#xylouris white

[maquina-semiotica]

Xylouris White, "Latin White" #NowPlaying

[radiophd]

xylouris white -- other forests

[cbcruk]

Xylouris White - Long Doll

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

Live Concert Photography: Summer Thunder at Union Pool 8/6/23 feat. Xylouris White and Ismaily, Jones and Sawyer Trio

Live Concert Photography: Summer Thunder at Union Pool 8/6/23 feat. Xylouris White and Ismaily, Jones and Sawyer Trio @xylouriswhite @jimwhitedrums @figureight8 @ImDariusJones @Ryan_Lonewolf @AcademyRecords @UnionPool

Live Concert Photography: Summer Thunder at Union Pool 8/6/23 feat. Xylouris White and Ismaily, Jones and Sawyer Trio Summer Thunder is a free weekly showcase, presented by Academy Records and the folks at Union Pool that features up-and-coming nationally and internationally touring acts and DJs at the Williamsburg hotspot and music venue’s back patio.  Throughout the course of the annual…

[dustedmagazine]

Dusted Mid-Year 2024, Part II (Lumpeks to Z-Ro)

Rosali

Part two of our mid-year round-up provides a second perspective on albums that at least one Dusted writer loved.  Here we cover the second half, alphabetically by artist, with entries from Lumpeks to Z-Ro. 

If you missed Part I, check it out here. 

Lumpeks — Polonez (Umlaut)

Who nominated it? Bill Meyer

Did we review it? No

Ian Mathers’ take:

I’m honestly not familiar enough with either jazz or traditional Polish dance music to be able to spot or articular exactly where this intriguing and very enjoyable fusion of the two has joined them. There’s a similar feel to other acts I’ve heard that both clearly deeply respect the traditional music they draw on and are unafraid to put their own spin on that source material (both Xylouris White and Black Ox Orkestar came to mind), and as with those other cases the results on Polonez could equally be ancient or brand new. That the quartet’s main instrumentation (which also includes Louis Laurain on cornet, Pierre Borel on alto sax, and Sébastien Belief on double bass) includes steady, deep frame drumming (using a local variation called a bębenek obręczowy) from Olga Koziel (who also sings) gives it plenty of distinct character. And the mostly French group cares enough about actually understanding and respecting that traditional Polish music they made a short documentary about the field research that went into making Polonez. There’s an energetic, joyous swing to both the jazz and folk sides of Lumpeks’ music that makes the result much more than just an academic curiosity.

Mdou Moctar — Funeral for Justice (Matador)

Who nominated it? Jennifer Kelly

Did we review it? No, but we did a Listening Post. In the intro, Jennifer Kelly wrote, “The new record is as sharp and impassioned as any Moctar and his band have done so far, and it is inflamed with political energy.”

Andrew Forell’s take:

Mdou Moctar is an extraordinary guitarist and must be incredible in a live setting. The rhythms, the vocal back and forth and the moments Mochtar sprays power chords and shards of riffs that explode like bombs are all great. You feel his rage and frustration even when you don’t understand the lyrics. But the super intricate, high-speed soloing, whilst impressive, had the same effect on me as listening to electric blues-rock. I’m caught between the passion of the band, the eloquence of their anti-colonialist, pro-African politics, and the technically brilliant guitar noodling. The title track is a fantastic meld and it’s hard not be carried along but I really prefer the slower tracks, particularly “Takoba” and “Imajighen”, which lope along behind the drums while the bass darts around between entwined guitar lines and call and response vocals. Funeral for Justice is an album I admired and enjoyed hearing but, for me, the pyrotechnics get in the way.

Jessica Moss – For UNRWA (self-released)

Who picked it?  Ian Mathers

Did we review it?  Yes, Ian said, “sorrow and elegy and rage and strength all course throughout the piece.”

Bryon’s take:

This is a beautiful album born from an ugly situation.  Violinist Jessica Moss released this Bandcamp-only album to raise money for the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) after nation states halted funding when it was erroneously thought a few of its members were aligned with Hamas.  It’s a 42-minute suite of violin, electronics, and vocals that Moss captured at a live set in Berlin.  As someone who hasn’t had the pleasure of investigating her solo work but is enamored with her contributions to Silver Mt. Zion and other bands, I find this album to be an effective port of entry.  It swells with all the emotions that Ian describes in his review, unfurling with a beauty and grace that at times evokes stillness and at others exudes passionate fervor.  Based on this piece alone, I’ve decided that I need more of Moss’ music in my life.    

