So I did the first thing they put out under this name, but forgot to keep track. You know how I am.
So listen to this one as well, as it’s well good, innit (technical musical description). Then listen to the ones I missed in between. And given that this one is more overt in the anti-imperial tone, I urge you even more. Just because The Empire Never Ended, doesn’t mean it can’t.
And then go and listen to The Myrrors, with whom there are ties, and who are also well good, innit.
I don’t know if this is ever going to be available digitally* – sometimes labels make the download impractical until they’ve sold their physical things. I do have a tape player, but it’s got a permanent sound as if the tape is being chewed up, even though said tape actually isn’t being chewed up.
So this is basically a mixture of traditional Levantine rhythms/songs with electronics and beats, albeit quite mellow ones, improvised some or all of the way. It is nice and hypnotic, and that’s why it properly grabs me.
Even though the approach and source material is very different, it reminds me somewhat of Saint Abdullah. Saint Abdullah? Ah yes, since we’re on that subject…
Wile I’m on the Middle east / western rock fusion thing, here’s another one for you that I discovered yesterday as a side effect of someone saying they’ve got volume 2 upcoming.
I don’t usually post the things when the complete album isn’t available for listening because I’ve made the point before that only putting a couple of tracks up for preview is a dead business model that is irrelevant in an age of blooody Spotify and their ilk. However, this one has most of the tracks available for listening, and they are so damn good.
I understand that these recordings are kind of a side effect of the main project which will eventually yield an upcoming album. My appetite is whetted but my breath isn’t held. Because I don’t hold my breath. Stupid thing to do.
The Universe/God/Random Coincidence (delete as appropriate to your deity of choice) doesn’t half have a sense of humour. The next album I find myself wanting to post is only a self titled album.
They’ve been on Soundbergs before, when they first put something out, back in the days when I had disposable income and bought it. If I had disposable income, I’d buy this too.
Whilst I’m in the midst of not really listening to albums an’ ting, I do nevertheless still check the blog feeder, and every now and again Bandcamp do a post where they collect a bunch of albums together with a theme. They did this one dedicated to Nawa Recordings (who released that Alif album that I’m sure you all went and got) and from that I heard this.
This is a very groovy yet dense sonic maelstrom. It features a myriad of influences that I couldn’t begin to list, and also does the middle east/western rock fusion thing in a way that doesn’t feel forced.
Also, I love the title. Are you saluting the parrot?
So I mentioned that I’d been intending to cover a couple of albums from my historic listening, and here we are with one such.
It occurred to me lately that when you listen to something is just as much a factor in how good you perceive it to be as the quality of the music itself, although the latter is of vital importance. The point I’m trying to make is that something that is really good might seem average if you’re listening in the wrong mood, and mood is very often time dependent as well as context dependent. For example, something that really works on a Sunday morning is not guaranteed to make the same spot resonate in the same way if you put it on Friday evening before going out somewhere.
So, this is a good Sunday album, although it’s also a good late night album if you’re in a mellow mood. I also think it would be good for listening to at work; those spreadhseets ain’t much fun with library office gossip as a background noise. It’s a cross of middle eastern sounds – which I do have a regular soft spot for – with ambient production and atmospheres. It’s nowhere near as uptempo as her usual style, but I do like that too.
I haven’t found a simple one stop shop to listen to the whole thing, and out of consideration for those of you who are suffering with software creep, I’ll not embed every single track from youtube, though here’s the details if you feel the urge to track more down. Here, then are a few tracks:
Zitherbell
my favourite, Yeranos
Etheric Messages
Power of Vibrations
The whole album is worth checking as it’s very chilled.
It’s just possible that when I’ve said that what I really like is psychedelic music, I may have meant what I really like is music that puts you in a trance. Trance music. But not as it is popularly understood. See, this is the problem with labels…
This is proper trance music, as in, music that puts you in a trance. I’ve been here before with people like Alif and Malayeen, and I also like to think of Hamza El Din in these contexts. This is a much more lo-fi take, as it sounds like it was recorded in one take in someone’s living room, fluffed and flat notes included. But I love it. I hope they do more music, and that I may get a chance to hear that too.
City of Djinn (link is to F***book page, sorry) is two geezers, Marwan Kamel and Micah Bezold, who frequently sound like more. They use a variety of instruments, possibly not at all the same time but then I’ve not seen it, merely heard it. It is a very spacious sound they make; very meditative. But these are not short pieces, so do set aside a bit of time in order to grok this fully.
There’s something about the music made in and around the mediterranean area which seriously appeals to me, from the desert blues of North Africa (some of which I shall bring you at some point) to the wonderful Malayeen who I mentioned earlier this year, and many stops in between.
The story for this album is detailed on the bandcamp page so I shan’t rehash it here. What I shall say is that I like this album so terribly, terribly much. It obviously sounds like the area it comes from, but there are also hints of Hamza El Din (could be the oud playing) and a certain bluesy feel, reminiscent at times of the why-weren’t-they-household-names Little Axe. Some of the tunes aren’t afraid to incorporate western rock leanings, too. It is yet another album that has me floundering for descriptors, which proves to me that this is the real stuff. I’ve got something brewing about that.
Love the album art, too.
Soundbergs 