Los Lobos - Dream In Blue - Live 1992

Only a few years removed from breaking through with their cover of Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba," Los Lobos turned even more heads with Kiko, a beautifully textured and flawlessly executed musical statement that reveals the group taking on ambitious musical challenges and surmounting every one. In pairing with producer Mitchell Froom, the band yielded this critically acclaimed 1992 set that remains the apex of its distinguished career.
In Rolling Stone's original review of Kiko, David Okamoto remarks "the music sounds more created than contrived, thanks to the compassionate touch of the group's main songwriters, singer-guitarist David Hidalgo and drummer Louis Pérez." Indeed, the Los Angeles ensemble tackles tough-minded social issues such as alcoholism, suicide, abuse, homelessness, death, and rape without coming across as preachy or melodramatic. The record's power relates to that possessed by the most timeless albums – the emotional and metaphysical capacities to transcend problems, overcome adversity, and deliver catharsis.
Spanning rollicking blues and dreamy pop balladry to snarling rock and traditional Mexican-inspired waltzes, Kiko seemingly knows no bounds. Lullabies such as "Saint Behind the Glass" claim mellifluous elegance while the cabaret-laced jazz of work like "Kiko and the Lavender Moon" glows with a dark majesty, thanks to both the skilled performance and Froom's illuminating production. Los Lobos seldom, if ever, drifted so far outside of the roots-rock box as they do on Kiko. And yet, the collective's binding connection to folklore remains intact. Native American, Hispanic, and Catholic elements surface in the lyrics and arrangements, the characteristics expressing a multicultural reach that parallels the songs' multidimensional construction.  From: https://mofi.com/shop/music/vinyl/los-lobos-kiko-numbered-180g-vinyl-lp/

Cold Specks - Neuroplasticity (A Short Film)

It's been a year since the release of Cold Specks' second album, Neuroplasticity, but the sorrow in Al Spx's voice is as urgent as ever. Today, she's back with a short film of the same name, soundtracked by two particularly emotional songs off the album, "Living Signs" and "Old Knives." The film, directed by Young Replicant, features a beautiful narrative, wracked with love and loss, and ultimately hones in on what it feels like when those two things intersect.
"In the studio, I was aggressively determined to construct songs that were wild but still elegant. I wanted to create movement. Listening now, I can hear a sense of urgency in the songs," Al Spx explained to The Fader over email. "We didn’t want to make another typical music video, so we set out to create something that would stand on its own as a piece of art.”
Young Replicant offered up some additional context, too: "I left half the script unfinished until after we had found our location and had done some of the casting. It was important for me to make sure the video had a very specific sense of place, a unique energy inspired by the setting as much as the music itself."  From: https://www.thefader.com/2015/09/14/cold-specks-neuroplasticity-film

Canadian singer-songwriter Al Spx (who uses a stage name out of respect for her parents' disapproval of her career in music) found her band's name, Cold Specks, in a James Joyce quote. "Born all in the dark wormy earth, cold specks of fire, evil lights shining in the darkness," is the line from Ulysses that compelled Spx to keep making the dark, incendiary music she'd started writing at university.
Joyce's quote can also be applied to Spx's latest project, a short film featuring two songs from Cold Specks' 2014 album, Neuroplasticity. Fans of the television show Twin Peaks will find references in both story and image, as the video's young protagonist spins obsessively through his own anguish and obsession toward a violent and heartbreaking climax. Much like David Lynch's famously inscrutable series, "Neuroplasticity" creates as many questions as it answers. Spx's propulsive voice and seething music, paired with director Young Replicant's tense, choppy storytelling, will both reward and confound on multiple viewings.  From: https://fm.kuac.org/music/2015-09-16/cold-specks-explores-violence-obsession-and-memory-in-neroplasticity 

