:Episode One Hundred Seventy-One: 1.17.2020
| Artist | Title | Album |
|---|---|---|
| Mythic Sunship | Awakening (Live) | Changing Shapes: Live at Roadburn |
| The Cult of Dom Keller | Hello, Hanging Rope | Ascend! |
| Congulus | Bozlak | Bozkir |
| Magic Shoppe | Doppelgänger | Doppelgänger (Single) |
| Lumerians | Yellowcake | Yellowcake (Single) |
| Don Cherry | Bamboo Night | "Mu" Second Part |
| Sunbirds | Spanish Sun | Sunbirds |
| Black Bombaim & João Pais Filipe | Birds | Dragonflies with Birds and Snake |
| OOIOO | Jibun | nijimusi |
| Nick Malkin | Perfect Terminal | A Typical Night In The Pit |
| Craven Faults | Deipkier | Erratics & Unconformities |
| Pulse Emitter | Electron Central | Swirlings |
| Nef | À Chaque Bout | Mais Alors!!?... C'est À L'Envers |
| Dadamah | Scratch Sun | This is Not a Dream |
| Kanot | Bottenmannen | Bottenmannen (Single) |
Open playlist in Spotify
* Not on Spotify:
Nothing this week. Sometimes, they really do have it all.
Description
The first set, as per usual, is rock and/or roll, beginning with a track from the new live album by Mythic Sunship, recorded at Roadburn, the annual European metal/psych festival. I keep reading reviews of this album describing it as "brave," I guess because of the fact that incorporates their new saxophone player. But, are rock fans so still biased against jazz that they won't even tolerate a sax? One of the foundational albums of psychedelic rock, the Stooges' Fun House, has sax all over it! Anyhow, if you're under thirty and listen to this show (given that the median age of my listeners - the ones that get in touch with me, anyhow - seems to be around... 70 or so, I'd guess there aren't many) write me and let me know what your opinion is on jazz elements in rock.
And speaking of jazz, the middle set leads off with one of the greatest psychedelic-leaning jazz musicians ever, Don Cherry (he's on the soundtrack to The Holy Mountain... "nuff said" to quote the late, great Stan Lee), with a cut from the recently reissued (on vinyl, natch) "Mu" Second Part. As I get into on the show, I've never quite gotten why the quotes around "Mu" in the title. My theory is that they thought people were unaware that Mu was a word (or a letter, as it were - a Greek letter, μ, to be specific) and the quotes were to make sure it didn't seem like either a typo or an onomatopoeia (a la WFMU's logo).
The final set (which is usually entirely electronic music, but this week is more "electronic adjacent" in that it's mostly non-electronic groups that prominently feature keyboards) starts with a track from what is already, this early in the year, a very strong contender for my 2020 best-of list: the debut full-length from Craven Faults. It's kind of a perfect album for January (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyhow) in that it seems inspired, tonally at least, by the proto-"dark ambient" of Brian Eno's Ambient 4 and Harold Budd's Abandoned Cities. In execution, though, it's very classically kosmische, reminding me of Irrlicht- and Cyborg-era Klaus Schulze.