Listen to this: Mdou Moctar, Foo Fighters go disco, Andy Summers w/Robert Fripp

Something old, something new, there’s something in today’s music roundup for everybody.

“Afrique Victime”: Mdou Moctar

“Afrique Victime” is going straight into heavy rotation at my house. Most of the time when I listen to new music, I can sort it into one of three categories: “no thanks,” “so-so,” and “I might like this.” After giving music from the “I might like this” category another spin or two, I can decide if I’m going to want to add it to my library or move on.

Much more rarely, I immediately love something and want to listen to it again and again. That’s where Afrique Victime by Mdou Moctar landed. Almost immediately I was grabbed by “Chismiten,” the first track on the album. And it never let up.

Moctar is from Agadez, Niger and his site says he was inspired by YouTube videos of Van Halen and built his own guitar, recording music that was distributed by mobile phone data cards. The Bandcamp page for the album describes this as “mid-’70s to early ’80s Van Halen meets Black Flag meets Black Uhuru.”

To be honest, I’m not hearing the Black Flag bit at all, but it’s amazing nonetheless. Moctar is singing in Tamasheq, so I have no idea what the lyrics are to any of the songs on the album, but that hasn’t impeded my enjoyment of the work one tiny bit.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=976124536 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

“Hail Satin”: Foo Fighters go Disco

When I was a kid and teenager, it was cool to hate on disco music. “Disco Sucks” was the general theme, and you couldn’t admit to liking the Bee Gees or Donna Summer.

Turns out, disco didn’t suck. Well, some of it did, just like any other genre… but Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Abba and many others actually turned out some damn good songs that still get the blood pumping and feet tapping today. In fact, if I’m being honest, I’d rather listen to disco than some of the music that was cool back then.

I’m pleased to see Foo Fighters taking a swing at several disco cuts and doing it well. Taking a turn as the “Dee Gees,” they tackle five Bee Gees classics including “You Should Be Dancing” and “Shadow Dancing” on their Record Store Day album Hail Satin, plus five Foo Fighters cuts live on side B.

Clearly they had a lot of fun with it, and it shows. This is not an album that will make a top 500 or top 1,000 “albums you must hear before you die” list, but if I still had a commute I’d definitely pop it into the mix for driving to or from work.

If you’re old enough to remember these songs the first time around, you’ll probably enjoy having them revisited by Foo Fighters. Maybe, if we’re lucky, it’ll also inspire some younger audiences to go back and engage with the Bee Gees and some other disco classics and appreciate them on their own merits.

“I Advance Masked”: Andy Summers w/Robert Fripp

Once The Police split up, I didn’t really follow the solo careers of the band members. Sting’s solo stuff was a little too soft for me at the time (might do with a revisit), and Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland didn’t get a lot of the spotlight afterwards. (Of course, you’ve probably heard a lot of Copeland’s stuff over the years since in movies and TV shows, but you might not know that you’re hearing his work…)

After hearing a particularly good cover of Summers’ “Love Is The Strangest Way” by Adam Rabin, I decided to dig into Summers’ back catalog starting with his 1982 collaboration with Robert Fripp. I Advance Masked caught my eye because Spotify showed it as released in 2021 (?) and the title certainly seemed appropriate.

It’s definitely worth a listen. It’s indulgent in spots, but the overall effort is well worth a spin or two.

July 22, 2021

Bill Laswell & Pete Namlook: Psychonavigation 1-5

Bill Laswell & Pete Namlook's Psychonavigation album I

Bill Laswell‘s discography is intimidating, and I’ve been grappling with it for a few years now. This week I decided to sit down and give the entire five album Psychonavigation series a listen.

It’s a trippy, bass-y journey that won’t work for everybody, but has a fair amount to offer for fans of experimental ambient music that’s heavy on atmosphere and repetition.

Bill Laswell: A vast and varied discography

My first encounter with Laswell was 1994’s Hallucination Engine. I picked it up unheard on the basis of a review that made it seem like something I couldn’t miss. After just one spin on the CD player, I knew I wanted more but finding more was quite a challenge.

This was the pre-Internet era, at least for me. I didn’t have much luck finding additional Material albums or any info about Laswell’s other work. The record stores of St. Louis had nothing I could find under the Material band name, despite Hallucination Engine being the sixth or seventh album under that band name.

