Moon Letters - Sudden Sun

Lots of artists barking at the Moon these days. I can't keep track of how many Moon bands there are any longer! There's Moon Safari of course in the prog world but so many more like Moon Goons, Moon Duo, Moon Tan, Moon Phantoms and countless others. Here's yet another one of the newer harbingers of modern retro prog, the Seattle based Moon Letters. This band doesn't just copy and paste its prog ethos from the past but rather has constructed an interesting new take on taking something old and reinventing it to suit a newer audience in the modern day and age all the while tamping down the tones and timbres to fit into the old school golden age prog world. So far Moon Letters founded and led by guitarist Dave Webb released the debut "Until They Feel The Sun" in 2019 and after receiving warranted kudos for an interesting retro-prog stylistic approach, Moon Letters continues and ups its game on its second release "Thank You From The Future".
This is my first exposure to Moon Letters but from what i've read there has been a significant improvement from the debut. This album of seven tracks is retro down to the 41-minute playing time and features elements from many classic prog bands. There's an interesting symphonic prog sound reminiscent of Yes at times and Kansas at others. There are also playful early Spock's Beard vocal antics, Gentle Giant time signature gymnastics and occasional King Crimson styled rocking out. However the one artist that comes to mind more often than others is that there is a clear Mars Volta thing going on here. The juxtaposition of musical elements with the punk rocker's intensity in fully fueled prog time signature splendor was the winning formula for albums like "De-Loused in the Comatorium" and "Francis The Mute." Luckily Moon Letters succeeds in finding its own voice.
Moon Letters was formed six years ago in 2016 and features some prog veterans including guitarist Dave Webb (Spacebag, Wah Wah Exit Wound), lead vocalist and flautist Michael Trew (Autumn Electric), drummer Kelly Mynes (Panther Attack!, Bone Cave Ballet), bassist Mike Murphy (Authentic Luxury) and keyboardist John Allday (Chaos and Cosmos). The debut "Until They Feel The Sun" was warmly received by the prog world and if it's in the same vein as this new release i can tell why! Add to that a really cool album cover and I’m all in. This is what I call fun prog, that is prog that engages in all the check the box elements like time signature frenzies, extended compositional fortitude and improvisation up the ying yang yet without scarifying that playful melodic sing-songy style that made the 70s bands so cool.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=76043

 

Ulvens Döttrar - Spader

Ulvens Döttrar (The Daughters of the Wolf) consists of the three sisters Isabella, Johanna and Ella Grüssner. The sisters have been singing together throughout their childhood, but as the trio Ulvens Döttrar, they have been working for about ten years.
In Ulvens Döttrar the sisters combine their individual musical styles and careers in folk, jazz and rock into a singular musical interaction with both medieval and oriental influences. Their music is often described as evocative, and driving with a rhythmic base. The trio built up sound in their music with instruments such as fiddle, keyed fiddle, didgeridoo, djembe, thunder drum, frame drum, flute, rain stick and mouth harp.
Their main instrument, however, is voice and some pieces are wholly a cappella in three-part arrangements with tight harmonies. Most of the repertoire is now their own material. Ella composes music, Isabella writes the lyrics and Johanna organizes.  From: https://www.last.fm/music/Ulvens+D%C3%B6ttrar/+wiki

Macroscream - Bloody Noise

 

"Macrophonix" is a compelling album by the Italian progressive rock band Macroscream. This third release from the band showcases their ability to blend various musical styles into a cohesive listening experience. The songs are excellently played and arranged, with a dedication to the 1970s RPI and symphonic prog era but with a very modern, jazzy sound. You have to hear it to understand what I mean—its spirit is old, but the sound is very new. Macroscream was formed by bassist/vocalist Alessandro Patierno, so you can expect the bass to be front and center in most tracks, which is a big part of what I love about this record.
"Macrophonix" highlights Macroscream's innovative approach to music. It revives some themes from the past but does so with a freshness that makes it feel like a modern revisitation rather than a nostalgic throwback.
The album's lyrics are in English and inspired by classical mythology and philosophy. While "Macrophonix" could be defined as an RPI, symphonic, and even neo-prog album, it also includes a folk component that harkens back to the great classics of the early 70s. As I mentioned earlier, this combination of influences results in a sound that, while reminiscent of the past, feels fresh and contemporary.
The production quality is top-notch, allowing each instrument to shine while maintaining a balanced and polished sound. The compositions are well-crafted, taking the listener on a journey through various moods and themes, reflecting the band's versatility and creativity. This is one of those albums you’ll appreciate on a good sound system or high-end earphones/buds (and of course on Prog Radio at 320 kbps =).
"Macrophonix" highlights Macroscream's innovative approach to music. It revives some themes from the past but does so with a freshness that makes it feel like a modern revisitation rather than a nostalgic throwback. This album will appeal to fans of progressive rock and those who appreciate music that pushes the boundaries of genre conventions. Tune in to Prog Radio to hear several of these interesting tracks, which will jump out at you in a very good way, and of course, we’ll be featuring it in Monday’s “What’s New Proggy Cats?”  From: https://www.progradio.com/reviews/macrophonix

 

Linda Ronstadt - I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You

 

Linda Ronstadt - Rolling Stone 1974 (click to read)

 

 Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris

Herbert - Cattle Call

These four Americans definitely have every Black Sabbath and Monster Magnet album on their shelves. Want to bet? The eleven songs on "Steppin' Off To Eden" sound pretty much exactly as if Dave Wyndorf had become the successor to good old Ozzy and had listened to a lot of progressive metal with the rest of the band. At least, these groups are likely the most clearly recognizable sources of inspiration for Herbert's album. And the result is quite impressive: varied songwriting, catchy yet not overly poppy melodies, and intelligent tempo changes, presented by excellent musicians, make Herbert interesting for anyone who has found the stoner rock genre a bit too monotonous lately.  Translated from: https://www.visions.de/review/herbert-steppin%C2%92-off-to-eden/ 