Citay - Dream Get Together

"I don't feel a need to distance myself from anything I like," Ezra Feinberg told a magazine in 2006, not long after the release of Citay, his extravagant self-titled debut of unbridled classic rock grandiosity for Important Records. "If anything I want to bring myself (and my bandmates, as well as my friends and family) closer to everything I like." The interviewer had asked Feinberg about irony in his music-- specifically, how he hoped the irony of Led Zeppelin references, sizzling electric leads, and a heroic, fantasy-rock instrumental dubbed "Vinter" might work amidst a landscape of cynics and smartasses. After one record, it might've been hard to say much of Feinberg's intentions. Yeah, those classic riffs ruled, and the layers of warm Jethro Tull and ELO textures that he and producer (and former Fucking Champ) Tim Green stuffed into Grateful Dead-like shapes sounded fantastic. But what about that flute? And those keyboard layers and string-section sprees? He must be teasing at least a little bit, right?
If any doubt lingered after Little Kingdom, Citay's triumphant and enormous 2007 debut for Dead Oceans, then Dream Get Together-- Feinberg's third and most expansive album as Citay-- dispels it entirely. From the Fleetwood Mac grandeur of the ballad "Mirror Kisses", sung by tUnE-YaRdS' Merrill Garbus, to the five minutes of instrumental swagger of "Secret Breakfast", Dream Get Together gathers the totems and taboos of 1970s rock and, as the record's title suggests, treats them all like the guests of some imagined jam session. At times, it might seem a tad cornball or cute, but Citay make triumphant, affirming music that leaves no room for irony.
Dream Get Together's closer, a cover of the 1988 Galaxie 500 single "Tugboat", is the most concise and accessible example. A room-filling acoustic guitar, more brisk and bold than it is schmaltzy, takes the rhythm, and a radiating electric line washes atop, announcing the theme in advance of Feinberg's, for once, dominant vocals. "I don't want to stay at your party/ I don't want to talk with your friends/ I don't want to vote for your president," he sings in harmony with himself. If the original take followed those declarations with question marks or uncertain ellipses, Feinberg chases them with exclamation points. Like the Galaxie 500 take, Citay end with an extended guitar vamp. But Galaxie 500's dissonance and stuttered lines wound tightly in turmoil. Feinberg and Green whirl in delight, their foil guitars treating the exit more like a liftoff than a comedown. It just feels good.
That holds for much of Dream, too. The title track, for instance, is a total celebration-- shakers, strums, and big drums opening the door for a sharp guitar line and Feinberg's summertime revelry. In one verse, he references Neil Diamond and Steely Dan and, more importantly, details the joy of his dreams-- "two hands out the window, two hands shifting gears." Opener "Careful with That Hat" is a sidewinding epic veering between choral swells, a Motorik midsection, and a solo that sends San Francisco's past exploding into the air like sparks.
Through it all, Citay supply a surprising amount of editing and elegance to these jams. Just two break the seven-minute mark. When Garbus' oohs and aahs float through a thick keyboard-and-acoustic haze on "Mirror Kisses"-- or even when the guitars lock in long, winding harmonies during "Fortunate Sun"-- Citay remain controlled and careful. Songs are constructed so that each line plays a certain role, every note tells its tale. Maybe that's where it will lose some listeners, too: It's not tough and rough and wild around the edges like Green's old band could be, or a lot of heavy metal can be. And it's not open at the ends like jam-band music. But this is Feinberg's third album of eight tracks in about 40 minutes, all exploring the same excitable intersection of psychedelia and pop. By now, he doesn't seem to be the sort to back down from his musical decisions or not to pursue the lavish sounds he hears in his head. Good thing, too: If he did, these intense little trips would be a lot less fun.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13936-dream-get-together/

Pretenders - Message of Love

This rock and roll love song is unlike any other, with no gooey clichés but a heartfelt appreciation for how a loving relationship can strengthen both sides. It was written by Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde, who has a rather pragmatic view of love. A self-sufficient leader, her bandmates were always men but never her love interests - she didn't start a band to meet guys. Her message of love is one of support:
At the time, Hynde was dating Ray Davies of The Kinks; they had a daughter together in 1983 but split up soon after and never married. Hynde got married twice, first to Jim Kerr of Simple Minds in 1984, then to the artist Lucho Brieva in 1997 - neither worked out. "Relationships are not the be-all and end-all," she told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2015. "You have to be happy within yourself first. No man can give you that."

The Pretenders knocked it out of the park with their self-titled debut album, which was released in 1979 and scored them a #1 UK hit with "Brass In Pocket." After an extensive tour, they were put right back to work, sent to the Pathe-Marconi studio in Paris to record songs for their next album. "Message Of Love" is one of the songs they recorded there, and it became the lead single from their next album, Pretenders II.

Musically, this song is built on a two-chord, one-up one-down guitar riff popular in punk rock. It's unconventional, with no chorus, just instrumental breaks after the verses, and big key change on the bridge after Hynde sings the "over and over and over" part. The song title shows up just once, in the third verse.
The Pretenders had an American frontwoman (Chrissie Hynde), but the rest of the band was from England, which is where they were based. Most American acts didn't make music videos at the time, but British acts did because variety shows and talk shows across Europe aired them. "Message Of Love" got a bare-bones video showing the band performing the song in a studio. Despite the lack of production value, it was exactly what MTV needed when they launched in August 1981: a recently released rock song by a popular band with an American lead singer. It was the 19th video the network played when they went on the air, but not the first Pretenders song on MTV - "Brass In Pocket" was the 7th video they showed.
  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/pretenders/message-of-love

Cheeto's Magazine - A.W.K.W.A.R.D.

