January 8, 2016
In a year filled with over-hyped rhetoric, it feels a little surreal to try and parcel up my take on the experience. Honestly though, I may have felt similarly last year, if the title of my year end posts signals anything. America’s long-winded election is in full-swing… a year+ long leer…
November 14, 2015
For most of the time that Decoder’s been around, we’ve sporadically contributed to the Free Music Archive, an index of high quality free audio and an equal institution alongside its originator, WFMU. Though in some respects the site hasn’t changed too much over the years, the music…
December 19, 2014
Samy Ben Redjeb’s Analog Africa imprint can do no wrong, and here’s another mesmerizing compilation to prove it. For the first time in its storied catalog, we get a taste of the vibrant Congolese funk scene in the late 60s and 70s. Perhaps more so than Accra or Lagos, Kinshasa was the epicentrer…
April 12, 2014
We’ve mentioned our excitement for David Grubbs’ new book ‘Records Ruin the Landscape,’ and the ongoing fallout from it just makes me even more eager to read his exploration of how records effect an audience’s expectations of performance. I read the blurbs and pre-release…
January 28, 2014
Analog Africa, 12/16/2013
A common scenario: my friends were in a hurry, and I was late. Back home in Maryland for the winter holidays, I had nothing better to do than go watch some high school buddies try their luck busking in a rich suburb. They honked the horn again. Shit, the mail! I rushed out…
October 7, 2013
Analog Africa, 9/17/2013
Analog Africa is one of many imprints conducting crucial music archaeology in the vast continent of Africa, motherland of our species and of the syncopated rhythms buried deep within our genes. Their Afrobeat Airways series delves into the funky microcosm that is Ghana, and…