Laura Nyro - Poverty Train

On this haunting track from her sophomore album, Laura Nyro sings from the perspective of an addict in the midst of a terrifying drug trip, where "You can see the walls roar, see your brains on the floor" as the Devil watches with a grin. While she mentions cocaine in the song, it was really about heroin. A year after Eli and the Thirteenth Confession was released, the singer's 21-year-old cousin died of an accidental heroin overdose.
Nyro was a frequent pot smoker but typically stayed away from harder drugs, except for a bout with LSD that conjured horrific hallucinations like the ones described in the song. The New York Times noted in the 1968 article "Laura Nyro: She's the Hippest - and Maybe the Hottest?":
Laura has since stopped using acid because of the medical evidence that it is genetically dangerous, but it seemed useful to her at the time. She refers to the event as "the day I became a woman." During the experience, monsters - half men, half rats - filed into her room and menaced her from the walls. She summoned the strength to resist them, and after nine hours of spiritual combat they withdrew... "I won the struggle for myself," she says. "I stopped being a loser and became a winner instead." This features jazz musician Joe Farrell on the flute. "He kind of turned it into Alice in Wonderland, almost," Nyro told Down Beat magazine in 1969. "He came into my world, and he really enhanced it."
This was one of the songs (along with "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Eli's Coming") Nyro performed at her notorious appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, a counterculture milestone that marked major debuts from Janis Joplin and Otis Redding. She felt out of her element belting soul songs in a long black dress adorned with an angel wing for a hippie crowd who was there to see Jimi Hendrix and the like. As the legend goes, the crowd hurled boos at Nyro and she fled the stage in tears, afterwards demanding documentarian D.A. Pennebaker remove her performance from the accompanying film. He complied, but when footage of her songs emerged on the 2002 DVD release, it was clear Nyro was catastrophizing the incident.
While the concertgoers weren't fully invested in her showing, the "boos" Nyro heard were actually exclamations of "beautiful!" Bones Howe, who turned a handful of Nyro's tunes into hits for The 5th Dimension, weighed in: "Let's just say she was miscast at Monterey. It was only in the context of everything else that happened there. It was really smoke-dope folk music and heavy rock music – people setting fire to their guitars – and she wasn't folk and she wasn't heavy rock."  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/laura-nyro/poverty-train

Fairport Convention - Shattering Live Experience

Fairport Convention has long been British folk-rock with the emphasis on British and folk, but listeners most familiar with their revved-up interpretation of traditional English ballads (and like-minded originals) often forget that the band started out as the U.K.'s response to Jefferson Airplane. Heyday collects 12 performances (ten of them covers) recorded for the BBC during the early period when Sandy Denny and Ian Matthews were both singing for the group (and a bus accident had not yet taken the life of original drummer Martin Lamble). While most of the songs were written by noted American folk-rockers of the day, the Fairports put a very individual stamp on every selection here; if you don't think you ever need to hear another version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" or Bob Dylan's "Percy's Song," you might well change your mind after hearing Fairport work their magic with them, and their takes on Joni Mitchell's "I Don't Know Where I Stand" and Gene Clark's "Tried So Hard" actually improve on the very worthy originals. Fairport Convention approaches these songs with taste, skill, and subtle but potent fire, and Richard Thompson was already growing into one of the most remarkable guitarists in British rock (and if you're of the opinion that he doesn't know how to be funny, check out his goofy double entendre duet with Sandy, "If It Feels Good, You Know It Can't Be Wrong"). While Fairport Convention would create their most lasting work with Liege and Leif and Full House, Heyday offers delightful proof that this band's talents (and influences) took many different directions, and it captures one of the band's better lineups in superb form.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/heyday-bbc-radio-sessions-1968-1969-mw0000201000#review 

Kitchen Witch - Just For One Day

Since 2013, red-dust desert rock outfit “Kitchen Witch” have been wowing audiences with their powerful twist of femme-driven heavy rock grooves with some extra low-end riffage to spare. Dubbed as South Australia’s response to the California desert/stoner rock scene, the quartet continue to go from strength to strength with their uniquely Australian blend of blues & soul, 70’s rock, desert psychedelia and stoner metal doom. They've cast a spell on audiences on stages across Australia with 1000 Mods, The Sword, Brant Bjork (Kyuss), Earthless, Samsara Blues Experiment, Mammal and many more international riff-wizards worthy of note.  From: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/7207753-kitchen-witch 

Del Amitri - Be My Downfall

Loud, moody drums conquer all in the memorable masterpiece that is Del Amitri’s Change Everything. Initially released in July 1992, the ‘90s musical essence oozes out of the tracks on the album. This project is what a listener would find as a definition of a made for concert listening experience; every song blows up your speakers and rattles your eardrums in the best way. The pop and soft-rock infused album will go down in music history as groundbreaking.
Part of what makes the first time listening so impactful is how everything blends so effectively. The echoey drums and smooth electric guitar create a larger-than-life atmosphere that lasts throughout the entire project. Del Amitri’s lead vocalist Justin Currie, bold, yet sensual vocal performance that bless the songs guide listeners through this engaging musical story. Individually, these factors all shine and enhance the listening experiences for audiences; when placing the impeccable volume, instrumental accents, and vocal elements together and properly balancing them, the full intentionality and tactfulness of this sonic statue comes into the light.
Change Everything has listeners tag along on a journey where its protagonist, the narrator who sings these songs, does just that. Much of the project, especially the first half is dedicated to exploring the different shades of gray that comes along with heartbreak. There are instances in which Currie (or the character he is playing) is the heartbreaker or betrayer. On the other side, there are songs that show the realities of experiencing one’s own heart being broken. No matter the somber perspective, Del Amitri is willing to be vulnerable in sharing their emotions; every ounce of sadness, anger, displeasure, and the joys of love and growing up that are highlighted in the latter part of the track list.  From: https://www.rootsmusicmagazine.com/post/del-amitri-s-change-everything-is-an-album-made-to-be-played-in-stadiums

Crash Test Dummies - Live Karlsruhe, Germany 1997

 Crash Test Dummies - Live Karlsruhe, Germany 1997 - Part 1

 

Crash Test Dummies - Live Karlsruhe, Germany 1997 - Part 2

 

When you hear the Crash Test Dummies, it's very likely you'll recognize Brad Roberts' distinctive deep voice almost immediately. But the group has also relied heavily upon his song writing and can attribute much of their success not only to their unique sound, but to their unique songs. Here is an interview with this very talented songwriter, singer and performer, conducted via e-mail when Brad and the band were in the Toronto area to help promote the Crash Test Dummies' newest CD, Give Yourself A Hand. I think you'll find that he has quite a unique sense of humour too.

Question: What was your first musical experience as a kid and how do you think it contributed to the music you're making today?  Is there a particular incident that sticks out in your mind as a "defining moment"?

my first musical experiences were probably that of listening to my dad play the piano and my mom singing along. then i began taking piano lessons myself.  but my teacher was a horrid old bitch, so i quit. (years later, as a bratty teen, i egged her house.) at age 8 i began buying those K-tel 22 greatest hits packages. listened to them hundreds of times. at age 10, i bought an archie comic with a story in it about the "cave archies". the last frame showed jughead and reggie sitting around a campfire playing prehistoric guitars, called "plinka plunks". the idea of playing guitar around a campfire was very appealing to me, and made me want to take guitar lessons. at age 12, i bought my first "kiss" record, their third album, called "dressed to kill". i listened to it hundreds of times, and decided i wanted to be able to play guitar just like ace did. so i found a guitar teacher who i liked, and took lessons for about 4 years after that. all of the above are factors which contributed to my growing fascination with music throughout my early years. but the most "defining moment" of my musical life was the realization that i was a loser at school, that i couldn't play hockey, that girls didn't like me, and that the only way i could dig my way out of the land of nerds was by becoming a rock star. which i did.

Question: I hear that you studied English and Philosophy in University.  What did those studies do for your songwriting?  And how have your philosophies changed since you first started out?  Do you see things differently now then you used to?  Do different things inspire you?

my studies very much influenced my earlier songwriting, which tended to be more cerebral than my current work. nowadays, i have grown bored of trying to figure things out. i don't read anymore. at present, i am inspired not by philosophy and literature, but rather by alcohol and prostitutes. ctd's new record is mainly about getting drunk and masturbating and going to strip clubs. it's the best work i have done, and i am very glad to be freed from the shackles of the mind.

