Pennsylvania – New Music Jason’s Picks

The New Music I’m Listening To With Righteous Intent This Week – March 23 – 29, 2024:

Hello, my friends! I hope you’re having a wonderful week. Not only is it Good Friday, it is a great Friday, with some excellent Music to share. I found eleven titles that fit the bill, so let’s dive in!

Bristol, England is bursting with so many talented Artists. Not content with just being the birthplace of Trip-Hop, it also hosts a burgeoning Rock scene. Cosmit is a five-piece from Bristol that has just released their third EP. Still Cosmit begins with an upbeat bass groove and a wash of guitars. Lead singer Jerry Tadros oozes personality and is backed perfectly by Erica Freas and Kay Stanley on vocals.

A trio from Iran released an exciting four-song EP this week that’s exploding with energy. The group consists of Arif Mirbaghi on bass, guitar and keys, Farhad Asadi on percussion, and, on divine flute, Artashesh Grigorian. Tantalize your earbuds with Saba Biar Nasimi Ze Khak-e Shiraz’m.

*Arif Mirbaghi, Artashes Grigorian, Farhad Asadi – Saba Biar Nasimi Ze Khak-e Shiraz’m*

An EP of a completely different sort has me pogoing through the kitchen while I make Jambalaya. Molbo is a four-piece Punk combo from Oslo. Crunchy guitar, insistent drumming and guttural vocals are prominent and satisfying on Rettferdighetens Ridder.

It really is the best time in human history to be a Music Fan. The easy access to Music from every studio, bedroom and garage is unprecedented. For instance, a Split EP from Philadelphia would never have made it beyond a few handmade cassettes, and I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of recommending it. Siltbreeze Records has put out a three-song EP, featuring three anonymous bands, called Sub Verse, Petticoats and Sole Sister. Scaling Triangles LP is “Name Your Price” on BandCamp and will twist your wee little mind with a ten-minute journey through Post Punk and Synthwave.

An Artist from London that I recommended last May has come back with a follow-up EP. Saya Gray’s QWERTY II is a captivating combination of Indie Pop and R&B, with tasty production and charming vocals.

Guitar-based Music is still well and safe in the arms of the next generation of Artists. A Country Western is a band from Philadelphia, PA that inhabits the soul of early REM and slacker rockers like Pavement. Life on the Lawn is their most recent album and it is alive with vibrant guitars and marvellous twists.

I found a few Hip-Hop records to tantalize the senses. UK MC Matt Herbert has long been known in Underground Rap circles as Junior Disprol. His newest album, Def Cult, is self-produced, and includes features from DJ Jaffa and Roughneck Jihad. Skrewed beats and trippy samples make this a fun ride.

Shabazz Palaces is an Experimental Hip-Hop Artist based in Seattle. Active for nearly fifteen years, his new album, Exotic Birds of Prey, is my first experience with him. Awash in Bass, it is filled with heady flights of fancy that hit you in the gut. Released by the legendary Sub Pop Records.

*Shabazz Palaces – Exotic Birds of Prey*

A duo from LA has assembled a great group of players to create their new album. Shabaka Hutchings, Billy Woods, and Portishead’s Adrian Utley guest on Real Bad Man & Lukah’s Temple Needs Water, Village Needs Peace. Downtempo and chill, it conjures West Coast Hip-Hop and Trip-Hop with winning effect.

*Real Bad Man & Lukah – Temple Needs Water, Village Needs Peace.*

Also from Los Angeles, but of a completely different musical ilk, is a Singer-Songwriter and Guitarist named Fabiola Reyna. With her band Reyna Tropical she has released an expansive, twenty-track debut album. Malegria. Upbeat and charming Latin Pop and Electronic beats will have you on your feet.

My Feature Pick is tearing the walls down at My Imaginary Sweaty Rock Club. Sahra Halgan is a political refugee from Somalia who has been in Europe for over thirty years. Her latest album HIDDO DHAWR is steeped in desert guitar, traditional unison vocals, and swirling organ. Euphoric.

If you have some extra days off this week, I hope you are able to relax and enjoy yourself. And you know that you need to take great care of yourself. We’ll talk again soon!

The New Music I’m Listening To Contemporaneously This Week, March 2 – 8, 2024:

Well, hello there, everybody! It’s a wonderful day and we have a healthy dose of New Music to dig into together. Eight titles for your Sound Holes. Are you ready?

Back in 2020, when I first started to write about New Music, one of my very first discoveries was a duo from Chicago that were called Ohmme. Their album Fantasize Your Ghost would have certainly have been given the New Music Jason Prize for that year, if such a thing had been thought of. I’m thrilled that the band, who are now known as Finom has a new album coming out in May. It’s been co-produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, and the leadoff single Haircut is bouncy, infectious and satisfying.

Finom – Haircut

There’s a genre of Electronic Music that exists somewhere between the heavy beats of Dance, or House, and the calming atmospherics of Ambient. Let’s call it “Head Music.” French Producer Édouard Ribouillault, aka c_c, has released a new full-length to tantalize the imagination. Six Crossings is six lengthy tracks, all recorded in one take, in one day. It is warm and dreamy.