NYSSA — Shake Me Where I’m Foolish (Six Shooter)

Who nominated it? Alex Johnson

Did we review it? No.

Jennifer Kelly’s take:

NYSSA gets its kick from the charisma of the eponymous front woman, a wailing, belting, crooning dynamo, whose delivery is part punk, part roots rock, part blues and part adrenalized, corruscating confession. NYSSA’s first album, Girls Like Me, was long-listed for the 2021 Polaris Prize. This follow-up is less synthy and more rock, fleshed out by a ripping band. It’s larger in every way, from the stomping, vibrato-laced rager, “Werewolf,” to the torchy, piano-bar introspection of “Blessed Turn.” “I’m good for nothing but the hell I raise,” NYSSA intimates on the rollicking “Hell I Raise,” but she’s wrong. She’s good at lots of things.

Rosali – Bite Down (Merge)

Who picked it? Jennifer Kelly

Did we review it? Yes. Christian Carey wrote: “Rocking out is on the menu” and “the connections between pleasure and pain seem to coalesce in Rosali’s work.”

Alex Johnson’s take:

It’s a ferocious album, but intimate too. I hear a lot of Christine McVie in Rosali’s vocal. The way her delivery of “I want to feel right at the end of the day/I’m letting things come as they may” on “Rewind” contains warmth and sadness and joy and a sense of power in powerlessness that’s somewhere between cynicism and hope. It’s right out of Rumors. There’s some Fleetwood Mac in the groove of the title track too. But the spaciousness and spontaneity that Rosali and Mowed Sound capture remind me more often of the Oldham family — Will, Ned, et al. — from the raucous and inviting Viva Last Blues of “My Kind” to the clanging Anomoanon-ish country rock of “Hopeless.” 

This is music that not only lets you in but keeps you there. Like how the primordial bass drum in “May It Always Be on Offer” both grounds the rhythm and carves out a space you can practically sit in. The charismatic draw of Bite Down, though, is the guitar work. There’s so much texture and dimension in, say, the fraught duet that rips through “Change is in the Form” or the gravelly solo patched under the strings of “Slow Pain,” echoing the toughness of “maybe I’m just used to it/maybe I don’t give a shit.” With their various yelps and rumbles, the guitar tones that run through “Hills on Fire” don’t so much create the atmosphere as define it, adding a palpable, tectonic heat to the song’s otherwise easy daze.

Bite Down is a big, organic album, full of sensations — heard, articulated, and felt. Someone yells “act natural” as “My Kind” gets revved up — I’m surprised the band needed a reminder.

Thou — Umbilical (Sacred Bones)

Who nominated it? Jonathan Shaw

Did we review it? Yes, Jonathan wrote, “If we set aside Umbilical’s thorny thematics, we still have a superlative metal record, loud, as aggressive as it is palpably aggravated.”

Andrew Forell’s take:

At the end of his typically on point review of Umbilical, Dusted’s Jonathan Shaw pondered whether Thou singer Brian Funck might agree with his assertion that “pleasure isn’t what we need most from culture right now” and asked, “Should we listen to him?”. On the first point, there’s not much pleasure evident on Thou’s new album, which perversely or not appears to be this half year’s metal album de jour with even The Guardian unguarded in its praise. And yes, there are so many reasons right now when pleasure seems futile in the face of No Future. To the second point, a definite yes! Once you acclimatize to Funck’s voice, a dyspeptic shredder of a thing which renders his lyrics nigh indecipherable, the wall of sound coming at you is a caustic bath for the ears. The drums and bass a thumping foundry shaking and burning whilst the guitars surround you like a swarm of rusting chainsaws. Amidst this maelstrom, Funck screams as if his spleen is about to join his word splatter. Now, that’s a t-shirt I’d wear again without washing. Umbilical is a nasty, irate fury that I will be revisiting.

Uranium Club — Infants Under the Bulb (Static Shock)

Who picked it? Alex Johnson

Did we review it? Yes. Alex wrote, “these enigmatic Minneapolitans fling their conceptual heft in a new direction and expand their musical objectives without ceding much, if any, of their signature, careening tension.”

