Grey Reverend - Of The Days 2011

Grey Reverend is the solo project of songwriter L.D. Brown. He began the project in 2005 while living in Philadelphia P.A, focusing on guitar and voice as a primary means of expression. Raised on a variety of musical genres, L.D. began playing the saxophone at age 9, but didn’t discover his main instrument, the guitar, until the age of 22… L.D’s first years in Philadelphia as a writer were spent performing and recording with other artist such as Steve Gunn, Jack Rose, Chris Powell, and Cynthia G Mason. L.D was also studying music theory on his own and learning from his mentor, the legendary guitarist Pat Martino.

A sea change occurred in L.D’s approach to the guitar when he was diagnosed with a neurological disorder called Focal Dystonia, which limited the use of both of his hands and temporary sidelined his career… Determined to find a way to keep playing, “Grey Reverend” was born out of a desire to write his own music from simple song formula while maintaining a textural complexity which he found to be lacking at the time in contemporary acoustic music. In 2006 L.D. moved to New York City, where he currently lives, and spent most of his early time there writing songs and performing them for Rats and People in the subways. “It was a good experience”…

Signed to Ninja Tune/Motion Audio Records in 2009, and with two LPs “Of The Days” 2011, and “A Hero’s Lie” 2013, Grey Reverend has toured the United States, U.K and Europe in support of these releases. Grey Reverend’s music has been showcased on MTV, ABC ,NBC, HBO ,BBC and other networks worldwide, and has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered…

Besides currently working as a guitarist and vocalist with “The Cinematic Orchestra” UK, L.D. has collaborated with a wide range of artist around the world. Bonobo, Fink, Lou Rhodes of Lamb, Cynthia G. Mason, members of Wilco, Tortoise, as well as many others… He claims that music is a means of connecting with the rest of the world…

In describing Grey Reverend’s sound, David Garland of WNYC radio in New York put it eloquently when he said “As Grey Reverend, LD Brown makes compelling songs with reverence for the grey, undefined areas of style, and without concern for standard musical, or social expectations.”
A modern bluesman…

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Harper Simon - Division Street 2013

The children of rock icons have it rough. It's a rare case that they'll ever be able to get out of the enormous shadow of their parent's legacies, regardless of how talented they are or how divergent their paths are from those of their folks. As the son of Paul Simon and Peggy Harper, Harper Simon joins this difficult club, making significant waves on his own with a 2009 self-titled debut and now sophomore album Division Street. While Simon's voice bears more than a passing similarity to his dad's, the overall feel of his sepia-toned and slightly psychedelic folk-rock has a lot more in common with Elliott Smith's more produced later albums. This makes sense as Tom Rothrock, who produced Smith's pivotal XO, among other things, is at the production helm. The melancholy moods and characters ofDivision Street seem both less vivid and less tragic than those of Smith's heartbreaking story songs, and the album as a whole tempers what could be a heavy mood with equal parts lyrical whimsy and dreamy lo-fi elements. 
Stand-out cut "Bonnie Brae" is a great example of this, with the lighthearted wordplay of the chorus recalling early Simon & Garfunkel and tossed-off lyrics like "You came over with a jacket over your shoulder/made you look like Patti Smith" winkingly offsetting the song's stormy undercurrent and sentiments of loss. Likewise, the titular track tells a story about a detached friend with substance abuse issues with hooks so melodic and happy-go-lucky the troubled character sketch seems almost cheery. The softly bittersweet feel of the album carries over into the production as well.Simon is backed by an all-star band including Nikolai Fraiture from the Strokes on bass, Elvis Costello's Attractions drummer Pete Thomas, and affiliates of Bright Eyes, Wilco, and Feist, all turning in flawlessly precise performances. Rather than making the obvious choice and presenting a polished, high-definition production of this star-studded cast, Simon instead wraps his songs in blankets of muted analog saturation, dialing up distorted drums and losing details to a murky, larger whole. It's an interesting choice and one that ultimately benefits the album. The waterlogged reverb treatment on almost every element of "Chinese Jade" somehow bonds the instruments to the multi-tracked vocals. A more conventional production mode would have rendered the song, and much of the album, sterile and flat. The lo-fi effects, bright performances, and Simon's beautifully heartsick songs culminate in a lovely place somewhere between the dull glow of Elliott Smith's early home-recorded albums and the wide open arrangements of Beck's Sea Change. Some moments it's hard to ignore how much he sounds like his father, and at times, the genuflection at the altar of Elliott Smith gets a little too doe-eyed and derivative, but the strengths of Simon's songwriting and the atmospheric production keep these concerns in the background of a colorful and evocative bigger picture. AMG.