Rhys Edwards is a British ex-patriate living in Stockholm and is a Singer-Songwriter. astrel k is the pen-name for his Music. His second album, The Foreign Department, is lush and twee, with piano and strings intertwined with Electronic flourishes.

A band I showcased on Tuesday from Baltimore has come through with a terrific debut album. Tomato Flower is a four-piece that has spent a good time touring with Animal Collective and amassing a fanbase with a handful of EPs. No has a raw, earthy feel, with jangly, jagged guitars and inspired vocals from Austyn Wohlers.

Some exciting cross-cultural sounds have emerged this week from Senegal, via Australia. Ausecuma Beats is a nine-piece ensemble led by Djembe player Boubacar Gaye. Their latest album, Dakar Bamako is a culmination of post-Lockdown reunions that took place in Senegal and Mali for members of the band. Joyous and celebratory, it’s the sound of a grand global party.

Hani Mojtahedi is an Iranian-born Kurdish singer residing in Berlin. As HJirok, she creates entrancing Music that incorporates traditional instruments with Electronics. But on Hjirok it is Hani’s voice that will capture your heart.

Moor Mother is back with another album, fresh off her 2023 release Jazz Codes. The Philadelphia MC and Producer has created a meditation on modern culture with The Great Bailout. Straddles the lines between Hip-Hop and Jazz, with more Music for The Head. Guests include Lonnie Holley and Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty.

Kim Gordon has always felt like the cool older sister I never had (I have an older sister. She loves Def Leppard.). As member of the first ‘Alternative’ Band I fell in love with, Sonic Youth, Kim oozed a quiet confidence that rode a wave of exuberant guitar noise. Since the dissolution of the band (and her divorce from fellow SY member Thurston Moore), Gordon has written a memoir and is releasing her own Music. Her second album, The Collective, delves into harsh electronics that offer Gordon a rough canvas for her unsettling poetics. At seventy, Kim Gordon continues to be the height of cool. My Feature Pick this week.

How does that suit you? I hope it leaves you feeling free and easy.

Take care of yourself!

The New Music I’m Listening To Unilaterally This Week, October 7 – 13, 2023:

A good and great day to all of you, I’m happy you’ve chosen to land on this patch of the Internet. If we haven’t met before, I’m Jason, and I’m on a lifelong mission to find and subsequently recommend the finest, most interesting and audacious New Music from around the world. This is the part that I miss from my former life as a Music Store manager, and now it’s just my hobby. Although I would venture that it also does wonders for my mental health.

If you find something that catches you, and touches you in some way, I would love to hear from you!

As it stands , I’ve found eight titles that have been released this week. Three singles, and five Full-Lengths, so let’s get right to it!

Producer and Poet doseone is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. As A7PHA, he’s released a banger of a single in Many Headed. The title of the track is appropriate, as it features four guests, including legendary MCs Aesop Rock and Canada’s Buck 65. There are two versions of the song, the second being nearly a minute longer, but don’t sleep on the flip side, King Me, which demonstrates doseone spitting with fire.

A single from an Italian label is warming up the pretend crowd in My Imaginary Nightclub. From Uluru Records comes the debut from Rome Producer DJ Dibba. Big Time Driller/Stay Stoned (ULURU 012) is a combustible combination of Ska/Reggae and Hip-Hop. Props to the anonymous MC on the a-side, she is the star of the show. The flip side is a Rocksteady bop.

*DJ Dibba – Big Time Driller/Stay Stoned (ULURU 012)*

A label from France called Broc Recordz has released two tracks that are the result of a fascinating collaboration. German guitarist J.J. Whitefield and Russian drummer Igor Zhukovsky have joined forces for Two Tales For The Mind vol. 2. The two instrumental tracks start off with the groovy PsychRock of One hand clap, while the B-Side, Munich bells showcases Zhukovsky’s percussive prowess with funky effect.

*J.J. Whitefield & Igor Zhukovsky – TWO TALES FOR THE MIND vol.2*

Vacationer is the name for Philadelphia Singer/Songwriter Ken Vasoli’s recording and performing projects. On his second album Cherish he’s amassed a terrific ensemble to create a lush atmosphere. I’m a sucker for vibraphone, and there’s that in abundance. And there’s flute. Everyone loves flute. Vasoli’s voice is expressive and lovely, particularly on DIALOGUE. Recommended if your everyday Singer/Songwriters have gotten stale.

A Ten-piece ensemble from São Paulo, Brazil has created an instant party at mi casa. Bixiga 70 has been performing and recording for over a decade. Their latest album, Vapor, is horn-infused and funky fun, capturing the spirit of live performance in front of an audience that cannot help but dance.

A band from Atlanta that I recommended last year has returned with another blistering Punk record. Bite The Hand That Feeds is thirteen varied tracks that stretch from sludgy to frantic to Pixies-inspired. KT, on vocals, embodies the Punk-or-die spirit. Produced by my new friend Ty Segall.

