A Great Mess with Linda Catlin Smith
Josh Thorpe and composer Linda Catlin Smith listen to and discuss unusual music. We hear two of Smith’s recent works for...
instrumental
Guayaveras in the winter
This episode we take a break from chat. Instead we listen to almost an hour of quiet music. It’s Ryan Driver...
Interview w/ viola player Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh
Ailbhe joins me to listen to the viola, the violin, some guitars, a horse-hair harp, some outside jazz and a sewing...
Martin Arnold: Stain Ballads
Strange meandering lines that I wish would go forever. They kinda do. Arnold says: “I’ve always maintained that all the music...
The wild viola of Ailbhe nic Oireachtaigh
Very happy to be listening to Dublin composer and improviser Ailbhe nic Oireachtaigh, now based in Glasgow. This gorgeous track purposelessness...
Rat-drifting launches 3 new titles
One of our favourite record labels, Rat-drifting (based in Toronto and France), recently re-launched on BandCamp after a few years of...
Alister Spence/Joe Williamson/Christopher Cantillo – “Opening”
Bells and bell-like sounds and cymbals, and other metal sounds, a searching piano and everything slowed down to a pace of...
Ecstatic noise w/ Marshall Trammell and Tashi Dorji
Joy with ferocity. Rattling drums and dirty electric guitar feels like punk opera unwound and bent. Recorded live in Portland, Duo...
Uchihashi Kazuhisa and Ryoko Ono: “001”
Ryoko Ono on saxophone, and Uchihashi Kazuhisa on daxophone, an instrument developed in the 1980s. On this track, wildly assertive playing,...
Allison Cameron Band: “Guitars”
How guitars and banjo can be so themselves and so strange at the same time. Experimental composition with the energy of...
Bass piano sounds like wind chimes of dreams
Andrew Wedman has invented a new instrument: the bass piano. It’s a regular piano but it’s tuned down. The detuning though,...
Guayaveras are sweet…and Rat-drifting relaunches on Bandcamp!
Serious as philosophy, loose as sleep, sweet as raspberries blown in a bubble bath. It’s Eric Chenaux on guitalele and toe-synth...
Karen Ng’s “Day 3 i”
It’s difficult to know what analogy works to describe Karen Ng’s stunning solo saxophone recordings: a thought process, a dialogue with...
Punk Kong’s “Pull Ninja”
Unusual soundscapish jazz takes noisy turns, distorted climbs, and opens to beautiful spaces. Pull Ninja by Punk Kong
Geir Sundstøl’s “Warszawa-Alabama”
Very unexpected coupling of Coltrane and Bowie. Brødløs by Geir Sundstøl
Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi, “Staying Human”
Long tones, voluminous room sound (parking garage!), spare and grand, maybe scary, maybe consoling. Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi by Luke...
Kim Myhr’s “You|Me”
Ambient becomes prominent, background to the fore, patterns and unexpected disruptions, in Kim Myhr’s You | Me. You | me by Kim...
Alcorn, Bordreuil, and Laubrock: “Indigo Blue (Wayfarin Stranger)”
Susan Alcorn, Leila Bordreuil, and Ingrid Laubrock – pedal steel, cello, and saxophone – create an otherworldly sense of summer. Bird Meets...
Scott Clark’s “Quiet Friend”
From a solo album by percussionist/composer Scott Clark: “Quiet Friend” begins and continues with long, warm waves of harmonica. Companion drums...
Number Seven by Dos
Mike Watt and Kira Roessler’s project Dos scratches an itch I didn’t know I had. Two bass guitars with weird riffs...