.
When Prog asks Garry Cobain why he needed the The Amorphous Androgynous project moniker, despite it being the same line-up as FSOL, his reply is suitably out-there. “I wanted to write spiritual, cosmic rock’n’roll operas,” he says. Cobain explains his evolution, from classic rock-loving teen from Home Counties Bedford into Floyd, Hendrix and The Doors, to acid house casualty based in Manchester, which is where he met Dougans at university in the mid-80s. Their roles were clear enough: Dougans was the studio boffin, Cobain the charismatic frontman, although both knew their way around a computer.
As FSOL, they enjoyed Top 30 hits, notably with 1992’s Papua New Guinea single, ’93’s 40-minute epic Cascade and the 1994 album Lifeforms, before Cobain felt a need to immerse himself in the prog/psych ocean, via Amorphous Androgynous. There had been rumours explaining this transformation, one of which was mental illness. In reality, it was his physical health that was poor. Unbeknown to him, Cobain had been slowly poisoning his body with the mercury from fillings in his teeth.
“I’d been ill, as a result of the mercury, for most of my life,” he reveals. “I’d had all sorts of immune disorders, a heart that didn’t work properly. I’d never felt right, but I just accepted it. In 1997, I decided to find out what was underpinning my illness. I looked at everything, including emotional issues.” Eventually, Cobain found a cure for his illness in a combination of “food, mysticism, and yoga”, mainly in India, where he learned about Ayurvedic medicine and “acquired the tools to self-cure”.
The Amorphous Androgynous were born out of this period of spiritual awakening, when Cobain was “finding healers and mystics and people of all persuasions”, including a blind sitar player from Stoke Newington with whom he’d attend Indian weddings. Meanwhile, he would travel the world, “to heal and find out loads of stuff”. He was, he says, “plugging into the truth”.
The Isness was the first manifestation of the new, healthier Cobain. Although it had the sound of someone on drugs, he wasn’t partaking. “Funnily enough,” Cobain says, sounding every inch the flower child out of time, “I realised early on that everybody is absolutely fucked up on drugs because of air and water. Nobody and nothing’s natural. There are heavy metals in vaccinations, the air is full of benzine, our water is full of fluoride… As for our food, there are 30 chemicals in strawberries. My quest was to try to be as pure as I could.” This he achieved via meditation, yoga and “fasting enemas”.
“I’d walk into the studio every day and Brian would go, ‘Fuck! This is a lot more interesting than going out and taking drugs and drink, pretending to be rock’n’roll.’ Potentially this was the new rock’n’roll – becoming as pure as possible to find some clarity. The clearer I was, the more expressive I became. And the more people thought I was on drugs… “I realised I’d never be free,” he continues. “Getting ill was expressive of me as a human. I wasn’t alive. I wasn’t happy generally. Society, elders, school, parents…”
Cobain was on a mission to get happy. At the same time he realised his musical future lay, not in electronic soundscapes but actual songs – albeit experimental, exploratory ones – with words. Loquacious in interviews and with ideas to burn, Cobain was as far from the anonymous, monosyllabic techno muso as you could get. “The truth is,” he says, “on press days I’d speak to hundreds of journalists from around the world. I was doing half-hour speeches.”
Cobain scoured second-hand shops for “obscure prog” and as many records as he could find bearing “interesting instrumentation and cosmic songtitles”. Donovan, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Coltrane were among the artists he discovered. These would form the basis of the Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble mix CDs. Had the 47-year-old been around in the early 70s as a record-buyer (he was born in May 1967, two weeks before the release of Sgt Pepper), Prog wonders whether he would have been more into psych, prog or kraut?
“Probably I’d have been dabbling with them all, and been the first to put them all on one album,” he suggests. “People are surprised to see John Lydon was into Kate Bush. I’m not. A hippie is a punk in a different era.” The Amorphous Androgynous of The Isness and its follow-ups Alice In Ultraland (2005) and The Peppermint Tree & The Seeds Of Superconsciousness (2008) reflected Cobain’s intention to “use the studio creatively, only with instruments not alien electronic noise”. These albums were a blend of strummed guitar and what he calls “studio bend”. Having grown bored, after a decade of making electronic dance, with beats, he discovered 1967. Once he’d ransacked psychedelia, he moved onto 1972: prog’s golden age.
“By Alice…, we’d started to get a lot more prog,” he admits. Since then, there has been a series of soundtrack albums showcasing successful attempts, using live musicians, to recreate, for example, blaxploitation-era scores, and the Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble… series, of which The Wizards Of Oz is the latest and, arguably, greatest.
“We began to hatch a plan for an album devoted to Antipodean music in 2004, when we were on tour in Australia,” explains Cobain. “But it’s not your average psych album. We’re not interested in the past. We want a modern revolution; it’s just that we need the wisdom of the past to do that. “I like our disrespect for history,” he adds. “I’m a non-expert.”
His is a punk vision of psych and prog. “There’s a rebelliousness to what we do,” he decides. It chimes with the times, and taps into insurrectionist currents. “I can see psychedelic bands around the world, and I see people disenfranchised with governments, yearning for freedom. And that’s what Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble is about – a birthright for freedom, colour and interconnectedness. That is the future. A vision that is progressive.”  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/amorphous-androgynous-and-their-road-to-prog