Patrick Masterson’s take:

When I first heard Infants Under the Bulb in the spring, it was with only a cursory commitment; I understood its tinny, furiously strummed contours, but the full thrust of its oddball conceptual heft passed me by. A second, much closer listen for this midyear exchange has proven far more rewarding, and while Alex pretty well nails what makes this record so interesting in his review, what I keep coming back to are the myriad voices across this record. I think core members Brendan Wells, Harry Wohl, Ian Stemper and Matt Stagner all take a turn behind the mic, though liner notes prove frustratingly (appropriately?) limited, and Molly Raben drives the four-part “Wall” sequence. A few points of order unite the Club and its associates — namely, all of them take pointed barbs at contemporary society in different ways, all of them play with noticeable tightness (even Raben in the New Age-y “Wall” songs), and none of them can sing. Musically, “Small Grey Man” might be an obvious single to that effect, but it’s the guitar licks in “Game Show,” “2-600-LULLABY” and “Abandoned by the Narrator” to which I keep returning. More than anything else in Alex’s review, what hits home hardest is very succinctly tucked away in its middle (my emphasis): Chorus of voices aside, Uranium Club has been and remains a great guitar band.

Waxahatchee — Tigers Blood (Anti-)

Who picked it? Christian Carey

Did we review it? Yes, Christian said, “Tigers Blood doesn’t have a weak cut on it. One imagines it will be in heavy rotation for many long after its release.”

Tim Clarke’s take:

Tigers Blood starts out promisingly enough. On opening track “3 Sisters” it’s immediately evident that Katie Crutchfield has an intensely expressive voice, plus the skill to wield it with nuance. There’s plenty of space for her to emote, then when the song takes off, it feels well earned. From there, things start to feel too rote to fully engage. The band is clearly playing in the country-rock pocket, but there are no surprises to be found in the songwriting to capitalize on the promise of that opening song. Ultimately, it mostly ends up sounding a little hokey. A genuine shame, as I had high hopes coming into this one.

Whitelands — Night-bound Eyes Are Blind to the Day (Sonic Cathedral)

Did we review it? Yes, Ian said, “Right from the start, there’s a clarity and focus in the songs here that belies their sometimes diaphanous settings.”

Tim Clarke’s take:

Right from the opening blare of guitars, British quartet Whitelands nail a particular shoegaze aesthetic: Ride’s Going Blank Again. The six-strings are loud, but with enough delay and reverb to create a blurry wall of sound, while the rhythm section keeps things punchy to give the songs plenty of momentum. Can’t say there’s anything here that quite rivals the first wave of shoegazers who combined hallucinatory sonics with catchy songwriting, but Whitelands are clearly tapping into some inspiring sounds, which will hopefully mean their next release will have its own distinct personality. 

Winged Wheel — Big Hotel (12XU)

Who nominated it? Bryon Hayes

Did we review it? Yes, Bryon wrote, “No Island hinted at Winged Wheel’s ability to craft such a sonic space, but that record was merely an appetizer for the hefty dose of momentum that Big Hotel provides.”

Christian Carey’s take:

A collection of artists who also belong to other bands, Winged Wheel coheres far more fluidly than most “supergroups.” On their second recording, Big Hotel, the band recorded in the studio together rather than remotely collaborating as they did on 2022’s Big Island. The difference is palpable, particularly in the power and execution of the rhythm section, which now includes Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley. At the beginning of the recording, the one-two combo of the spacy and clangorous “Demonstrably False” and “Sleep Training,” on which Whitney Johnson supplies beguiling singing amid a raft of guitar textures. The songs tend to move directly into one another, underscoring their interconnectivity. Most of them stretch out a bit, clocking in at around the six-minute mark, but “Aren’t They All” and the album-closer “From Here Out Nothing Changes” are both under three minutes. The former is a bustling instrumental featuring oscillating riffs and urgently rendered and foregrounded percussion. The latter begins with a brief, disjunct, nasal wind solo and a discordant guitar duo, that rhythm section punching away. Johnson shares a brief, delicately delivered vocal, which then disappears into a concluding maelstrom.

