compilation Archive
06 Jan 2022
Album Review: The Beatles and India
Much has been written about The Beatles’ fateful trip to Rishikesh, India, but comparatively little in the way of official documentation of the excursion has surfaced in the ensuing 50-plus […]
20 Dec 2021
Album Review: Popol Vuh – Vol. 2: Acoustic & Ambient Spheres
In 2019, BMG put together a boxed set of five important albums by krautrock/ambient group Popol Vuh. The Essential Album Collection Vol. 1 featured vinyl re-pressings of Affenstunde (1970), 1972’s […]
11 Dec 2021
Album Review: Los Microwaves — The Birth of Techno
(Please visit yesterday’s post for some additional background on this release.) This playfully titled release features David Javelosa (on synth and vocals) along with Meg Brazill (on bass and vocals) […]
17 Nov 2021
Album Review: Various Artists – Sacred Soul of North Carolina
The culmination of a sequence of events put in motion by two music business leaders, Sacred Soul of North Carolina is an audio document of the current state of a […]
26 Sep 2021
Album Review: Jim Basnight and The Moberlys – Seattle – New York – Los Angeles
Describing something as underrated is sometimes little more than a lazy way of approaching an artist’s work. But it can have useful meaning. In the case of The Moberlys, the […]
20 Aug 2021
Album Review: Lennie Tristano — The Duos Sessions
Strictly speaking, jazz is uncommercial music. Not that the artists eschew the possibility of commercial success; it’s simply that jazz is a specialist genre. From the perspective of sales revenues, […]
13 Aug 2021
Album Review: Mumps — Rock & Roll This, Rock & Roll That
American pop culture consumers of a certain age (aka television viewers) will recall An American Family, a groundbreaking PBS documentary series that first aired in 1973. Setting aside the fact […]
24 Jul 2021
Album Review: Various Artists — Big Stir Singles: The Tenth Wave
And the hits just keep comin’, as they say. It’s too easy to label Big Stir as a power pop label. And in fact doing so is (a) too limiting […]
30 Jun 2021
Album Review: Various Artists — Big Stir Singles: The Ninth Wave
Maybe it’s because I’m a writer, but when I encounter an album that includes liner notes, I tend to read before I listen. Or, at least I’ll start to read […]
16 Jun 2021
Album Review: Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson
Here we go again. I’ve long held that various-artists tribute albums are by definition uneven. Some acts try to take the songs too far from their essence, stripping the songs […]