 

 

Dazkarieh - Finisterra - Live Atlântico Blue Studios

Dazkarieh is a recent surprise in Portuguese traditional and folk music, although those that are more in touch with folk music in Portugal have already been hearing the band's wonderful live performances at the traditional music and dance festivals. After spending some time doing only live concerts, they have finally recorded their first studio album.
'Dazkarieh' is not a Portuguese word, nor is it from any other known language. According to the band, it's a "magical word of unknown origin. It might have something to do with the energies that are released when several worlds, essences and influences touch each other." That is probably also the best definition one can come up with for the music of this group. In their repertoire, Dazkarieh travel through the musical universe of the Mediterranean, of the North of Portugal and Galicia, of the Middle-East, and of Africa. There they gather the sounds that they weave into tunes that can be calm and introspective (making us think of bands like Dead Can Dance), but can also change suddenly into real explosions of energy and rhythm, where the spiritual and emotional component is always present.
Although these changes between intimacy and emotion are noticeable throughout the record, it is in the second, third and fourth tunes of the album, the fabulous triptych "Kriamideah," that they are revealed in all their beauty and excellence. First we are invited, even hypnotized, by the intimate and contemplative environment created by the guitar, the cello, some soft percussion, and by the brilliant voice of Marie Beatriz Lucio. But as we get involved in the sounds there is the feeling that there's still something more to discover in the tune, and finally we are completely overwhelmed by the rhythm of the African drums, the bouzouki, the chanters and the magnificent voice, which by now has become almost tribal.
Dazkarieh take their music very seriously. All the tunes work very well, particularly in the way that the members of the band were able to bring together instruments of very different origins. The quality of the arrangements shows the band's commitment and love for music. The only problem with the record is its short length. Dazkarieh are known to have some more great tunes that they normally use in their live performances, but they chose to leave them out of a studio recording for now, citing the problems that they had when recording the album.
Like all bands upon release of their first album, Dazkarieh had to deal with several logistical difficulties and problems that could only be overcome with the help of friends, so we we are in the presence of work that was only made possible because of friendship and of love for music. And like all labors of love, sooner or later its results will appear.  From: https://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/dazkarieh.shtml

Swans - Song For The Sun

By this album, the Swans have made the complete shift from that dark, heavy and muddy sludge rock to a more gothic prog rock. I add the word prog in there because the music is a step above the typical goth rock, it is well produced, but with some elements of surprise added in. They have not yet arrived to being a full on Post Rock band yet, but you can hear that the transition is coming.
As far as Goth Rock goes, I am not a huge fan of it except for some occasional songs. I do love this album however, because it is so well done, so atmospheric, and it still has plenty of variety throughout it's tracks. Michael Gira's vocals are more melodic now and he has actually become a decent singer utilizing dynamics. Jarboe has also become a bigger contributor to the music. She balances out Gira's deep and occasionally rough vocals, and you can hear her sing more background when she is not doing the occasional lead vocals. She is also in charge of orchestral and choral arrangements and contributing keyboards.
The percussion is powerful on this album, and is not at all pushed to the background as is the case with many goth-rock bands. Dynamics are used better than ever before. And each track has it's own personality. There is darkness, but there is also light. There is heaviness, but there is also softness. There are also a lot of supporting musicians on this album, which helps immensely with the overall sound on each track.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=44159 

