Week in Review #41
This week I’m excited to share information on the newly-minted Eastern Daze festival, a celebration of the intersection of ancient and modern that gives the world “trance music” (broadly speaking). According to the organizers, Eastern Daze is “…a collaborative effort between record label / concert organizers / KRAAK and the Ghent-based Art Centre Vooruit. With Eastern Daze we aim to make a connection between ethnic folk traditions and the contemporary underground music scene. The six acts on the festival all take ancient genres like Old European music, Indian ragas, Fado, Appalachian folk, African Gnawa, Morrocan Sufi music and inject those with healthy doses of DIY noise, free jazz and drones. Eastern Daze is a 21st look into the age old tradition of trance music.” To effect that diverse purpose they’ve assembled a line-up that easily covers enough ground to account for it: Portugese string-picker Norberto Lobo, slipstream/Occitan-influenced experimental trio Toad, the Berber Sufi ensemble known as the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Belgian duo Razen, and two obvious American picks; Pelt and Chicago experimental composer Joshua Abraham’s Natural Information Society band. This is going to be a tremendous event when it rolls around November 15th, so I’m going to displace our usual rundown of recent singles and releases in order to share some streams from the Eastern Daze line-up (look for the usual streams below). To purchase tickets, click through to the Vooruit website.
Alongside the festival’s main offerings, the duo Razen — multi-instrumentalists Kim Delcour and Brecht Ameel — will be presenting material from their new double LP for Kraak titled Remote Holograms, an appropriate name to invoke the varied strains of both traditional and electronic music in evidence. Partially improvised and all instrumental, the new album juxtapose a range of antique and unfamiliar instruments. Though it drones and the band’s interest in “deep listening” experience is clear, the constant variety here is undeniable; the two assemble it all into an engagingly baroque synthesis, blending colors to explore the boundaries between new tones.
Check out a track from Remote Holograms below to kick off this week’s bank of new streams.
#1 – 10/12/2014 – We’ve all seen rundowns of genres and subgenres that posture themselves as end-all/be-all definition, yet act more as primers or flyovers. Well, Ryan Griffin of A Strangely Isolated Place took it upon himself to answer previous lackluster lists on ambient music with “Neither Scene Nor Heard: A Journey Through Ambient Music.” The list is a legitimately exhaustive trek through the various strains and scenes of ambient music from the ’70s onward, leaving very little out, which is surprising and forgivable given Griffin’s admittance that he’d only began listening to ambient music relatively recently. Read through the piece here and zone out to the YouTube tracks along the way. -BP
#2 – 10/13/2014 – News broke of the passing of Mark Bell, one-half of seminal IDM duo LFO and producer of a number of landmark synth-based albums, namely Bjork’s Homogenic and Depeche Mode’s Exciter. Watch the video for LFO’s “Freak” and an old interview on Warp and UK electronic music below. -BP
#3 – 10/13/2014 – Crafty Portland based imprint People in a Position to Know announced a new “CD Record Series,” that is, CDs with a section of grooves, allowing it to play on both a turntable and CD player. They’ve got some of their regular collaborators like Wooden Wand involved, and a small E6 contingent courtesy of Circulatory System and Ben Crum’s project Great Lakes. Check out the rest of the participants on this handy graphic or click through to PIAPTK for more info. -DP
#4 – 10/13/2014 – Producer Jónó Mí Ló announced an upcoming album for Wasabi Tapes with a collaborative teaser featuring video from videomaker Elina Malkin; check that out below and click through to Wasabi for updates. -DP
#5 – 10/14/2014 – Today Zach Phillips of the label OSR got all “businesslike” on us and sent an e-mail reporting a massive new batch of releases. No less than 13 titles are now available for pre-order, including cassette and vinyl (which is a big deal!), and featuring music from the likes of perrenial me-favs such as Chris Weisman, Ruth Garbus, Blanche Blanche Blanche, and, well… 10 others. Get the scoop at their website, and samples over at Bandcamp. –CP
#6 – 10/14/2014 – Canadian electronic label King Deluxe released an epic new EP from synth-ready Brooklyn producer Jacob 2-2, aptly described as “late-night lock-in gymnasium funk.” To round it out they’ve parsed out a nice guest spot for Coin Locker Kid and remixes from Muta and Stephen Farris. Check out a rad video accompaniment to “Construxon Time Again” from videomaker Adam Brown and grab the EP from the King Deluxe Bandcamp. -DP
#7 – 10/14/2014 – Bono is sorry for some things. -BP
#8 – 10/15/2014 – Philadelphia duo I IM EYE MY (Al Creedon and Sean Hamilton) — who premiered a “Streetcat Bonfire” from their Spring cassette for Not Not Fun, titled 7 Transmissions, with us earlier in the year — are setting out on a mini-tour of the western US starting on this day in Los Angeles. By the time you’re reading this, they’ll have wrapped up an excellent show in Oakland and be well on his way to Portland (sorry Bay homies, hopefully you didn’t need our help to hear about this one). -DP
#9 – 10/15/2014 – Styles Upon Styles announced a packed-out 12-inch featuring three collaborative tracks of blippy, acidic techno by Brendon Moeller, Certain Creatures (Oliver Chapoy) and Clay Wilson. As explained on the Certain Creatures’ Facebook page, “We spent about 4 hours jamming and were able to cut 7 tracks out of the 4 hours,” three of which will be on this 12-inch. As though that’s not impressive enough, the included set are incredibly consistent, speaking to each party’s unique take on psych-techno vibes. Look for the record to drop physically and digitally Nov. 4 on Styles Upon Styles. Also as a bonus for all of you NYC folks, the label is hosting a rad lineup at Body Actualized Center next Friday (10/24) with GABI, Certain Creatures & Kroba), Mr. Small, and Lori Scacco. Don’t miss it! -BP
#10 – 10/16/2014 – Field Hymns issued the latest set of Strategy’s dubby atmospherics. Entitled Cerebral Hut AKA Off The Grid, the cassette is the latest in Paul Dickow’s relatively prolific year and hosts some of the most ambient-focused vibes since the project’s near-classic Drumsolo’s Delight. Stream the set below and reach through our recent interview with Dickow while you purchase the tape before they’re gone. -BP