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Henry Paul Band - Feel The Heat 1980

Whatever happened to Henry Paul between the release of his band's debut album in 1979 and Feel the Heat in 1980 wasn't healthy. Whereas Grey Ghost was a record full of influences ranging from the Eagles to the Byrds to the Allmans and Lynyrd Skynrd tossed into a Southern-fried salad with Paul's own country, rock, and folk sensibilities, Feel the Heat feels like jarhead, clichéd Southern boogie rock. All the gorgeous harmonies, complex dynamics, tight songs, and sparking arrangements have been tossed over in favor of a heavy-handed collection of tired riffs, stupid lyrics, and themes that are saturated with drinking, picking up girls, and yeah, "Let's R-O-C-K." A harder edge isn't the problem; there's nothing wrong with turning up the volume, unless you leave your imagination behind in the process and settle for a lowest common denominator set of songs and even worse rock & roll monotony. There is evidence that Paul hasn't totally lost it on "Running Away," but this is unfortunately fleeting. Whereas the harmonies and arrangements are nice and tight, the track still suffers from stupid lyrics and an overburdened twin-guitar sound. In fact, the band is so riff-heavy and melody is so absent, one would think she or he were hearing a Bloodrock album instead of Henry Paul. Even two guests from Joe Walsh's former band Barnstorm, Joe Lala and Joe Vitale, don't help. Man, what were they thinking and who at Atlantic let this piece of crud hit the bins. Feel the Heat is unintentionally hilarious as a parody of Black Oak Arkansas. For those who are HPB completists, you'll be happy to know that this waste of an album is available remastered on CD from Wounded Bird. But the advice is to get any album by the band except this one. AMG.

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Hayvanlar Alemi - Hayvan Resort 2008

Hayvanlar Alemi is a psychedelic folk rock band founded in Ankara. They got together in secondary school in 1999, when they were 14. Classical rock and heavy metal were big influences on teenagers in Ankara then, and they started their musical venture playing hard-and-heavy covers, but very soon self-discovered free improvisation and moved into a more avant-garde approach, and later on occasionally deployed traditional instruments, found-sound elements like live radio, and colorful stage theatrics. They were influenced by the new folk-infused experimental rock scene of the late 90s Istanbul, but isolated from any music scene in Ankara, their sound and song-structure diverged from their contemporaries as they incorporated elements from the findings of their musical research into their sound, which included folk, pop and hybrid sounds of South East Asia, East and West Africa, South America and Russia, as well as Jamaican dub reggae and Californian surf.

Having begun self-releasing cdrs in 2004, Hayvanlar Alemi released their first album “Gaga” through Ankara label 003 Records in 2006. Their second album “Guarana Superpower”, mostly culled from tracks on their cdrs from 2007 to 2009, was released by Seattle label Sublime Frequencies in 2010, followed by a cover of Mulatu Astatke’s Ethiopian instrumental piece “Yekermo Sew” on seven inch vinyl. Following the release of Guarana Superpower which received positive reviews from publications such as The Guardian, Uncut and Wire, Hayvanlar Alemi opened for Group Doueh in London’s Barbican Centre and played a surprise performance at All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival Curated by Animal Collective. Since then they have been touring routinely and presenting their music to live audiences in Western Europe. The band's third official album "Twisted Souvenirs", which was recorded in 2011 and 2012, come out on vinyl on German label Unrock on 2014 and in early 2015 as a digital download on Inverted Spectrum Records, a Bandcamp label managed by the band's drummer.