Sam Phillips - When I Fall

Since emerging from the haloed ghetto known as Contemporary Christian Music in the late 1980s, Sam Phillips has recorded six albums of consistently sharp-edged music while navigating the boundaries of numerous radio genres — without ever managing to find her way across those boundaries into real mainstream success. Encouraged to expand her sights beyond CCM by future producer, songwriting partner and husband T Bone Burnett, Phillips launched her secular career with albums that dabbled in the thematic as well as the musical obsessions the two of them shared, from roots rock to psychedelic pop. More recently, after a less-than-successful flirtation with electronica and dissonance, Phillips has stripped down her sound and released two acclaimed albums of acoustic cabaret-pop.
Full disclosure: I’ve been in the tank for Phillips since the first night of her first tour as a secular artist, an opening slot at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., in December 1988. My wife and I got to the club a little early, just as Phillips and the evening’s headliner, Luka Bloom, were heading out to dinner. Soon Sam had invited us to join them, and we were off to RT’s restaurant down the street to introduce Sam to the wonders of turtle soup. (She liked it; my wife, not so much.)
Later, back at the gig, Sam had what could have become a very rough night, breaking two strings on the only guitar she had brought onstage. By the time Bloom brought out one of his own, Sam had valiantly and good-humoredly picked her way through the tricky (and bass-note-heavy) instrumentation of her early semi-hit “Flame” (download) on the four remaining strings. It was one of those moments that earn an artist the undying loyalty of everyone present, and I can’t help thinking of that night every time I hear her sing. Heck, I thought of it even while watching her vamp her way through the sultry silence of her Big Hollywood Moment a decade ago, playing villainous Jeremy Irons’ mute girlfriend in Die Hard With A Vengeance. Fortunately, she’s never quit her day job.

Martinis And Bikinis (1994)

When Martinis And Bikinis arrived it made the biggest splash of Phillips’ career, earning unanimous critical raves as well as a Grammy nomination, and even poking its way onto the Billboard 200 album chart (the only time she has managed that feat). More important, the album consolidated all the themes she had pursued since The Turning, in particular her relentless search for “truth” in a life that, particularly through her conservative-Christian upbringing and her journey through the CCM circuit, had surrounded her with “meaning.”
To drive the point home, she closes the album with a cover of John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth” that trades Lennon’s vocal snarl for an weary tone of resignation; to borrow from another rock god, she clearly still hasn’t found what she’s looking for. The Lennon tune fits here not just because of its themes, but because, generally speaking, Martinis And Bikinis takes Phillips and Burnett’s mutual Beatlemania to new heights. “When I Fall” and “Same Rain,” the latter co-written by the two, are veritable primers on Revolver-era guitar licks and harmonies, and the Pepper-y imagery that permeated earlier albums reaches full flower power here on tracks like “Strawberry Road” and “Same Changes.” You’d swear it was Ringo on drums all the way through.
“Baby I Can’t Please You” serves as a neat bookend for “Gimme Some Truth,” and features a neat lyrical trick: Even as Phillips skewers an unnamed politician through the verses (“You try to tell the world how it should spin, but you live in terror with the hollow m3n”), in the chorus she turns on herself with a mixture of self-loathing and pride familiar to persecuted peoples who’ve been forced to hear themselves derided by their oppressors. Finally, in the glorious “I Need Love” she presents a manifesto that sums up everything she’s done since she turned away from the Christian market: “I need love/Not some sentimental prison/I need God/Not the political church/I need fire/To melt the frozen sea inside me.” And from wherever he is now, Lennon smiles.