Question: have to ask this - and you probably knew it was coming.  (No, it has nothing to do with the silly story about your third testicle.) Do you experience the dreaded "Writer's Block"?  And if so, how do you get yourself over it?

when i have writers block, i just stop writing. i have learned that i have to get away from writing and recharge my batteries, in order to be able to continue more writing at a later date. in other words, the time spent NOT writing is as important as the time spent actually doing the work. if i'm really desperate to write something, i'll go on a bender and get drunk for days. then i get ideas during my hangovers. i don't know why, but a hangover often puts me in a writing mood.

Question: Out of all the songs that you've written, which is your favourite and why?  Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to write that favourite song?

this is an impossible question to answer. when i'm writing, i always think that whatever i'm currently working on is the best thing i've ever done. then, years later, i look back at it, and i think its crap. for example, almost everything on "the ghosts that haunt me" is, as far as i'm concerned, total garbage. but hey, those were the first songs i ever wrote, and they paved the way for me to do better work later. everthing on our new record ("give yourself a hand") is my favorite stuff.

Question: Having recorded numerous albums at this point, you've probably been able to do things differently with this newest release.  What have you changed since your earlier recordings?  What about the process has become more satisfying as time progresses?

our recent recordings are different from our earlier recordings in that they are more about attitude and less about ideas. also, in our new live shows, i get to strut around the stage like a rock-star-jack-ass and hurl abuse at the audience, something which they seem to love. go figure.

Question: What's in store for CTD in the future?  I know your latest release is coming out in a few weeks.  Will there be a tour to promote it?

yes, we will tour all over north america, europe, australia, south africa, and parts of south america. it'll take about a year. then i will collapse and swear never to do it again. then i'll write another record, and do it all again. and again. like a hamster on a treadmill.

From: https://www.musesmuse.com/bradroberts.html 

 

The Lemonheads - Into Your Arms

This is a simple, immediately likable song, but it’s also a song that says a lot in a small space. The entire lyric:

I know a place where I can go when I’m alone
Into your arms, I can go
I know a place that’s safe and warm from the crowd
Into your arms, I can go
And if I should fall, I know I won’t be alone anymore

That’s it, sung over and over again. Rarely did the early-Beatles even dare to repeat so few words so many times. The achievement, of course, is that the listener barely notices. The song’s so active, and so catchy, and tightly-edited, that it seems to end one foot-tapping moment after it’s begun.
The key is variation; since the words don’t change, the music must. The arrangement builds and slackens. More instruments join in, then drop out. The melody varies slightly–but tellingly–at each pass. The result is a song that’s saying one thing, over and over, but says so much more.
For example, I used to hear this song as an Ode to a Plan B. The singer struggles with loneliness, and there’s a girl he can always call when he needs a warm body. I heard the “fall” as more literal–if he’s down, he knows the place where he can be picked back up. To me, it wasn’t a love song, but a song about a backup plan, a way to bide the time until real love comes along.
A few months ago, one of my closest friends mentioned “Into Your Arms.”  He said that he and his fiance love the song, so I immediately revisited it.  Suddenly, it sounded different. I heard it as a simple statement of unconditional love. The “fall” is figurative–he anticipates falling in love and meeting his girl there. Lonely days are over; he’s found the one. The words were the same, but their meaning changed.  Or maybe I did.
Great songs find listeners at the right time and the right place and speak to them at that moment. My favorite songs, though, are the ones that evolve as I do, that are flexible and generous enough to offer a hand no matter what I feel that day. They meet me wherever I am.  The lyrics of “Into Your Arms” stay the same, but (through some clever musical devices) sound different in each verse. Similarly, the song’s stayed the same, but over the years (and with some insight from a friend) its meaning has changed.  From: https://chrismilam.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/song-of-the-week-the-lemonheads-into-your-arms/

The Three Degrees - Collage

I’d never heard this song until I stumbled upon it today, but after only playing it for only a few seconds I had no doubt in my mind that this little little soul worm was not going to get out of my head! Steered by a powerful force, this tune is driven by soul and spirit. Vocal lines twirl with spiralling repetition as their melody firmly nestles itself in your head, their grip strengthened by lines such as, “Autumn calls for a change of year/Bringing winter near while spring’s the ground/And the skies are fine/Wintertime is a razor blade/That the devil made, it’s the price we pay/…For the summertime”.
What a really cool tune and very happy accident to have happened upon! Collage was written by US guitarist/singer Joesph Walsh and Colorado-based songwriter/ musician/ producer, Patrick James Cullie. Written in the late 1960’s,the song has since been covered by an array of bands/artists, including the likes of Golden Earring (1995), The Breeders (1999), Lady Blackbird (2021)
James Gang were the first band to release this song in 1969 but, in my humble opinion, this not a patch on the rendition I am featuring today! The Three Degrees recorded their superb version a year later in 1970. Featuring it as the B-side to their Maybe single, this 45 was issued on the Roulette label and I’m sold. Never will there be another version of this song that does what The Three Degrees version does to me. They just simply transform it!  From: https://thelisteningpostblog.wordpress.com/2024/07/06/song-of-the-day-the-three-degrees-collage/

Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels

A friend of mine recently told me he was just starting to get into Tears for Fears and was I fan? I was shocked. Back in the day, on my daily commute to school from SF to Marin County, my bus driver had his favorite easy listening power ballad station on lock, so for me, Tears for Fears are the soundtrack of my pre-pre-pubescent crush on a boy called Bryn who used to let me zip down the hills sitting on his skateboard. Am I fan of Tears for Fears? Did I never actually kiss Bryn but did a classmate called Molly tell teachers she saw us having sex under the jungle gym during recess? The answer to these questions is yes.
But anyway, back to my friend not being familiar with Tears for Fears. OK, he’s 29, so in the 80s he barely existed, but if you saw Donnie Darko then—hello!—that was your moment to retrospectively embrace the mulleted quartet. The pairing of “Head Over Heels” with Donnie getting off the bus and walking through the halls, observing every clichéd high school clique, character, and trope as he makes his way to class, is one of cinema’s finest pairings of song and scene. In fact writer/director Richard Kelly wrote the scene with this very song in mind. It’s also impossible to forget that unfortunate bastardized version of “Mad World” by Gary Jules that became a Christmas number one (in the UK, Canada, and Portugal) back in 2003, lingering around the charts for weeks like a stale dog fart.
But let’s not focus on that. Thanks to my friend’s recent TFF exploration, I decided to have a little re-watch of the proper “Head Over Heels” video. Viewing this now I’m not sure I actually ever saw it in the first place. I think I just re-watched that Donnie Darko scene again and again, because, vintage Gyllenhaal, among other things. Thus today, with fresh eyes I gazed upon this 80s classic and these are some of the things that occurred to me while watching it.
The premise for this promo appears to be that Roland Orzabal is in love with the spectacled, stern-faced, but clearly quite hot librarian. You’d think she’s be down to love him because he’s big into reading, but she’s having none of it. I love that he just walks in, dumps the books on the front desk, and starts aggressively singing at her. This guy has zero game. His opening line is: “I wanted to be with you alone / And talk about the weather,” which is in no way an appealing proposition. It’s not like, “Oh I wanted to be with you by myself so we could gaze at constellations and maybe I could touch your inner thigh.” No. He wants to talk about the weather. Tears for Fears are from Bath, England. I’ve been there several times and can say with some authority that while the architecture is beautiful, the weather is most often grey and drizzly, so already this pick up line is a disaster. Come on Roland Orzabal (say it in full, say it again!), time to step it up. Still you can tell he’s genuinely really into her by the way his eyes can’t meet her gaze and the dejected manner in which he slopes away.
The best thing about 80s music videos is that they’re almost entirely nonsensical. It was a new medium! MTV was a revolution! Record labels were splashing cash! Fans were buying records! Everyone was taking too much cocaine! Just ask director Nigel Dick. He went on to helm videos for Guns N Roses, Oasis, Backstreet Boys, and OMG, many Britney classics including “Baby One More Time.” I have to track this guy down. But back to this TFF video: when Ian Stanley rocked up to the library front desk it made total narrative sense for an enormous keyboard to slide into view. A keyboard which he pretended to play with all the skill of Keyboard Cat, because he knew the most important thing was keeping your eyes on the prize—staring down your prey, eyes glazed like a stoner when he spies a pack of Cheetos in the corner of the kitchen. Not since Kurt gave the game away by simply refusing to play the guitar on Top of the Pops back in 1991 have I seen a musician mock his craft so flagrantly. Sweet leather jacket BTW.
But Roland Orzabal is not giving up. When buttoned up librarian moves a tome from the shelves, whose head should pop up in the gap on the other side? You guessed it! Then in the next scene, he’s right beside her, singing in her face again. Roland Orzabal’s getting a leetle creepy right about now, but we all know it’s better to have tried really hard than to have never tried at all. Pretty sure Lord Tennyson came up with that maxim.
Side note III: Key to any 80s video—absurdist touches like a random man in a gas mask and / or a chimp. Or drummer Manny Elias working a Hasidic vibe. Sure! Why not. Do you suppose people felt emotions much more deeply in the 80s? I think there might be some truth to that. People can be so aloof these days because they’re cursed with FOMO and hand-in-hand with that is the pressing paranoia that if you confess your feelings for one person and jump all in, you might close yourself off from someone “better” and miss that damn boat. Pre-Tinder and pre-internet, people selected partners with at least a modicum of conviction.
Here we have a man in sensible knitwear singing about falling head over heels, begging you not to take his heart, not break his heart, not to throw, throw, throw it away. We can tell that Roland Orzabal really means it because he appears to not care what he looks like when proclaiming his feelings. Thanks to too many mirrors and too much time selfie-ing everyone and their pet rat knows about angles. Kids probably pop out of the womb with their chin dropped, eyes wide, looking coyly upwards, ready for their close up. Roland Orzabal knows nothing of this pose. He is all-earnest. He is letting that camera shoot him up the nose. He is doing that chicken head cluck as he delivers each line. He is 100 percent gesticulating the lyrics (“four leaf clover,” “one open mind”). These are deeply uncool moves. But love isn’t about being cool—it’s about being vulnerable. Clearly.
Does Roland Orazabal get the girl in the end? Well, what do you think? Ultimately, it always pays to be a nerd. I can only conclude by saying it’s never too late to get into Tears for Fears. Perhaps a Tears for Fears newbie who’s never delved into their back catalogue will embrace the sparkly, drive-time goodness of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” or the pleading beauty of “Pale Shelter” (note that punk-funk bassline), and yes, the new wave-y, window-stroking angst of the original “Mad World,” and that newbie will understand a little bit more about love and life and feelings.  From: https://www.vice.com/en/article/head-over-heels-tears-for-fears-video/?

The Joy Formidable - Share My Heat

Most bands want 15 minutes of fame. The Joy Formidable just want 15 minutes of your time. The Welsh trio are taking us on a mighty sonic trip with the release of “Share My Heat,” a rousing alt-rock escapade that arrives today (September 26) via Enci Records, complete with a wild animated video that supplies psychedelic visuals across its entire 15-minute runtime. Hot damn.
“‘Share My Heat’ is about true connection & love,” says guitarist and vocalist Ritzy Bryan. “Deep, selfless love between humans is a beautiful part of our existence, but I’m also singing about our inherent love for nature, the living world & our kinship to everything: Plants, animals, mountains & lake. Can we repair our relationship & bring more reciprocity, compassion and companionship to a world that already gives us so much?” Well, we’ll soon find out.
The epic “Share My Heat” is the third and final Joy Formidable single in a string of new releases, all following 2021 album Into The Blue. At a time when most artists are shortening songs to pad play counts on streaming services, The Joy Formidable have snapped back in to the other direction to release a single song that’s longer than some new EPs.  From: https://vanyaland.com/2023/09/26/the-joy-formidable-go-long-on-the-psychedelic-share-my-heat/

Preoccupations - Slowly

Preoccupations' beautifully rough version of post-punk is equally life-affirming and well-versed in existential dread. The band's debut album, 2015's Viet Cong, mixed post-punk, psych-pop, shoegaze, noise, and electronics in fearless ways that nevertheless maintained a very human pulse. This connection to their humanity remained on all of their albums, though Preoccupations' music became subtler and more open-ended on 2016's Preoccupations, more anthemic on 2018's poised New Material, and more confrontational on 2022's Arrangements.
Vocalist/bassist Matt Flegel and guitarist Scott Munro, a pair of musicians from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, formed Preoccupations in 2012. Flegel was a member of the celebrated Calgary indie rock band Women while Munro had formerly played guitar with Lab Coast. Flegel and Munro began working on songs together during a European tour as part of Chad VanGaalen's backing band; when they heard about the death of Women guitarist Chris Reimer, they realized it was time to start a new project. They recruited former Women drummer Mike Wallace and guitarist Danny Christiansen, who had worked with Flegel and Wallace in a Black Sabbath tribute act. Originally named Viet Cong, in 2013 the band released a four-song cassette -- cleverly titled Cassette -- that they sold at their shows during a North American tour with Freak Heat Waves. Following their performance at the 2014 CMJ Music Festival, the group signed to the Canadian label Flemish Eye, who issued two songs from the cassette as a single (in the U.S., Mexican Summer released an expanded seven-song version of the tape as a 12" vinyl EP in 2014).In January 2015, the band released their self-titled debut album. Produced by Graham Walsh, Viet Cong added noise and electronics to the band's moody mix of post-punk, shoegaze, and straight-ahead indie rock.
Citing concerns that their name might be offensive to some, in April 2016 the band announced they had changed their name to Preoccupations. Their first album under that name, September 2016's Preoccupations, was a more considered effort that nevertheless highlighted the heavy and danceable sides of their music and featured a guest appearance by Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner. A deluxe version of the album included a single with covers of Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Key" and the Raincoats' "Off Duty Trip." For their third album, March 2018's bluntly titled New Material, the band recruited producer Justin Meldal-Johnson, who helped add polish and a grander scope to their anthemic songwriting. That year, Preoccupations also teamed up with Protomartyr on Telemetry at Howe Bridge, a split single that found them covering each other's songs.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/preoccupations-mn0003514608#biography

