Playlist Week of 2016-07-02

* Marais: Sonnerie de Saint-Genieve du Mont (Harnoncourt) (Harmonia Mundi CD)

* Lachenmann: NUN/Notturno (Musik für Julia) (WDR, et al.) (KAIROS CD)

* John Cage Meets Sun Ra: The Complete Concert (Meltdown/Modern Harmonic 2LP)

* John Coltrane: Kulu Sé Mama (Impulse! CD)

* John Coltrane: Live In Seattle (Impulse/GRP 2CD)

* Open Sky: Open Sky (P.M. LP)

* Ingrid Laubrock & Tom Rainey: Buoyancy (Relative Pitch CD)

* Mazur/Neuringer: Diachronic Paths (Relative Pitch CD)

* Weather Report: Black Market (Columbia LP)

* Willie Nelson: Teatro (Island/Modern Classics 2LP)

* Van Morrison: No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (Mercury LP)

* John Renbourne: The Attic Tapes (Riverboat 2LP)

* John Martyn: Glorious Fool (WEA LP)

* Forest: Forest (Harvest/Radioactive LP)

* Strawbs: Just A Collection Of Antiques And Curios (A&M LP)

* Amon Duul II: Phallus Dei (UA/Revisited CD)

* Rodriguez: Searching For Sugarman OST (Light In The Attic 2LP)

* Genesis: Seconds Out (Charisma 2LP)

* Genesis: Three Sides Live (Atlantic 2LP)

* Opeth: Deliverance (Music For Nations/KOCH 2LP)

* Acid Mothers Temple: Recurring Dream And Apocalypse Of Darkness (Important 2LP)

* Acid Mothers Temple: Lord Of The Underground: Vishnu & The Magic Elixir (Alien8 LP)

* Grails: Burning Off Impurities (Temporary Residence 2LP)

* Wolves In The Throne Room: BBC Session 2011 Anno Domini (Southern Lord EP)

* Kylesa: Static Tensions (20 Buck Spin LP)

* Kylesa: Exhausting Fire (Season of Mist LP)

* Pelican: The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw (Hydra Head/Viva Hate 2LP)

* Pelican: City of Echoes (Hydra Head LP)

* Wild Nothing: Life of Pause (Captured Tracks LP)†/‡

* Ecstatic Vision: Sonic Praise (Relapse LP)

†=iPod/iTunes

‡=car

Commentary:

Happy 4th of July!

Well, this blows me away: Perihelion, my last download-only album with Sam Byrd, got an honorable mention in the "Best of 2016 (So Far)" list over at avantmusicnews.com. This site is no mere blog, but an essential resource for new music fans. We are in some pretty heady company over there (and I can think of several recent albums by musicians WAY more famous and deserving than me which did not make the list) so I am, indeed, completely honored.

Incidentally, I'm putting the final touches on a solo album featuring lots of Moog. Stay tuned.

+++

RIP Bernie Worrell.

Playlist Week of 2016-01-09

* Vivaldi: Vivaldi con moto (Carmignola/Accademia Bizantina/Dantone) (Archiv CD)

* Vivaldi: Late Violin Concertos (Carmignola/Venice Baroque Orchestra/Marcon) (Sony CD)

* Miles Davis: Olympia 11 Juillet 1973 (Sony-France CD)

* Les McCann: Presents Richard “Groove” Holmes (Pacific Jazz LP)

* Herbie Hancock: Death Wish OST (Columbia LP)

* Paul Bley: Solo In Mondsee (ECM CD)

* John McLaughlin & Mahavishnu: Adventures In Radioland (Relativity LP)

* Julien Priester Pepo Mtoto: Love, Love (ECM LP)

* Bennie Maupin: The Jewel In The Lotus (ECM LP)

* Larry Coryell: Coryell (Vanguard/Apostolic LP)

* Larry Coryell: Spaces (Vanguard LP)

* Dr. L. Subramaniam: Garland (Storyville LP)