For the past few years, though, I’ve had the opportunity to really dig into the treasure trove of Laswell’s discography–which has only grown steadily since the mid-90s. Even if Laswell had stopped recording in 1994 his output would be substantial.

Bill Laswell & Pete Namlook: Psychonavigation 1-5

Case in point, Psychonavigation 1 was also released in 1994. The first in a five album series (so far, anyway), Psychonavigation spans 1994 to 2002. Psychonavigation 5 was released in 2002, and re-released on Bandcamp in 2020.

Each album has its own character, but if you listen to the entire series back-to-back the albums can blend into one another almost seamlessly.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=963838079 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

My first impression, starting with the 38-minute “Psychic and UFO Revelations in the Last Days,” was that it was a trippy, space-y, and bass-y ride. Nothing really changed that impression through the rest of the series.

You have to wade through some filler to get to the good stuff, though. “Angel Tech” on Psychonavigation 1 is a bit blippy and distracting. At more than 10 minutes it’s the shortest track on the album.

“The Fate of Energy” on Psychonavigation 2 has more groove to it and a little more structure. “Infinum” on the same album is the shortest track in the series. Checking in at 1:49 it’s fast-paced and makes me think of church bells, if you piped them through a synthesizer.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3122801163 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2177091010]

Psychonavigation 3 breaks things up a bit with seven tracks and nothing that exceeds the 20 minute mark. “Telepathy I” reminded me a little bit of the Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis. Ambient synth brings swells and thrums with some background and hard to distinguish vocals. Doesn’t quite have the same menace as the Blade Runner work, though, and is poorer for it.

Theremin whale songs

My notes for “Mind Transference Control” include the phrase “Theremin whale song.” I stand by that. It’s catchy and pleasant, very repetitive. Actually it’s probably not a Theremin, but a similar instrument called a Trautonium, which Namlook is credited with on the 5th album. Unfortunately I don’t have good liner notes to go with the albums so who played what is a bit spotty.

The most Material-like cut in the series is “Mind Over Energy” (track 4). I really enjoy the bass on this one and I’d probably pull this one into playlists.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=473817581 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

I’ve marked down “ENTIB 2060” on Psychonavigation 4 as “harsh and crashy” though I got good vibes off the rest of the album.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=4074179997 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

The final entry in the series has a four-part “Cryosleep” series that’s good background music if you like things in the drone/ambient category. Things move along just enough to keep it interesting. If you want it to be. Put on low it’s good background noise. Wearing headphones or putting it on a bit louder you can get into a groove and appreciate how each track evolves.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2533630147 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Along with the drum programming, Laswell throws in some simulated (I think?) gongs and other spicy noises that keep Psychonavigation 5 from being ponderous and boring. Track 4 (“Cryosleep Part 3 – Holy Man”) has some nice and chunky bass with more vocals and an upbeat, almost frenetic, vibe.

Final thoughts

The Psychonavigation series is a must-have for Laswell completists (and, presumably, Namlook completists as well…) and might appeal to folks who are really into ambient, electronic, dub music. It’s a journey somewhat in the vein of early Pink Floyd without quite so many dynamics or Syd Barrett’s guitar or Nick Mason’s drums to bring it closer to contemporary rock music. But if you dig early Floyd, you’re primed for Psychonavigation.

I’ll probably bring these out from time to time, but doubt they’re going to wind up in heavy rotation. Laswell and Namlook have a few other collaborations I plan to give a full hearing, like the Outland series and The Dark Side of the Moog VII.

Short version: If you already know and like Laswell, give these a shot. If you don’t, start with a more accessible work like Hallucination Engine.

July 18, 2021

John Taylor: The Japan Album (1999)

Did you know John Taylor, of Duran Duran fame, has a string of solo albums? I did not, until very recently. Through a little digital crate-digging I managed to find his 1999 release, John Taylor and give it a listen.

To be entirely fair to the album, I’ve only given it one listen so far and I’m probably going in biased. What do I want from a John Taylor album? Well, if I’m being honest, something a little closer to mid-80s Duran Duran with a lot of bass. The Power Station with less cheesiness and schmaltz. (Really, The Power Station minus Robert Palmer…)

This is not that.

