Friday, November 15th: Technicolor Quilt Raga, LA-via-Adelaide Library Jazz, Lithuanian Experimental Folk, Studio Shadow Excavation, Lysergic Guitar Expanse

November selections: Music for Fire-Pits.

Having a 3rd baby is much different than anticipated. Everyone’s needs are so different. I think back to parenting just 1 child, and how insane it felt at the time, but now in hindsight was so quaint and simple. The amount of music I was able to make, how little we actually had to work especially during lockdown/covid and during our 2nd’s pregnancy.

Things feel sweet and peaceful in a very different sense now. Our eldest is discovering her own taste in music, so most of the music I am listening to inside the house is under 1 of only a couple circumstances.

A) My own music while taking arrangement/mixing/master notes.

B) In headphones while doing chores, mostly dishes.

C) ambient piano music during bath time (mostly Calm’s 2022 bona-fide masterwork Quiet Music Under the Moon, or h hunt’s 2016 LP Playing Piano for Dad).

My deep listening is found during whatever flow state I can find at work, or at higher volume in the car during commuting hours (I average around 5 or 6 hours a week).

I was talking to my friend Mari earlier this week, who has just as voracious an appetite for new releases, and about triple the capacity for consumption. She and I both agreed 2024 is a landmark year for experimental music. Things feel spiked and poetic, ambitious, completely uninhibited. I am grateful for it. It all feels so essential both broadly and molecular. Cultural and material. Prescriptive and medicinal.

As always, Bandcamp links are attached. I’m down for you to read this for free as long as you’re willing to pay the artists. Art is a privilege, not a right. Support the artists.

SiP “Leos Ultra” (Not Not Fun)

Favorite Track- “Sister Sister”

Chicago’s Jimmy Lacy has architected a beautiful mystique around his SiP project within very few releases. 2020’s ‘Leos Naturals’ and 2021’s ‘SiP/Prezzano’ tapes really set the stage for his incredible first LP proper ‘Leos Ultras’ to fall under the “LONG AWAITED” category. With his recognizable blend of organ leads, hand percussion and woodwinds, he brings to mind those dusty early 80’s tapes from Hailu Mergia. Lacy performs a delicate dance between childlike playfulness and foggy twilight contemplative groove. These are simple songs, in the way that they effortlessly find a melodic center and then just let it ride. Like a soft smile for the setting sun, or a deep breath in to the rhythm of a crashing wave.

Anna Butterss “Mighty Vertebrate” (International Anthem)

Favorite track- “Shorn”

Ever so in-demand bassist/composer Anna Butterss has spent the past few years really making a name for themself in the LA jazz/improv scene. Between participating in Jeff Parkers IVtet and the explosive improv group SML, Anna also finds time to session and live on the road with prodigious indie, jazz and pop groups from Phoebe Bridgers all the way to Makaya McCraven.

With ‘Mighty Vertebrate’, Anna’s debut full-length for International Anthem, their sound arrives fully formed and functional. It’s so inflated with ideas, yet never feels overstuffed or crowded. The mix slithers with confidence and color. Library and spiritual jazz schools alike merge into a single lane of expressive and phantasmagoric instrumental vistas. Though primarily a bassist in performance, it is so extremely clear that Anna’s real chops are composition. This thing is the work of an easily identifiable young master.

Merope “V​ė​jula” (Stroom)

Favorite track- ‘Namopi (feat. Laraaji and Shahzad Ismaily)’

Lithuanian folk traditionalists Merope have been a seasonal staple in my home since they released their eponymous masterpiece ‘Salos’ in 2021. If there is ever a time for this project to release a new record, it is November. And boy have they really done a number on my heart with this one. As delicate as an ember fading, these are songs for solitude. The guitar playing, and its subsequent modular degradation. The slightest touch of percussion from custom-made stone sculptures. It might as well be sung by the earth humming itself to sleep. No one is making music like this. Doesn’t hurt to see Bill Frisell’s name in the credits either.

Hotspring “Apodelia” (Mood Hut)

Favorite track- ‘Day, Moment’

Think Durutti Column doing ketamine therapy at the Overlook Hotel. It’s melancholy but there is a pleasure in it. Full moon on a placid lake, red wine and marijuana. Fully baked. This one is a total late night head trip but what else do you expect from Mood Hut these days?

Hasco Enjoyments “WOW!” (Self-released)

Favorite track- ‘Executive Bonus’

And the funniest tracklist-of-the-year award goes to……well actually, thats probably ‘New Blue Sun’… but Hasco Enjoyments ‘WOW!’ is a close 2nd!! This one came out nowhere on a random bandcamp “ambient” tag dive, and man what a discovery. I can’t believe this is my first time hearing from this crew. It’s a paradox in real time, somehow totally wildly ironic, but also authentically & deeply beautiful. Silly and just plain wonderful. Western country-fried chord structures beaten to a pulp with digital woodwinds and that LA synthesizer sizzle. There are characters wandering around these drones going to baseball games just to grab a hot dog (and quietly dissing those using ketchup as a condiment, I think?). This will be a regular weekend morning rotation over coffee and incense, I can already tell!