Hayvanlar Alemi consists of Özüm İtez, Işık Sarıhan, Hazar Mutgan and Gökçe Başar. As they have been separated by geographical boundaries since 2006, the band has a flexible repertoire which allows them to play in power-duo and power-trio formations as well. In the past few years, Hayvanlar Alemi mostly toured with an old-school three piece set up with drums (Sarıhan), bass (Mutgan) and electric guitar (İtez), with an emphasis on heavy psychedelic rock. Band's name translates to English as "Animal Kingdom". Outside music, band members work in the fields of architecture, engineering, physics and philosophy. hayvanlaralemi.org/


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Neil Young - Prairie Wind 2005

Since Prairie Wind is a return to the soft, lush country-rock sound of Harvest; since Neil Youngsuffered a brain aneurysm during its recording; since it finds the singer/songwriter reflecting on life and family in the wake of his father's death; and since it's his most cohesive album in a decade, it would seem that all these factors add up to a latter-day masterpiece for Young, but that's not quite the case.Prairie Wind manages to be less than the sum of its parts and the problem isn't a lack of good songs (although it does have a few more clunkers than it should) or a botched concept. Young's decision to revive the country-rock that brought him his greatest popularity never feels like a cynical move -- the music is too warm, comfortable, and friendly to feel like anything but Neil playing to his strengths. However, since he cut this in Nashville with a bunch of studio pros including legendary keyboardistSpooner Oldham, it feels just a tad slicker than perhaps it should, since the smooth sound inadvertently highlights the sentimentality of the project. It's hard to begrudge Young if he wants to indulge in rose-colored memories -- a brush with death coupled with a loss of a parent tends to bring out sentimentality -- but such backward-gazing songs as "Far from Home" feel just a hair too close to trite, and the easy-rolling nature of the record doesn't lend them much gravity. There a few other songs that tend toward too close to the simplistic, whether it's the specific invocations of 9/11 and Chris Rock on "No Wonder" or the supremely silly Elvis salute "He Was the King," which are just enough to undermine the flow of the album, even if they fit into the general autumnal, reflective mood of the record. But since they do fit the overall feel of the album, and since they're better, even with their flaws, than the best songs on, say,Silver & Gold or Broken Arrow or Are You Passionate?, they help elevate the whole of Prairie Wind, particularly because there are some genuinely strong Young songs here: the moody opener "The Painter," the gently sighing "Fallin' off the Face of the Earth," the ethereal "It's a Dream," the sweet, laid-back "Here for Your," the understated "This Old Guitar" (there's also the sweeping "When God Made Me," recorded complete with a gospel chorus, one that will either strike a listener as moving or maudlin -- a latter-day "A Man Needs a Maid," only not as strong). This set of songs does indeed make Prairie Wind a better album than anything Young has released in the past decade, which means that it's easy to overrate it. For despite all of its strengths, neither the recording nor the songs are as memorable or as fully realized as his late-'80s/early-'90s comeback records -- Freedom, Ragged Glory, and Harvest Moon -- let alone his classic '70s work. Nevertheless, it's the closest Young has come to making a record that could hold its own with those albums in well over a decade, which means it's worthwhile even if it's never quite as great as it seems like it could have been. AMG.

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Howlin' Brothers - Trouble 2014

Often, progressive bluegrass gets mired in its own ambition, seeming affected whenever it asserts its roots or tackles the present. That's not the case with the Howlin' Brothers. How does this Nashville trio sidestep such pitfalls? It's through sheer kinetic joy, a quality that was evident on their 2013 debut,HOWL, but thrives on its 2014 sequel, Trouble. Once again, Brendan Benson -- a colleague of Jack White who is known for his exceptionally well-crafted power pop records -- produces the band and he favors a crackling live feel, emphasizing the Howlin' Brothers' loose, natural chemistry that, in turn, suggests their versatility. Unlike so many bluegrass groups, chops aren't the priority for the Howlin' Brothers -- they prefer groove and feel, to bounce ideas off each other and their various guest musicians. This doesn't mean they can't solo -- they can and they do often throughout Trouble -- butBenson and the band accentuate interplay, which means this is a visceral record, engaging just as music. Also, this emphasis on instrumentation allows the band to wander away from bluegrass -- "World Spinning Round" is straight-up honky tonk, as is "Troubled Waltz," while "Louisiana" brings the group down to the bayou and the opening "Pour It Down" would be a blues-rocker with other instrumentation -- and it also gives it a tangible, pleasurable quality as a record that demands several listens. Those revisits reveal that in addition to sounding good, Trouble is exceptionally well constructed, with the group crafting roots songs that allow the trio to casually showcase its knowledge and skill. Those songs provide the structure for the album and, presumably, a killer live set, but the nifty thing about Trouble is that it swings and sparks like a concert and it retains that energy on repeated plays. AMG.