The Japan Album

According to the Duran Duran Wiki (and who am I to doubt them?), John Taylor is more commonly known as The Japan Album because it was recorded for a Japanese label (Avex Trax) and only has “John Taylor” on the cover.

The album is a grab bag of styles. There’s a fairly banging cover of The Zombies’ “She’s Not There,” a short instrumental cover of a 16th century Christmas Carol (“Coventry Carol”), and fiddle-forward tune called “Hollow Victory” that features an unspecified female vocalist.

“Air Miles” is a bit more bass-forward and experimental. If I didn’t know better, I’d have pegged it for something from Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart . (That’s not a bad thing, btw.) If Wobble and Taylor haven’t collaborated at some point, they should.

“Getting Intimate” is OK musically but falls down a bit vocally and lyrically. Taylor’s vocals are all over the place on the album. In a few songs it feels like he’s trying to channel David Bowie, others are a little too earnest. “Fields of Eden” is well done, but the lyrics are super-repetitive.

If only Taylor was in a band with another strong songwriter and a better lyricist and singer. Oh, wait…

Overall, I came away planning to give the album another listen down the road. It’s not amazing, it’s not embarrassing. It has a few tracks that might find their way into mixes. If you want to give this a listen… good luck. I had no luck finding this on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Music, or elsewhere. You can find a few copies on Discogs for semi-reasonable prices.

July 10, 2021

Saturday singles: Ministry “Good Trouble,” Theon Cross “We Go Again”

Cover for Theon Cross single "We Go Again"

Catching up on new music today and two singles grabbed my attention above the rest, a single from Theon Cross and a cut from Ministry for their upcoming album Moral Hygiene.

Theon Cross: “We Go Again”

Theon Cross is a jazz tuba player, and his 2019 LP Fyah is a must-hear for anybody who wants to push the boundaries with some amazing modern jazz.

“We Go Again,” was just dropped on Bandcamp, Spotify, YouTube and the other usual streaming / digital store suspects. No physical media in sight just yet, but I’m keeping an eye out.

It’s a smooth, not very tuba-forward, piece. Strong recommend, give it a listen or three.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 track=1276798112 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Ministry: “Good Trouble”

Ministry has always been a political band, but I was not expecting a homage to the late, great Congressman John Lewis from Al Jourgensen. Of all the weirdness the 2020s have thrown at us so far, this is one of the better curve balls.

Ministry isn’t breaking any new sonic ground here, but this is a solid track that I suspect will make longtime Ministry fans happy. The entire tracklist is on Bandcamp for Moral Hygiene with a few enticing-sounding tracks like “We Shall Resist” and “Death Toll.” Looking forward to hearing the whole disc when October comes around.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1809344520 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Do yourself a favor and check them both out.

July 3, 2021

Jukebox selections: Tristen, Black Sky Giant, HUBRID & The Racers Feat. Hunter Norton, Hashshashin

"Aquatic Flowers" by Tristen (album cover)

Been a little quiet on the music front, but not for lack of listening. The opposite, really. The last month or two have been a musical firehose of new stuff, but I haven’t quite sorted through everything and sorted out what I actually like from what sounded OK on first listen.

For now, these four are definitely worth a listen or three.

Aquatic Flowers by Tristen

Tristen’s Aquatic Flowers is soft and spinny, poppy and easy to settle into on a sunny summer day. It calls to mind the gentler pop of The Weepies. Maybe a touch of The Carpenters? It’s modern and classic at the same time, has some timelessness to it.

I pre-ordered this one from Bandcamp on the strength of her 2013 album C A V E S, which I checked out after a Twitter recommend from Emma Swift. (Hard to top that!) C A V E S has one of the catchiest songs I’ve heard in a long time (“No One’s Gonna Know”) so I felt pretty secure in pre-ordering Flowers.

“I Need Your Love” and “Complex” are the standouts for me, but the entire album is worth your time. Spin it on Spotify or pick up a copy on Bandcamp, you won’t be disappointed.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3368332272 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Falling Mothership by Black Sky Giant

Bearing absolutely no resemblance to Tristen, Black Sky Giant’s Falling Mothership is an instrumental groove I stumbled on via Bandcamp recently. Released on June 10, it’s fresh and full of stoner rock / post rock / psychedelic goodness.