From: https://popdose.com/the-complete-idiots-guide-to-sam-phillips/

The Bilinda Butchers - Night and Blur

Michal Kepsky and Adam Honingford have been writing and creating music together since they were around fifteen years old, initially bonding over a shared love of shoegaze and, as you can probably discern from the band name, My Bloody Valentine. Along with the shoegaze and dream pop influences from MBV and bands like The Radio Dept. and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, there was also the love of video game soundtracks and bossa nova that had a hand in the BB’s wonderfully unique sound, always somewhere between the jagged and the whimsical, the sharp and vulnerable. In this sense, however, Regret, Love, Guilt, Dreams – which Kepsky entirely wrote and recorded on his own – comes with a disclaimer, as he has admitted he is obviously not the same person today as he as when it was written over eight years ago. It’s an album partially fueled – even if by unintentional means – by teenage angst and yearning, by emotions flowing out so fast there is that conscious need to make sense of them. 
There’s also the heavy, continuous theme of cinema within their discography that makes itself known in gorgeously subtle ways within these two EPs; In fact, Kepsky mentioned in a 2010 interview that he treats every song as a singular scene in a movie of his own design, all dwelling on moments within the darker, more painful complexities of the human condition – and, perhaps most of all, the feelings that come with being deep within the throes of loneliness, in both its physical and emotional variations. They want you to engage with their music in this manner, to picture something happening, preferably something that deals with love or, to converge with the aforementioned themes, perhaps more with the lack thereof.  From: https://kidwithavinyl.wordpress.com/2019/10/18/kwav-revisited-the-bilinda-butchers/ 

Robin & Linda Williams - Chain Of Pain

“All we ever wanted when we started out was to have a career in music.” Robin Williams was on the line from the tiny hamlet of Middlebrook, out in the Shenandoah Valley where he lives with wife and musicmate Linda.“We didn’t have any goals of being on the radio or being household names. We just wanted to have a life in music. It’s such a gift to have, to be able to work on it every day. And then to make a living in it is just icing on the cake. Here we are, forty three years into it and still doing it.”
Robin and Linda Williams have “done it” in a way they probably could never have imagined when they first met in 1971. But in 1975, shortly after releasing their first album, they met a guy named Garrison Keillor who had a new little radio variety show in St. Paul, Minnesota, called A Prairie Home Companion. He liked their music the first time he heard them, and Robin & Linda Williams became an integral part of the PHC family, appearing often on the iconic public radio program over the next forty years.
For much of that time, Robin & Linda toured with “Their Fine Group.” But when they come to town for a Tidewater Friends of Acoustic Music concert on January 14th, it will just be the two of them doing it the way they started out. “It’s been a period of transition,” Robin told me. “We ran a four-piece band for thirty years. The last couple of years of the run of the band, Linda and I began feeling the need to do something different. We’re kind of nicheless when it comes to musical genre: We’re really not bluegrass; we’re really not just singer-songwriters; we’re not just old time music. We’re all of it. After all this time, we started feeling that we’d like to do something different.“
It took us a while to think about that, to make a change. There are huge advantages to having a band. There’s the fun factor, wonderful musicians to play with every night. So we had to think about what we’d lose and what we’d gain by just going back to being a duo. “When we made the decision, it presented some challenges musically. But it’s been energizing, it’s been great fun taking all the responsibility of writing thoughtful arrangements and stepping it up musically. We are responsible for all of the music, the two of us. It’s been fun pulling it off every night. And then there’s something that we didn’t even think about—the freedom it gives you to pull new tunes together quickly, to shift gears on stage and play a song we haven’t played in a long time if someone wants to hear it.”  From: http://www.jimnewsom.com/robin-linda-williams-a-life-in-music/

