At the intersection of loopy, downtempo electronica and spoken wordpoetry sits Machine Boy and collaborator Lorian Elbert. It's awell-trodden stretch of road that their project approaches, full ofsuccessful and experimental marriages between the often uncomfortable,confrotntational and confessional vibe of a poetry slam and the more orless easy-to-swallow looped beat, sampled melody routine.
Maya Arulpragasam is one of those artists whose backstory is so uniqueand interesting that it threatens to completely eclipse the music shemakes. The press release for this, her debut album, spends far moretime talking about her childhood in civil war-torn Sri Lanka, than itdoes talking about her contributions to the modern music scene in theUK.
The rolling waves of crepuscular sounds on this disc are consumptiveand nightmare inducing. The single 62 minute track that occupies thewhole of Aranos' latest album works on several levels, each of whichcommunicate with each other and inform the shape of the music as awhole.
Aside from the not infrequent live dates, the strangest dance band on the planet hasn't been heard from since 2002's Street Dad was released to nearly unanimous praise and adulation. One Life to Leave is the long-awaited new single from Out Hud, released as a teaser for their forthcoming full-length Let Us Never Speak of It Again.
Mirror has expanded: joining Christoph Heemann and Andrew Chalk areTimo Van Luijk of Af Ursin and Noise-Makers Fife's and Vicky Jackman(no relation to David). Van Luijk has described himself as a "musicalbuddhist," and the connotations this carries practically melts into thespirit of this live recording.
This second album from Montreal's Harris Newman has a timeless quality,sounding modern while drawing on the traditions of acoustic guitaristsfrom the past. While he does appear to be a technically accomplishedguitarist, Newman often seems unconcerned with being one hundredpercent rhythmically accurate, such as on the opener "The Butcher'sBlock."
This is third volume examining Sumatran popular music to be released onAlan Bishop's non-authoritarian world music label Sublime Frequencies.The first was Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra Vol. 1,which was the label's very first release, a compilation of music fromcassettes purchased in the northwesternmost island of the Indonesianarchipelago.
Of the many countries visited by Alan Bishop and his crew of guerillamusicologists, Cambodia has perhaps the musical heritage with thegreatest history of popular Western listenership.
Indian Soundscapes is a double-album collecting various fieldrecordings made during four trips to India from 2001 to 2004. Therecordings were made by Iyou, otherwise known as Charles Powne, ownerand proprietor of Soleilmoon Recordings since its inception in 1987.
It's been close to three years since graphic illustrator and Sea andCake guitarist, Archer Prewitt, released his wonderfully poppy disc, Three.In the meantime he's had a busy few years: performing with his liveband; the death of his father; recording and subsequent touring withSea and Cake. With Wilderness, his fifth recording as a soloartist, he's again picked up with his ongoing love with '70s pop/rocksensibilities, which are apparent in his compositions.