Apparently a one-person project out of Rosario, Argentina, Falling Mothership hits like a full band in a heavy groove. It’s full of ponderous riffs and sinewy bass. Great to put on to work to, very satisfying as background music or to put on the headphones and absorb the full impact. Black Sky Giant doesn’t seem to be on Spotify but you can preview the album on Bandcamp and you can pick up the digital download for a dollar.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3982096175 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Culte De La Machine by HUBRID & The Racers Feat. Hunter Norton

More artifice than art, Culte De La Machine is perfectly competent synthwave / synthpop that satisfies my nostalgia and keeps a good rhythm going while I write and edit.

Not sure they’re breaking any new ground with Culte De La Machine, everything feels familiar and slightly recycled. But, you know, in a good way. Give it a spin on Spotify and you’ll be glad you did.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2744846246 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

nihsahshsaH by Hashshashin

I picked this one up via a subscription to the Art as Catharsis label out of Sydney, Australia. It’s an extensive prog rock jam with diverse influences. According to the Bandcamp description Hashshashin “blend meditative eastern sounds with drone, prog and psychedelia.”

It’s got a bunch going on, and is not for the timid. Imagine somebody went for prog rock and grunge with some math rock thrown in, and then said “you know, we should also try to make this a little weird, too.”

The discordant vibe works for me on most tracks, but is a bit grating on one or two tracks. I haven’t quite come to love “Rebirth,” for example, but “Derge,” “Immolation,” “The Ascetic” and “Prostration” all land just right.

You can dial this one up on Spotify along with some of the band’s newer albums. (This one hails from 2016.) Or check it on Bandcamp. The Art as Catharsis subscription is a mere $7 AUD a month, so it’s hard to beat that.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=483534004 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

That’s not all folks…

I’ve got a ton of new stuff to share, but we’ll cut it off here for today. What’s grabbing your ears this week, month or year? Drop your findings in the comments, new or old doesn’t matter as long as it’s new to me.

June 19, 2021

“Authenticity” is a trap

The idea of “authenticity” and “selling out” when applied to artists, musicians, and other folks is largely bullshit. Worse, it’s a trap.

Let me back up a sec. The other day I was on the Twitters and noticed an exchange about how some artist wasn’t “authentic” anymore because they licensed their music for a commercial of some sort.

Now, I get it. Music is highly personal. We (potentially) attach all kinds of emotions to a piece of music. That spills over to emotional attachments to the artists themselves. A lot of people want to think that the art they are highly attached to is “pure” rather than a crass cash-grab.

Grab that cash (as ethically as possible…)

I wish we lived in a society where musicians, artists, open source contributors could do their thing without concern about money. We don’t. Since that’s the case, I’m emphatically in favor of people taking opportunities to convert their work to income. You know what happens when artists don’t make money from their art? It often inhibits their ability to make more art.

If a band isn’t making money, it’s hard to record and release more music. It’s hard to support open source development without finding a way to pay the developers and support the infrastructure, etc. As crappy as it is, just about everything costs money. (This includes people’s time. If a person’s art or contributions don’t bring in money, they have to find another way to support themselves. That’s time they can’t spend doing art or contributing.)

You might quibble with specific ways that people take cash for their work. Maybe licensing music to or working for Evil Corp is a line too far.

But the idea that anybody has to be “authentic” and “pure” is right there with the idea that people have to suffer for their art. And that’s just garbage.

We shouldn’t want people to suffer. We shouldn’t hold people to standards of scraping for a living in order to consider them “authentic.” I’m probably not going to buy an album full of songs about “Jeeves, get my my slippers” and “I got the blues, my private jet is in the shop” but I really want everybody to have financial stability. As boring and non-punk as that may sound.

It’s a trap!

Trying to achieve “authenticity” by rejecting licensing deals or whatever? It’s a trap. You don’t win any real benefits by appeasing the authenticity police, you only lose.

My music library is full of bands and artists that didn’t put out as much music as they could have, because of problems with money. Maybe it was a label messing them around because they didn’t sell enough copies. Because money, they didn’t have full control of their catalog. Maybe they were independent but couldn’t afford studio time. Maybe money problems impacted their life in other ways that futzed up their ability to record and release music.

