8/16/2008:

Two September gigs, more reviews! The hiatus of the past two months when it comes to presenting shows comes to an end in September, when (as the events page will tell you) we are putting on two stellar events for those fortunate enough to reside in the Philadelphia area. First up is the return of Avarus (a co-present with Sherman Community Arts) from Finland on September 4th. Then on September 13th, we are rolling out the day long (12 noon to 8pm) Highwire Festival, a day on the green (weather permitting, if it doesn’t permit we’ll have to bring it all indoors) next to the Highwire Gallery in Fishtown. Ten acts in all, so as mentioned earlier check out the events page for all the info then get yourself on over to these shows! The new issue of The Wire reviews the debut release by The Rhythm Kingz of Bushel Finland recently released on Majmua Music. "Finnish improviser Keijo Virtanen has previously explored the hinterlands of spacey Improv with his Free Players combo. Here he’s assembled a new trio to pursue a blues themed direction. This is purposefully inauthentic roots music, taking the flavour of one thing and adding it to something quite different. From the opening “Rattlesnake Pan Soup” onwards, the trio push at the limitations of the form, sometimes drifting off-message altogether but retaining a firmer, earthbound centre to which the spiraling players can return. Parts of it are played more or less straight, as extended John Lee Hooker boogie workouts, but also there are moments when abstraction beckons and Rhythm Kingz’ blues dissipate amid skeletal guitar picking and a general air of drifting. There’s also a touch of Quicksilver Messenger Service-style guitar dueling on “Late Funeral”.” –Tom Ridge Arborea have an interview posted at the Terrascope website, and are reviewed at Foxy Digitalis: "…Their music is a strong mix of old-world and American folk traditions, with a smattering of other elements, both modern and antique. For their sophomore album, Buck and Shanti Curran incorporate vocals, guitars, banjo, violin, and percussion into their beautiful works. One of the most striking aspects of the duo is Shanti Curran's clear, powerful voice, which anchors most of the songs. It's direct, but never overbearing as it balances with the rest of the instruments. On the opener, "Forwarned," her multi-tracked vocals intertwine with spare percussion and electric guitar to set a dark, moody precedent for the album. Another excellent track is the hazy, bluesy song "Seadrift." The light guitar and simple, subdued vocals evoke ancient blues recordings. Still, Arborea keeps things fresh and unpredictable with a small touch of violin. Throughout the entire album, there are moments like this, where a song is seemingly one thing, but quickly becomes another in the blink of an eye. The instrumental tracks on the album prove themselves no less powerful. One example, "Leaves Among the Ruins," is a simple, meditative acoustic guitar track, but has the same strong impact as the more fully arranged pieces.” .” - Matt Blackall As always, thanks for reading!

8/5/2008:

Axa Hour of Dora Bleu and George Korein reviewed. The latest issue of the always fine read Bixobal offers a review of Clones of Eros. To quote: "Frail and delicate are the voice and acoustic guitar of Dorothy Geller, which is backed by a mixture of guitar, vibes, piano, cymbals, bells, double bass, clarinet and electronics. The music moves furtively like her shy voice. Adhering to a song structure. The instruments play out slowly as they are unhurried by any percussion, save the cymbals which seem to accent more than set a pace. The playing does get unconventional enough to perhaps fall into that foggy area called “freak folk”, whatever that might mean. However, there is enough of an angelic, calm quality to this album to make it worth speaking of on its own. Gentle and mysterious, the double bass playing of Alexandre St-Onge especially helps to set the mood, while the others (Brooke D. Crouser, Francis Amirault and Justin Evans) fill out the sound with richness. Even in those few places where the ensemble fly off into crazier free playing it fits into the whole as they match the peculiar character of this personality.” -Eric Lanzillotta The Startlingly Monikered one that is behind the radio program ITDE has just opined about Another Corpse by George Korein. Let us read, shall we?: " How lovely is it that I can write, “I’ve never heard anything like this before,”? As seems to be his practice, George Korein has upped the weird ante, this time with an album of noisy-ambient corpse-themed program music. Yep, there’s flying corpses who make crash landings, pulsing corpses, and even a pesky encroaching “Rotodrone;” which is one of those you-know-it-when-you-hear-it type of things. Korein builds these unlikely themes from even more unlikely sounds– piercing electronic tones, dissonant loops of feedback, distorted horns, Helena Espvall’s cello, kissing noises, and a sizeable portion of his own unique approach to guitar. In many ways, the enjoyment of “Another Corpse” is watching Korein keep it all up in the air. Overall, it reminds me of what my old driving instructor used to say, “it’s a series of small adjustments”… well, expect when it isn’t. At times, particularly during the black metal drum pounding of “Pulsing Corpse,” Korein crashes this bizarre vehicle just for the fun of it. “Another Corpse” does seem to have a bit of structure to it, though, with the somewhat cold and austere beginnings gradually leading towards the introduction of more organic instrumentation. I’m not saying it’s boogie rock, but hey– a shift from the frequency test of “Gleaming Corpse II” towards (gasp!) vocals in “Liftoff” is probably significant. Besides, Korein’s last disc had songs like “Moved By Your Emoticon,” so clearly this cracked genius/800-pound gorilla can go anywhere he damn well pleases. If that happens to be boogie rock, I’m there.” We will be presenting the upcoming Avarus show in Philadelphia in early September, more info to be found on the updates page and here when the line up is finalized. This show is a co-present with Sherman Community Arts.