Direct from the BandCamp Wishlist, and (more accurately) from the terrific Trouble In Mind Records, and (even more accurately) from Leipzig, Germany is ONYON. This Post-Punk band incorporates jangly guitars with angular fits and starts on their full-length debut, Last Days On Earth. Sci-Fi synths and aggressive vocals from Ilka Kellner make this a winner.

I don’t know how to describe this week’s Feature Pick. I can tell you that L’Rain is the Performing name for Brooklyn Multi-Instrumentalist and Producer Taja Cheek. She has returned after her widely acclaimed 2021 album Fatigue with the wonderfully-named I Killed Your Dog. The cheeky title masks the emotions portrayed within, and categorization is nigh on impossible. File it in the Not-Quite-Jazz-With-Shades-Of-R&B-And-Moody-ElectroFunk Section. It is a mood.

Thanks for stopping by! I post twice a week. Once on Tuesdays, in anticipation, and again on Fridays, with the results of my search.

Be kind to yourself!

The New Music I’m Listening To, Because It’s Not About The Quantity, This Week, April 1 – 7, 2023:

A great Good Morning, Afternoon or Evening to each and every one of you. As we go into another Christian holiday weekend, the New Releases are noticeably quieter this week. If you were to believe Apple Music, there wasn’t a single New Release to be had from the continent of Africa. But despite the lull, I was still able to come across eight new titles to cruci-fix all your needs.

Everyone likes Steve Buscemi. You’d be hard-pressed to find a negative thing to say about this indie film stalwart you have seen in The Big Lebowski and Reservoir Dogs. He seems like your affable Everyman, filled with humanity. It is no surprise that Buscemi has a working relationship with Toronto’s Hayden Desser. In 1996, Steve Buscemi directed and wrote the film Trees Lounge. Hayden provided the title song for the soundtrack, beginning their friendship which continues today. Buscemi appears in Desser’s most recent promo videos for Hayden’s new album, Are We Good. Hayden isn’t the most musically flashy, and his voice sits somewhere between J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and fellow Canadian songsmith Ron Sexsmith. What reveals itself in his music is his humanity. An unabashed romantic with mixed fortunes. In other words, Hayden is Steve Buscemi. You can’t help but like the guy.

I’m the kind of person who thinks that deep regular meditation is important for a healthy mind. Cultures around the world have known this for centuries, and spiritual wisdom comes from these inner examinations. “The Huni Kuin people live on the banks of the Jordan River, inside the Amazon Forest…almost at the border of Peru, and have, in the NixiPae, Ayahuasca, their medicine and vehicle to The Spirit of the Forest.” (from BandCamp) Ibã Huni Kuin is a master of the songs of his people, and with Brazilian sound artist Marco Scarassatti you are brought into the inner circle during their communal spiritual journeys, on Ni yuxibū xinã rewe (Sound Of Sprit Forest) Just the ambient outdoor noise alone is enough to lower your heart rate. Calm and truly entrancing.

Ibã Huni Kuin & Marco Scarassatti – Ni xubyū xinã rewe

Albany, New York is just across the border to the US from where I sit, and is a no less magical place than the forests of Brazil. I have always seen their commercials Used Cars and Ice Cream Cakes since I was a child. Bruiser and Bicycle is a three-piece Rock combo that makes a noise much larger than the sum of their parts. Holy Red Wagon is their second “official album”, and it has a nine tracks steeped in Prog, and proves that it doesn’t have to mean a bad thing. Long pieces that have movement, virtuosity, and invention. Not only is Rock not dead, it already has its bloated genius cousin. Modern Prog Rock, new and improved.

An Experimental Synthesized Music composer and performer from Germany caught my attention. Detlef Funder records as Konrad Kraft. Nifbin Circle is his most recent release, and it is as ambient as it is rhythmic. Textured sounds combine with downtempo Dance grooves.

Bernard Edwards, Jr. is DJ and Producer from NYC that was signed by Dr. Dre to Aftermath Entertainment in 2002. He has since gone on to work with some of the biggest names in Music, such as Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé. Known as Focus… (ellipsis included), he has just released the ninth edition of his aNALOG iN a dIGITAL wORLD series of Beat Tapes. Distinctive and flavourful beats with creative percussion makes even going shopping for groceries that much cooler.

An EDM Producer from Johnston, Pennsylvania named Tatania Triplin has released her debut album as Nondi_ (underscore included). Flood City Trax is twelve tracks of what she envisions as Detroit techno and breakcore, from having only experiencing it via the internet. It’s a dreamy and exciting journey.

An album that graduated from my BandCamp Wishlist on this BandCamp Friday comes from Brooklyn’s Yaeji. She has been recording Electronic Pop and Dance Music in Korean and English since 2018, and her latest release, With A Hammer incorporates breakbeats and atmospherics that creates a complete world of her own.

TatzumaKiii is a DJ and Producer from Sydney, Australia that has just twisted my mind. His new album, GURU contains some of the most ingenious production I’ve heard in my life. The Artist’s use of samples, both micro and micro, to create an aural collage, and ultimately “The Beat” (be it ever so wonky). Experimental Hip-Hop of the highest order, and my Feature Pick for the week.

I hope you’re not cross with me about my casual blasphemy. Don’t get too hung up on it. Have a great weekend and be good to yourself!