Whatever. If a band can solve some of that by letting their music be used in a car commercial or vacation destination or deodorant, I don’t really care. If an author can write more because they sold the rights to a book that gets turned into a crappy movie, I don’t care. I still have the book. I still have the albums. And they’re getting to eat.

The Monkees were a cash-grab, studio creation. And, you know what? “Last Train to Clarksville” is still an amazing song. The list of musicians and artists who were “authentic” and ended up struggling and dying poor is too long to even get into.

I’m not saying fat stacks of cash should be the number one goal. But authenticity – which really translates to “be broke and not too popular” – is a bogus yardstick.

If I hear one of my favorite artists or bands is “selling out” by licensing their work for commercials or something, I’m just going to smile and say “good for them!”

May 23, 2021

An impossible task: 100 favorite songs

A discussion came up this past week about favorite albums / songs, and having already done the 100 albums project I was able to URL-slap the chat channel with my favorite albums. (At least, my favorite albums as of about 2016. The list has changed substantially since then.) So then the question of favorite 100 songs came up. That… is much harder.

Picking my 100 favorite albums wasn’t easy but it’s made much simpler by the fact that lots of artists have produced great songs. That’s why we have the concept of “one-hit wonders” — lots of artists and bands have created one-off songs that are amazing, but their overall catalog is just so-so.

Don McLean’s “American Pie” is much beloved. I’ve listened to it hundreds if not thousands of times by now, and it doesn’t get old. The rest of his catalog… um. Not so much.

“Mickey” by Toni Basil is a classic, no list of 80s pop would be complete without it. “Obsession” by Animotion, great song. “Wipe Out” by the Surfaris. And that’s just songs that charted, not counting many fantastic songs that didn’t chart but stood head and shoulders above the rest of the band’s work.

The Beatles (and XTC, Queen, Robyn Hitchcock, and…) problem

The Beatles are pretty much my all-time favorite band. They released somewhere north of 200 songs while they were together, more than 180 of them originals. There are a few Beatles songs that are stinkers (“Revolution No. 9” and “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” leap to mind), and some that are just OK (“Sexy Sadie,” “All Together Now,” “Little Child”…) but without a hard limit on songs by a single band/artist, they’d take up a huge chunk of my top 100.

And then there’s XTC, Queen, Robyn Hitchcock, Aimee Mann, Colin Hay…

A possible approach to top 100s

There’s no way I can do just 100, at least not without sucking all the fun out of it while I agonize over this song or that one. I sat down and jammed out a list of 73 songs in less than an hour and that’s just off the top of my head.

I might split it up a bit and do multiple lists. I’m thinking right now, I might divide a project into:

Everything up to 1970
1970-1989
1990-2009
2009-now

I might need a separate list for the 80s on its own. Everybody knows that was unarguably the best decade for music, ever. Unarguably. Don’t even try to argue it.

OK, you might disagree. But I grew up during the 80s, which means that was the time I had my most intense relationship with music. If my selections from the 80s are too numerous to winnow down to live with 70s music, I might re-think the positioning.

Thoughts, suggestions, songs to include?

Open to suggestions. This is primarily an exercise to keep me writing, I doubt that many people are on the edge of their seats waiting to hear my thoughts on music. But, if you’re following along at home I’d love to hear your thoughts. Could you narrow it down to 100? Could you think of 100? What songs would you include, and how would you pick them?

April 28, 2021

Jukebox selections: MASTER BOOT RECORD, The Jayhawks, Paul McCartney meets Khruangbin

Album cover: "Tomorrow the green grass" by the Jayhawks

Been a bit between posts, so here’s another run at the jukebox for all my readers looking for a few good tunes to pass the time. Some oldies, some goodies, nothing boring and all good for your soul.

Zenith (Riktam Remix) by MVMB & ALL’IN – IbogaTech

This is a melodic psytrance piece that runs seven minutes and never lets up. If I were the Peloton type, I’d definitely queue this one up for a indoor cycling session. But, alas, I am not. So I merely listen to this while typing. Give it a listen on Bandcamp, I think you’ll be hooked.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1093589695 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Tomorrow the Green Grass by The Jayhawks

This isn’t a new release nor is it new to me, but I put this on for the millionth time last night and it’s still just as fresh and enjoyable as the first time I listened to it. This album was a recommendation from a friend in college, who dubbed it to cassette for me. I can still remember popping it into my car stereo driving between Columbia, MO and Kirksville, MO – not knowing what to expect, I wasn’t quite braced for it.