Z-Ro—The Ghetto Gospel (One Deep Entertainment)

Who nominated it? Ray Garraty

Did we review it? No

Jonathan Shaw’s take: Much contemporary hip hop is lost on me, and The Ghetto Gospel doesn’t do much to convince me that I should be paying more attention. That judgment has little to do with the record’s sonic qualities, which I am in no competent position to evaluate closely; but I like the mix of late-1970s hard funk, R&B swooniness and occasional flashes of (yep) gospel’s dramatics. And Z-Ro’s flow and vocals are pretty great to groove on. His seamless, artful shifts into more conventional singing, especially at some tracks’ refrains, are deft and pleasurable. But the constant focus on money—having it is unassailable proof of virility, craft, power, self-worth; when one’s antagonist doesn’t have it, or doesn’t have as much of it, that confirms he’s a fool and a loser—is by turns tedious and sort of depressing. The just as constant self-aggrandizement, endemic in the genre, is so ever-present that it’s completely unconvincing. When I can tune out the lyrics’ content, The Ghetto Gospel is just fine. Patient, cool, smooth. When, inevitably, I begin paying attention to Z-Ro’s rhymes and their themes and figures, the record irritates me. If I had the savvy to place his performances of black masculinity in hip hop’s regionally or generically specific modalities, I might find them more engaging. But that would require plowing through a lot more music, much of it singing the praises of cash as an end in itself and celebrating “pimpin” as a variety of socially compelling activity. It ain’t for me.

[fvriva]

tagged by @cervicrazed for my top 5 songs!

404 // PinocchioP - more just one of my favorites of his stuff as I've been just kind of listening to his discography lately, haha. Existentialist Vocaloid producer that makes beautiful, sometimes maximalist mvs

Forging // Xylouris White - found a playlist of post-traditional Greek music and this was on there. love folk rock

Camel Dancefloor // Igorrr - went on an igorrr bender a while ago lmao. song that kicked it all off, leading to me finding their newest album. fuckin love igorrr (though this track isn't as french anguish as others)

trifecta // Oliver Buckland - it's not me without a hard to define electronic genre but this one i adore this whole album

Blood Hunter // Varien - also been listening to a lot of varien in general because his stuff always sounds like having rough nasty sex with a computer and it helps me get in a sleikir headspace

tagging @yoma-999 @gluthor @asteriis @breitzbachbea @aliferous-ly @hunny-k (the usual suspects lol)

[noloveforned]

no love for ned is back on wlur with a new show tonight after an unplanned week off. tune in anytime from 8pm until midnight for some great new music or catch up with last week's show below!

no love for ned on wlur – may 26th, 2023 from 8-10pm

artist // track // album // label thrush hermit // marya // marya 7" // genius boyracer // we have such gifts // punker than you since '92 // 555 it thing // god's car // syrup // marthouse adele and the chandeliers // souvenirs of my mind // still thinking // orange carpet idle ray // corridors of summer (single mix) // corridors of summer 7" // tall texan velocity girl // my forgotten favorite // my forgotten favorite 7" // slumberland lisasinson // los que se pelean no se desean // un año de cambios // elefant memorials // it's in our hands // music for film: women against the bomb // the state51 conspiracy immaterial possession // to the fete // mercy of the crane folk // fire nap eyes // child’s romance // snake oil digital single // jagjaguwar wednesday // quarry // rat saw god // dead oceans annie blackman // need me // bug ep // father/daughter self esteem // prioritise pleasure (acoustic) // prioritise pleasure (deluxe) // fiction herman düne // the right path lays open before me // the portable herman düne, volume three // bb*island lisa/liza // kiss the flowers // breaking and mending // orindal george xylouris and jim white // tails of time // the forest in me // drag city califone // mcmansions // villagers // jealous butcher kammerflimmer kollektief // viertes kapitel // schemen // karlrecords eli keszler // manhattan part iii // live cassette // lucky me brent cordero and peter kerlin featuring james brandon lewis and charles burst // decolonize this place // a sublime madness // astral spirits salami rose joe louis // always on my mind // akousmatikous // brainfeeder ravyn lenae featuring smino // 3d // hypnos // atlantic alex unger // movie // all:lo vol. 6 compilation // all:lo cloth // never know // secret measure // rock action suep // onions // shop ep // memorials of distinction the blue herons // disorder // disorder digital single // (self-released) peaness // same place // same place 7" // odd box heavenly featuring calvin johnson // c is the heavenly option // le jardin de heavenly // skep wax