Sheila Chandra & Monsoon - Wings of Dawn

A precursor to the scene of artists featured on Naya Beat’s South Asian Dance And Electronic Music 1983-1992 compilation, Monsoon was a short-lived Indi-pop trio consisting of musician and producer Steve Coe, multi-instrumentalist Martin Smith, and Sheila Chandra, who has been celebrated as “one of the most beautiful voices on earth.” While the use of sitar in Western music can be traced back to the psychedelic ’60s (The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones), Monsoon pioneered the first true fusion of East meets West blending traditional Indian music with ’80s synth-pop, long before the term “World Music” would ever be used in Western media.
In 1982, Monsoon’s self-released debut single was distributed by the influential London-based label Rough Trade, and caught the attention of Phonogram’s David Claridge and Dave Bates who signed the group as the first act on their new sub-label Mobile Suit Corporation. “Ever So Lonely” became an unexpected global hit, making history in the process as Chandra (only 17 at the time) became the first South Asian woman to appear on the UK’s “Top of the Pops.”
Monsoon’s lone album Third Eye would arrive in 1983, and remains a groundbreaking and pioneering classic from the Asian Underground in London. Sitar, tambura, santoor, and tabla meet synthesizers, drum machines, and Bill Nelson’s e-bow guitar for a sound that was unlike anything else being released at the time. Album opener “Wings of the Dawn (Prem Kavita)” sets the stage with an Indian raga featuring sitar drone, Chandra’s enchanting vocal, and Indian percussion before soaring into drum machines and electric e-bow.
The group’s cover of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows,” more than likely a suggestion from Phonogram executives, is also sublime and lifts the psychedelic ’60s classic into the ’80s with deep percussive grooves. Crucial to mention, besides Chandra, the album also features some of the best Indian instrumentalists including Ravi Shankar disciple Dari Mankoo on sitar, santoor player Deepak Khazanchi, and Punita Gupta.
Monsoon would disband shortly after the release of Third Eye due to conflicts with their label. Chandra and Coe would continue their collaboration through his Indipop label and further develop their Asian fusion sound through Chandra’s solo releases and The Ganges Orchestra. The label would also establish links with artists pursuing similar fusions of sounds including groups like Michael Wadada’s world music collective Suns of Arqa, and the legendary West India Company, a Blancmange spin-off who brought Asha Bhosle’s voice to European dancefloors.  From: https://insheepsclothinghifi.com/third-eye-monsoon/

Pink Floyd - Echoes

"Echoes" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, and the sixth and last track on their 1971 album Meddle. It is 23+1⁄2 minutes long and takes up the entire second side of the original LP. The track evolved from a variety of different musical themes and ideas, including instrumental passages and studio effects, resulting in the side-long piece. The music, credited to all the band, was mainly written by Richard Wright and David Gilmour, while Roger Waters' lyrics addressed themes of human communication and empathy, to which he returned in later work.
"Echoes" has been regarded by critics as an important song that transitions between Pink Floyd's early experimental material as a cult band and later mainstream success. Several publications have remarked it as one of the best songs by the group. The group have mixed views of the track, but it was a particular favourite of Wright's.
"Echoes" begins with a "ping" that was created as a result of an experiment very early in the Meddle sessions, produced by amplifying a grand piano played by Richard Wright and sending the signal through a Leslie speaker and a Binson Echorec unit. After several "pings", a slide guitar played by David Gilmour gradually joins in.  The verses are sung in harmony by Gilmour and Wright, and joined by a riff played by Gilmour and bassist Roger Waters in unison. This is followed by a guitar solo from Gilmour, played on a Fender Stratocaster through a Fuzz Face effects box, before repeating the previous riff. This leads into a funk-influenced jam, also featuring a mode change from C# Aeolian to C# Dorian.
The middle section of the song features Waters using a slide and a Binson Echorec. Gilmour plays a high-pitched screeching noise, which was created by plugging a wah-wah pedal in back to front (the guitar was plugged into the output of the pedal, and the input of the pedal was plugged into the input of the amplifier). Drummer Nick Mason later clarified that it was an accident, and their experience working with Ron Geesin had taught them to embrace experiments and try anything if it would work on a song. This is followed by a repeat of the opening piano "pings" and a Farfisa organ solo from Wright, said to have been influenced by the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" (1967).
Following a final third verse, the end of the piece features a choral-sounding segment playing a Shepard tone. This was created by placing two tape recorders in opposite corners of a room; the main chord tapes of the song were then fed into one recorder and played back while at the same time recording. The other recorder was then also set to play what was being recorded; this created a delay between both recordings, influencing the chordal structure.
"Echoes" began as a collection of separate musical experiments, some of which were left over from previous sessions. Pink Floyd then arranged the pieces in order to make a coherent piece originally referred to as "Nothing, Parts 1–24". Not all of the pieces were used for the finished track, and out-takes included saying a phrase backwards, so it would sound correct yet strange when the tape was reversed. Subsequent tapes of work in progress were labelled "The Son of Nothing" and "The Return of the Son of Nothing"; the latter title was eventually used to introduce the as-yet-unreleased work in its first live performances in early 1971.
Wright said he composed the piano intro and the main chord progression of the song, and that Waters wrote the lyrics. During early development, before the first verse was finalised, it referred to the meeting of two celestial bodies. For the final lyrics, Waters took inspiration from his time in London in the mid to late 1960s, feeling a sense of disconnection and looking for the potential for humans to connect with each other. One particular observation was looking from his flat on Goldhawk Road and watching a procession of commuters walk past, which led to "Strangers passing in the street". "Echoes" established a trend with Waters to write emphatic words and explore the theme of communication, which would be a key theme of The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and later solo work.
Pink Floyd rehearsed the completed piece before committing a final version to tape. Studio recording was split between Abbey Road Studios, Morgan Studios and AIR Studios in London; the latter two were used because they had a 16-track recorder, which made assembling the individual components of the songs easier. The basic backing tracks were recorded between 7 and 19 March at Abbey Road, with the further overdubs recorded at AIR from 30 March to 1 May, with additional work at Morgan.
Pink Floyd first performed "Echoes" at Norwich Lads Club on 22 April 1971, and it was a regular part of the band's set, up to the concert at Knebworth Park on 5 July 1975. The first significant performance was at the Crystal Palace Bowl on 15 May with an audience of 15,000. It was originally announced by its working title, "Return of the Son of Nothing" and not formally identified as "Echoes" until the group's tour of Japan, starting on 6 August 1971. Occasionally, Waters would introduce the song with silly titles, such as "Looking Through the Knotholes in Granny's Wooden Leg", "We Won The Double" (a reference to Arsenal F.C. winning the double in the 1970–71 season), and "March of the Dambusters".
The song was played at a BBC Radio 1 concert on 30 September 1971 and broadcast on 12 October. Shortly afterwards, Pink Floyd filmed a live performance at the Amphitheatre of Pompeii with no audience for Live at Pompeii, where it was split in two halves to open and close the film. "Echoes" was one of four pieces that Pink Floyd played in collaboration with a ballet choreographed by Roland Petit in late 1972 and early 1973. The track featured a solo ballet piece for Rudy Bryans of the Ballets de Marseille. For the group's 1973 shows at Earl's Court, the performance of "Echoes" featured large quantities of dry ice being poured onto the stage during the middle section, and sheets of flame shooting from a cauldron at the back of the stage. From late 1974 to the Knebworth concert, "Echoes" was performed as an encore. These performances featured backing vocals by Venetta Fields and Carlena Williams and saxophone solos by Dick Parry instead of the guitar solos in earlier performances.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoes_(Pink_Floyd_song) 

