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Catching Up With Myriam Gendron : Aquarium Drunkard
Myriam Gendron is balanced between opposing forces: between songwriting and poetry, English and French, acoustic folk and chaotic post-rock. Her third album, Mayday, is a continuation of this balance: a meditation on grief, sorrow, and most importantly, survival. Ahead of its May 10 release, we sat down with Gendron, discussing Leonard Cohen, recording with Jim White, and the intersection of poetry and songwriting.
Nick Harley : Leave No Trace : Aquarium Drunkard
The opening notes of Nick Harley’s Leave No Trace places the listener in an alternate weird and wobbly Appalachia. A folksiness remains throughout the tape, though the trail connects the dots between the country-rock of Crazy Horse, understated choruses a la Big Star, and just plain downer-folk by its terminus.
Cara Beth Satalino : Little Green : Aquarium Drunkard
Following the release of 2019’s Gazing Globe, Outer Spaces eased into hiatus while Satalino and partner Chester Gwazda pursued some serious life changes. Changing states, physical ails, a global pandemic, and the resulting mental exhaustion gave birth to a series of stripped back acoustic tunes. Over the next few years those ideas gradually flourished into the ten songs that make up Little Green—a showcasing of Satalino’s artistic foundations, while laying her experience bare for the listener’s immersion.
Prince Far I : Cry Tuff Chants 1981-84 : Aquarium Drunkard
Via Adrian Sherwood’s liner notes to Cry Tuff Chants On U we’re reminded that Prince Far I had initially been dubbed King Cry Cry owing to his infamous “voice of thunder.” Had he been a preacher (which he was, in his own way) it’s not difficult to imagine him proselytizing to hordes of non-believers.
Congo Funk! : Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Kinshasa/Brazzaville 1969-1982) : Aquarium Drunkard
Another banger from Analog Africa: their latest compilation, Congo Funk! – Sound Madness from the Shores of the Mighty Congo River (1969-1982), abounds with a surprising and exhilarating collision of rumba, psych, and funk. Homespun, lean, and occasionally blown out in garage bliss, the spirited sounds cultivated here represent the resulting explosion of Congolese rock bands following James Brown’s 1974 performance in Zaire in promotion of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s famed heavyweight bout, The Rumble in the Jungle.
Cassie Kinoshi's Seed : Gratitude : Aquarium Drunkard
In March 2023, alto saxophonist and composer Cassie Kinoshi appeared onstage with an unexpected guest list. On top of seed. — Kinoshi’s 10-member ensemble founded in 2016 that includes horns, keys, guitars, two double basses, and some very lively drums — this suite was bolstered by the stately strings and woodwinds of the London Contemporary Orchestra, alongside the ghostly echoes of experimental turntablist NikNak.
The Seventh Sons : 4 A.M. At Frank’s : Aquarium Drunkard
Tucked away in the jeweled annals of the ESP-Disk catalog is 4 A.M. at Frank’s (or Raga, as it was later titled upon reissue), the lone album by NYC free-folk progenitors The Seventh Sons. It’s quite possibly the most peaceful and flat-out beautiful album the label ever put out, an extended eastern-tinged folk jam that’s close kin to the searching guitar soli of Robbie Basho and Peter Walker.
Still House Plants : If I Don’t Make It, I Love U : Aquarium Drunkard
Still House Plants filters torch blues through a cracked mirror, floating polysyllabic jazz singer melisma over clanging, clattering noise abstractions. It sounds like the most irregular sort of post-rock—U.S. Maple or Slint—with a Billie Holiday aficionado along for the ride, or perhaps like Circuit Des Yeux doing a guest shot with Black Midi. Let us stipulate right now that Still House Plants will not be to everyone’s taste, but you have to hear it. This is a band absolutely carving its own swath through music.
Dadawah : Peace And Love : Aquarium Drunkard
That this sublime slice of life-affirming music is considered reggae is incidental in the same way that Alice Coltrane's Journey In Satchdinanda is considered jazz. What it really is, what they both really are is devotional music that transcends genre limitations and taps into something that most musicians could spend a lifetime failing to achieve.
Creation Rebel : High Above Harlesden 1978-2023 : Aquarium Drunkard
In the late 1970s, a budding dub-loving producer named Adrian Sherwood assembled a crack band of Caribbean musicians living in the working class neighborhoods of North-West London. Before they became Prince Far I’s onstage accompanists, Creation Rebel recorded a series of albums under their own name, cementing their status as the house band of Sherwood’s On-U Sound label.
