News

After 30 years behind the kit, Hawksworth is Matt Espy’s first solo album: an album of drums in duet with birdsong. He's chopped and scattered their calls into the organic space in which Matt’s meditations on a life in music creates fresh music, commenting on the nature of music itself.

The second sample from his creative world is "Dexlark", with the sounds of classic lark song in unison with Matt’s rhythmic riff, their fluttering energies entwining and winding into a compulsive drum circle/fugue. The... (read more)

Just as the spring encourages renewal, warmth and light to our environment, so do Bitchin Bajas. On their latest, Bajascillators, we find them pollinating the aural landscape with extra-buoyant, rhythmic pulses and shimmering new analog synth tones, stimulating a flowering growth. This heightened sonic palate translates live as a truly transformative experience for all in attendance. For the people in the select cities below, this experience and all its potential is imminent - Bitchin Bajas embark on their first European tour of 2023... (read more)

Extended guitar hero Oren Ambarchi returns with a new video and a new slew of tour dates!

Ambarchi, known for his deeply textured soundscapes, explores the boundaries between minimalism and maximalism, melody and noise to create an immersive and mesmerizing experience. With Shebang, Ambarchi achieved a dense ensemble sound that was carefully composed while drawing on the free flow of improvisation, with individual voices momentarily coming to the fore and subtle changes in harmony and texture.
 

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“After Math begins where Art, Mystery, the first installment in Mr. Thompson’s two-part novel, left off. The chrome trader Perlat Tile has just witnessed the criminal Pablo Palbon attempt to smuggle a small erotic bronze by Pollaiuolo out of Tirana disguised as a funeral urn. The ensuing trial — described in After Math — pits the gallerist Ms. Jasmine, who wants to acquire the work legitimately, against the state of Albania, which also claims ownership of it. Written in the impeccable prose that we have come to... (read more)

The return of The Fucking Champs via the long-desired double-vinyl LP reissue of their epochal album release III is not something you should take merely lightly. Don't just leap into it, you might get a cramp! This is why we're sliding you back into their oeuvre, one song at a time - so that when it finally drops, you aren't complete torn asunder.

Okay. Deep breaths. For those who aren't familiar with the legend, we'll give it to you in one: at the... (read more)

Suarasama's Timeline follows multiple paths across avenues of world cultures and music. Sounding as new today as it did when first released in 2013, Suarasama’s traditional North Sumatran roots are a launching point into the currents of hypnotic music shared around the world, with the first-time-on-vinyl 10th anniversary reissue of Timeline.

"Sea Fish" is a shimmering evocation of nature’s beauty, her far-reaching oceans and their inhabitants. Suarasama’s spirit and intention is further elevated by Rithaony Hutajulu’s vocals, as well as the... (read more)

Cum gather 'round and feel the noize, folks - there's a hot new Cory Hanson solo album on the horizon!

With Western Cum, our debauched and shameless world is redeemed in the same breath as it is repudiated. A massing of guitars, guitars, guitars and voices form post-gospel harmony, with a panoply of melodic impulses within, bright and burgeoning. The second single, "Twins", is now among you! Establishing a peaceful easy feeling up front, it delves deep and sails high when the... (read more)

The Forest In Me, the forthcoming LP from Xylouris White, is actually the work of a musical triumvirate: Giorgos Xylouris and Jim White, of course, as well as their long-time producer, Guy Picciotto. Recorded in isolation in 2020, the trio conjured cinematic sounds while physically remote from each other, yet these songs were constructed with a unique psychic connection unbound by location. Giorgos recalls “...every note, every phrase, every instrument came from in and around our inner forests. No spoken... (read more)

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Matt Espy spent his youth playing every genre of music he could find, starting out in clubs at age 14 and launching his touring career at 18. He moved to Chicago in 1996 and continued his journey drumming and performing rock, avant-garde, jazz, and performance art pieces. Over the past decade, he’s found his home with Dead Rider, also on Drag City.

Hawksworth is Matt’s first solo adventure. In the field of solo drumming albums, it’s an avian psychedelic... (read more)

Alasdair Roberts' new album, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall, serves to highlight the intersection of the mythic, the eternal and the mundane at which we all find ourselves. The latest pre-release peek is here: "The Bonny Moorhen", a Jacobite-era allegorical song that was originally heard by Alasdair from an anonymous recording, made at the 1985 Orkney Folk Festival.

"The Bonny Moorhen" is a fond paean to a waterbird whose regal profile compares to none other than Bonnie Prince... (read more)