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Étoile de Dakar - Xalis 1997

Etoile De Dakar was one of the most influential bands to come out of Senegal. Best known for its work with vocalist Yassour N'Dour, a member from 1975 to 1978, the group created a Latin-tinged style of African pop that influenced such western artists as Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon and David Byrne.

The roots of the Etoile De Dakar were planted in 1960 when Ibra Kasse, owner of the Miami Club in Dakar, assembled members of two bands -- Guinea Band De Dakar and Star Band De Senui -- and created a supergroup, known initially as The Star Band. Although it reached its apex with the arrival ofN'Dour in 1975, The Star Band splintered three years later when several members left with N'Dour to form Etoile De Dakar. Relocating to Paris in 1983, the group changed its name to Super Etoile. AMG.

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Eternal Tapestry - Beyond The 4th Door 2011

Much of what takes place on Beyond the 4th Door, Eternal Tapestry's Thrill Jockey debut, is unhurried, sonic meandering with a single pointed focus: to alter the listener's consciousness. Over nearly 44 minutes and five selections, this is an album, in the best sense of the word. Eternal Tapestry have never attempted to disguise their primary influences, most of them from the Krautrock and Euro-psych scenes of the early 1970s. Strains of Popol Vuh's trance music, Ash Ra Tempel's long-form guitar jams, the shimmering keyboards of Cluster and Neu!, and traces of cosmic Swede explorers Trad, Gräs och Stenar, all come together in this mesmerizing brew. These songs evolve slowly, ranging in length from just under five minutes to over 12. Opener "Ancient Echoes" commences with the interplay of two guitars playing a fingerpicked minor-key figure before a bass enters sparingly from the edge. A drum kit underscores it with a deliberately restrained, accented rhythm that introduces drifting, wordless vocals and a gently droning keyboard. Guitars move with and through each other with heavy reverb, echoplex, and wah-wahs percolating. The tempo never changes, but the dark, brooding nature of the tune becomes more pronounced, until it becomes a gently swirling force inside the listener's head. "Galactic Derelict," with its distorted droning bassline, soaring guitars that careen off one another, floor-tom heavy drums, and washed-out keyboard atmospherics accentuate them processionally. The intensity level heightens gradually but never lets up, until it simply collapses under its own weight. The slippery closer, "Time Winds Through a Glass, Clearly," contains all the previous building blocks, as well as a saxophone, to create a 12-and-a-half-minute architecture of sonic head wreckery. Beyond the 4th Door is Eternal Tapestry at their most focused; and while nothing here is actually "new," and they are deliberately restrained in compositional form, they succeed in expanding their cosmic musical terrain. This album should be heard as such in a single sitting, where its labyrinthine beauty can be fully experienced and integrated. This is "acid rock" at its best. AMG.

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The Breeders - Pod 1990

On their 1990 debut album Pod, the Breeders -- led by the Pixies' Kim Deal and Throwing Muses'Tanya Donelly -- prove that they have more potential, and more fun, than the average side project. In fact, thanks to the album's creative songwriting, immediate production (courtesy of Surfer Rosaproducer Steve Albini), and clever arrangements, Pod is a fresher and more successful work than the Pixies' Bossanova and the Muses' Hunkpapa, their main projects' releases from around that time. Though the album doesn't feature as many of Donelly's contributions as was originally planned -- which was part of the reason she formed Belly a few years later -- songs like "Iris" and "Lime House" blend the best of the Pixies' elliptical punk and the Muses' angular pop. Pod reaffirms what a distinctive songwriter Deal is, and how much the Pixies missed out on by not including more of her material on their albums. With their unusual subjects -- "Hellbound" is about a living abortion -- and quirky-but-direct sound, songs like "Opened" and "When I Was a Painter" could have easily fit onDoolittle or Bossanova. But the spare, sensual "Doe," "Fortunately Gone," and "Only in Threes" are more lighthearted and good-natured than the work of Deal's other band, pointing the way to the sexy, clever alternative pop she'd craft on Last Splash. A vibrantly creative debut, Pod remains the Breeders' most genuine moment. AMG.