7/26/2008:

All about Majmua Music! Thurston Hunger, D.J. at the wonderful KFJC has recently reviewed two releases on Majmua Music, those being Indian Sonic Omnibus and Sonarchy 1998 by the Kihlstedt/Robair/Sperry trio. Let’s start with the Sonic Omnibus review: "Look out for the horns blaring off the street. It’s as if we are a blind third person joining the tour for bits and stretches. Hard for me not to find the “Varanasi Boat Ride on the Ganges” anything short of remarkable but don’t look for it on a Starbuck’s compilation. Other recordings have the raw recording like a long echoey cafeteria or some bizarre bazaar (see track #25 “Hassan Bazaar”). That’s a short blast, as is #5 for you birdbrains! Questing for the Qawwali-style, check out #11. Also parades and marching band practices and even some sweet sax galloping (”Sravanbelagola Jain Temple Group”). “Mysore Hotel Mandolin & Tabla Duo”, you can check out…but you can never leave. It has an entrancing entrance…”would you like some wine” gets voiced over! Dig the sarode less travelled!” -Thurston Hunger Now on to the review of Sonarchy: "Haire-raising sounds from a long-running KEXP program, dating back as the title suggests to 1998. That year bassist Matthew Sperry was selected as an assisted artist by the folks at www.jackstraw.org (Tucker Martine notably was on the list as well). Sperry is well-paired with violinista fatale Carla Kihlstedt, kindred string spirits…there is a section deep into the first piece with about 3-4 minutes left, where they slither perfectly parallel…very nice. The first encounter has an askew classical vibe, abetted by the man with the Rastascan plan, Gino Robair on piano, of course lots of under-the-hood plunking and spelunking, but actual notes too. The closing section has a kind of oriental gypsy vibe to my ears, very pretty but invites headphones for ye olde deep listening. The second track is the “radio single,” the track with the most impact. One hightlight is Robair on those rototoms (?), you know the watery, pitch-rising drums on Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly” there’s some more Kihlsted/Sperry string alignment later on that piece.” -Thurston Hunger For retailers (and mail order of course), Majmua Music titles are distributed by the good people at Tomentosa Records. Look for a rundown for the September 13th fest in the next update!

7/12/2008:

Dora Bleu on WFMU, Mediacology book released. (Axa Hour of) Dora Bleu will have a live session of theirs (recorded during their recent tour of the north east) broadcast on Sunday, August 3rd at 10pm (eastern time) on Stochastic Hit Parade with Bethany Ryker an excellent program that airs on WFMU from 9pm to Midnight eastern time on Sundays. Don’t miss it! In literary news, Antonio Lopez of My Country of Illusion has just had his first book, Mediacology, released by Peter Lang Publishing. From the synopsis: " Mediacology proposes a design-for-pattern approach called “Media Permaculture,” which restructures media literacy to be in sync with new media practices connected with sustainability and the perceptual functions of the right brain hemisphere. In the same way that permaculture approaches gardening by establishing the natural parameters of its ecological niche, Media Permaculture explores the individual’s “mediacological niche” in the context of knowledge communities. By applying bioregional thinking to the symbolic order, Media Permaculture redresses the standard one-size-fits-all literacy model by taking into account diverse cognitive strategies and emerging convergence media practices.” In related news, a new release by My Country of Illusion will be released on Majmua Music later this year.

7/3/2008:

Three New Releases on Majmua Music! We are pleased to be bring you not one, not two, but three new releases on Majmua Music! First is the debut recording by Solar Dynasty, a maelstrom of scorching fire music indeed. Next up are The Rhythm Kingz of Bushel Finland, who are in fact a new trio featuring the unmistakable stylings of Keijo. Digging a little bit deeper into that blues vein while still mining those psychedelic and experimental touches we all love, the Rhythm Kingz strike the motherlode with their debut release. The third release is Sonarchy 1998, one from the vaults by the incredible improvising trio of Carla Kihlstedt, Gino Robair and Matthew Sperry. As always, you can order these discs individually, or preorder all three for the insanely low price of $20 (plus postage)! Why do we do it, because we love you of course. Like all releases on Majmua Music these discs are limited to 75 copies, so don’t come crying to us if we run out, act now – the preorder offer ends on July 21st! We had a great time with the end of June gigs we presented, thanks to all who attended. It looks like there will be a round two for the Summer Solstice Reverie some pictures are below: There are also some videos posted at the label's You Tube page. We are going to be taking a break from putting on shows in July and August, but will be back on September 13th for an all day revue at the Highwire Gallery, which again is shaping up to be pretty amazing!

6/11/2008:

Arborea Live session on WFMU Arborea were recently guests on the Irene Trudel show on WFMU! You can listen to the archived performance by clicking here. Their set begins at approximately 2hrs 36 minutes into the show. Thanks to Irene for hosting!