:Episode One Hundred Seventy: 1.3.2020
| Artist | Title | Album |
|---|---|---|
| Oiseaux-Tempête | We, Who Are Strewn About in Fragments | From Somewhere Invisible |
| New World Science | Movement 3 | Osmos (Movements) |
| Guranfoe | Karu Vatsarin | Sum of Erda |
| Temple & Young | Winds | Temple & Young |
| CIA Debutante | The Band That Got Away | The Landlord |
| Michael Stearns | Opening/Nepal Morning | Baraka OST |
| William Tyler | The Great Unwind | Modern Country |
| Henri Texier | L'éléphant | Varech |
| Meridian Brothers | Guaracha U.F.O.: No Estamos Solos... | Desesperanza |
| Gaussian Curve | Impossible Island | Clouds |
| Chuck Johnson | Calamus | Balsams |
| Suzanne Ciani | Flowers of Evil | Flowers of Evil |
| Gökçen Kaynatan | Cehennem (Hell) | Cehennem |
| Martin Rev | Metatron | Clouds of Glory |
Open playlist in Spotify
* Not on Spotify:
Nothing this week. Sometimes, they really do have it all.
Description
[Note: Apologies for the capsule being rather late, but I've been battling what I think is the flu (a disease I wish was still called "the grippe"... "the flu" sounds like a mild annoyance, and almost cutesy in a way, but "the grippe" sounds like a deadly wizard's curse). Also, this week's show is a bit of a mash-up (and not of the 2 Many DJs variety, either) in that it's 1/3 new music, 1/3 a guest slot by my brother, and 1/3 some of my favorite reissues of 2019 (the rest of which I'll put up soon as a bonus playlist)]
Leading off the first set is Oiseaux-Tempête, whose new album sounds more like Swans than the most recent, kind of disappointing Swans album. After this we get Montreal's New World Science, who describe themselves as a "sincere foray into forth-world fantasy" (can't argue there); another sincere foray into fantasy, albeit of the 70s prog variety, by the UK's Guranfoe (bonus points for their excellent, very Bo Hansson-ish cover art); some Tortoise-inspired post-rock by the mysterious Temple & Young (give them a google and see if you can find out any more than I could); and the burbling avant-garde electronics of CIA Debutante.
The middle set is supplied by my brother (who, other than for the sake of nepotism, I like to have on the show because he brings the perspective of someone who actually makes music, something I do not) and leads with the opening track to Baraka (which showed in 70mm at Portland's own Hollywood Theatre last week, and did not sell out. Two screenings of Total Recall in 70mm did. Aren't we supposed to be a bunch of cultured, artsy snobs in this town?) by ambient/4th World legend Michael Stearns (and not to step on my bros's toeses, but Planetary Unfolding is my personal favorite entry in his catalog). After that is the spaced-out country of William Tyler; the 70s avant-garde jazz of Henri Texier; Colombian, Latin-influenced strangeness by Meridian Brothers; Dutch ambience from Gaussian Curve; and finally, the psychedelic neo-folk of Chuck Johnson.
And then, the somewhat shorter-than-usual final set (truncated due to banter - if you listen to the show recording, you can hear my story of cornering the band White Hills at a show ten years ago to ask about the origin of the sample at the start of this song (it's Ian MacKaye, btw)) includes some of my favorite reissued tracks from 2019, such as Suzanne Ciani's amazing Buchla-backed spoken word piece (taken from the poetry of Charles Baudelaire) Flowers of Evil, Turkish analog synth wiz Gökçen Kaynatan's Cehennem, and a cut from Martin Rev's 1985 solo album Clouds of Glory.