This Kind Of Punishment – Out Of My Hands (1985)

Taken from:
EP: 5 By Four
Label: Flying Nun Records ‎– TKP 003
Format: Vinyl, 12″, EP

“A classic case of obscurity at the time but hosanna in the future, New Zealand’s This Kind of Punishment started as an experiment by brothers Graeme and Peter Jefferies after their earlier group, Nocturnal Projections, fell apart. Their goal was to move away from the punk-ish, more straightforward sound from the early ’80s into a self-consciously more experimental and artistic vein; at which they admirably succeeded over the course of three albums and one EP” Allmusic

Marc Ribot – Bella Ciao (Goodbye Beautiful)(feat. Tom Waits)(2018)

“Bella Ciao (Goodbye Beautiful)” is an Italian anti-Fascist folk ballad, and the first song Waits has been featured on in two years. “I played Tom a bunch of the tunes and he immediately bonded with that one,” said Ribot in an official statement. “Of course, he brings a certain gravitas to everything he does – my Italian friends say he sounds exactly like an old ‘partigiano’ (resistance fighter).” Source

Albert Mangelsdorff Quartet – Never Let It End (Spanish Waltz for La Singla)(1970)

Albert Mangelsdorff – trombone
Heinz Sauer – saxophone (tenor, alto)
Günter Lenz – bass
Ralf Hübner – drums, percussion

Label: MPS Records – MPS 15274
Format: Vinyl, LP; Country: Germany – Released: 1970
Style: Free Jazz
Recorded March 23rd, 1970 Walldorf Studio, Frankfurt, Germany.
Engineer – Torsten Wintermeier
Producer – Joachim Ernst Berendt
Fotos by Inge Werth, cover and graphic work by Günter Kieser

“Mangelsdorff hielt das Never Let It End-Album für eine besonders geglückte Aufnahme seines damaligen Quartetts; er erinnerte dabei besonders an die Solo-Passagen von Heinz Sauer auf dem Altsaxophon und die kollektiv improvisierten Parts. Mangelsdorff zählte Never Let It End zudem zu den herausragenden Alben der europäischen Szene, gerade durch die Verbindung zwischen freier Improvisation und einem gewissen Haften an der Tradition; er bedauerte nur die wenig engagierte Vermarktungsstrategie durch MPS nach der Veröffentlichung des Original-Albums in den 1970er Jahren.” Wiki

Karsten Vogel – Montmartre (2018)

“In the last couple of years Vogel has released two albums, one with focus on Vogel’s great inspiration Charlie Parker, and one in cooperation with Per Aage Brandt, exploring their avantgarde roots. Now, Karsten Vogel is ready to release a new album with focus on his compositions and especially on his Saxophone playing. The album, entitled This Is It, should be seen as the completion of Vogels journey within music, as it is the final expression of what his great storytelling can amount to. Consequently, the are no plans for future recording sessions.” Storyville

Lonnie Holley – I Woke Up…(2018)

““I went to sleep/I went to sleep/Anticipating of dreaming,” Holley opens over delicate piano runs before blown-out drums, quaking synths, and violent, looped trombone disturb the haze. “I dreamed that I woke up/In a fucked up America,” he bellows, his soulful croon turning toward the guttural. In his other career as a sculptor, Holley has long made art from found objects, assembling refuse into immersive sculptures. Here, he pieces together a patchwork of American cruelty: connecting his childhood in Birmingham, Alabama in the Jim Crow-era South to our present moment, he laments the “breakdown of words,” Wall Street crimes, and digital “overdatafying.” But for all his despair, Holley speaks to ways forward, pleading for change and a recognition of dignity. In the dream-logic sermon of “I Woke Up in a Fucked-Up America,” Holley makes clear: It’s time we woke up.” Source

Fred Thomas – Ridiculous Landscapes (2018)

“Fred Thomas had been making music nonstop for years when a seismic shift in his creative process happened in 2013. Something mystical opened up in the fall of that year and the prolific songwriter moved from his already emotionally open style into an unprecedentedly direct and vulnerable lyrical approach as well as new levels of detail-fixated production. The songs took on ​a ​new urgency​, inspired by a feeling that life was beginning afresh while at the same time a lifetime of experiences were cementing into worlds of memory.​ ​The results of that creatively eruptive time began with 2015’s critically hailed album All Are Saved, continued into the turbulent pop of 2017’s Changer and now ​float​ into Aftering, a record that feels like the final chapter of an unofficial trilogy.”Bandcamp

decker. – Awake (2018)

“In the simplest terms, decker. is a singer/songwriter based in Sedona, Arizona. A more apt description would be musical mystic. He, himself, describes his sound as “psychedelic desert folk,” drawing inspiration directly from the vortexes of the red rock mountains and canyons where he resides—an area so widely renowned for its cosmic energy that millions of spiritual travelers flock there every year in an attempt to harness its power. With a handful of self-released recordings to his name that have garnered praise from KEXP, Magnet Magazine and No Depression among others, decker. signed with revered independent label Royal Potato Family in 2017 to release a 10-song retrospective entitled ‘Into The Red.’ In 2018, he returns with a full-length collection of new material, ‘Born To Wake Up.’ Where previous albums have leaned darker in mood and content, the latest finds him maturing in his artistic viewpoint, offering glimpses of optimism and light across a range of songs like “Awake,” “Smudge” and “The Matador.” Glide Magazine recently wrote, “decker. is one of the country’s most criminally underrated songwriters.” With the release of ‘Born To Wake Up,’ that should all be changing.”

Loretta Lynn – Wouldn’t It Be Great (2018)

“Country music icon Loretta Lynn will release a new studio album this fall called Wouldn’t It Be Great? (…) The title track was the last song Lynn penned for her late husband, Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn. “My husband liked to drink a lot and that’s where that song comes from … ‘Say you love me just one time, with a sober mind’… I always liked that song but I never liked to sing it around Doo.” Source

The Dreamers & John Zorn – Gormenghast (2015)

Taken from: Pellucidar~A Dreamers Fantabula
Credits:
Cyro Baptista: Percussion
Joey Baron: Drums
Trevor Dunn: Bass
Marc Ribot: Guitar
Jamie Saft: Keyboards
Kenny Wollesen: Vibraphone
John Zorn: Arranger, Composer, Conductor, Producer

“The peculiar thing about Dreamers is that despite the stunning musical acumen of all involved, they aren’t really what one would call a “musician’s band”. Their performances are impressive, but in a subtle way. There are no flights of fancy, just an atmosphere to drape over your senses. When a cozy blanket is covering you, you don’t think about the individual fibers. And when you listen to a Dreamers album, you don’t think about Trevor Dunn’s time in Mr. Bungle. You think about how sweet life is and how having another Dreamers album is now a part of that sweet life.” Source