* William Parker In Order To Survive: Compassion Seizes Bed-Stuy (Homestead CD)

* Manu Dibango: Afrovision (Island LP)

* Young-Holt Unlimited: Soulful Strut (Brunswick LP)

* Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (Aftermath 2LP)

* Oregon: Roots In The Sky (Elektra LP)

* Grateful Dead: Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO 9/7/85 (selections) (SBD 3CDR)

* Lucifer: Black Mass (MCA LP)

* Tangerine Dream: Thief OST (Elektra LP)

* Klaus Schulze: Black Dance (Caroline LP)

* Klaus Schulze: En=Trance (Magnum, America CD)

* Steve Roach: Light Fantastic (Fathom CD)

* Paul Brett: Eclipse (RCA LP)

* Thurston Moore: The Best Day (Matador 2LP)

* Band Apart: Marseille (Crammed Discs LP)

* Danielle Dax: Cat-House (Sire 12”)

* Mofungo: Work (SST LP)

* Orthotonics: Wake Up You Must Remember (Generic/Plan 9 LP)

* Orthotonics: Luminous Bipeds (Rift LP)

* Tears For Fears: The Hurting (Polygram LP)

* Opeth: Damnation (Music For Nations CD)

* Sunn O))): Kannon (Southern Lord LP+flexi)†

* Agalloch: Marrow Of The Spirit (Profound Lore 2LP)

* Baroness: Purple (Abraxan Hymns LP)

* Pallbearer: Foundations of Burden (Profound Lore 2LP)

* Verma: Mul.Apin (Trouble In Mind LP)

* Goat: World Music (Rocket LP)

†=iPod/iTunes

‡=car

Commentary:

Photo by Sam Byrd. Damn, I wish we could jam every weekend!

Playlist Week of 2016-01-02

* Locatelli: L’Arte del Violino (Carmignola/Venice Baroque Orchestra/Marcon) (Sony CD)

* Vivaldi: Vivaldi con moto (Carmignola/Accademia Bizantina/Dantone) (Archiv CD)

* Feldman, Cage, Satie: Rothko Chapel, etc. (Kashkashian, et al.) (ECM CD)

* Stefan Prins: Fremdkörper (d.1) (Sub Rosa 2CD)

* Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane: Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane (Prestige/New Jazz LP)

* Cecil Taylor: For Olim (Soul Note LP)

* David Murray: Children (Black Saint LP)
* George Benson: Breezin' (Warner Bros./Mobile Fidelity LP)
* Earl Klugh: Fingerpainting (Blue Note/Mobile Fidelity LP)

* Sonny Sharrock Band: Live In New York (Enemy CD)

* Tim Berne’s Snake Oil: You’ve Been Watching Me (ECM CD)

* Anthony Pirog Trio/Sextet: Composition for You, You and Me (Sonic Mass 7”EP)

* Rodger Coleman & Sam Byrd: Heeltop Home Studio 2015-12-28 & 29 (rough mix) (WAV)

* Kamasi Washington: The Epic (d.1) (Brainfeeder 3LP)

* Dieuf-Dieul de Thiés: Aw Sa Yone Vol.1 (Teranga Beat 2LP)

* Kinks: Face To Face (Sanctuary LP)

* Kaleidoscope: Black Fjord/If You So Wish (Fontana 7”)

* Procol Harum: Homburg (Esoteric 7”EP)

* Area: Live Concerts Box (Cramps/Akarma 3CD)

* Steven Halpern: Higher Ground (Open Channel CD)

* Steve Roach: Streams & Currents (Projekt CD)

* Steve Roach: Fever Dreams (Projekt CD)

* Wipers: Insane/Resist (Zeno 7”)

* Opeth: Still Day Beneath The Sun/Patterns In The Ivy II (Music For Nations 7”)

* Bloodbath: The Fathomless Mastery (Peaceville LP)

* Agalloch: Ashes Against The Grain (The End/Grau 2LP)

* Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars (Sub Pop LP)

* Lower Dens: Escape From Evil (Ribbon LP)

* Verma: Ragnaraak/Chrome (HoZac 7”EP)

†=iPod/iTunes

‡=car

Commentary:

Well, what a fantastic week it was here at Chez NuVoid, with two full days in a row in the studio with my good friend (and extraordinary drummer), Sam Byrd.