Salyu X Salyu - Sailing Days

The Salyu X Salyu project, a collaborative effort between J-Pop belter Salyu and future-savvy producer Cornelius, showcases one of the rarest forms of the “superstar musicians team up” trope. The duo’s album S(o)un(d)beams neither consolidates one another’s strengths into a unified style…see Madvillainy or to a lesser degree the work of Gnarls Barkley…nor do they cancel one another out into a mediocre mush…hello She & Him. Rather, the individual personalities of each artist manage to shine through brightly here, the two more or less doing the things they’ve always done, now just across from one another. Instead of trying to review Salyu X Salyu as one unit, lets instead focus on how each member of this album fare and draw a grand conclusion at the end.

Cornelius Side

Many people who normally wouldn’t give a lick about Salyu or J-Pop in general seem drawn to S(o)un(d)beams because of Cornelius’ involvement. Tough to blame them – since the mid-90s, he’s been the Japanese Beck, capable of dipping into nearly any genre he wants and coming out with something sounding uniquely his own. Over the course of three albums and all sorts of collaborations, he’s established himself as one of the smartest and strangest producers in the world. Couple this with a stunning live show and a Yo Gabba Gabba! appearance and you can understand why some message board denizens declare they don’t really care about the Salyu in Salyu X Salyu.
Those folks won’t be let down…Cornelius does what Cornelius does best on S(o)un(d)beams. He’s still a man in love with sound and, more specifically, how those sounds bounce around in the listener’s head. Like his own trio of LPs, this album demands headphones, the way noises in the left and right channels play with one another and how majestic it is when they come together in the middle. The funky-bass workout of “Mirror Neurotic” recalls his own “Fit Song,” while closing number “Tsuzuki Wo” seemingly beefs up the skeleton of his Muji jingle into something too joyful to be confined to a store. “Muse’ic” becomes an instant highlight in the Cornelius cannon because of how overjoyed it sounds, his usual approach of breaking apart a song and then reconnecting it into a 3-D puzzle (glued together by fat, electro bass) sounding especially triumphant in a song celebrating the creative catharsis of music itself.
Yet here’s the thing…though this record sounds gorgeous, it’s also pretty standard Cornelius operating procedure. Beautiful, but a lot of the songs on S(o)un(d)beams could easily be slight variations on his previous work (heck, I did that with just two track above, and one seems influenced by a commercial). Most of the time, Cornelius plops snippets of sound down into the song that sound a bit out-of-place at first but eventually everything comes together Intelligent Design like into a proper song. This album is a treat to listen to, but it isn’t a massive departure for Cornelius. Which, hey, is probably a good thing but given the amount of (admittedly, Internet based) people drooling over Salyu X Salyu just because of his production, it seems weird to just celebrate this work for being another example of Cornelius being Cornelius.
To be fair, the producer does explore some new territory over the course of S(o)un(d)beams. When Salyu doesn’t sing proper words but rather just makes noises, Cornelius can take those isolated calls and create staggering soundscapes. “Utaimashou” conjures up an alien world where Salyu coos like a bird, plays backwards and at one point turns into an old robot. In terms of production alone, nothing touches the title track, one of the most daring things Cornelius has done in his career. Given a chorus of Salyus, he creates a slowly unfolding sonic vista that lasts seven glorious minutes. These two songs stand as Cornelius highlights on this album.
Still, for the most part, Cornelius isn’t revealing anything new about his sound. Even given the Siren voice of Salyu, he mostly just dices it up and double it up, treating it like another sound to carefully arrange. Not a bad thing, mind you. On S(o)un(d)beams, he’s an excellent architect doing exactly what his job calls for. He’s just not the soul of the Salyu X Salyu project. That goes to…

Salyu Side

S(o)un(d)beams is Salyu’s album, a celebration of everything great about her past work and a grand rebirth, like Lady Gaga hatching out of an egg if that actually resulted in something. To properly understand why this is, a little history lesson is in order.
Despite being the “mainstream” side of the project, Salyu never really has been an A-list J-Pop star. She first popped up not as Salyu but as Lily Chou-Chou, a fictional singer in a movie in 2000. Four years later she finally debuted as, well, herself. Her albums tend to chart well – sophomore effort Terminal remains her best-selling album having moved 87,000 units and climbing as high as number two on the Oricon album charts (the follow-up got to seven, while S(o)un(d)beams hit 12). Her singles chart all over the place though – at her peak she’s gotten as high as 10 by herself, usually following somewhere between 15 and 23 (before that, though, adjust to something like between 30 and 100). A collaboration with Bank Band titled “To U” remains her best known song, having reached the second spot on the singles chart. Salyu’s not an obscure artist, but she doesn’t demand attention like cornballs Koda Kumi or Aiko.
Her strongest tool has always been her voice, a soaring sound capable of pushing upper registers without losing any power. Last year’s “Atarashi Yes” highlights everything great about Salyu – that voice, mostly, but also the way you don’t have to know a single word of Japanese or even what “yes” means to get the emotional oooomph of the single. She’s shown flashes of the same vocal power Bjork boasts. Yet Salyu’s never had a good album to her name…”Atarashi Yes” was among a pocket’s worth of good songs on her third album Maiden Voyage, a bloated affair weighed down by half-hearted stabs at mainstream balladry. Earlier releases Landmark and Terminal don’t fare much better. Salyu’s not a top-tier pop star, but whoever puts together her full-lengths desperately want her to be. Bjork carved out an identity while still in The Sugarcubes, whereas Salyu remains caught in J-Pop R&D. Up to now, she’s mostly been a case of “what if.”
Yet here, name doubled up, she’s set free to chase her “Muse’ic” without fear of censor. Cornelius hasn’t improved on Salyu’s voice, but rather crafted a sonic world wide open for her to do her thing from all sorts of angles. It’s not perfect – at this point, it should be acknowledged the album opens with a relative thunk via the annoying “Tada No Tomodachi,” a case of both Salyu and Cornelius relying too much on the gimmick of “a lot of voices at once!”…but what artistic re-emergence is? On S(o)un(d)beams she finds someone willing to let her experiment, and she dives headfirst into an opportunity that it seems like she has been waiting a long time for.
So…whereas in the hands of a more chart-obsessed person “Sailing Days” (the latest in a string of songs finding Salyu obsessed with boats) probably would have ended up a minor-key ballad, here it’s a little shanty that turns into a crescendo of Salyu’s crashing against the shore at a dizzying rate. Cornelius steps way to the background on “Kokoro” and just lets her sing hauntingly around minimal strings. “Dorei” and “Rain Boots De Odorimashou” find Salyu having some of the most fun she’s ever had on record, playing with the extremes of her voice on both (screech-iness on the prior, calmness on the latter). “Hostile To Me” doesn’t just feature a Bjork-like title, it finally finds Salyu making something resembling a Bjork-ish ballad. It all comes back to “Muse’ic,” where she emerges from a cocoon with big bright wings and like eight mouths just ready to sing the praises of art.
It’s tempting to give Cornelius more credit than he deserves for how Salyu sounds here, since the draw of Salyu X Salyu has always been “Salyu’s voice all over the place!” He deserves a lot of praise – excellent placing of her various vocal tracks, not to mention creating the music that that allowed her to sound like this – but he’s just an arranger for the most part. Salyu is the one giving the vocal performance of her career, one that doesn’t feature anything resembling the big pay-off moments like “Atarashi Yes” but rather sees her exploring every corner of her sound.