Cheeto’s Magazine – Amazingous: Meet Todd Rundgren in a Spanish bordello channelling the cheesiest aspects of pop Genesis, while Cheap Trick hurl custard pies from the wings, and watch as these Spanish loons (aye, they’re still loons, five years after that bonkers debut Boiling Fouls) make a joyful pop-prog racket and dance around inside your cranium with all the decorum of a riot in the nursing home.
Full of rambunctious affairs like the irrepressibly daft Ready To Rumble, this album will probably work better in the summer, when the sun is out and we’ll all be too drunk to care anymore. Close Your Eyes thankfully pulls up just short of becoming a power ballad, and there’s an instrumental with the most unthreatening riff you ever heard, called, quite inappropriately, Scum … and what’s this? Ah, very clever… Boiling Fowls, the first album, commenced with a 25-minute epic, so naturally this one closes with one. It’s called Big Boy – you can’t fault the lads’ sense of humour, eh?
Some far too earnest prog albums meander or drear to such an extent that it’s tempting to go and mow the lawn while they stretch an already half-assed idea to beyond the point of reasonableness, as you know they’ll still be droning on when you get back. Not Cheeto’s Magazine, oh no. Listening to one of their huge amorphous beasties is akin to nailing down a box of frogs with a blancmange. One moment Big Boy is a synth-symphony, the next an FM rock folly blasting out across the barrio, then near the end it hints at cowboy movie soundtrack, all at a mostly breakneck pace. There is some classy arranging going on in here, you’ll never nod off, I promise. If playing rock music still paid the bills, by rights this lot should all have holiday homes in Acapulco, with more gold than you could shake a bong at.
It was five years ago Cheeto’s Magazine enticed my world with Boiling Fowls, and reading that review again reminds me what a comparatively worry-free place the U.K. was back then, but having listened to this a few times it somehow manages to let me leave that bag o’shite behind for a while. Not long enough, mind, but every little helps as they say. I would go see this lot live in a flash, should they ever visit these dark lands, and so should you if you know what your soul needs right now.  From: https://theprogressiveaspect.net/blog/2019/03/22/cheetos-magazine-amazingous/

Otyken - Genesis

Enter the immersive, storied world of Siberian indigenous music with Otyken, a collective that brings a rich musical legacy into a modern format. Otyken's performances introduce their listeners to their traditional vocal stylings and instruments, many of which fans may have never even seen before. In this episode of Global Spin, Otyken performs "Genesis," a song they released in 2021. "Genesis" has some modern elements, but central to this song — and the rest of the group's work — is an evocative introduction to the music that has been coming out of the mountains of Siberia for generations.
Dressed in traditional outfits, Otyken perform in a log cabin-like setting, standing in front of a backdrop of large masks. Though many listeners won't be able to understand the words of the song (the group performs in Khakass and Chulyms, and sometimes Russian), the tone of "Genesis" feels celebratory, with a pulsing beat and joyful, emphatic lead vocals.
Otyken's performance puts a special spotlight on every element of their traditional offerings, including throat singing, a musical line that works as a counterpart to the breathy lead melody. The group also incorporates multiple instruments specific to their Siberian traditions, including a vargan (or jaw harp) and a morinhur and leather drums.  From: https://www.grammy.com/news/otyken-genesis-performance-video-siberian-indigenous-traditions-instruments-global-spin

Antiprisma - Fogo Mais Fogo

At first glance, “Coisas de Verdade” can be seen as an album that celebrates Antiprisma’s return to the path of releases, but above all, it is a mature and very well-constructed synthesis of everything that this project led by Elisa Moos and Victor José has been doing since 2014, when they released their debut EP. Initially considered a duo that moved between folk and rock, carrying nuances of MPB, Antiprisma has always made a point of experimenting with the limits of the song format. They took their first steps in this field of acoustic sounds, definitively embraced the universe of viola caipira on their first album Planos “Para Esta Encarnação” (2016), flirted with psychedelia and electric instruments on their second album, “Hemisférios” (2019), and now arrives with an organic album with their feet firmly on the ground. In times of rising artificial intelligence, Coisas de Verdade was designed to be as human as possible and to highlight this aspect in every detail, subverting the current context slightly. According to Elisa, who shares production and artistic direction with Victor, “the songs are exactly as they should be, there are no aesthetic concessions of any kind and yet they sound open, somehow inviting to anyone who enjoys songs, which is something difficult to achieve, and this makes us very happy as independent artists”. This can be seen in the themes, the structures of the tracks and the style of the entire album. From the initial composition phase to the final recording, the search for authenticity and a truly emotional connection was a constant guide, shaping each chord, each note and each arrangement. To achieve this, they relied on the solid team of Ana Zumpano and Beau Gomez – drums and bass, respectively – to record much of the new work live and delve deeply into this process. In moments like “Que Seja” and “Um Rosto Desconhecido na Esquina”, everyone is in the same room, celebrating the moment of creating something together and in total harmony. Part of this search for something “handmade” is also in the choice of what to play. In Coisas De Verdade there are no emulators, synthesizers or any instrument that was not played by a real person. The title track itself, for example, has a rhythmic base made with sounds of household objects, emphasizing this search for the organic in every detail. As always in their work, Antiprisma took as much care with poetry as with sound. Unlike other releases, in Coisas De Verdade the lyrics of subjective themes full of landscapes and contemplative images are left out a little. With that, much more personal subjects come into play, almost like small chronicles from the point of view of a more urban experience, as in “Saturnino”, “São Duas Horas e Está Tudo Bem” and “Euforia”, which emphasizes this search for a more tangible work.  From: https://revistaogrito.com/antiprisma-retorna-com-coisas-de-verdade-album-feito-a-mao/