XTC - Love On A Farmboy's Wages

Andy: “Well, I'd wigged out by now and was more than sick of touring, mentally and physically. So, using some money I'd saved from bits and pieces of performing rights society money (PRS), I got a mortgage on a house in the old town of Swindon. XTC never saw a penny from any of our thousands of live shows, but that's another tale I can't tell you because I've had a gagging order slapped on me by our first manager.
“Feeling confused about my future, I'd sit in the back garden, now I had one, and just write and write. One of the last acts this manager did for us was to buy Colin and myself a Portastudio each (for which we were duly recharged). But at last, we had a four track recording facility to capture our ideas on. This was one of the first things I recorded on it. We'd never really made demo recordings much before now, only if we'd been in a studio whilst making an album or unless someone had set up a makeshift facility, eg: Swindon Town Hall. But now we had a way of demonstrating how a song might sound with more than one instrument. Better than saying in noisy rehearsals ‘gather round, I've got a new one, just give me room to stamp and strum’.
“Terry claimed that this song is the one that convinced him to leave the band, we were actually working it up when he told us he was quitting. The songs were too weird, he said, he didn't like the poofy drumming.”  From: http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_LoveOnAFarmboysWages.html

Supreme Beings of Leisure - Never the Same

Geri Soriano-Lightwood says the weirdest thing about one minute into the interview. She says that she grew up in Chicago but is wasn't until she moved to Los Angeles that she felt she could breathe. In 26 years of such natters it's the first time anybody has said something vaguely complimentary about the City of Angels. Mostly, you are there because you have to be there - unless you're an urban cowboy who only sniffs the raw scent of life when you're living on the edge. Like Andy Prieboy. But that's another story. What LA offers the singer/lyricist of the marvellous Supreme Beings Of Leisure - arguably the best electronic band to emerge from the US in the past five years, and easily the most worldly and eclectic - is peace of mind.
"The racial climate was just amazing out here compared to where I was from," she says. "Chicago is pretty segregated. I left 10 years ago and I was in the alternative scene out there. I wasn't in the 'house' scene where you see a woman of colour. It confused a lot of people. They didn't really know what to do with me. It was kind of like this weird black chick singing like a white girl. Once I got to LA it wasn't an issue."
Geri's pedigree bears repeating. Heavily involved in that Chicago scene she played with some extraordinary talent including a spell as an early member of the excellent low-fi outfit, The Aluminium Group [their guests on this year's moody, atmospheric, Pedals include Jim O'Rourke, Sean O'Hagan, Doug McCombs, Edith Frost], and used to "hang out' with Billy Corgan before he became famous.
But the real pay off was to come when she made it to LA where she eventually met Rick Torres, Kiran Shahani and Ramin Sakurai. When they came to record a rap demo fate or gut instinct took a heavy hand. Ramin had the chance to submit a song for a James Bond film so he said 'maybe we can some of these tracks have Geri sing over them and see what happens'. The first song they wrote together was Nothing Like Tomorrow (a spooky post-Portishead chillout with distinct James Barry undertones) in 1995 with the Bond movie in mind (they didn't get the nod). That was the piece that created the SBOL sound. The chemistry was obvious. The trio's smart programming and seductive grooves beautifully showcased Geri's distinctive voice and her astonishing lyrics - searching tales of longing and disillusionment. That sound - which can be heard so perfectly cut into the grooves of their self-titled debut - was almost at once: sexy, seductive, glamorous, whimsical, soulful and haunting - a global sound with an American perspective. What else could they be but the Supreme Beings Of Leisure.
That sound also mirrored their collective identity. The bloodlines running through the group stretch from India to the Dominican Republic, Iran to Japan, Puerto Rico to Ireland. The guys all grew up in LA having immigrated to the US with their families at early ages, so it's all filtered through a distinctly western view of the world. "Our sound has a lot to do with who we are and where we come from," Geri says. "We were all raised 'white, upper-middle class,' but we weren't white. We didn't fit into our respective situations and that's what has become the bond between us. We were raised with a broader cultural mindset. We come from other cultures. That mindset is what created the sponge that is the Supreme Beings Of Leisure."
That sponge has dripped perhaps the most un-American record made by an American band. Geri laughs, says that they get many similar comments. In otherwords, SBOL are confusing the hell of out of things. Excellent. It's time geography, race colour and creed stopped influencing what kind of music people listen to.  From: http://mikesori.brinkster.net/hofsori/gsori.htm 

