What Are You Listening to? 2020

Razor - Open Hostility

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algarnas tradgard rule. the guest vocalist on mojligheternas barn/children of possibilities later released an album with backing from arbete och fritid which i really like, though way more strictly speaking in the folk realm. also this.

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There's a 2nd lp or compilation of Algarnas Tradgard taht i saw advertised a decade or so ago.
I had a track from th e1st lp pop up on my walkman while I was out during the time my phone was outof order so I wasn't listening to podcasts.
Been way too long since I listened to the cd through. THink I was turned onto it by Julian Cope.

There's also another lp by th epairing of John Renbourne and Dorris Henderson from right around the same time and with a similar feel.
I think I have both but need to look. Think both were quite good. Well Renbourne is almost inevitably and Henderson hasa really good voice. I think she wound up in the Eclection though I'm not sure tehy recorded with her.
John Renbourne Group lps are also pretty good, or utterly sublime one of those.

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earlnash, nice to see some Wo Fat love in here. That's a great album.

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Considering how much of a Matador fanboy I was back in 2001, I'm surprised I missed this one. That said, it's not a long lost gem, but in the moments when they aren't being a less interesting Mogwai, there are some hints at something special.

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Gradually getting so strung out on this, adjusting the plates of my head (in 'phones) every time I listen, which is sometimes 2-3 times in a row (it's 36" minutes, not a second wasted). Reposted from Afro-Latin etc:

in recent years, thee gloriously notorious La Montra, AKA Rita Indiana, has become better known for her dystopian novels, but now she's back with Mandinga Times, which is pretty amazing, and well-covered here, by Daniel Alarcón:
Last year, Indiana felt ready to come back to music. Much of the recording was done in the fall, just months after Puerto Rico’s most tumultuous time in recent memory, when two weeks of raucous street protests forced the resignation of the governor. The political energy of last summer is evident on the album; its songs, sung in the voice of Mandinga, Indiana’s gender-neutral alter ego, feel like anthems of discontent. The finishing touches were applied after the world had shut down, making the album feel less like a warning about a dark but still avoidable future and more like musical stenography documenting our current predicament. But, like Indiana’s earlier music, and like her work more broadly, Mandinga Times is also an immersion in hybridity: it’s merengue with a heavy-metal heart; it’s gagá mixed with thrash, reggaetón and punk, dembow, trap, and Middle Eastern melodies; it’s love songs and battle raps and protest music. When I asked Cabra to describe the album to me, he struggled. To say that it was eclectic was only half true, he said. In fact, each song was eclectic, diverse moods and styles alternating in a single track. “I find it hard to place Rita’s project within a genre,” he said. “If I describe how her music sounds, I think that takes away its power.”
That's the album's producer, Eduardo Cabra, of the legendary Puerto Rican band Calle 13:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/26/rita-indianas-songs-for-the-apocalypse

The Ex - How Thick You Think 7"

xp This goes into more detail, re backstories of several tracks---to my ears, the social commentary, though dealing w harshscapes etc., *sounds* soulful, lyrical, and urgent; the sadness can be sweet, but never sentimental or otherwise self-indulgent.
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/rita-indiana-mandinga-times/

Also doesn't slow down much.

https://adulktlife.bandcamp.com/

Adulkt Life - guy from Huggy Bear and some guys from a band called Male Bonding

real good ass post punk

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Jam City - Pillowland

*double take*

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I completely missed these guys when they were around, not bad. In fact, probably better than 70% of the "garage rock" I was actually listening to back in 2004-2005.

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yknow ive listened to this focus group album dozens of times but dang im really feeling and “getting” the humor this time around... this british deadpan absurdist vibe.

I watched a bunch of The Day Today clips last night and I keep picturing Alan Partidge’s disembodied head spinning around chanting “gooooaaalll”.

all my listening is way too basic for this thread

I probably listen to 5-8 records/cds/playlists a day. I usually throw up the days outlier disc instead of Molly Hatchet, Johnny Winter or Mudhoney.

