Tumbling towards a wall
Hi,
Let’s start this week listening to Chick Corea whom we lost a fortnight ago, with the seminal debut of his Return to Forever band on ECM. The flute work by Joe Farrell here is insane.
One of the most important figures of the fusion era, he is gone but not forgotten!
I’m sure you’ve heard of Black Country, New Road by now, hailed as an instant album of the year, and rightfully so! This is weird 2021 indie with hints of big John Zorn orchestras, Enablers like spoken vocals, world music, klezmer and math rock influences like Vialka, and Darkstar era Bowie storytelling.
This Arte concert will initiate you and you’ll then move on to be a statistic.
I’ve updated the Undomondo Discover Weekly with 20 fresh songs;
with ambient stuff from Chihei Hatakeyama, Natureboy Flako, saxophonist Joseph Shabason, world music by Azmari, hip-hop from Benny the Butcher (Griselda!) & Adrian Younge..
80’s Guadeloupean zouk reissue from Meliza, dance & electronic music from the likes of Giuseppe Leonardi, Khotin, two Studio Barnhus related artists Off the Meds & Sofia Kourtesis (who has an upcoming release on Ninja Tune), Lorenzo Senni and wrapping up with Richard Dawson’s Hen Ogledd (which was one of last year’s best misses)
Enjoy and send it to your friends if you like it, I’d love to see good music reach people’s ears and unfortunately without a budget it’s very hard to reach new people on the internet anymore (thanks Facebook)
Undomondo Discover Weekly on Spotify.
I’ve got two albums to check for fans of Jan Jelinek's seminal Loop-finding-jazz-records my soundtrack to the start of 2000s. For people who like dusty jazz loops in electronic soundscapes and micro movements.
First on was released last summer on Manchester’s Sferics by Roméo Poirier. It’s one of my complete misses for 2020.
Armed with a suitcase of floral shirts, trunks, paperbacks and a laptop, he checks into a lounging, relaxed and lush sound that appears to shift and shimmer with the iridescent aftereffects of a daiquiri or the warm, turquoise waters by his feet.
Second one is “Tumbling towards a wall” - which gives it’s name to this newsletter is by Ulla Strauss. It’s a sleeper hit for going to sleep or meditative states with the help of drones & ambience. If you like your reviews more artsy:
“Tumbling Towards a Wall’ is a keening batch of dematerialised atmospheres and lilting rhythms bound to lull listeners into hypnagogic states with its anxiety-sink ambient spongiforms and diary-like and drift-away textures.”
Let’s wrap this newsletter with a video from 1987 I chanced upon, by 80’s disco/pop rock star Carly Simon, who’s celebrating 75 this year.
The breezy setting, the clothes and the priceless footage that fills me with 80’s nostalgia is best summed up by a youtube commenter:
If people want to know what summer evenings in the 80s felt like, this is it.
Have a nice week!