Strawbs - Lady Fuschia

Bursting at the Seams represents the Strawbs at the peak of their powers both artistic and commercial. Grave New World was a great concept and piece of work, but really didn't have all that many great "songs", given the number of very short pieces. Hero and Heroine was sheer genius but, like much genius, a bit insane, and Ghosts, while vying for the title of Strawbs' most well rounded album, lacked the commercial clout to truly conquer American audiences, which was the goal. Bursting at the Seams is an incredibly consistent, musically diverse, and very accessible album of song oriented folk-rock with strong progressive overtones.
The album begins with a Strawbs classic, "Flying", with narrative verses, harmonic choruses and even a gorgeous instrumental break featuring a banjo/mellotron combination. Lady Fuschia is a lovely soft rock track featuring the vocals of Hudson and Ford and even some sitar. Stormy Down is one of two country-flavoured rockers...it could have been a hit but for the use of the phrase "God the Father". Great lead guitar by the newcomer Dave Lambert, in tasteful small doses. Next are the perennial favourites "The River" and "Down by the Sea". Plenty of dramatics, sweeping contrasts, soft reflective vocals and agonized wails. Even a moving orchestral section. Next is the big hit "Part of the Union". Commercial yes, but also catchy and instrumentally bright, especially Blue Weaver's honky tonk piano solo. "Tears and Pavan" introduces one of the earliest "Goth" pieces, with echoed vocals, stately mellotron, and great sadness, followed by a Greek sounding dance. In terms of contrasts on the theme of melodic prog and folk, this album knows no peer. But it's not over. Dave Lambert's first and best songwriting contribution is the emotional "The Winter and the Summer", quiet with mellotron/organ and a heavy middle 8, with an intense ending leading into one of Cousins' greatest songs, the hard proggy country rock song "Lay Down". From the opening chords you know you are in for something awesome, sort of the way "Benedictus" opened Grave New World. The use of mellotron choir is one of the first of its kind. While Bursting at the Seams uses mellotron heavily, do not be misled into thinking that these songs are nothing without it. The recent acoustic revival of the group bears witness to the power of these songs in an unplugged setting. Having said that, the presence of Blue's organ, piano, harpsichord and mellotron does augment the tunes to celestial heights. The original closer was the rather silly "Thank You" with a children's choir.
While other Strawbs A&M album rereleases featured mostly mediocre bonus tracks, the ones here are among the best, again reflecting the confidence and panache of Cousins and company at this point in time. "Will ye Go" is a nigh traditional piece that is given the Celtic rock treatment, accent on rock, with Blue filling in on accordion. "Backside" features impressive atmospherics and lead guitar in its treatment of the Spiders from Mars personae. Cousins pulls off the vocals impressively as well, with their fairly explicit sexual messages. Finally, the original single version of Lay Down is provided for completeness sake.
Bursting at the Seams is probably the first real rock album by the Strawbs, and is the most essential album from that period. Prog fans note it is not their most progressive - that title might go to one of the other 3 "big 4" albums - but prog fans with an interest in folk will find much to enjoy here.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=2895

Loaded Honey - Don't Speak

A year after landing a Brit award for best British group, two-thirds of retro-soul dance-pop practitioners Jungle are going it alone. Lydia Kitto and J Lloyd’s debut as Loaded Honey traces the highs and lows of their romantic relationship, cocooning it in a vaguely trippy suite of songs that fuse soul, R&B, funk and, on occasion, the playful cut-and-paste bricolage of the Avalanches.
Unhurried opener In Your Arms steadily builds layers of atmosphere, weaving strings around pitched vocals and distant harps, while Over – which hints at trouble in paradise – uses a downcast doo-wop feel and high-wire coos to create a luxuriant sadness. The pair can pick up the pace too; Don’t Speak’s feather-light funk is anchored by Kitto’s joyous vocal, while Really Love dabbles in the emotional push-pull of 60s girl groups.
As with Jungle’s recent output, Love Made Trees is immaculately produced, the perfect soundtrack to a wine-drunk dinner party or a long bath with posh candles. As their name suggests, the record is smooth, oozing sweetness that definitely hits the spot but can leave you longing for a hint of sour.  From: https://observer.co.uk/culture/music/article/album-review-loaded-honey-love-made-trees

