The Latest
This week’s Monday Morning Brew runs from Ry Cooder’s easy-rolling “The Old Man and Me” to Brion Gysin’s cut-up disco, recorded at nearly 70 with Don Cherry on pocket trumpet. Pharoah Sanders steps out of Coltrane’s shadow, Bex Burch beckons spring, and Andrew Wasylyk sends songs to six singers who post their vocals back…like postcards.
This week’s Mixtape stretches, twists, and shapeshifts — from Glasgow’s Uzganc choir to a collaboration between Weirs and The Magic Tuber Stringband, recorded inside Virginia’s pitch-black Crozet Tunnel. In between: music from Spencer Cullum, BIG|BRAVE, Wendy Eisenberg, Bill Orcutt, Mongolian artist Hugjiltu, Colleen, Prymek & Sage, balladeer Wheatie Mattiasich, harpist Rhodri Davies, and Oliver Barrett’s tender memorial to family and memory.
Spencer Cullum opens the door to his Nashville garden shed for the latest Off the Shelf — the makeshift studio where Coin Collection 3 came to life. The final chapter of his trilogy finds the British pedal steel player turning to English folklore for solace amid the noise of the modern world. His ten objects tell the story.
Bill Orcutt follows up the celebrated “Music for Four Guitars” with “Music in Continuous Motion,” his second studio album for four guitars. If anything, Music in Continuous Motion is a more enjoyable album, with soulful compositions working alongside the gnarlier playing. A fully realised and finely honed set by a master of experimental guitar, this is unmissable. Bring on the live shows.
Bristol’s Tara Clerkin Trio share a video for the title track of their new album Somewhere Good, out 5th June via World of Echo. Built from droning harmonium, upright bass and Clerkin’s hypnotic vocals, the album spans avant-pop, modern classical and kraut-folk across forty-plus boldly intuitive minutes — their most fully realised work to date.
Chaz Prymek and Matthew Sage announce Shelter, their first duo full-length in six years, out April 10th on AKP. Built on first-take live improvisations and layered with yearning slide guitar, accordion, clarinet, and delicate synthesizers, the album is a pastoral meditation rooted in the Mountain West. Lead single Hill Blocks View is streaming now.
Animal Collective’s Dave Portner (Avey Tare) and Brian Weitz (Geologist) have announced Croz Boyce, a new instrumental duo project. Their self-titled debut, out May 8th via Domino, was built across state lines — Portner sending guitar themes from North Carolina, Weitz responding with electronics from D.C. Watch the video for debut single Hanging Out With a Blueberry Pop now.
DoYeon Kim has announced Wellspring, her debut album as a leader, arriving May 1 on TAO Forms. Featuring Tyshawn Sorey, Mat Maneri, and Henry Fraser, the album weaves Korean lullabies with free improvisation through Kim’s gayageum playing. Lead single “The Beats of Distant Thunder” is streaming now, ahead of performances across New York and at Big Ears Festival.
L.Y.R. have shared a visualiser for Guernica Jigsaw, the latest single from forthcoming album Dark Sky Reservation, out April 3rd via Real World Records. A tale of unrequited love set amid commercialised art, the track features Pearson’s cascading piano motif carrying an unspoken beauty through vast, impersonal spaces. The band’s largest UK tour follows this spring.
The latest in the Folklore Tapes Ceremonial Counties series pairs AHRKH — the solo venture of Gnod’s A P Macarte — with Scottish/Turkish singer and sound artist Bell Lungs. Macarte delivers a satisfying slab of arhythmic, amelodic drone inspired by the Isle of Wight’s Mottistone longstone, while Bell Lungs weaves an extraordinary fifteen-minute folk opera from the cursed legend of Raggedstone Hill.
Deer Tick have announced their ninth album Coin-O-Matic, due 5th June via ATO Records, sharing ramshackle lead single Mary Singletary. Named after a mob front company, the album excavates the hidden histories of Rhode Island — mafia underworlds, working-class drama, and Irish-Catholic guilt. It’s the Providence band’s first self-produced record across a career spanning more than two decades.