I had a good time today. It's not often that over the course of a workday I'm able to direct some attention to my periphery, just enough that I keep to the necessary tasks while engaging with something more worthwhile. In this case, I spent some time today checking out some long overdue songs and artists that I'd meaning to investigate for the past few weeks. It's been a bit since I sorted through browser tabs.  That said, there's a lot to review. I hope you enjoy. Feel free to comment.  ____________________________ Deniz Cuylan: "Hidden Language Of Four" (from Rings Of Juniper releasing 10/14/22 by Hush Hush Records ) Deniz Cuylan · Hidden Language Of Four Courtesy of C L A N D E S T I N E  L A B E L  S E R V I C E S. Deru : "The Dirt" (from  We Will Live On  releasing 10/28/22 by Friends Of Friends ) Courtesy of Terrorbird Media.  Bill Nace : "E:E" (from  Through A Room  releasing 11/11/22 by  Drag City )   Courtesy of Drag Ci...

"Every Motherfucker Is Your Brother". This is the sort of combination of words that I long to find buried in the brittle pages of some forgotten book of vulgar proverbs or pulled from the broken shards of the evening's takeout fortune cookie. Perhaps this five-word bit of excellence was the work of some once-aspirational, albeit failed, author, unhappy to be toiling in the marketplace of meaningless phrases and bland advice found within the confines of often-discarded cookies who found inspiration one day and followed through.  However, this phrase isn't a proverb nor is it a fortune, but the title track of a single-piece 12" by the duo Oort Smog, an effort by multi-instrumentalist Patrick Shiroishi and drummer Mark Kimbrell. For now, a less than three-minute clip is available as "Every Motherfucker" and showcases a bit of percussive prog-jazz, loose enough at moments for the brass to scribble outside the lines on occasion but never at the expense of th...

"Life got us confused? Where are we going?"  Speaking from personal line of sight, I find myself continually enamored with and challenged by the work of Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother). Following 2021's entrancing Black Encyclopedia of Air ,  Jazz Codes , Ayewa's 2nd LP for Anti-, has been announced with the lead single and video, "WOODY SHAW".  Following sprays of sonorous howls and a lovely red herring R&B set-up, "WOODY SHAW" takes a pause before shifting into a turbulent free jazz backdrop, a cyclical stand-up bass riff anchoring the otherwise discordant sax, drums, and vibraphone.  "Woody Shaw elevator outta town!" Ayewa speaks, "Life got us going up and down. Who's coming? Who's coming for our ratios?"  The video premiered on June 8th. Jazz Codes can be pre-ordered at ANTI- . Official release date is July 1st. All info and links were provided by Stereo Sanctity.  “It’s poetry that drives this album. The stories o...

Moor Mother Circuit City Don Giovanni Released: 9/25/20 After the first five or so turbulent minutes of Moor Mother’s Circuit City have elapsed, the poet asks, “You ever been robbed of your genius? And have your talent lay waste with bones ripped from its neck? Well, that’s circuit city.” Aggro-poetic stanzas, stern and convincing, cut through a mire of scribbling saxophone and whirling drums fills for the majority of Circuit City , a four-act work by Moor Mother, (or Camae Ayewa). Following a release earlier this year from her project Irreversible Entanglements titled Who Sent You? , and last year’s excellent Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes , Ayewa’s Circuit City was performed live as a play, this recorded version featuring her poetry set to free jazz, which provides her material an appropriate and cacophonous backdrop. “The way they house us,” Ayewa says in opening track “Act 1 – Working Machine”, “The way they make home a dream, a wish—anything but a human right.” Circuit Ci...

On what would have been John Coltrane's 94th birthday, some jazz releases to consider for this midweek entry… First, a 10-LP box set titled Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World by bassist William Parker will be released on January 29th, 2021 via Centering Records and AUM Fidelity .  As a primer for this collection, a compilation of material extracted from the box set is available called Trencadís . Immediately evidentiary is that Parker's creative and compositional reach is excitingly vast. You can listen to that here:   Trencadís [ a selection from Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World ] by William Parker Via Fully Altered Media: “The music in this boxed set is dedicated to all people in the world who are searching for freedom – those who want to eliminate hate, racism, sexism, greed and lies in their lifetime.” — William Parker That William Parker is a bassist, composer and bandleader of extraordinary spirit and imaginative drive is common know...

