Storm & Stress

Storm & Stress are a U.S. experimental rock trio consisting of guitarist/vocalist Ian Williams (ex-member of Don Caballero, current member of Battles), bassist Erich Ehm, and drummer Kevin Shea. They derive their name from the German literary movement Sturm und Drang.

Storm & Stress
1.We Write Threnodies. We Write With Explosions
2.Today is Totally Crashing & Stunned in Bright Lights
3.Dance 'til Record Skips Like Passengers Shift on Take Off
4.Micah Gaugh Sings All Is All
5.Guitar Cabinet Stack Way High Is Freedom or Gravity Gives Us Rhythm
6.Piles of Blinkers Slip for New Years
7.Orange Cone Made No Noise

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Tyft

If you can't tell, I've been on a jazz kick lately. Even if you're not into jazz, give this and Dragon's Head a listen!

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Icelandic guitarist Hilmar Jensson formed this trio with his downtown New York pals Jim Black and Andrew D'Angelo, to create a sonic environment filled with jagged grooves, unpredictable improvs, and live electronic transformations. A provocative atmosphere hovers over the musics: nothing goes on for very long, and there are frequent change-ups of tone and style. D’Angelo’s acerbic alto sax and bass clarinet sounds combine with Jensson’s stringent lines and Black’s slashing attack, but equally there are moments of disquieting reverie, and it’s all performed with composure and conviction. Although quite free in part the music is highly organized; if Webern were alive today and into avant-jazz/rock this is the road he might be taking.

Meg Nem Sa
1. Led Tyftelin
2. Shooshabuster
3. International Four
4. Ain't No Waltz
5. Tumble Bugs
6. Meg Nem Sa
7. Okkar
8. Ouch
9. Flutter
10. Hilsner
11. Bloq
12. Sets Nidur
13. Amena

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Mary Halvorson Trio

Dragon's Head is acclaimed Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson's debut recording as a bandleader. Recorded at Firehouse 12's state of the art studio in New Haven, it features ten new original compositions written specifically for her working trio with bassist John Hebert and drummer Ches Smith. She has previously composed music for recordings with her chamber music duo with violist Jessica Pavone and the avant-rock duo, People, with drummer Kevin Shea, but this is her first release alone at the helm of her own ensemble.

Dragon's Head
1. Old Nine Two Six Four Two Dies (No.10)
2. Momentary Lapse (No. 1)
3. Screws Loose (No. 8)
4. Scant Frame (No. 2)
5. Sweeter Than You (No. 4)
6. Sank Silver Purple White (No. 5)
7. Too Many Ties (No. 6)
8. Totally Opaque (No. 7)
9. Dragon's Head (No. 9)
10. April April May (No. 3)

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John Coltrane

Meditations was released in 1965. It features Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders as soloists, both playing tenor saxaphones. Much of the recording features extensive passages in free rhythm and extended saxophone techniques such as honked and overblown notes, as well as multiphonics. Alternative versions of tracks 2-5 had been recorded in September 1965 by the same musicians minus Sanders and Ali.

Meditations is about cleaning the mirror into the self, going as far through
the looking glass as is possible each time.
Making music as naked as the self can be brought to be.

-Nat Hentoff (1966 original liner notes to Meditations, A-9110)

Meditations

1. The Father, And The Son, And The Holy Ghost

2. Compassion

3. Love

4. Consequences

5.Serenity

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Rosetta

The Galilean Satellites was the first album from Philadelphia's Rosetta. Over the span of 2 discs you get slow build ups to massive sludge metal parts and then calm ambient parts. Disc one is definitely the heavier of the two being mostly post metal heaviness and disc two gives much more of a abstract ambient feeling. This two disc album is actually three because you can play the two discs at the same time to create a third composition. For fans of ISIS, Mouth Of THe Architect, and Pelican.

The Galilean Satellites

Disc 1:

1.Départe
2.Europa
3.Absent
4.Itinérant
5.Pays Natal
Disc 2:
1.Deneb
2.Capella
3.Beta Aquilae
4.Ross 128
5.Sol

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Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone

I first came across Mary Halvorson's guitar work when I was in Brooklyn last March and was given the amazing opportunity to see her jazz trio at The Stone. For those of you who don't know, The Stone is a not-for-profit venue in the East Village set up by John Zorn (yeah THE John Zorn) for experimental and avant-garde artists. Tyshawn Sorey was sitting in on drums and apparently had learned all the songs that were played that night in a day. If you have the chance to see him play, don't pass it up. He has got to be one of the best drummers I have ever seen. The Mary Halvorson Trio also has an upcoming release on Firehouse 12 Records. This release "Prairies" is performed by Mary Halvorson (Guitar) and Jessica Pavone (Viola). Best described as avant-garde chamber music. This is their first release, The second On And Off (2007) can be bought here.

"The American prairie sound rebuilt with modernity is how the Brooklyn duo of guitarist Mary Halvorson and violist Jessica Pavone describe the stylistic basis of their debut album Prairies. Halvorson's guitar is an expressive beast, with a repertoire of moods that shift effortlessly from funky John Lee Hooker twangs to cerebral harmonics. Pavone's viola must also be two-headed: her recklessly exposed melodic monodies are met the other way with ornate decoration."

Prairies
1.Till April
2.Impossible To Recreate
3.Prairies
4.Two Day
5.Each Other
6.A Decade Passed
7.Familiar Spirits
8.One Day In August
9.Sometimes
10.Woebegone
11.Uncovered, Siren
12.Your Reason Is Dead
13. Last Hymn




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