#8: Crosseyed & Sphereless
Bandcamp Fryday, Listening to Plants, Cow Funk, Vintage Synths and the best Psych/Prog/Jam Band There Is
Before getting to the music I want to thank everyone who has signed up for a paid subscription. It is deeply appreciated. If the paid subs keep rolling in, I’ll be able to upgrade to a premium Mixcloud account and have every single one of the Trailhead archives available to stream/download and maybe even go live and DJ once in a while if I can get my home studio together. Also starting to plan a mix CD. What else? A shirt? Bumper stickers? Let me know what kind of swag you want to see…
This week’s episode of the Trailhead flowed nicely and featured a new piece from the great ambient folk project Black Brunswicker, immersive new electronics from Nakayama Munetoshi via London’s Salmon Universe, great Penguin Cafe Orchestra-ish sounds from Canada’s Nick Schofield, some modern ECM excellence, and more. Find the playlist below and stream the show here.
1. Black Brunswicker - The Frolic - The Frolic Single (Nettwerk, 2024)
2. Nakayama Munetoshi - Mnemonic - Compass For Nychlf (Salmon Universe, 2024)
3. Ryosuke Miyata - Hydrangea - Sanatorium (Lontano Series, 2023)
4. Phil Struck - Lehm, Schluff, Ton - Der Ferne (Mondoj, 2023)
5. Ferdi Schuster - Part 7 - Live at Hofgarten (Cosima Pitz, 2023)
6. Nick Schofield - On Air - Ambient Ensemble (Backward Music, 2024)
7. Brickmason - Blue Lanterns in Winter 夢 - Night Skies 夜空 (Underwater Computing, 2023)
8. Selcouth Quartet - 100 Words for Wind - Selcouth Quartet (Color Red, 2023)
9. Steve Roach & Robert Rich - LightBorn - Waves of Now (Roach 'N Rich, 2024)
10. Palle Mikkelborg, Jakob Bro, Marilyn Mazur - Strands - Strands (ECM, 2023)
11. Steve Kimock Band - Elmer's Revenge - 2001-12-21, Crystal Ballroom, Portland, Or (Charlie Miller, 2001)
It’s the first Bandcamp Friday of 2024 so I’m going to run down some worthy new records you should be buying. If you’re unaware, Bandcamp Fridays are when the platform takes no fee from sales, allowing all funds to flow to the labels and artists. Artist-run labels and self-releasers do the best on these days and while Bandcamp is by no means perfect, it’s a lot more pro-art than any of the streaming services.
Speak, Moment is the first released collaboration from guitarist Dave Harrington, saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi and percussionist Max Jaffe. Issued via LA’s AKP Recordings on March 8, the album was completely improvised. In fact, it was recorded the day the three musicians met. Consisting of ferocity and free flow in equal measure, Speak, Moment is a sublime conversation between three top shelf summoners.
Vermont’s MV & EE let loose a new joint today via in-house label Child of Microtones. Titled RATS (Whiff of a Jinn-A+ Roll Lands, Vol One) feels like a companion to last year’s deep dive into rural electro boogie study Green Ark. Again favoring a low-end theory/approach, RATS delivers a booty shake cutting through truly baked psychedelic sound fields and atmospheres. It’s another evolutionary step, speaking to MV’s skill as a sound organizer and producer.
When the promo email for Patrick Sansone’s Infinity Mirrors hit my inbox with Wilco in the title I was a bit perplexed. I fail as a middle aged ex-indie rocker as I don’t know the names of any of the band members except Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline and I haven’t heard any of their music since Sky Blue Sky (I mostly checked that out because Tweedy name-dropped Relatively Clean Rivers in an interview around the time of its release). But, anyway, Sansone is a member of the band who happens to have an extensive collection of vintage synthesizers. Sometimes we assume gearheads lack any real musical personality but that isn't the case here as Infinity Mirrors is brimming with ideas and deeply engaging from the start. It’s crazy this is his first solo release and I hope he finds time to do more as this is really special.
A couple years ago a small label out of Minneapolis called Home & Garden got in touch to send me some of their “handcrafted psychedelia” and I enjoy every piece I ever received—from fried psych to loner folk. One of the label’s operators, Matthew Hiram, records minimal synthetic works as Hiram and they return this week with Yucca Music. Hiram utilizes an interface called PlantWave™ that actually connects flora to Hiram’s rig so that he can play along with and manipulate the actual sounds of nature. It’s heady stuff and the results are relaxing and mesmerizing. Also cool to note that a portion of the artist’s take will be donated to The Mojave Desert Land Trust
Village Of Spaces is Amy Moon and Dan Beckman and they have been making music together in various configurations for at least two decades. VOS got on my radar via Shaped By Place, their excellent 2019 LP on Feeding Tube. The duo return, again via Western Mass’ most beloved label, with That’s Understanding. I have to be honest, I’m rarely in the mood for conventional songs lately so when Dan asked to send me this record I begrudgingly agreed. I don’t want people wasting their time and money on an ingrate like me who might not play the record. I’m glad I got out of my own way because That’s Understanding is a really beautiful little record. I haven’t cared about lyrics in a long time but these Northern California dwelling family folks sing so sweetly about relationships, love and loss, it’s impossible not to get sucked in. Side A is more conventional while Side B gets a little more spaced. So good.
It’s unbelievable I haven’t written in this space yet about Guranfoe. An extremely talented quartet from England, Guranfoe are the psych/prog/jam act of my dreams. Featuring two next level guitarists and a truly psychic rhythm section, Guranfoe have been together for over 10 years, writing and playing music equally informed by Zappa, the Canterbury Scene, Krautrock, Phish and all other kinds of deep head shit. All instrumental, they really are peerless when it comes to instrumental creativity and ascension.Luckily for those of us not able to catch them as they relentlessly tour the UK, the band records every gig and they dropped two live show this week. I’m spotlighting this one as it’s as good an entry point as any into this insane group. Crank it up!
Shirts, stickers, and pins would be rad!