Sammy - Get Into A New Thing

It's doubtful many folks have ever heard the British band Sammy - I certainly hadn't which was kind of surprising given the band's impressive pedigree.   Drummer Mick Underwood was apparently the band's driving force, with the lineup rounded out by a collection of rock veterans including ex-Audience horn and woodwinds player Keith Gemmell, ex-Billy J. Kramer keyboardist Mick Hodgkinson, former Ginhouse guitarist Geoff Sharkey, and ex-Roy Young Band bassist Paul Simmons. Signed by Philips, the band debuted with a 1972 45 'Goo Ger Woogie' b/w 'Big Lovin' Woman' (Philips c.  While the single did little commercially, it attracted enough interest and attention for Philips management to green light an album.
Co-produced by Louie Austin and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan (not Jon Lord) and the front cover artwork was done by Philip Castle who was the man who did the artwork for the film Clockwork Orange. 1973's "Sammy" offered up a competent, if slightly worn set of mid-1970s hard rock.  
Largely penned by Sharkey and Simmons, lyrically and musically there wasn't a lot of originality going on here (kind of like the album cover) - Gemmell's sax adding occasional jazz-influenced runs to the band's blues and rock-oriented sound.  As lead singer Sharkey wasn't bad; his raw raspy voice sounded surprisingly good on tracks like 'Give Me More', their unlikely cover of 'I Ain't Never Loved a Woman (The Way That I Love You)', and 'Get Into a New Thing'.  Imagine Uriah Heep-lite with the saxes, a little more boogie and variety ('Who Do You Really Love') and you'll be in the right aural neighborhood.  From: https://madshoesmusicology.blogspot.com/2024/11/sammy-sammy-1972.html 

Lais - Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby

This is a Black American folk song, originating in the slavery era. At that time, it was dangerous for enslaved people to speak openly about their concerns, so many songs of the era have hidden or concealed meanings. As a folk song, however, neither the lyrics nor the interpretations are fixed, so it can be difficult or impossible to make a definitive determination.
Like many of the most popular lullabies and nursery rhymes of many traditions (compare Rock a Bye Baby or Ring Around the Mulberry Bush there's some dark and ominous imagery here. It's perhaps most instructive to compare it to All the Pretty Horses, another lullaby with similar origins, and a more established meaning. As in that song, we can surmise that this song is being sung by an enslaved caretaker of a baby belonging to the slavemasters, leading to a mix of tenderness and anger in the lyrics.

Your momma gone away and your daddy's gone to stay
Didn't leave nobody but the baby

The "momma" having gone away indicates that the woman singing is not the baby's actual mother. Likewise, the baby's father is also out of the home.

Everybody's gone in the cotton and the corn
Didn't leave nobody but the baby

With all the masters gone, the baby is at the mercy of its caretaker.

She's long gone with her red shoes on
Gonna need another loving baby

The mother is out having fun, and doesn't care what happens to her child. She might need a new one, because her current child may not have long to live.

You and me and the devil makes three
Don't need no other loving baby

This moves more into pure speculation, but "don't need no other loving baby" may be a veiled reference to her being unable to take care of her own children (as in All the Pretty Horses) because of being forced to caretake her master's child. The devil is present, because she is having fantasies about killing the baby in revenge.

Come lay your bones on the alabaster stones
And be my ever loving baby

This seems like the most clear threat in the song --the alabaster stones, are, of course, the headstones in the graveyard.

This is a song that seems to have originated among slaves in the southern US and has has been passed on orally from generation to generation by people who might not even have been able to write, so there is no 'authoritative' version of the lyrics. So, of course, no interpretation of those lyrics is going to be 'authoritative'. There are probably almost as many different interpretations as there have been attempts at interpretation. A recurring theme in these is that the baby has been abandoned by both parents and the singer is preparing to poison it, but there are plenty of other variations.

From: https://musicfans.stackexchange.com/questions/10086/origin-and-meaning-of-didnt-leave-nobody-but-the-baby

