LISTEN UP: NEW RELEASES OF VARYING DEGREES OF BRILLIANCE (6.10.2022)

 VARIOUS - CRASS LIPS COMP VI





Crass Lips was started in 2016 by Cam Alvarez, Gladys Nobriga and George Marquez with the intention of being a multi-branched collective of immigrants trying to carve out the space for themselves and others like them in the music world. It was created under the charitable-organization model, because we believe that labels should help artists for reasons that exist outside of the capitalist sphere.

Dripping in sarcasm & dystopian motifs that ring all too true to the present, I truly believe this intersection of pop & noise is the music of the present. This compilation of songs will take over in comforting your tarnished soul where memes fall short.

LISTEN HERE:

https://crasslipsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/crass-lips-comp-vi


BLACK LUNG - DARK WAVES






Baltimore psychedelic doom band's fourth album offers a departure from prior recordings while staying true to their roots in doom and psychedelic music, delivering eight songs packed with the frenzied, fuzzed-out guitar breakdowns, booming drums, and soulful vocals that longtime fans will appreciate.  The decision to bring bass guitar prominently into the mix on Dark Waves adds new levels of depth and heaviness to Black Lung’s songs, which may be the album’s most notable and exciting development.   Oh, and did we say the band was from Bal-tee-more?


LISTEN HERE:

https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/black-lung-dark-waves



MARTIN TAXT - SECOND ROOM






Second Room is Taxt’s second album in a series of works investigating possible relations between music and architecture. In this work written for alto saxophone, two microtonal tubas, double bass, church organ, hand bells and modular synthesizers he is inspired by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, and his ideas on different concepts of living. 

In a lecture at the Harvard University in 2011, Fujimoto sets up a comparison between the nest and the cave, as two fundamentally different ways of living concepts. Whereas the nest represents safety, conformity and predictability, a space designed for people, the cave on the other side represents the unknown, a naturally shaped space, not designed for the purpose of living. It can be uncomfortable to enter the dark cave but spending time inside one can gradually start to adapt to the space. By rethinking our concept of space and the relation between space and human body we will eventually discover different functionalities within the cave and innovate new functions in the already designed space. 


LISTEN HERE:

https://sofamusic.bandcamp.com/album/second-room


MORGEN - MORGEN






The definitive reissue of an album in the top-ten list of every psychedelic and hard rock enthusiast: Morgen, the sole album by the New York City band that bore leader, songwriter and vocalist Steve Morgen’s surname.  That casual listeners have never heard of this late 1960's masterpiece is by any measure a musical injustice.  This changes with the Now-Again Reserve Edition of Morgen pairing the known album with previously-unreleased songs, alternate takes and instrumentals on a three LP set.  Morgen offers a portal to a dream space where the expansive, artful touches never prevent the band members from pummeling their instruments like their lives depended on it.


LISTEN HERE:

https://morgen1.bandcamp.com/album/morgen


LOS CALVOS - ESTO SON LOS CALVOS






Few have done as much for salsa in Venezuela as band-leader, composer and pianist Ray Pérez. He burst on to the scene in the mid-60s with his group Los Dementes, creating the blueprint for guaguanco, pachanga and boogaloo in Venezuela. When the name salsa began to be used as something of a catch-all-term he was still at the forefront, recording two hugely-popular salsa albums with Los Dementes in 1967. Remarkably, that very same year, he also recorded two albums with a brand new group, Los Calvos, that showed how as well as being the genre’s most visible band-leader, he was also pushing the nascent genre to its limits. Looking back, revered journalist Alfredo Churion states that Los Calvos were “one of the most innovative experiences in Venezuelan popular music.” 


LISTEN HERE:







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