Trading the crushed harmonics of their basement tapes for studio-grade mics, overdubs in the mix, and only slightly less-bruised melodies, Birds of Maya's roiling essence not only survives, but thrives, non-stop, on Valdez, stuttering, screaming and stomping through six circuitous numbers. With their undulated and unfettered riffage mutated into raw power, Birds project their sound to burst through the basement and spill into the streets.
 

"Please Come In" is pulled from way back in early pre-Mayan consciousness, and... (read more)

2020's done come and gone; a fuzzy void of lost time and lost opportunity. But just when you thought you were safe, 2020 is back, in the form of a long-awaited repress of Magik Markers' all-new album from last fall. 2020 offers proof positive that work born of uncertain times can transcend the untethered ether of those dark days. The Markers built 2020 in this same timeless fashion they've always worked in - fighting like fungi through the cracks in the sidewalk of the past 50 years. A... (read more)

In January 2019, at the invitation of fiddler Hans Kjorstad, Alasdair Roberts traveled from his home in Glasgow, Scotland to Oslo, Norway, where the two men convened with five additional Scandinavian musicians at Riksscenen, Oslo’s centre for Norwegian traditional arts and music. The group was named Völvur (The Seeresses), a reference to the ancient Icelandic apocalyptic text Völuspa (The Prophecy of the Seeress).

The musicians who make up Völvur — Marthe Lea, Fredrik Rasten, Andreas Hoem Røysum, Egil Kalman, Jan Martin Gismervik and the aforementioned... (read more)

Seeking refuge from the assailing world deep within their music, bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Chad Taylor wield, respectively, the guimbri and mbira, instruments from diverse African states, and find a pairing that advances their reigning vision, brilliantly exposited as something new. As in: a new age of music, fusing meditation, sound and dance in convergence with listening – truly a 21st century space for Mind Maintenance!
 

"The Ladder" makes evident the inventive and symphonic reach of... (read more)