Mu - The Land Of Mu

Mu were: Merrell Fankhauser (Vocal, Guitar, Bass, Percussion), Jeff Cotton (Vocal, Guitar, Bass Clarinet), Randy Wimer (Vocal, Drums, Percussion), Jeff Parker (Bass), Mary Lee (Occasional Violin)
If you’re feeling lost, depressed or brought down by life’s humdrum reality, a good cure is to give Mu a listen. Much of the music on these pages carries a certain amount of — weight. Which is fine if you want to get out there on the perimeter. What MU does, though, is like a warm gentle breeze blowing through your soul, a spiritual spring clean.
All the members of Mu had been in LA pop bands at some time during the early 60s, oriented towards surf with Beatles and Byrds influences. Fapardokly was an album collection of these early efforts released only in LA and copies used to change hands for up to $2000 among collectors, such was the aura surrounding it. Fankhauser was in the Surfaris, and I think it is his voice that can be heard laughing maniacally at the beginning of Wipeout. Cotton landed a gig in Beefheart’s Magic Band, playing on Strictly Personal and Trout Mask Replica. Many chapters have been written about the influence of this latter album on rock, one of the most surreal, jagged episodes ever in music, and Cotton was a key part of the creation process. 
So … surf meets Beefheart. They recorded a promising first album in LA, then decamped to Hawaii where they embraced a blissed-out lifestyle of vegetarianism, flying saucer watching, study of the lost Pacific continent of MU and creating gentle, organic music. The CD reissue on Sundazed contains the first album, the second, only released locally at the time, plus singles. I’m concentrating here on the second, recorded and released in 1974.
The Land Of Mu starts with Merrell seeing ‘eyes watching over me and you’, a sub-two-minute introduction to their philosophy. Then we are invited to Make A Joyful Noise, with slide solos and bizzare cooing noises from Cotton. Haleaka La is an instrumental hinting at some of the weirdness Cotton took away from his Magic Band tenancy, soloing on bass clarinet and sliding around some more on guitar. Blue Jay Blue and Showering Rain are more developed songs. Tuneful images of birds in flight and rain on water abound. Beatific, crafted pop ballads all overlaid with that exquisite slide of Cotton’s. I Saw Your Photograph doesn’t make it for me — too twee by far — but hey, there’s twenty songs here. Mary Lee plays wistful violin on the next two ballads. Calling From A Star is the next standout with harmonics and wind effects giving the feeling they are singing from light years away. They belt out Waiting For The Sun a bit harder and we have predictions of aliens, heralded by Halleys Comet, landing here in 1986, to bring in a golden age. Did I miss it?  From: https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/reviews/mu-end-of-an-era 

Hle - Umile

A pastor's daughter born in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, in 1991, singer Hlengiwe Ntombela—better known as Hle—has brought glamorous soul power to South Africa's contemporary-gospel scene since joining Joyous Celebration in 2016. HLE began her career as a backing vocalist for Ntokozo Mbambo, and has collaborated with Hlengiwe Mhlaba and gospel giant Benjamin Dube. But it’s her 2020 solo debut, Your Kingdom on Earth, recorded with the award-winning producer Siyanqoba Mthethwa, that established Hle as ruler of her own musical dominion. Funky, soulful, and majestic tracks like iTunes chart-topper "Dwala,” "Living Hope," and "You Are" (a colorful series of encomiums to Jesus) ascend from simmering foundations to ecstatic climaxes.  From: https://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/news/2022/11/11.GlobalMusicStarHLEMakesUSDebutWithNewSingleYoureTheWorthyOne.asp 

Magic Circle - Rapture

Worship bands are a polarizing concept; the idea that a group of musicians would get together with the intention of sounding exactly like another band that came before them is unoriginal to some, but entirely exciting to others. In the end, the quality of a worship band comes down to two questions: subject and execution. And Sabbath and perfect really isn’t that bad when you think about it.
I caught up with Magic Circle guitarist and songwriter Chris Corry as we drove from one gig to another at Toronto’s annual punk festival Not Dead Yet. As I ate jerk pork in the back seat and he stopped to take photos of Sweet Pete’s Bike Shop because a sign that said “Sweet Pete’s” simply couldn’t be passed undocumented, we discussed Magic Circle’s record, Journey Blind on 20 Buck Spin (which you can stream in it’s entirety below), seeing concerts in arenas, and the underground music rivalry between YouTube and Bandcamp.

Noisey: Who are you and where do you come from?
Chris Corry: My name is Chris Corry and I grew up in Northern Virginia. My family is in Springfield now, so about 20 minutes from the District of Columbia.

Is that where you started going to shows?
Yeah. I went to a lot of big concerts when I was in high school. There would be these big radio station concerts at RFK Stadium. I think it’s a soccer stadium now. I saw the Ramones in 1994, there were those 20 bands for 20 bucks things, I saw a lot of alternative bands that people care about now that they didn’t care about, like I saw Hum, Archers of Loaf, PJ Harvey, Primus. The most violent mosh pit I’ve ever seen was for Primus, not fucking kidding man. They brought the pain.