Stooges - Fun House LP (Elektra 80's pressing)

all my listening is way too basic for this thread

Of Feather and Bone - Sulfuric Disintegration

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was listening to Pat Martino Baiyina and now it's Faces First Step

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The one studio lp by free jazz supergroup so far more songform than most of tehir releases.
Great visceral impactful psychedelic skronk.
I waited years to get this on cd so was very happy when ESP put this out a few years ago.
Not really sure what is directly comparable outside of the members' own work and probably things like Krakatau which some bits o fthis sound a bit like. May be Brotzmann's use of horns. I'm not sure.
Do love this, not sure how people who came in through the band's live recordings feel about it though.

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creepy eerie recontextualisation of various influences . I'm hearing a lot of old timey rural influences though instrumentation seems to be heavily processed. I remember hearing a rhythm section on Meet The Residents teh first lp that sounded like it was lifted straight from the first james brown at the Apollo which really intrigued me.
This is the Preserved edition version and so far the only one of that series I have which I need to remedy.
Pretty other, also heavy Harry Partch influence in the mix along with other stuff.
Apparently this is an lp that's not as heavily rated as the rest of their work but I find it really really good, fits my tastes when i listen to it anyway.

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Droning rock stuff . Glad i looked this up again after passing on it in Rough Tradea coupl eof years ago cos it is a great listen.
Reminds me of Killing joke and hawkwind and things. Brutal and abstract and fun stuff.
I should listen to it more.

well had these on for a few days before some stuff I've been waiting to arrive through the post arrived today.

These being Population II A LA O Terre
Alien Mustangs Beat Of The Earth
Herb Craft Trash Heap
& Alison Cotton ONly Darkness Now
oh yeah good to see that Caridnal Fuzz releases have been getting reviews in some of the monthlies this past couple of months. Hope that doesn't mean too much competition. well maybe they won't be quite as limited pressings in future. Hope Dave gets some benefit from that and he keeps putting the good stuff out.

Hungover today, so...

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Currently listening to this

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Fripp/Eno - Live In Paris 1975

Last Exit's Iron Path is basically a Laswell album more than a Last Exit album, but I enjoy it for what it is. My favorite stuff by them at this point is the s/t debut, Cassette Recordings '87, and that one. For a supposedly total improv group, they developed a collective voice and onstage routines very fast.

Currently listening to From Elvis In Nashville, a 4CD set of studio recordings from 1970. These tracks were used for the albums That's The Way It Is, Love Letters From Elvis and Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old), but a lot of them had strings and a female chorus added, making them kinda gooey. The versions here have all that stuff stripped away — it's just Elvis and the band playing country and rock songs and some ballads, and they're much, much better for it (and I like '70s Elvis, a lot).

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7RluNTp-0

^
Nice! I really liked Marci's verse on Westside Gunn's "$500 Ounces" earlier this year ("the seats in the Benz Lenny Kravitz' skin")

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Ooh

I just listened to Lamb for the first time in over a decade yesterday

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This week's ambience...

Bjorn Meyer - Provenance
The War on Drugs - Eyes to the wind (Live)
Mulutu Astake - Tezeta (Nostalgia)
A Split Second - Flesh Jungle
The Weather Station - Tried to Tell You
Cut Copy - Love is all we share (Octa Octa Remix)
Il Quadro di Troisi - S/T
Bleachers - Chinatown (featuring Bruce Springsteen)

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Greek space/shoegaze band. Quiite nice melodic psychy stuff. Recent release from Cardinal Fuzz
Happened to be the first thing I bunged on the 3 player i think . Had another couple opf choices which i think I'm looking forward to but not heard yet.

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solo set from one half of teh Left outsides. I'd been expecting it to be folky and its long atmospheric stuff which sounds more soundtracky.
Quite good though.
Another one from a set of Cardinal Fuzz sets taht finally arrived last week after apparently being stuck in postal limbo for way too long.

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Quite good live set from the LA festival in 1973. Found this cheapish in Sister Ray last xmas.
NIce funky stuff with a few longish monologues.