So, it would be turn out that in addition to Sons of Kemet and Kamasi Washington , there were other jazz-based artists to hear in 2018. This morning, I've been listening to a sampler provided by ears&eyes Records , which offers a selection of the label's 2018 output. Featured are various jazz-based offshoots ranging from beat-oriented ( Matterhorn ) to chamber-centric ( Redwood Tango Ensemble ), exploratory ( Chad Taylor ) to reverent and modernized ( Juan Bayon ). The label is run by artist Matthew Golombisky , who is also leading another project called Thirsty Robot Media . TRM's purpose is to promote budding talent outside of the ears&eyes framework in an effort to provide exposure for more artists. Here's the Volume 6 of the  ears&eyes Records  sampler: Volume 6 Sampler by ears&eyes Records Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Some songs to end the week. Enjoy! Tera Melos : "Lemon Grove" ft. Rob Crow (via Us-Them Group / Sargent House / YouTube) Via Us/Them Group: Tera Melos share a new song from their forthcoming EP today. The track "Lemon Grove" features Rob Crow ( Pinback ) sharing vocals with vocalist/guitarist Nick Reinhart . The song is culled from the forthcoming 3-song Treasures and Trolls EP on Sargent House. Hear and share "Lemon Grove" via YouTube HERE . Tera Melos also launch extensive North American tour dates in November, first headlining with support from Mouse On The Keys , followed by the main support slot on the farewell tour of Minus The Bear . Please see dates below. Treasures and Trolls will be available November 2nd, 2018 on 7" vinyl and download via Sargent House. Pre-orders are available HERE (all store & streaming links) and via HelloMerch and Bandcamp . TERA MELOS TOUR 2018 NOV 02 SLC, UT @ Kilby Court * NOV 03 Denver, CO @ L...

The Austin-based experimental sextet known as The Young Mothers are releasing their second album this week, Morose .   Currently based in Austin, The Young Mothers tie together backgrounds as regionally varied as Texas, Chicago, New York, and Norway, engaging their multiple influences into a cross-genre synthesis of protest music and aural turbulence. As if to illustrate this perfectly, for the single "Black Tar Caviar," The Young Mothers compose a discordant, rhythmic tug of war that attempts to merge jazz-based improvisation with the bare-knuckle assault of hardcore or powerviolence.  Somewhat akin to the avant sonics and noise-fetish brass explorations of John Zorn , especially for its frenzy of a finale, "Black Tar Caviar" pairs confusion and aggression in a compelling way, pitting the avantgarde against the underground and reveling in the forms' rejection of each other.  Those opening Albert Ayler -styled sax notes almost seem like a red herri...

If you needed an excuse to celebrate music, today is International Jazz Day. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Saccharine Trust : "A Good Night's Bleeding" Smart Went Crazy : "Song of the Dodo" Charles Mingus : "Hearts' Beat and Shades in Physical Embraces" Sun Ra and His Arkestra (featuring Pharaoh Sanders and Black Harold ) Glenn Branca : "Lesson No. 1 for Electric Guitar" Joseph Loduca : "Ash's Dream / Dancing Game / Dance of the Dead" Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Unsane Sterilize Southern Lord Released: 9.29.17 Unsane has been mainlining stress, panic, fury, anxiety, and frustration since 1988, the grim layout of yesteryear NYC tapped, injected, and purged as the pen has scrawled line after line of lyrical catharsis, words to be later shouted over top an unrelenting mass of distorted, chugging uproar that’s been carried through eight studio albums. And #8 is Sterilize , which checks in on the band’s mid-90s output while opening new wounds, sludge-weighted hostility like “Factory,” the drum-n-bass muck of “No Reprieve,” and the seasick rhythmic lean of “Lung” still composed with intensity in mind. As the proliferation of noise rock bands like KEN mode , Helms Alee , Spectres , Pissed Jeans , and METZ continues to garner attention during what’s been a renewed focus on guitar-generated aggression for the last 10 or so years, (which has interestingly coincided with rock n’ roll’s so-called mainstream demise), Sterilize could certainly re...

Weather Report Black Market Columbia Records Released: 1976 Van Halen s/t Warner Brothers Records Released: 1978 A Place To Bury Strangers Onwards to the Wall EP Dead Oceans Released: 2012 J Dilla Ruff Draft Stones Throw Released: 2007 Tangerine Dream Firestarter (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) MCA Records Released: 1984 Tom Waits Real Gone Anti Released: 2004 Cabaret Voltaire Code EMI-MANHATTEN Released: 1987 The Fall Dragnet Superior Viaduct Reissued: 2016 John Coltrane & Alice Coltrane Cosmic Music Superior Viaduct Reissued: 2017 Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Death Waltz Recording Company/Mondo : Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks Originally released: 1989 Reissued: 8.10.16 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me Originally released: 1992 Reissued: 1.25.17 Death Waltz Recording Company Am I a bad fan since I haven't opened either of these yet?  Angelo Badalamenti 's excellent soundtracks for David Lynch 's Twin Peaks series and its accompanying film provided a necessary and magnetic dimension to this tale of murder and this town's cast of weirdos affected by the event.  Truth to be told my hesitation to break these open is for purely geek reasons, most significant of which is that I need to acquire some plastic sleeves so I can safely file them onto my shelves.  Those die cut covers, while well-conceived and beautifully crafted, can be easily damaged. The other reason is that the soundtrack vinyl is no longer for sale . I managed to buy this copy from a seller at Discogs, which was a thankfully quick and painless experi...