[still-single]

HEATHEN DISCO ep. 334 streaming now

HOUR 1

Th’ Faith Healers – Don’t Jones Me

Spacemen 3 – Billy Whizz/Blue 1

Shizuka – 6 Gram Star

Kicking Giant – She’s Real (version)

Trees Speak – Stone Tape

Mark Stewart + Maffia – As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade

Charles Hayward – Lopside (A JD Twitch Optimo Espookio Version)

Ministry – Twitch II (version)

Cyberplasm – Autogenesis (HIDE Remix)

Old Saw – Weathervaning

Ultramarine – Pansy (Peel Session)

HOUR 2

McDonald and Giles – Tomorrow’s People (The Children of Today)

Roy Ayers – Sweet Tears

Patrice Rushen – Haven’t You Heard

Primal Scream – Higher Than the Sun (A Dub Symphony) Part 1

May Blitz – Virgin Waters

Todd Rundgren – Chain Letter

Tim Hecker – Living Spa Water

Mag-Amplitude – I Like to Rock and I Love to Roll

Fresh Blueberry Pancake – Clown on a Rope

Sudden Death – The Zoo

Los Kowalski – 323/Tama

London Brew – Nu Sha Ni Sha Nu Oss Ra

FACS – Class Spectre

HOUR 3

YoshimiOizumikiYoshiduO – yO Me

Xylouris White – Witnessed by Angels

Walter Bishop Jr. – Soul Turn Around

Anadol – Casio Havasi

Loose Ends – Slow Down (Slow Jam)

Opium Monks – The Secrets of Africa (instrumental)

April Magazine – Jungle City Beat

The Flowerpot Men – Jo’s So Mean to Josephine

Future Sound of London – You’re Creeping Me Out

Playgroup – No Speed Limit

Bar-Kays – Boogie Body Land

Mute Duo – Landmusik

The Dark – Last Day

[rad-review-of-gigs]

Xylouris White

Cafe Oto, London, 20/12/23

You know there are going to be earthquakes at a Xylouris White gig, that their mystically hypnotic power might open up fissures in the floor. Jim White can boom the bass drum with the earth flattening intensity of John Bonham. It inches it’s way towards the seated section of audience at Cafe Oto, as if stealthily fleeing the battering it’s receiving from White; like the technique in horror movies where the spectre appears much closer than is humanly possible with each frame.

In the intimate salon that is Oto you sometimes wince and start, as if at a public flogging. However White is a vaudeville flogger, a unique and compelling percussionist. His left arm ascends and curls like a magical CGI creature materialising into the air and comes flying down at the snare. His right drumstick sluices across the cymbals, another tick in his wizardry. He stares out at the audience, not with haughteur, contempt or a craving for appreciation, but serene single-mindedness, his features reminiscent of Donald Sutherland.

He would be able to maintain gravitas even if he was dressed as a wrestler. It’s easy to fixate on White’s flamboyant presence, but his partner, Giorgos Xylouris, sometimes becoming red in the face, as if struggling to keep pace with the Australian drummer, is a highly skilled vocalist and laouto player in his own right: the laouto being a Cretan lute. It’s usually an accompanying instrument, but deployed by Xylouris in a solo capacity. His lyrics are rooted in nature and the traditional rhythms of Mediterranean life.

This is rock mingled with folk in beguiling, thrilling combinations. It bears the imprint of White’s work in The Dirty Three with Mick Turner and Warren Ellis of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds. He has also collaborated with PJ Harvey, Cat Power, Marianne Faithful, Bill Callahan and Beth Orton amongst others.

The pair first met in Melbourne in 1990 when Xylouris was touring with his father and have since produced five studio albums. They have a recognisable groove, but are constantly re-inventing and adding adornments to their music.

The first of two sets opens with Second Sister, an instrumental from April’s Drag City release The Forest In Me. It has a flamenco flavour. Telephone Song from 2019’s album The Sisypheans, also has the raw intensity of flamenco’s cante jondo. ‘Soar on a single wing and should you conquer time…’ Giorgos sings.