Both Sides

Salyu X Salyu bridges the gap between experimental and accessible better than any other Japanese album so far this year, Cornelius showing off his inventive production techniques but never allowing the project to sink into needless wandering through the strange. Both artist’s involved on S(o)un(d)beams can be heard loud and clear, but they’ve come together to make one of the best albums of 2011.

From: https://makebelievemelodies.com/review-salyu-x-salyu-soundbeams/

Mountain - Don't Look Around - Beat-Club 1971

Bob Dylan once said that the ‘60s reminded him of a flying saucer landing – everybody heard about it, but only a handful ever saw it. Out of that handful who saw the decade up close, few had the view of the musicians who played the 1969 Woodstock Festival. The festival, long since pinned like a museum butterfly under history’s glass, misfired for some and cemented the reputations of others. The performance of Crosby, Stills & Nash marked only their second public appearance. Other bands such as The Grateful Dead still talk about how dissatisfied they were with their performance, while the great Alvin Lee and Ten Years After enjoyed, particularly after the concert film’s release, a considerable boost in popularity. Most famously, Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” filled more pages in the guitar great’s growing legend and lingers in public consciousness as the event’s defining moment. 
Treading the boards in Max Yasgur’s field transformed Mountain’s career as well. The band’s close to classic lineup, sans soon-to-be-enlisted drummer Corky Laing, ripped through a set largely culled from guitarist Leslie West’s recently released solo album entitled “Mountain.” The wide-eyed, expressive and impressively built West manned center stage as if the fates conspired to place him there at that moment and time, while former Cream producer Felix Pappalardi stood semi-shadowed to his right unleashing furious bass runs in accompaniment. It is little stretch to say the massive crowd heard nothing quite like this before.
It wasn’t the overpowering bluster or blues histrionics of West’s guitar. By 1969, Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience spawned a host of imitators and influenced countless others to carry on their groundbreaking work to its logical conclusion. However, the public had yet to hear a guitarist capable of uniting accessibility, melody, power, fluent vibrato, and strong rhythm playing into one package. His imposing frame juxtaposed against the small size of his Les Paul Junior along with his surprisingly soulful and muscular vocals completed the picture. His torrid performances on “Beside the Sea” and “Southbound Train” impressed many and didn’t go unnoticed by record executives.
Mountain formed, in significant part, as a vehicle to highlight West’s talents. The July, 1969 release of his first solo album laid down a rough template of the band’s sound, but transitioning from a solo act into a band necessitated changes. Pappalardi, sensitive to musical similarities between Cream and the new band, recruited keyboardist Steve Knight over West’s objections to play organ and fill out their sound. West, an enormous admirer of Clapton’s stint with Cream, shrugged off potential comparisons. Such maneuvers, however, certainly insulated the band from such charges and provided a textural counterpoint for West’s guitar that recalled other emerging bands such as Vanilla Fudge and Deep Purple far more. Knight’s formal approach and reluctant musical improvisation further rankled West’s attitude towards the keyboardist, but the jazz devotee brought considerable chops to bear that few then-prominent keyboardists could claim.  From: https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/story-band-mountain 

In This Moment - The In-Between

In This Moment lead singer Maria Brink seems to live with an angel on one shoulder and devil on the other - a contrast between light and dark. That's the case here where she hears two conflicting voices: One that tells her she's holy, the other that screams she's worthless. These voices represent her mother and father. Her mother was very supportive and encouraging, but Brink's father was never in her life. His absence caused her lot of distress and made her question herself.
"My dad simply wasn't there. He wasn't in my life," she told Kerrang. "As a young girl I struggled with that a lot. My mother always believed in me and was always trying to lift me up. She never doubted me, regardless of the struggles she was going through herself."
"The In-Between" was the first single from In This Moment's seventh album, Mother. The song was written by Brink, her co-founder Chris Howorth, their producer Kevin Churko, and guitarist Randy Weitzel, who had become a key songwriter in the band by this point. Like many of their videos from this era, this one was co-directed by Maria Brink and Robert Kley. The band often translated their videos to their stage performances, and that was the case here, with the "blood girls" (Brink's backup dancers) there for support.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/in-this-moment/the-in-between

David Crosby - Orleans

This week’s fave is “Orleans”, a traditional French song rendered by David Crosby on his 1971 album ”If I Could Only Remember My Name.” Although a veritable who’s who of Bay Area musicians (Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzman, Jack Casady, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, Neil Young, Gregg Rolie, Michael Shrieve and David Freiberg) appear on the record, I believe this track is all Crosby, overdubbing multiple (gorgeous) vocals.
I’ve wanted to know what this song is about for years, but thanks to the internet, I think it’s merely a listing of church or parish or maybe neighborhood names in Paris.
I always loved this record, from the day it came out. Critics were not kind at the time, but revisionist rock history now places it high amongst influential albums from the time. One thing that really interested me about the record was the way that the Bay Area musicians formed ad-hoc groups like this and performed on each other’s records, in much the same way that jazz musicians do. Many of the players on Crosby’s album also appear on the record ”Blows Against The Empire,” credited to Jefferson Starship but really a Paul Kantner solo project. There was always a great deal of movement between Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Jefferson Airplane, The Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Santana, as well as singers like Joni Mitchell and Mama Cass Elliott.
I’ve read that some of this record reflects the pain that Crosby was suffering due to his girlfriend Christine Hinton’s tragic death in an auto accident; the song ”Traction In The Rain” is surely about that. Much of the record (and there’s an alternate version on YouTube that I just discovered) is filled with noodling and meandering jams, but the songs are strong, because Crosby always had a gift for melody. And for good or for ill, he always wrote lyrics with his heart on his sleeve; a lot of his lyrics may be, as Neil Young once said, hippie dreams, but he believed fully in them (even though he was a gun-totin’ coke head).  From: https://dumbfoundingstories.com/2015/07/28/hashs-faves-orleans-by-david-crosby/

