178 entries under "sound"

Sam Gendel When I Am Laid In Earf

From Fresh Bread (2021) pairs baroque harmony and voice-leading with a computer-generated voice on autotune. Hella eerie.

Chancha Via Circuito: Bienaventuranza (2018)

Old favourite reverberating inside me the over last few days. I have never forgotten my first impression from hearing this years ago: the feeling of a wide-open space gradually expanding, physical heaviness (as if this were a solid object) created from sparse texture. This digital cumbia from Argentina has a certain rawness from traditional instruments and especially the voice, combined with natural ambience, and electronic sounds.

Hania Rani: Live from Studio S2

Live recording which makes me want to play the piano again. At various points she plays while touching the strings to create percussive sounds. The set merges electronic and acoustic, and she also sings on some tracks. It’s always special to see people pushing the boundaries of live music-making.

The Best of Mildred Bailey | Jazz Music (1930s)

This compilation of music features some lovely stride jazz piano. My first time hearing this singer.

Jorge Ben: Força Bruta (1970)

Mixes complex harmonies with Brazilian dance rhythms, orchestra with folk instruments, and is generally a good time.

Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes: Music for Saxofone and Bass Guitar (2018)

Full of strange and wonderfully creative sounds, beatboxing, and melody-less improvising, all of which were recorded live with something like loop pedals. I really dug the mouth percussion and head-banging stank face grooves on THEEM AND VARIATIONS; as well as the beat from dental fricatives on GREETINGS TO IDRIS. The inconspicuously-named TRACK ONE has this remarkable throat falsetto riff and manages to build a movement-inducing rhythm that simultaneously feels sparse and full-bodied, drizzled with a solo of quartal explorations on thirteenth chords.

Pino Palladino + Blake Mills: Chris Dave

From Notes With Attachments (2021). Grooooooovy, jazzy, funky, with intricate clicking and clacking, and water glasses played with a violin bow.

Steve Lacy: Raps (1977)

Beautiful chaos from one of the free jazz greats: plenty of clashing notes, disjunct rhythms—everything’s broken as it should be.

Kasai Allstars: In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And Ate The Head Of His Enemy By Magic

Spectacular album title. Features traditional sounds and singing by Congo-based musicians mixed with modern production techniques. If you dig this, check out the Nihiloxica from #014. Lots of groovy, funky bits where I found myself practicing Rich Brown’s modal improvisation tips from #012.

Fikret Kızılok: Zaman Zaman (1993)

Chills me out, quiets me down—music to sway. This Turkish rock singer creates an old sentimental sound using acoustic instruments. My favourite is Oysa Ben with looping chord progressions, sounds of the shore, vinyl scratching, seagulls. Nice also to hear the warm piano on İki Parça Can.

Blood and Dust: Rites of Blood and Dust (2020)

So far away from what I normally listen to that I needed to look up the genre in Bandcamp (it says ‘ambient ritual ambient atmospheric horror dark ambient drone horror drone melodic dark ambient queer Montreal’). I often struggle when listening to music that calls itself ambient because I tend to find it sort of ‘empty’, but this was very clearly not the case here. Many tracks have this tasteful way of shifting the meter from a ‘three’ to ‘four’ feel, or gradually building intensity, or contrasting between arhythmic and groove, textural and instrumental. In the Hollow of a Hill somehow works in a flute and maybe a cello… This is not passive listening but a sound experience that’s well put-together: I recommend hearing from start to finish.

Astral Flowers: Força da Cura

From New Paradigm (2018). Salutation to healing forces, introduced by the sound of breath, life, and spirit.

Chris Potter: Follow The Red Line (live, 2007)

Going through a reflective moment in the last few weeks, I found myself listening back to one of my favourite modern jazz albums. After dozens of listens, I continue to be inspired by the improvisational capacity of these musicians. It’s inspiring, comforting, centering.

Nihiloxica: Kaloli (2020)

Shiny little gem mixing traditional Ugandan drumming with elements of electronic music and techno. Supuki’s dark beats and groove drumming, combines the electronic with an earthy sound—intense; Tewali Sukali’s body-shaking rhythms are accompanied by grungy noise; Gunjula has fast-driving multi-layered polyrhythms; Busoga’s the lead synths are dripping light all over the percussion; Kaloli surprised me with its thrashing metal.

Joyce Moreno & Toninho Horta: Sem Você (2007)

Two of my favourite artists in Brazil (or perhaps the world) on the same disc. Two masters playing samba, bossa nova, jazz, sublime guitar.

Azymuth: Light As A Feather (2012)

Complex yet danceable mix of jazz, fusion, and disco. Makes me feel like digging into Azymuth’s entire collection. Partido Alto has a funky offbeat rhythm that’s actually in 4; Avenida Das Mangueiras stomps along—driving pulse with funk sixteenth note solos; the second section of Light As A Feather mixes jazz and bossa nova brazil with an uber-tight drum foundation; Fly Over The Horizon reminds me of Weather Report; Jazz Carnival goes full on disco; Young Embrace is a bouncy, swaying electronic biological thing, obviously from Brazil.

The drummer from their band joined with Madlib to form “Jackson Conti” and release Sujinho (2008): jazz/hip-hop instrumentals mixed with pandeiro and all sorts of Brazilian instruments and rhythms, Coltrane-era sax solos, synth riffs, flute melodies—I’ve never heard anything like this.

Lil Jon, LMFAO: Drink

From The World’s End soundtrack (2013). Body-shaker, head-banger, wall-breaker—100% energy using cues from techno song forms. I have some nostalgia for Lil Jon’s general screaming and expletives. Moving!

Lingua Ignota: PENNSYLVANIA FURNACE

From SINNER GET READY (2021). Filled with dark piano textures, and a strong, pure vocal tone that manages to create this deep and expansive intensity with just a few parts. Reminds me of how powerful the acoustic piano can be. You can hear the pedals of the piano triggering overtones…

How Far Ahead Am I Thinking While Freestyling?

Harry Mack slows down his freestyle process so that us mere mortals can understand how far in advance he plans.

How to solo on a II V I... LIKE A PRO!

Rich Brown (bassist extraordinaire) explains music theory of improvising on a fundamental chord progression and goes quickly from banal to outer space while describing both using the same framework. I have known the names of the Greek modes and their notes for a while, but only intellectually—I have hardly thought of them consciously while improvising. Here they are presented as composable parts and it seems approachable (using a ‘cheesy bossa nova’ backing track)—feels like I went from having one thing to do on each chord to 12 x 7 (= eighty-four…) possibilities.