Uni and The Urchins - DNA

A cyborg recording of analog tape, industrial drum machines and bass keytar exploring postmodern themes on genetic mutation and futurism through a goth lens. Crispr, gene drive, cosmetic surgery, eugenics, life extension, uploading consciousness to the cloud, bifurcation of those that can afford it and those that cannot...we are entering a post-flesh world. DNA is about our severance with all that makes us human and entering the next phase of evolution, molding ourselves into digital Demi Gods with perfect silicone bodies. Would you make this Faustian deal with technology, or retreat to the forest...?  From: https://unitheband.bandcamp.com/track/dna 

iNFiNiEN - Beyond the Veil

Having been on the scene since at least 2009, the Philadelphia based iNFiNiEN has taken its sweet time in crafting its musical amalgamations that create the playground for progressive rock, jazz, soul, various styles of ethnic folk music as well as classical into an eclectic conglomeration all their own. This band has remained the constant quartet of Chrissie Loftus (vocals, piano & keyboards), Matt Hollenberg (guitars, saz, oud, electric sitar), Jordan Berger (electric & upright basses, sitar) and Tom Cullen (drums & percussion) and has only released three albums, the latest titled Beyond The Veil.
With a challenging angular time signature prowess oft reserved for the world of avant-prog, iNFiNiEN prove to be masters of blending challenging prog complexities with the sensual warmth of vocal jazz and Middle Eastern scales and rhythms fronted by the divine feminine charm of Chrissie Loftus whose vocal style delivers a softening effect to an otherwise complex wealth of prog influences battling it out behind the scenes. Beyond The Veil also features three guest musicians contributing violins, cello and flute. The album with eight tracks at just under 54 minutes provides an outstanding example of how to be original in the modern crowded world of progressive rock / jazz-fusion.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=76434

 

Blind Melon - No Rain

"No Rain" is a song by American rock band Blind Melon. It was released in 1993 as the second single from the band's debut album Blind Melon. The song is well known for its accompanying music video, which features the "Bee Girl" character. The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, received heavy airplay on MTV at the time of its release.
Although the song is credited to the whole band, bassist Brad Smith wrote most of "No Rain". He said: "The song is about not being able to get out of bed and find excuses to face the day when you have really, in a way, nothing." At the time, Smith had been dating a depressed woman who slept through sunny days and complained when it did not rain. For a while, he told himself that he was writing the song from her perspective, and later realized that he was also writing it about himself.
The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, stars Heather DeLoach as the "Bee Girl", a young tap dancer wearing a homemade bee costume and large glasses, modeled after the Blind Melon album cover: a family picture of Georgia Graham, younger sister of drummer Glen Graham. The Bee Girl's story is intercut with footage of Blind Melon performing in a field against a clear blue sky. 
It opens on the girl's tap routine; the audience responds with mocking laughter, and the girl runs off-stage in tears. As the song plays, she wanders through Los Angeles, stopping to perform her dance for whoever will watch, but she still feels alone. Ultimately, at the point in the song where the word "escape" is repeated, she peeks through a gate, which elicits a look of astonishment on her face, then runs through it to join a group of "bee people" just like her, dancing joyfully in a green field. As a result of the video, DeLoach appeared on the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards doing her "Bee Girl" dance to close the show, and also appeared as the "Bee Girl" in the video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Bedrock Anthem”. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Rain

 

Kabbalah - Ceibas

If you’ve been keyed in to the doom-stoner scene in Spain, Kabbalah needs no introduction.   I suspect, however, there are many for which this is a new name.   The Pamplona threesome is the brainchild of Carmen (drums) and Marga (bass), formerly of local rock 'n’ rollers Las Culebras.   As fun as that collaboration was, the pair hungered to delve into darker realms of witchcraft and the forbidden arts.   Inspired by retro heavy psych, they released their eponymous debut in 2013.   Two years later, Alba joined the team, adding a new dimension of bad-ass with those wicked guitar licks.   Clearly, Kabbalah was evolving into something very special, already evident by their subsequent record, 'Primitive Stone’ (2015). 
But nothing could have prepared us for the punctuated equilibrium of a leap forward that led to 'Revelations’ (2016).   With a clever blend of seventies stoner rock, catchy sixties-inspired choruses, a dark, Sabbathian undertone, and hints of the traditional music of the region, Kabbalah etched out a distinctive sound that made me an immediate fan (the closest point of comparison I could think of was West Virginia’s Brimstone Coven, with notable differences).  From: https://doomedandstoned.com/post/159303473023/kabbalah

Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor - She Makes a Great Parade / It's Good to be Alive

Since forming in 2005, the artists formerly known as SikSik Nation have built a homegrown following based on the strength of their trippy live shows. Now the band returns with a new LP of psychedelically seductive rock 'n' roll, complete with a gender-bending name change to go along with it. Rechristened Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor, the new name (which perhaps fairly invokes fellow stoner rockers Queens of the Stone Age) coincides with their self-titled re-debut, recorded and mixed in the band's new home studio in Ypsilanti. Although it's garnished with plenty of studio effects and guitar noodling, the songs never abandon their organic quality; in other words, unlike most every other heavy-hitter in this genre, the material doesn't slip into some kind of super-spacey cosmic jamming. 
The band also never ceases to sound like a trio. Although they sound huge on songs like the opener "Lord Is My Gun," with its monster organ-riff and creepy background tremolo vocals, there remains a stripped-down quality to all these songs, led by frontman Sean Morrow's ragged, almost bluesy vocals. And while everything on the record shares the same dark, psychedelic elements, there's is dynamism: "Spaceman Blues" creeps up on the listener, building its sparse beginnings into a full-on freak-out, while "Victims of Momentum" immediately hits full force with a dancey bassline and hi-hat added to the mix. As a listening experience, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor should connect with the seemingly disparate crowds of both garage and the more technically inclined Guitar Center lurkers.  From: https://www.metrotimes.com/music/sisters-of-your-sunshine-vapor-2288334