#51: Diana Krall's Noise Record

MAZOZMA / Kantner & Slick / Goodbye Jesse Colin Young

Hey Folks.

Welcome back to the Ambient Audiophile—a place where tapes makes us feel warm and fuzzy but also a little annoyed.

We had a nice spring norovirus ripping through the house but everyone is on the mend and I’ve finally got the energy to deliver y;all the good stuff.

Below, find three(!) new Trailhead archives, including the first ever dub set (ep. 167, second hour). That came about to accommodate the newest Matt “MV” Valentine release, Grateful, that has some serious “cosmic Jerry meets King Tubby on Mars” vibrations. Episode 168 features some of the best psychedelic rock jamming produced in 2025 courtesy of moe.’s recent tour and episode 169 features a back end of classic Krautrock jams. Enjoy!

The Trailhead 167 / LISTEN HERE

1. Terry Riley & Don Cherry - Descending Moonshine Dervishes - Live Köln 1975 (Boot, 2013) 00:00

2. Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays - As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita - As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita (ECM, 1981) 19:50

3. Strategy - Auspicious Moment - A Cooler World (Constellation Tatsu, 2025) 40:05

4. Saapato - Bloat (feat. Haruhisa Tanaka) - Decomposition: Fox on a Highway (Constellation Tatsu, 2025) 47:03

5. Matt "MV" Valentine - Jones (Old Time Psycho) - Grateful (Child of Microtones, 2025) 1:03:20

6. King Tubby & Soul Syndicate - Jah Is Coming Dub - Freedom Sounds in Dub (Blood & Fire, 1996) 1:16:20

7. Lee Perry - Roast Fish and Cornbread - Arkology (Island, 1997) 1:20:30

8. Burning Spear - Farther East of Jack - Garvey's Ghost (Mango, 1976) 1:24:57

9. Scientist - Dance of the Vampires - Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires (Greensleeves, 1981) 1:29:22

10. Overnight Players - Shaka the Great - Babylon Destruction (Cha Cha, 1980) 1:32:47

11. Ras Michael & the Sons of Negus - International Year of the Children - Disarmament (Trojan, 1981) 1:37:49

12. The Congos - Congoman - Heart of the Congos (Black Art, 1977) 1:47:57

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The Trailhead 168 / LISTEN HERE

1. David Mitchell - Sagittarius - Gnostic (Self, 2024) 00:00

2. Ben McElroy - A Dream of Deosil (with Nick Jonah Davis) - Elkwort (Laaps, 2025) 12:12

3. Michael Grigoni & Pan•American - Sun Morning Sun - New World, Lonely Ride (Kranky, 2025) 21:49

4. Blochemy - Kerca - Avey (Lontano Series, 2025) 25:28

5. Pacific Walker - Rainbow Bodies of Light - Lost in the Valley of the Sun (Bluesanct, 2025) 31:37

6. Polypores - Headfooters - I Wish There Was a Place Like That (Quiet Details, 2025) 42:30

7. Tile - B - Warmfth (Medium Sound, 2024) 49:40

8. moe. - Blue Jeans Pizza - Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte, NC, 3/7/25 (Nugs, 2025) 1:08:46

9. moe. - Johnny Lineup - Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte, NC, 3/7/25 (Nugs, 2025) 1:23:09

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The Trailhead 169 / LISTEN HERE

1. Takuro Okada - Reflections / Entering #2 - The Near End, The Dark Night, The County Line (Temporal Drift, 2025) 00:00

2. Tim Hecker - Sunset Key Melt - Shards (Kranky, 2025) 05:58

3. Michael Grigoni * Pan•American - Baritone Borderlands - New World, Lonely Ride (Kranky, 2025) 13:20

4. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - River That Flows Two Ways - Gift Songs (Mexican Summer, 2025) 19:05