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Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes of Rita 2009

The role of the Arabic, lute-like, stringed instrument, the oud, has been revolutionized through the playing of Anouar Brahem. While used in the past to accompany vocalists, the oud is used by Brahemas an imaginative solo instrument. In 1988, Tunisian newspaper Tunis-Hebdo wrote, "If we had to elect the musician of the '80s, we would have, without the least hesitation, chosen Anouar Brahem."Brahem has composed numerous pieces for such films and musical theater productions such asSabots en Or, Bezness, Halfaouine, and Les Silences Du Palais. He collaborated with Maurice Bejarton the ballet Thalassa Mare Nostrum, and with Gabriel Yared on the Costa-Gravas film Hanna K.

Encouraged by his music-loving father, Brahem began studying the oud, at the age of ten, when he enrolled at the National Conservatory of Music. For nearly a decade, he studied with influential oud player Ali Sitri. By the age of 15, he was playing well enough to perform regularly with local orchestras. Although he initially focused on Arabic music, Brahem increasingly incorporated elements of jazz. This was enhanced during the six years that he spent in Paris (1981-1987), performing at festivals and collaborating with choreographer Maurice Bejart on a production of A Return to Carthage that received the prestigious National Award of Excellence In Music.

Returning to Tunis in 1987, Brahem performed at the Carthage Festival in the multi-artist productionLigua 85. Shortly afterwards, he agreed to become director of the Ensemble Musical de la Villa de Tunis. During the two years that he oversaw the ensemble, Brahem divided the group into smaller sets of various sizes. Among the productions that he directed were Leilatou Tayu and El Hizam El Dhahbi.

In 1990, Brahem resigned to focus on his own career. After touring in the United States and Canada, he met and was signed by Manfred Eicher, producer and founder of German record label ECM. His debut album, Barzakh, released in 1991, was recorded with Turkish musicians Bechir Selmiand Lassad Hosni. In a review of the album, German music magazine Stereo wrote, "(Brahem) is an exceptional musician and improviser." Brahem's second album, Conte de L'incroyable Amour, released in 1992, was recorded with clarinet player Barbaros Erköse. In 1994, Brahem recordedMadar with Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek and Pakistani tabla player Shaukat Hussain. His fourth album, Khomsa, released in 1995, featured improvised interpretations of his compositions for Tunisian film and theater productions, and was recorded with accordion player Richard Galliano and violinist Bechir Selmi. With his fifth effort, Thimar, released in 1998, Brahem collaborated with soprano saxophone and bass clarinet player John Surman and double bass player Dave Holland.
Astrakan Cafe was issued three years later, and followed in 2003 by Les Pas Du Chat Noir. That same year, his 2001 collaboration with Ochestre National de Jazz was released as Charmediterranéen.
Brahem took time off to tour and to write. His next offering, 2007's Le Voyage de Sahar, was a trio date with pianist François Couturier and accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier
It would be three years before he released The Astounding Eyes of Rita played in a quartet setting with bass clarinetist Klaus Gesing, double bassist Björn Meyer, and

Khaled Yassine on darbouka and bendir. The composer and oudist toured several festivals and select European cities with assorted groups before taking an extended break.

Affected deeply by the continually unfolding events of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution in his native Tunisia and the political tumult that followed, Brahembegan composing along thematic lines. When he finally entered a studio in Lugano with Eicher in 2014, he enlistedGesing, Meyer, and Couturier, as well as the string section from Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conducted by Pietro Mianiti. Over the course of a month, they recorded enough material for the double album Souvenance, which was issued in the spring of 2015. AMG.

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