And what was your first DIY stuff?
I went to punk shows and stuff. Just local bands that you would never have even heard of in Northern Virginia. There was this store called Record Convergence about 15 minutes from where I grew up. It’s a dry cleaner now. They had it all there. There was old hard rock and punk and metal. Local bands had their demos there. I went to see a lot of those local bands. I started going to big hardcore shows after that, but the first shows I saw were with no name bands from the 90s.

And when did you start playing in bands?
I had a couple of hardcore bands in high school that didn’t really do anything. And I started playing in hardcore bands in Boston.

Why did you move to Boston?
College.

Where?
Northeastern University.

For what?
Graphic design.

Do you do that for work?
I don’t do it for work. I work at a school actually. I do music stuff with kids. I record music in our music studio there.

That’s awesome. When did this band start?
Magic Circle started in, honestly dude, 2010. Me and the other guys in the band, Justin who plays bass, Q who plays drums, Brendan who’s the singer, and Dan who’s the other guitar player, we got together the end of 2010 and practiced for eight months, recorded in the spring of 2011 and had a finished record and didn’t know what to do with it. Maybe six months later we put it out, put a couple songs on the ol’ YouTube. Which is I guess is how you get people who have never heard of your band to hear your band.

YouTube before Bandcamp? 
So historically speaking, I don’t know the timeline of when Bandcamp came to be [Laughs]. It was probably around but maybe we weren’t aware of it, maybe you needed to be a real underground Bandcamp kind of person. We put some songs online in the fall of 2011 and then we did a couple shows and we pressed two songs onto a single in 2012. Armageddon Shop in Boston, which is a cool store that exists there that releases records from time to time, put out our first LP. And we’ve done some more shows since then pretty regularly. Started working on a new LP. We were rehearsing it and writing it in 2014 and then we recorded it in the beginning of 2015 and it’s all done now.

Where did you record it?
At my practice space The Paincave and at out bass player’s parents basement. We did the drums in the basement and we did everything else in the practice space.

What are your biggest influences on Magic Circle?
Definitely Black Sabbath, man. That’s my favorite band of all time. I try not to just wholesale rip it off, we mix in other things and mix together other ideas. But bluntly, that’s the biggest influence.

How do you guys write a song? 
Usually I sit down at home, play some guitar, come up with some riffs. Then I work them out in a skeleton, just a basic format, bring it to the other dudes, we tinker around with it a little bit, let them hear everything I got and then we make a rough demo of it before we do the actual recording. We do all the vocals, all the guitar solos. It’s weird because it’s kind of like we record the record twice. I had already heard every song completed before we did the proper recording of the LP. That way we weed out ideas that don’t work and make little adjustments and make sure we’re pleased with everything. So then when we do it for real there are no questions going into it.

What’s your relationship like with 20 Buck Spin?
Real cool, man. We talked to a few people that had done stuff on the label. Dave who runs the label got in touch after the first LP came out. And it wasn’t even to work with us or anything, he was just like, “hey, I really enjoyed the record, good job.” We had mutual friends but we didn’t know each other. When we were working out how we were going to release this one after we recorded it I just kind of cold called him and was like, “hey I don’t know if you’re interested but we have a record and here’s the songs and here’s the art. If you’re interested we need a label to put it out.” It’s been real easy since then. He’s real communicative, seems to give a shit about what he’s doing, seems to be really psyched about all the bands he’s working with. So that’s cool. A real easy guy to work with.

From: https://www.vice.com/en/article/magic-circle-interview/ 

Annie Oakley - Pomp and Swell

Annie Oakley is a folk band fronted by twin sisters Grace and Sophia Babb, paired with the violin and one-liners of Nia Personette. They are keen on telling stories, finding the sweetest harmonies possible, and playing shows where they meet the listeners they're playing for.
They started writing songs after the deaths of their fathers when they were middle school students. Nia lost her dad just a year before the Babb sisters lost theirs. This mutually-shared grief made them closer than friends – they became three sisters instead of two. During this period of recovery and self-discovery at the height of adolescence, they wrote songs, played countless shows, and began touring.
Now they’re graduating from college and the grief that first brought them to music. Once their remedy for pain, folk music has become their recipe for joy. The recent release of their first full-length album, Words We Mean, chronicles their transition from youth to young womanhood, from grief to happiness, narrating the first chapter of their story.  From: https://www.factoryshowroomseries.com/annie-oakley