A Music Blog For People Who Like Music, Blogs & Music Blogs
New year, new column! In this day and age of non-stop blah blah blah it’s good to detach from the human voice and just let the music carry you. Today we have new tracks from The Multiverse Concept and Alighted to do just that, after the jump.
Georgia Anne Muldrow released her most recent album (21st in her incredible catalog), called VWETO III, on May 21st. Georgia said that “VWETO III is intended for movement. It’s to be played when you birth yourself back outside after a long introspective period to get the things you need. It intends for you to be your own superhero and wants to be your theme for power.”
Movement and inertia have both played perhaps outsized roles in our lives in the past 16 months, and coming out of this deeply embodied interplay between inside/outside, stasis/movement is hard. This record, thankfully, is not about movement in a showy or prescribed way – there will probably not be a tik tok dance challenge to come out of any of these tracks (though I am very open to being proved wrong about this!). Instead, this thoughtful, beautiful, rich album wants the listener to determine what movement means to us as individuals and wants to be the soundtrack to our own (re)emergence and power. This, especially after the past 16 months, is such a gift.
Tune in and bliss out with this collection of compositions existing beyond the dimensions of your “pop” and “rock” or “roll.”
We realize now we should’ve posted this playlist yesterday on 4/20 but everyday is the right day to expand your musical horizons and your mind maaaaaaaan.
Today we have new music and the briefest of descriptions thereof from Airships on the Water, Alexander Karavay, Peter Flesch, Sloane’s Viper and Ruby Bones.
Whether you’re looking for tranced out bliss, experimental electronica, jazz rock or something in between this playlist has it. Leave the easy melodies and conventional verse / chorus life behind for a spell and take a trip beyond.
It’s been a little over a year of Covid-19 lockdowns. A year of sickness and fear and death and not having access to the ways we usually deal with those things. I’ve been particularly tired/overtaxed this past week, and don’t want to listen to anything with words, or anything fast, or anything that has a traditional song structure. And so I’ve been dipping into one of my favorite albums of all time, Hiroshi Yoshimura‘s Music for Nine Postcards. This album is from 1982, and Hiroshi wrote it to correspond to 9 windows at the Hara Museum in Tokyo, where the album was first played in person.
There is something so special to the iterative concept of this album; Yoshimura is the center, and as his views change, so do his moods, moving from melancholy to sweet, humble to excited, desirous to content. Though it all, he demonstrates such consideration, care, and love for this space, both architectural space and the sonic space he creates. I can’t say enough good things about all of Yoshimura’s work, but as this is the first album I heard of his, this holds a special place in my heart/brain/body. Hope it will in yours too.
Take a midweek break with these expansive tunes to reconnect you with the infinite and/or the personal. It’s all the experimental, ambient and instrumental tracks we’ve talked about the last few weeks, plus a few bonus tracks.
Sprawling instrumental post rock goodness, that not only gives us a mathy emo first movement that sounds a bit like Mineral minus the vocals, but a sweeping second movement that balances dynamics and melody in a fashion not unlike Explosions In The Sky or Godspeed You Black Emperor. If you’ve been craving an epic soundtrack to your week, then look no further than “Another Year Outside The Frame” from Airships On The Water.
I have been VERY happy with the snow this week. Here in Bloomington, we’ve had a thick coating of the best type of snow, the type of robust, non-watery snow that stays crisp and snappy on the frozen ground. I will take this over the ubiquitous wet, grey, snow-slush forever, and I especially love the way this type of snow muffles sound. We all move through it differently, trying not to fall, paying attention to the ground, to our watery eyes, to the spots on our bodies where the cold air hits us. There is something revitalizing about this deep freeze phase of winter, joy in the hibernation and coziness of inside and care in the intense body awareness and efficiency when outside. Here is a perfect song for all of it, from an equally perfect album: “The Shepherd with the Flute,” by Girma Yifrashewa, on his stunning 2014 release Love & Peace. Stay safe and cozy.