Depending on who you ask this fits into the “country rock,” “alternative country” or “alternative rock” genre. There’s definitely a bit of twang and country influence here, and I’d be shocked if Mark Olson and Gary Louris didn’t have some Lynyrd Skynyrd albums in their collection. But the album really transcends genre, it’s just damn good music.

[youtube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kGKXzr_-UvUI-9otP8G8i50Kqm3cbvJNM]

INTERNET PROTOCOL by MASTER BOOT RECORD

Loved the concept, an album with songs inspired by various protocols (FTP, IRC, HTTP, POP3 and Gopher!), but wasn’t sure the execution would live up to it. Turns out, it does. This is great video-gamish music that is fantastic to work to or just enjoy. This is nerd rock at its finest. Ironically it is available as download, vinyl or cassette – but not CD. Sigh. (Can’t argue with the digital download price, though. One Euro is completely reasonable.)

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=238542805 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Paul McCartney meets Khruangbin

Paul McCartney’s McCartney III was some of the best work that the former Beatle has turned in for quite a while. Clearly he made good use of the quarantine time to put together a fine album, but then did us one better and reached out to a number of contemporary artists to remix/re-imagine songs on the album as McCartney III Imagined.

I absolutely love what Khruangbin (another favorite of mine) have done with “Pretty Boys,” and highly recommend giving it a listen.

[youtube https://youtu.be/K-sjSobYNag]

It’d be amazing to put McCartney and Khruangbin in a studio and go for a full album.

What are you listening to?

That’s it for me on this installment. What are you listening to these days?

April 2, 2021

Jukebox selections: Earthspace, Kill Shelter + Antipole, Sunny War “Staying Alive” cover & much more

It’s another Bandcamp Friday! Time to fill up the cart and bring home some great tunes. Looking for a few ideas? Check out some of these albums and artists.

Lagniappe Sessions (EP) by Sunny War

Spotted this one on Cover Me, I think, a few weeks ago. The entire EP is made up of covers, but the one that stands out for me is the 8-minute cover of The Bee Gees’ “Staying Alive” that deconstructs the song and gives it a lot of room to breathe.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=372660277 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=235655820]

Bonus recommendation, her Simple Syrup release that came out last week is beautiful. Really enjoying her voice and guitar playing, it’s sublime. This is the sort of album I can close my eyes and just let wash over me. It’s definitely not background music for working – it deserves full attention.

When the world returns to some semblance of normal I hope I can catch a live show.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3654010975 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra

This is not a collaboration I’d have predicted, or known that I wanted, but sometimes life hands you something really good unexpectedly. So it is with Promises, a joint effort from Floating Points (producer, DJ, musician and Eglo Records co-founder, Pharoah Sanders (legendary jazz saxophonist), and a scrappy little outfit known as the London Symphony Orchestra.

This is a perfect record to bring in Spring, it’s all sonic butterflies and sunshine, light breezes and fluffy clouds dancing overhead. Nature’s stretching after a long Winter nap and getting down to the serious business of reawakening. The record was released just a few days ago, but I don’t think it’s too soon to declare this one a classic.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3149089081 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Machines Reflecting Love (EP) by Earthspace

This short EP from 2020 by Earthspace (aka, Matheus Nogueira from Brazil) is described as “chunky slabs of bass grooves.” It’s short but lots of fun. It doesn’t demand your full attention. It makes for great background work music, but it does reward it if you do choose to close your eyes and just ride its waves.

[bandcamp width=400 height=120 album=4064950087 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

A Haunted Place by Kill Shelter & Antipole

A Haunted Place is new from last week, but its cold wave vibe would be right at home next to The Cure’s Pornography and other 80s cold wave/goth classics. This is the kind of gloom and doom that’s fun to listen in any mood. The lyrics are a bit “black writing on black paper in a dark room” but the music is good enough I don’t mind too much.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=4024825527 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Caravan to the Stars by Dark Matter Halo feat. Bill Laswell

Ethereal, heavy on the low end, great stuff from Dark Matter Halo with Bill Laswell. The title is appropriate, feels like a journey through the void at galactic distances.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2614911790 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Milan 2012 by Material

This one is exclusive to members of the BASSMATTER subscription from Bill Laswell on Bandcamp. It’s a six track jam recorded at Teatro Manzoni, Milan featuring Aiyb Deng, Hamid Drake, Dominic James, Peter Apfelbaum, Steven Bernstein (not that one), and Bernie Worrell.