Black Peak from the 2016 Bella Union album of the same name has a breakbeat reminiscent of electronica, similar to that deployed by Manchester jazz trio Go Go Penguin, and a delirious riddle of a laouto line. Hey Musicians! is a foreboding, hymnal call to arms. Xylouris whistles through its latter bars. The Feast is a composition about killing a hundred animals. “Everyone’s probably vegan in here!” quips White. It starts slowly before the pounding hooves of White’s drums are on the stampede again.

The Forest in Me is largely a set of minatures coming in at two minutes or less. Night Club has delicate, haunting rhythms and Xylouris on a single stringed instrument. It’s accompanied by a humorous ancedote from White about his brother leaving a scarf at Taylor Swift’s house, which she didn’t return. Latin White is dedicated to film maker Rebecca Marshall, a recent collaborator on videos with the duo. It’s reminiscent of a folk dance and White takes up guitar for it. “Not that hard after all,’ he says wryly. Red Wine, another instrumental from The Forest In Me, flows like the fly past of a flock of geese.

On The Sisypheans’ Forging Xylouris sings of the earth trembling underfoot and ‘the wrath of the world forever increasing’. Though not in this evening’s sets it’s a neat summation of the extraordinary timbre and transcendance in the duo’s music, leaving the Oto crowd appreciatively buzzing to its core.

See see our full photo gallery click here.

Words: Adrian Cross; Photos: Richard Gray

[maquina-semiotica]

Xylouris White, "Latin White"

[13melekradyo]

7 Ekim 2023 tarihli program kaydı.

Güncel folk kayıtlarından bir seçki // A selection of recent folk recordings. Download.

01 – Xylouris White – Tails Of Time 02 – Kara Jackson – No Fun/Party 03 – Joanna Sternberg – The Song 04 – Buck Meek – Paradise 05 – Sufjan Stevens – Will Anybody Ever Love Me? 06 – Woods – Little Black Flowers 07 – Mitski – I'm Your Man 08 – Marisa Anderson & Tara Jane O'Neil – For All We Know 09 – Maija Sofia – Telling The Bees 10 – Ben McElroy – We Wandered Through Memory 11 – Golden Brown – Ambergris 12 – Ben Chasny & Rick Tomlinson – Waking Of Insects

[cbcruk]

Xylouris White - Latin White

[dustedmagazine]

Jennifer Kelly’s 2023 in Review: Still Human FWIW

I finally saw Sun Ra Arkestra

I first heard about Chat GPT in January this year, and it sounded bad from the start. I make most of my living writing things for big faceless corporations who view me as a cost. Cut that cost to zero and I’m out of a job. But for the first five months of 2024, I continued to be busy and I thought, well maybe it’s nothing. Then in May, like a light switch, everything stopped. I had one regular client who continued to pay a monthly retainer. Nothing else. And the usual mailings, pleadings with old clients, etc. had no effect. I’m close to retirement age. This summer, I thought I had arrived early.

Things have picked up since then, and right now, I’m in a good place. People are starting to notice Chat GPT’s ignorance of anything post 2021, its refusal to factcheck or footnote and its relentless blandness. Clients are coming back, but the floor doesn’t feel very solid under my feet. It could all go away at any time. (This is the lesson we all learned from COVID-19…that you could fall into the pit any time.)

The one thing that didn’t stop was Dusted, and for that I am very grateful. As I’ll explain to anyone who asks, there’s never been any money in Dusted, so there can’t be any less. We are more or less immune to economic pressures. And as long as we’re here, there is lots and lots of good music to write about.

My year started with two records that blew me away in January (and maybe December 2022) and held #1 and #2 slots all year. They were Meg Baird’s Furling and Robert Forster’s the Candle and the Flame. Next, came an email from Rob from Sunburned with a link to Stella Kola’s extraordinary debut, and then gosh, Sub Pop still sends me promos and here’s one from Mudhoney! Every time 2024 succeeded in getting me down, I’d get music from someone.