We recorded over 220 minutes of music, including some epic, half-hour-plus jams. I am both exhausted and exhilarated!

Happy New Year!!!

Playlist Week of 2015-12-04

* Messiaen: Visions de L’Amen (Bon/de Leeuw) (Naïve/Montaigne CD)

* Marti Epstein: Hypnagogia (Ludovico Ensemble CD)

* Elvin Jones: Time Capsule (Vanguard LP)

* Andrew Hill: Smoke Stack (Blue Note CD)

* Abdullah Ibrahim: African Suite (Enja CD)

* Jimmy Giuffre: Tangents In Jazz (Capitol LP)

* Gateway: Homecoming (ECM CD)

* Tim Berne: Sanctified Dreams (Columbia LP)

* Andreas Vollenweider: Behind the Gardens—Behind the Wall—Under the Tree (CBS LP)

* Eric Bikales: Tranquility (Moodtapes LP)

* John Fahey: The Transcendental Waterfall: Guitar Excursions 1962-1967 (Takoma/4MWB 6LP)

* Iverson & Walters: First Collection (Eagle LP)

* Trapezoid: Now & Then (Flying Fish LP)

* Hawkwind: Space Ritual (EMI 2CD)

* Allan Holdsworth with I.O.U.: Metal Fatigue (Enigma LP)

* David Sylvian: Gone To Earth (Virgin CD)

* David Sylvian: Dead Bees On A Cake (Virgin CD)

* Prefab Sprout: Swoon (Kitchenware LP)

* Sleep: Sleep’s Holy Mountain (Earache LP)

†=iPod/iTunes

‡=car

Commentary:

I had the good fortune to have my friend Andrew Dickson over to my studio this week. A fantastic drummer and all-around cool guy, he is a total pro to boot -- as this recent profile on NashvilleThreeSixty reveals. 

Dickson is definitely in-demand, so it's a rare treat to get to jam with him. It had been over a year since the last time we got together so I had some ideas I wanted to try.

"Even gotten into Krautrock? You know, like Tangerine Dream, Can, Amon Duul, that kind of stuff?" I asked him.

"Nope."

I pulled up Can's classic Future Days on iTunes and played "Moonshake" so he could hear Jaki Liebezeit's quintessentially motorik drumming. "Notice how he only uses cymbals for accent and color," I remarked. "The rhythm is mostly happening on the hi-hat, snare and toms."

After listening for a couple minutes he said, "Cool, man. Let's do it!"

We proceeded to jam over a Berlin School style sequencer pattern I'd cooked up -- and damn if he didn't nail it. Seriously, he sounded exactly like Jaki Liebezeit, effortlessly propelling Can through Inner Space. After a rocking ten minutes, we wound it down.

"Dang, my right arm is tired," he said.

"Really? Why?"

"Well, I noticed how that Can dude was totally pushing the beat on the beat on the hi-hat while everything else kind of lags behind. It was exhausting after a while!"

Whoa. 

I had never really noticed that but it makes sense and listening again, I can totally hear it. What makes Liebeziet's machine-like propulsion so compellingly human is that tension, that push/pull, between rushing and lagging the beat. The fact that Dickson could, without having ever heard this music before, key into its essential quality and recreate it on the spot is...well, pretty freaking amazing to an amateur like me. Like I said, the guy is a total pro.

The neat thing is: he digs it and wants to do more, hopefully next month. We might be onto something here...

+++

Next month will be the New Year -- hard to believe! In the meantime, I am hoping to get together again with the one-and-only Sam Byrd over the holidays, where we will continue to refine our personal musical project. Please check out our Bandcamp page to hear what we've been up to. The best is yet to come, of that I am certain! Music is the best.