New Music Friday: Nyatiti Trance Music, Cosmic Samba, Tone Poem Fingerstyle
Sept. 4 releases include Steven R. Smith, Índio da Cuíca, Dr. Pete Larson, Lily Seabird, Araña, Sleep, a guitar comp
Welp, I'm already on my way back to Asheville, but this time to see Neurosis, Acid Bath, Melvins and Kylesa at Hellbender. I'm gonna be a mess: headbanging, weeping, hugging, moshing, meditating. Lemme know if you'll be there!
Stream the Viking's Choice Guide to New Music Friday mixtape (tracks 1-7 are from the albums reviewed, the rest are singles released within the last week). Follow me on Bandcamp and check out previous mixes via Buy Music Club.
Steven R. Smith, Half Light Unfolding
Mr. Ulaan Khol/Markhor/Passerine/Janthina strips his dense psychedelia way back to mostly Spanish guitar and piano. Austere court music for a cozy fantasy film.
Índio da Cuíca, ZING ZING
Cosmic samba with cuíca, the idiosyncratic friction drum, at its squeaky, beating heart. This is off-kilter, Afro-Brazilian pop music somewhere between ancient ritual and the dance floor. Joyous, weird and irreverent, yet already classic.
The Dr. Pete Larson Group, The Dr. Pete Larson Group
Psychotropic trance music that connects the stranger dots between Ann Arbor and Nairobi. Fuzzed-out nyatiti, a plucked lyre, is the hypnotic lead on these psychedelic snake rituals.
Lily Seabird, Lightspheres on Their Way
Ann Powers said I would like this album and who am I to argue? Fuzzy, twangy and sometimes freak-folky indie-rock that's equal parts Dino Jr., Lydia Loveless and Neil Young. Everything hangs like a barely-lit cigarette from a snarling smile.
Araña, Araña
Don't sleep on the Bogotá scene, y'all; in particular, the creative wellspring found within the Polen and In-Correcto labels. The Colombian octet weaves together Tortoise-ian post-rock, ecstatic minimalism, Latin grooves and folkloric melodies like a spectacular web by its arachnid namesake. This is music that is truly alive.
Sleep, Hempispheres
When it works, Bubba Dupree's upside-down blues riffage is truly an inspired pairing for Al Cisneros' monotonic stoner-metal incantations — like Blue Cheer jamming on Popol Vuh. Unfortunately, they lose the plot when a jam stretches out. A promising evolution, but your mileage may vary.
v/a, Tone Poems, Vol. 1
Fingerstyle guitar emanations from the likes of Brigid Mae Power, Harris Newman, Liam Grant and Sam Shalabi. For dusk-time walks, stew-stirring soundtracks and middle-distance staring contests.
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