Live music was another solace. Shows that made me happy this year included Warp Trio, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Dear Nora, Vieux Farka Toure, Bridget St. John with Stella Kola, Sun Ra Arkestra, Kid Millions with Sarah Bernstein, Faun Fables, Sweeping Promises, Daniel Higgs, Constant Smiles, Baba Commandant (RIP), Xylouris White, Joseph Allred with Ruth Garbus and Ryan Davis with his Roadhouse band. Special mention goes to the always astonishing Thing in the Spring with Editrix, Rough Francis, Thus Love, Gorilla Toss, Equipment Pointed Ankh. Susan Alcorn, Marisa Anderson and Jim White and Bill Callahan.

The best show of the year, however, came late in the summer with William Tyler and the Impossible Truth band, an unbelievably talented, seasoned crew with Luke Schneider on pedal steel, Third Man mainstay Jack Lawrence on bass and Brian Kotzgur on drums. The way they opened up and fired up Tyler’s songs was a revelation, even to someone, like me, who’s been a fan since Behold the Spirit. Garcia Peoples opened, and they were great, too.

I should mention that we have recently been blessed with a bunch of excellent music venues nearby—Nova Arts in Keene and Epsilon Spires and the Stone Church in Brattleboro. Going to music used to always mean driving back from at least Northampton, sometimes further, late at night, and, as I get older and my night vision fades, it has been really nice not to have to do that. (Also, to all my Dusted-reader-musician-friends, if you play one of these venues, thank you, and let me know when you’re coming.)

With that, it’s time to talk about 2023 favorites. I’ll write about the first ten and then just list the rest.

Meg Baird — Furling (Drag City)

Meg Baird’s gorgeous solo album alternates between ghostly, inward-looking piano songs and bright swirls of 1960s psychedelia. Her extraordinary voice, high, pure, and unearthly, joins lush, burnished guitar grooves. Sometimes I think I like the swaggering bounce of “Will You Follow Me Home,” the best, but other times, the disembodied otherness of “Ashes, Ashes” is the prettiest thing I know.

Robert Forster — The Candle and the Flame (Tapete) 

Forster’s solo records are always good, wry and funny and stuttering with strummy punk energy, but this one, recorded with family while his wife battled cancer, is his best yet. “She’s a Fighter,” a group sing-along is prickly and defiant, the only song specifically written about Karin’s illness, but threads of enduring, life-long love run all through this album. “Tender Years” is especially moving, as Forster sings, “I’m in a story with her, I know I can’t live without her, I can’t imagine why,” in a voice cracked with sincerity and feeling. Very few albums make me cry, but this one does.

Anohni and the Johnsons—My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross (Secretly Canadian)

The sound on Anohni’s fifth album with the Johnsons smolders in the pocket, its textures a nod to Marvin Gaye’s classic What’s Going On? It’s velvety smooth but taut with urgency, as the artist contemplates climate disaster and personal struggles. “It Must Change,” trills with the coolest falsetto, while “Sliver of Ice” reverberates with a low, hushed passion. Every song lands a punch, soft when it happens but ringing for days in your ears.

The Drin — Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom (Feel It)

“Venom” lurches and blurts, bass thumping, drums clashing, monotone vocals drenched in menace. It’s a punk song distilled to essence, a world in itself, a short, brutal blast that is also somehow psychedelically expansive. The Fall, the Swell Maps and Adrian Sherwood haunt this disc in various places, but the Drin is its own mysterious thing.

Wreckless Eric — Leisureland (Tapete)

“Get yourself a one-way ticket for the merry-go-round,” sings the Bard of Hull on the last and most exhilarating song from his ninth full-length. That’s “Drag Time,” with its indelible hook, its enveloping harmonies, its hint of Amy Rigby in the chorus. Let’s just go way out on a limb here and say it’s as good, maybe better, than “Whole Wide World.”  

En Attendant Ana — Principia (Trouble in Mind)

Good lord, was Trouble in Mind on a roll this year or what? I could put Melanas or Tubs here, with FACS not far behind, but instead, let us contemplate the light-and-dark wonder of “Black Morning,” with its giddy counterpoints, its bright, sustaining trumpet, its boppy beat and its underpinning, somehow, of shadowy melancholy. Or the skanky bass that kicks off “Same Old Story,” in a prickly way, the lone element of dissonance that gives a daydream teeth.

Stella Kola—S-T (Self-Release)

Everybody who’s anybody in W. Mass alt.folk does a turn on this magical LP—centered around Beverly Ketch and Rob Thomas but including PG Six, Wednesday Knudson, Jeremy Pisani, Willy Lane and Jen Gelineau. Despite the expansiveness of the ensemble, these songs are feather light and lucid, like Pentangle sprinkled with magic dust.

