Goran Ivanovic & Fareed Haque "IndoBalkan (Delmark)"
From Delmark:
After a 20-year hiatus, virtuoso guitarists Goran Ivanovic and Fareed Haque have joined forces again! A year of intensive touring and composing has produced IndoBalkan, the duo’s debut release on Delmark Records. Featuring rising star percussionist Juan Pastor and incorporating elements of jazz, classical, Indian and Balkan music, the duo explore longer, more complex compositions and stunning technical challenges while retaining their love for beautiful melodies and sweet tones. Two of the most gifted guitarists performing today, their styles and backgrounds are vastly different but, as the Chicago Tribune wrote of them, “when their two guitars play, cultural barriers melt away.”
With IndoBalkan, Ivanovic & Haque are offering their audience a collaborative musical capstone. This multifaceted projects brings together the duo’s musical and geographical influences and showcases their virtuosity and creative lyricism.
Certain tunes like “Prorok” or “Detour Samba” showcase their ensemble and rhythmic sophistication while others like “Rhodes” and “Ikaria” are sensitive, lyrical, and introspective. Percussion widens the palette of the record, performed both on the guitars themselves, as in “Santorini”, as well as on other instruments. Fareed adds a spatial wash of cymbals to the title track “IndoBalkan” and up-and-coming percussioning Juan Pastor guests on “Jim Phelps”.
Over time, Ivanovic & Haque’s music and performance has evolved and matured, becoming more thoughtful and expressive, while retaining its natural athleticism. Their fresh musical language is propelled by strong rhythms, verging closely towards popular forms, meant to be felt and experienced, revealing an inner solidity. — Notes by Julia A. Miller
Check out the haunting title track “IndoBalkan.”
Aoife Nessa Frances "Land Of No Junction (Ba Da Bing)"
Look. I hate to get completely reductive and just throw a bunch of RIYLs at you in these blurbs. But sometimes the RIYLs are so perfect that you just gotta lead with them. So, then, readers, if–like me–you like yourself some Yo La Tengo, some Stereolab, some Nico, then you should definitely be excited for the debut album from Irish performer Aoife Nessa Frances (which has been named Uncut’s Album Of The Month for January 2020). Co-produced by Cian Nugent, Land Of No Junction (Ba Da Bing!) is a hazy, gauzy dose of stunning psych pop. Warm guitars, synths, and Aoife’s vocals mix together into a sunset of warm glowing warming glows. Check out the supremely YLT-esque “Blow Up.”
Eluvium "Virga 1 (Temporary Residence)"
From Temporary Residence:
Virga I is the first album in a new ambient music series by Eluvium. Matthew Cooper, the composer behind the Eluvium moniker, explains: “I had recently been playing around with various forms of generative music and long-format looping – as well as practicing patience interacting with musical systems and recordings – hesitantly dueting with them, trying to keep things minimal while also encouraging as much depth as possible. It was really just something fun to privately experiment with for personal gain. Over time I’d created a group of pieces and had them on various mixes that I would make for myself, but I hadn’t really given them much thought. At some point, my evenings became very much about relaxing, stretching, and breathing to these pieces. They gradually fostered a very specific mood that I found intoxicating. The music seemed to enhance the soft orange glow in this small room in the dark of night, with the snow falling just outside. They also reminded me of some of my earliest works, those which were a bit less researched and considered. Perhaps they were simply more “felt” than anything. I decided it might be nice to start a series inspired by this setup. I titled it Virga, after the drifting of rain we sometimes catch drooping on the horizon, disappearing before it reaches the ground.”
Check out the title track “Virga I.”
Puppy and the Hand Jobs "I Hate Everything EP (Slovenly)"
From Slovenly Records:
The three obnoxious jack-offs known as PUPPY AND THE HAND JOBS are back with another crude EP of filth ridden, barely listenable / tolerable punk called “I Hate Everything,” and with 7 songs this time around, that’s only a buck a track in as many inches. WHAT A FUCKIN BARGAIN. Never before in the history of recorded music has it been so cheap and effortless to be insulted and assaulted with a swift kick in the genitals by “songs” with titles like “Cocksucker” and “Rocker Hag.” But even a band of total degenerate creeps like this can still muster a touch of class here and there: enter one-time SUN CITY GIRLS collaborator Eddy Detroit who penned the shitty little ditty “Plan 9” – a catchy track that will have you singing along like a dope before Puppy threatens your puny, worthless existence with “Predator.”
Check out “Plan 9.”