5. Erik Wøllo - Where the River Widens - Where the River Widens (Projekt, 2025) 28:43

6. PJS - Coral - Spirals (PJS, 2024) 32:20

7. Genfukei - Harvest of Thought - Harvest of Thought (Lontano Series, 2025) 39:29

8. Hiroshi Yoshimura - Kasumi カスミ - Flora (Temporal Drift, 1987/2025) 44:17

9. Bella Wakame - Shades of Nambei - Shades of Nambei (Umor Rex, 2025) 1:00:58

10. Hipwell + Kasperkiewicz - Laurasia - Hemispheres (Woodford Halse, 2025) 1:04:53

11. A.R. & Machines - Invitation - Echo (Polydor, 1972) 1:25:20

12. Ash Ra Tempel - Interplay of Forces -Starring Rosi (Kosmische Musik, 1973) 1:45:45

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My music listening has followed a somewhat predictable pattern the last several years, with big shifts in genre marked by the changing of the seasons. This cycle has included heavy prog/fusion listening in the spring but something has changed this year.

Maybe it was the release of that new Relatively Clean Rivers tribute that kicked it off, but I’m reaching back into my love of folk-rock lately. I’m listening not only to classics I haven’t touched in years but new stuff and, lucky for us, there’s some good recent and forthcoming records to scratch that folky itch.

This brings us to this tremendously beautiful new song from Mazozma—one of many various projects of singer-songwriter Michael Turner. I go waaaay back with Mike (aka Ma Turner), first encountering his genius in the experimental/noise/folk unit Warmer Milks, who were based in Kentucky back in the day. Since then, Turner has walked a singular path through underground music.

“Can I Get a Ride” is one of the most accessible and beautiful tracks I’ve ever encountered from Turner and it has me chomping at the bit to hear more of the album, which drops on May 2 via Sophomore Lounge.

At this point, the excellence that is Paul Kantner & Jefferson Starship’s 1970 album Blows Against the Empire is well known. A far cry from the pop that Starship became known for, Blows is a cosmic folk rock masterpiece featuring everyone you want to hear from California in the late 60s.

Lesser known and hailed is the follow up, Sunfighter. Issued by the Airplane’s Grunt label in 1971 and credited to Paul Kantner / Grace Slick, Sunfighter features many of the heavy heads from Blows Against the Empire (Crosby, Garcia, Nash, most of the Airplane). But where Blows was looking to space as the place, Sunfighter is an earthier affair with a revolutionary back-to-the-land backdrop.

The album never really drags anywhere and features fantastic group playing from the ensemble. A lot of it reminds me of Popol Vuh’s masterpiece Letzte Tage-Letzte Nächte (United Artists, 1976) in its soaring crunchiness.

It’s a great one and CHEAP. There are over 300 copies for sale in the US on Discogs right now and probably four times as many in shops across the land. Get on your knees and save a copy from your local next time you’re there and you’ll be glad you did.

Continuing with the folky theme of this week’s newsletter, it is with great sorrow we say goodbye to the great singer-songwriter Jesse Colin Young who has passed on at the age of 83.

Best known as the founder and main songwriter for the Youngbloods, Young had one of the sweetest voices of the 60s and his band managed to make a lot more good music than most people know, thanks to the shadow of their huge commercial hit “Get Together”.

Young was born in Queens and was a Manhattan folkie for a while but he and the band moved to Marin County in the late 60s and made their most lasting and interesting works, most notably the amazing Elephant Mountain LP from 1969. The band would call it quits in 1972 but not before running a cool Warner Bros subsidiary label called Raccoon for a couple years. The label is most notable for issuing classic Michael Hurley LPs but also great, weird experimental folk, jazz, and assorted weirdness by the members of the band and friends. By the end of the 60s, The Youngbloods, as a unit, were breezy, jazzy and just vibing on record with a lot of folk and pop covers, all of which are worth chasing down. Young went solo again when the band called it quits, and he continued to write and sing warm, sun dappled tunes for heads. For solo Young, I like 19772’s Together best but 1973’s Song for Juli and 1974’s Light Shine are all great little records, too.

Farewell, Brother Jesse.