Mudhoney — Plastic Eternity (Sub Pop)

Psychedelic overload meets raw punk and potty humor in this 12th album from the grunge godfathers. I like the sheer rush and swirl of cuts like “Almost Everything” and “Souvenir of my Trip” best, but bare, belligerent “Flush the Fascists” is grade-A too, and how can anyone resist Mark Arm paying tribute to his best bud on “Little Dogs.”

Beirut — Hadsel (Pompeii)

Hadsel is surprisingly cheery for an album recorded on a remote Norwegian island in the dead of winter, with swoony harmonies and counterpoints, intricate synthesized beats and blares of an antique pipe organ. “We had so many plans,” Zach Condon sings, both mourning and subtly sending up his cohort’s response to the COVID pandemic, but this remarkably pretty album seems more like a happy accident.

The Feelies—Some Kinda Love (Bar None)

What a total pleasure it is when one jangly, drone-y, indie rock phenomenon pays tribute to the wellspring. In this case, it’s the Feelies covering many of the Velvet Underground’s best known songs at a live show in 2018 where everyone had a blast. Now you can, too.

More albums that I loved in the order that I thought of them.

Iron & Wine—Who Can See Forever Soundtrack (Sub Pop)

Melanas—Ahora (Trouble in Mind)

Sleaford Mods — UK Grim (Domino)

The Tubs — Dead Meat (Trouble in Mind)

Sky Furrows—Reflect and Oppose (Feeding Tube/Cardinal Fuzz)

Lonnie Holley — Oh Me Oh My (Jagjaguwar)

Yo La Tengo—This Stupid World (Matador)

The Toads—In the Wilderness (Upset the Rhythm)

Dan Melchior—Welcome to Redacted City (Midnight Cruiser)

James and the Giants—S-T (Kill Rock Stars)

Ben Chasny and Rick Tomlinson—Waves (VOIX)

Bonnie Prince Billy—Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You (Drag City)

CLASS—If You’ve Got Nothing (Feel It)

The Clientele—I’m Not There Anymore (Merge)

Devendra Banhart—Flying Wig (Mexican Summer)

Kristin Hersh—Clear Pond Road (FIRE)

Sally Anne Morgan—Carrying (Thrill Jockey)

FACS—Still Life in Decay (Trouble in Mind)

Setting—Shone a Rainbow Light On (Paradise of Bachelors)

Airto Moreira & Flora Purim—A Celebration (BBE)

Sweeping Promises—Good Living Is Coming For You (Feel It)

James Waudby—On the Ballast Miles (East Riding Acoustic)

Emergency Group—Venal Twin (Centripetal Force)

Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band—Sing Dancing on the Edge (Sophomore Lounge)

Tyvek—Overground (Gingko)

Wurld Series—The Giant’s Lawn (Melted Ice Cream)

Various Artists—STOP MVP (War Hen)

[miragestation]

Mirage Station playlist for May 17, 2023

1. Gamelan Telek “Bendera Merah Putih” from ロンボック島の音楽 ～潮騒のメロディ (King Records 1999) 2. Giacomo Salis/Paolo Sanna “1” from Acoustic Studies For Sardinian Bells (Falt 2023) (bandcamp link) 3. Stuart Chalmers “Voice of the Underground Stream” from Sound Environments 1: Caves (Self-released 2018) 4. Wolf Eyes “The Museums We Carry” from Dreams In Splattered Lines (Disciples 2023) (bandcamp link) 5. Xylouris White “Night Club” from The Forest In Me (Drag City 2023) (bandcamp link) 6. Arthur Russell “Tower of Meaning/Rabbit's Ear/Home Away from Home” from World of Echo (Upside 1986) 7. Mother Juniper “The Sculptor” from Write The Soil Lighter (Spirit House 2023) (bandcamp link) 8. Country Teasers “Sandy” from Secret Weapon Revealed At Last (In The Red Recordings 2003) 9. Strapping Fieldhands “Red Dog The Deconstructor” from LYVE: IN CONCERTE (ever never 2023) (bandcamp link)

Listen to this episode in the archive: here