There’s some truly stunning work from Worrell on the keyboards here. Laswell’s bass is top-notch as always. Gave it a listen the moment the notice landed in my inbox that Laswell had released another BASSMATTER exclusive. The subscription is $22 a month. You’ll get access to all the back catalog exclusives and new stuff released while you’re subscribed.

Did a quick scan of my inbox and there’ve been about 22 releases this year. I wondered when I signed up whether the subscription would be worthwhile or if this would be the dregs of stuff out of the archives… it’s not the dregs. I’ve enjoyed pretty much all the releases that have been issued since I subscribed, particularly the Tabla Beat Science and Method of Defiance stuff.

Tell me what you’re listening to

Enough about my finds this week, what are you listening to? Always looking for new music recommendations. Bonus points if it’s on Bandcamp, but that’s not a requirement.

March 28, 2021

Digital crate digging: Searching Spotify by label, genre, year and more

Spotify is a great tool for music discovery, but some of the exploration tools aren’t obvious. If you want to search for something by song title or artist, that sort of thing, no problem. But there are other ways I like to explore new music, like by music label or genre. You can do that too!

The Spotify UI doesn’t expose things like record label, but that’s a really good way to find new music. For example, if you like classical music the Naxos label is famous for it. The Blue Note label is famous for jazz, 4AD is great for indie artists like Bettie Serveert. Point is, if there’s a genre or artist you like, branching out by checking out the other acts on the same label is a good way to find great new music.

Here’s how you do that, in the search box just use label:"blue note" or whatever label you’d like to search through.

Want to narrow the search a bit? You can add the year parameter, like year:1965, so search by label:"blue note" year:1965 and that should turn up everything that Spotify has tagged with that year and record label.

Spotify’s hidden search syntax

Once upon a time, Spotify listed its advanced search syntax on its website. However, the only place (I think) you can find it these days is via the Wayback Machine. According to the old page, Spotify supports these parameters and operators:

artist
track
genre
year
album
label
isrc
upc
OR, AND, NOT and + and –

Search Spotify by genre

You might have already tried searching for genres on Spotify, and searching for “jazz” will turn up some jazz, and also any albums or artists or songs with “jazz” in the name. If you want to search only by genre you can tag on the genre: search modifier and you’ll get results of artists who fit the genre.

Weirdly, Spotify doesn’t return albums using this search modifier, just artists, songs, and Spotify’s “top result” for the genre’s artist. For instance, you search for genre:jazz and you’ll get Miles Davis for top artist. Seems legit. Search for genre:rock and you get Weezer. That’s a little sus. (If anybody from Spotify is reading this, I’m available to help clean up your categorization and taxonomies for a modest fee…)

Spotify search results may vary

Note that the results may not be perfect – And I don’t just mean questionable categorization on Spotify’s part. Searching for 1965 and Blue Note yields (among others) Cornbread by Lee Morgan. According to Spotify’s album info the album is from 1964, and Discogs says it was released in 1967.

There’s also a chance that minor labels are going to have name collisions. There’s more than one TCB Records, for instance, so if you try to locate some 60s jazz from the label by Lionel Hampton And His Orchestra you end up mixing in a lot of more modern stuff (but no Lionel Hampton).

Finally, results vary depending on what Spotify has in its library. Spotify has a lot of amazing stuff, but it’s hit and miss on deeper jazz, indie labels, and that sort of thing.

My guess is that the search parameters and operators are a still-functioning but legacy feature with Spotify that’s not well tended to by its product team. It works, mostly, but it doesn’t seem to be something the company is investing in or trying to put in front of users as a power tool. Pity – because when it works, it is a fun way to sort through the catalog on the service.

However, if you’re trying to find new-to-you music and want to go outside Spotify’s recommendations and generic search features, the additional modifiers can be a great tool. And, remember, artists don’t get rich off Spotify plays – when you find music you really like, think about buying the album direct from the artist or Bandcamp or whatever source is best to give the most money to the artist.