Aquarium Drunkard: Sidecar/March 4, 2019

Welcome to Sidecar, Aquarium Drunkard's weekly dispatch of audio esoterica, interviews, mixtapes, and cultural ephemera. As always, we're presented by Gold Diggers boutique hotel, bar, and recording studios in East Hollywood, Calif. Want to support AD? Here's how: Patreon. Pledge, get cool stuff and support independent media.  

Robert Stillman: Reality

Science fiction oracle Philip K. Dick once wrote: “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” On Reality, the new album by the East Kent, UK-based, Maine-raised Robert Stillman, the composer builds and unfolds eight reflections of that idea. In his songs, filled with fluttering reeds and skittering drums, Stillman echoes back all the world around him and finds that it is, despite the headlines, despite the constant dangers, a beautiful one. “The Stars Are Beautiful,” he says. “The Sticks Are Very Beautiful,” too. And hanging over all the proceedings, his opening invocation, “All Are Welcome.” 

Pierre Bensusan: Le Conseil De Guerre

Last week, AD head honcho Justin Gage shared this one, picked up "on the super cheap last month flipping through a bin at a record fair. Not a Rennfaire, mind you…though some of its offerings could likely pass. Issued in 1977 via Rounder Records, Pierre Bensusan 2 is largely comprised of the acoustic guitarist’s take on traditional European folk music. Sung in Bensusan’s native French, the two sides scan hoary folklore from the Scandinavian tundra to the British isles. Folklore that is both interpreted and, at times, appended by the artist."

 

Border

We listed our favorite films of 2018 in December's newsletter ... but we hadn't seen this one yet. Border (Gräns) is a 2018 Swedish fantasy film directed by Ali Abbasi, its source material culled from author Ajvide Lindqvist's collection of short stories, Let the Old Dreams Die. Horror enthusiasts may recognize Lindqvist as the author of Let The Right One In. On the surface, Border is an allegorical tale of an outsider finding their tribe, finally experiencing solace/freedom. And then shit gets weird. To say any more would ruin it.

Music Book: An Exploration of Japanese Sounds

Aquarium Drunkard presents the Norio Sato (Record Shop Rare Groove, Osaka, Japan) mix, Music Book: An Exploration of Japanese Sounds, in conjunction with Mr. Good Boy Record Cart’s LA pop-up in March.

Mr. Good Boy, the first-of-its-kind traveling vinyl pop-up store and music discovery hub, has teamed up with Record Shop Rare Groove and owner/DJ Norio Sato for an unprecedented celebration of Japan’s vinyl culture hosted by high-end Japanese-inspired home goods and lifestyle store, The Good Liver (Arts District, Downtown, Los Angeles).

The Record Cart will anchor the two-week long event happening March 2 – 17 and will offer for sale a hand-curated selection of original Japanese Funk, Jazz, Ambient, and City-Pop albums from the collection of Norio Sato and Rare Groove Osaka.


The Lagniappe Sessions: William Tyler/Second Session

On his latest, Goes West, guitarist William Tyler evokes the sound of the wide open. Featuring Tyler on acoustic guitar (electric playing is provided by Meg Duffy of Hand Habits), it both connects to his earliest guitar soli records and expands his stylistic toolkit. In an essay for Aquarium Drunkard, William called this blend of folk, country, and new age “cosmic pastoral,” and its an apt description for the way his sounds feel both spacebound and earthy. Following his recent appearance on the Transmissions podcast, we’re proud to present Tyler’s second Lagniappe Session, featuring covers of Fleetwood Mac and Yo La Tengo, and interpretations of Dvořák and Handel. Goes West is available now via Merge Records. 


Cochemea: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

On All My Relations, Cochemea Gastelum’s second solo album and first for Daptone Records, the saxophonist offers up a globetrotting swath of sounds, soul music of varying genres. Funk, R&B, Latin jazz, Indigenous chants and stomps, Morrocan Gnawa, cosmic jazz—leading his combo of Daptone stalwarts, Gastelum melds together elements of each to form a multi-faceted, spiritually cohesive tapestry.

Cochemea’s resume is lengthy. He worked extensively with the late soul singer Sharon Jonesas part of her Dap Kings ensemble and has played with the Budos Band, Antibalas, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress, Archie Shepp, Public Enemy, the Roots, David Byrne, and more. Genre-hopping comes naturally to the San Diego-raised saxophonist, but the cultural conversation occurring on All My Relations is the result of thoughtful and deliberate meditation.


Living In Another World: Remembering Mark Hollis 

Over at The Quietus, Aquarium Drunkard friend Wyndham Wallace pays tribute to the Talk Talk genius. 


Goldmund: Rivulet

An American composer making music on the respective edges of America — Oregon and Maine – Keith Kenniff records as Goldmund. Texturally, the project is a natural extension of his Helios project, fusing Kenniff’s interests in ambient, analog electronic and neo-classical. Introspective. Meditative.

Last spring saw the release of Goldmund’s Occasus lp, an album we didn’t lay ears on until December. A year-end find, this oversight was remedied over the holiday break, and in doing so discovered this unreleased solo piece, “Rivulet”.

Goldmund (Kenniff) features prominently in the recent AD collection, Music For The Deluge: A Sonic Meditation – an imaginary hour and half instrumental score, comprised of pan-global jazz, ambient and beyond.


Twain: New Miami Sound

On his latest, a lean, seven-song release entitled New Miami Sound, Mat Davidson of Twain shows leaps and bounds in his songwriting, embracing piano-driven rhapsodies found in the unlikeliest of places; nostalgia-tinted folk for long casted shadows just beginning to fade. Branching off some strange lineage of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Harry Nilsson, his warbly, rustic vocals and subtly profound prose seem to sneak up on you. Often, it feels as though you might turn around to find it gone. 

Our weekly two-hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard every Wednesday at 7pm PST with encore broadcasts on-demand via the SIRIUS/XM app.

SIRIUS XM (Feb 27): Daniel Patrick Quinn – Channelkirk and Surrounding Area ++ Talk Talk – Ascension Day ++ Calvin Love – Wildflower ++ Destroyer – 3000 Flowers ++ David Bowie – ’Tis A Pity She Was A Whore ++ Marc Bolan – Pain And Love (demo version) ++ David J – Elegy ++ Talk Talk – The Rainbow ++ Talk Talk – Eden ++ Talk Talk – Desire ++ Paolo Ferrara – Metal ++ Juana Molina – Cosoco ++ Golden Daze – Blue Bell ++ Luna – Bonnie And Clyde (Bonnie Parker Version) ++ Amen Dunes – Satudarah ++ Jessica Pratt – Dreams ++ Chris Cohen – Open Theme ++ John Andrews & The Yawns – Relax ++ Brian Eno – Dead Finks Don’t Talk ++ Todd Rundgren – The Spark of Life ++ Wilco – Poor Places ++ Hand Habits – Albatross (Aquarium Drunkard Session) ++ Pet Politics – The Ghost Mary And Her Friends ++ Guided By Voices – Sister I Need Wine (Cromag demo) ++ Hand Habits – The Only Living Boy In New York (Aquarium Drunkard Session) ++ Kikagaku Moyo – Green Sugar

*You can listen, for free, online with the SIRIUS three day trial — just submit an email address and they will send you a password.