Buke & Gase - Revel in Contempt

Buke and Gase (originally Buke and Gass) are an experimental indie rock duo from Brooklyn, New York, who made their recording debut in 2009. Playing unique instruments of their own design, Buke and Gase generate a sonic palette that's very much their own, rooted in the traditional functions of guitar and bass but thrown into different relief. Their songs, usually built from ideas generated during extended improvisation, mix fractured melodic lines and strong but jagged rhythms, generating a sound that's playful but also curiously alien. The duo's early recordings, such as 2010's Riposte and 2013's General Dome, were rooted in the instrumental interplay between musicians Aron Sanchez and Arone Dyer, while 2019's Scholars found the group expanding their boundaries as they relied more on electronics. This trend carried into the next decade, beginning with their 2021 collaboration with fellow Brooklyn experimentalists So Percussion.
Founded in 2008, Buke and Gase is comprised of multi-instrumentalists Aron Sanchez and Arone Dyer; the latter was formerly a member of the band Proton Proton, while both worked together in Hominid. The group's name is derived from two experimental instruments created by the bandmembers: the buke, played by Dyer, is something of an electrified six-string ukulele, while the gass, played by Sanchez, is something of a cross between a guitar and bass (guitar plus bass equals g-ass, thus gass). Buke and Gass made their recording debut in 2009 with +/-, a self-released seven-track mini-album, which was followed by their first full-length effort, Riposte, in 2010. The duo also played occasional shows locally in Brooklyn. They eventually tweaked their name, changing the spelling to Buke and Gase to avoid any confusion about the pronunciation of their trademark instrumentation.
 The pair released their first album under the newly refined moniker, General Dome, in 2013. The band performed extensively in support, playing in North America, the United Kingdom, Asia, and Australia, while also touring as an opening act for the National, who invited Dyer to contribute a guest vocal on their 2017 album Sleep Well Beast. They also shared stages with a diverse range of respected artists, including Laurie Anderson, Deerhoof, Swans, and Shellac. During downtime from the group, Sanchez was commissioned by composer Bryce Dessner to build a set of third-bridge instruments specifically for his 2015 piece "Music for Wood and Strings."
 Buke and Gase took time off from recording after their 2015 projects as they re-evaluated their approach. Dyer and Sanchez developed a strong interest in electronic music, and they created a device called the Arx that would allow them to trigger percussion samples, manipulate vocals, and change effects on their instruments with ease. At the same time, the buke and the gass became less prominent in their arrangements as they explored the possibilities of electronic instruments. 2019's Scholars was the first project from this new incarnation of Buke and Gase; initially, Scholars was going to be a new name for the duo reflecting their change in direction, but they chose to keep the original moniker and use Scholars as an album title. Their next LP, 2021's A Record of, was recorded in a 300-year-old house in Hudson, New York, in conjunction with experimental percussion ensemble So Percussion.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/buke-and-gase-mn0002019109#biography

Aorta - S/T (Full Album)

 Aorta - S/T (Full Album) - Part 1

 

 Aorta - S/T (Full Album) - Part 2

 

This one is definitely conspicuous in its unusually dark, proto-prog atmosphere. Effectively Psych Pop but with very little of the twee ‘let’s all drink tea in our flower crowns’ vibes. Instead, this brings a certain intensity that gives it a really distinctive feeling. The fuzz guitar is sick and the organ is funereal. The drums go hard and the poppy melodies are delivered with a certain visceral urgency that elevates them significantly. The sound effects are slightly unsettling and even the brighter folk and symphonic elements come across in brief passages amongst the aforementioned maelstrom.

Produced by Bill Traut and Jon Donlinger, 1969's "Aorta" showcased one of the better slices of psychedelic music released by a major label. Aorta was blessed with a deep creative bench with three of the four members contributing to songwriting chores. Musically the album appeared to be a concept piece with the individual songs strung together by a series of four 'Main Vein' segments. If it was a concept piece, I'll admit the plotline was lost to my ears. Featuring largely original material, the collection offered up a nice mélange of pop and harder rock numbers slathered in acid-tinged production. On the pop end were The Buckinghams-styled 'Magic Bed', 'A Thousand Thoughts' and 'Ode to Missy Mxyzosptik' (ignore the title). Harder edged, more experimental efforts were exemplified by the psych-flavored 'What's in My Mind's Eye' and 'Catalyptic.' Even better were tunes like 'Heart Attack' and 'Thoughts and Feelings' where the band mashed up commercial and psych influences. The track listing also included a rerecorded version of the earlier "B" side 'Strange'.  Sure, it wasn't a major creative statement or something that would drastically change your life, but full of Jim Donlinger's impressive fuzz guitar, interesting melodies and weird studio effects it made for a solid player. I found every track worth hearing.   
The band toured in support of the album, opening for a wide range of headliners including Janis Joplin and Led Zeppelin. Commercially the album proved a minor chart success peaking at # 167. Columbia was impressed and offered the band a showcase performance at New York's Fillmore East. Intended to introduce the band to music industry leaders, the performance was reportedly a disaster. It turned out the band had taken LSD prior to the concert. 

From: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/aorta/aorta/

 

The Crab Apples - Inside Crap - Live 2021

The Crab Apples is an indie pop-rock band formed by three friends from a town near Barcelona (Spain) who started writing and recording their songs when they were still in high school and have never stopped for over a decade.
Being independent and self-managing the band, Carla Gimeno (voice), Laia Alsina (electric guitar), and Laia Martí (bass) have released three albums and several EPs through which they have freely experimented with different sounds. They have gone through grunge, electronics, and rock until they reached a unique sound that blends light and dark elements, sometimes sensual and always elegant, with pop at its core.
With an overwhelming live performance and a chemistry that transcends the stage, they have toured Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria, have opened for great bands such as Warpaint, The Beach Boys, Nada Surf or Lola Marsh, and have performed at festivals such as The Great Escape, Reeperbahn Festival, Primavera Sound, Waves Vienna, Focus Wales, Vida or Sonorama Ribera.
The Crab Apples, with their wealth of experience, have become one of the most captivating bands in the Spanish music industry. In 2023 they were selected as one of the three Spanish projects by Keychange, a UK-based platform that advocates for equity in the music industry by providing tools and spaces to underrepresented female and gender-expansive artists.
In September, the band released their latest single "Sin Ti" - a track that showcases their four-piece indie pop-rock sound and marks the beginning of a new era for the band: Un Volantazo, their upcoming EP that will be released early in May. With minimal instrumentation - just their voice, guitar, bass, and drums - the band displays in this new EP an impressive sense of unity, power, and connection. The solid sound they've achieved is a statement to their confidence and ability to showcase their personality and strength without relying on unnecessary embellishments.  From: https://www.gigmit.com/the-crab-apples5