Writhing Squares : Mythology : Aquarium Drunkard
Writhing Squares’ antecedents are the heaviest of heavy psychedelicists. They draw from the ecstatic riffery of Blue Cheer, the nodding hypnotics of Wooden Shjips, the heavy raptures of Red-era King Crimson. When they employ a drum machine, as in hard-popping “Cerberus,” you can hear an echo of Suicide in the whip-crack of percussion and the answering blat of saxophone.
First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 14 : Aquarium Drunkard
Step into spring with the latest edition of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.” Included are tracks from two of our favorite records: Book End, whose band leader was also the leader of Primary Mini-Band, and Naotune Saga. The mix also features Buraiha, a band steeped in the avant-garde Angura movement, along with a group called Sharons Forever which (with no liner notes to guide) offers a poignant tribute, leaving us to ponder the mystery behind this memorial record dedicated to 'Sharons for everybody.'
Aquarium Drunkard Book Club : Chapter 29 : Aquarium Drunkard
Welcome back to the stacks. It’s Aquarium Drunkard’s Book Club, our monthly gathering of recent (or not so recent) recommended reading. In this month’s stack: the life and times of Island Records' founder Chris Blackwell, the late Jean-Patrick Manchette, blurring the conceptual lines of experimental filmmaking and abstract animation, “the most unread book ever acclaimed,” and more.
John Martyn : One World : Aquarium Drunkard
It is perhaps at the peak of his unhinged behavior in the mid-70s that Martyn stumbled into his creative apex. Solid Air confirmed that the chops were there, but it was with One World that the artist cemented his potential for crafting masterworks that transcend the folk-singer moniker.
Catching Up With Amen Dunes : Aquarium Drunkard
With Death Jokes Damon McMahon has created a complicated musical and cultural tapestry, inspired by hip-hop sample density. “I just really hope that people take the time to pay attention to the details, because there’s so much in this album. Even my dearest friends are saying, ‘I didn’t understand it until I’d listened to it five times.'"
Project Gemini : Colours & Light : Aquarium Drunkard
On Colours & Light, Project Gemini’s second album, released by certified groove merchants Mr. Bongo, UK bassist Paul Osborne welcomes listeners into the soundtracks of his dreams. Expect acid folk, tropicalia, yé-yé, and Caribou circa The Milk of Human Kindness—when they were still a psych-pop band with two drum kits.
Transmissions : Sean Howe (Live at PRS) : Aquarium Drunkard
On Saturday, April 20th, Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions returned to the esoteric grounds of the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles for a living taping with guest host Will Sheff (Okkervil River) in conversation author Sean Howe, discussing Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s, book on High Times founder, provocateur, and trickster Thomas King Forçade as part of PRS' Earth Day celebration Plantstock.
Greg Foat, Sokratis Votskos, Warren Hampshire & Ayo Salawu : Live at Villa Maximus, Mykonos : Aquarium Drunkard
On his second live release this year, Villa Maximus sends jazz pianist and synthesizer maven Greg Foat to Mykonos with his frequent collaborators guitarist Warren Hampshire of the Bees and drummer Ayo Salawu of Kokoroko. But the real wild card here is stellar Greek reedman Sokratis Votskos, who adds flute and bass clarinet to this already formidable unit. The thrilling results range from deep space ambient jazz exploration to funky krautrock blowouts.
Nick Millevoi : Moon Pulses : Aquarium Drunkard
Enter Nick Millevoi. The guitarist's Moon Pulses rises over the horizon of cosmic guitar, breathing life from a new direction. The six-part suite that encompasses the LP offers a stoic take on the free-form headyness that proliferates the current world of guitar records.
Water Damage : The Aquarium Drunkard Interview : Aquarium Drunkard
Maximal repetition with minimal deviation: This is the guiding principle of Water Damage, the amorphous Austin, Texas-based collective specializing in 20-minute slabs of hulking, relentless drone-rock for people who think two notes is one too many. An awe-inspiring racket that sounds like Earth taking a crack at making dance music, or a bulldozer covering Faust.
Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard : April 2024 : Aquarium Drunkard
Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard returns to the Dublab airwaves for another round of sound. New Happy Gathering kicks things off with an hour of folk, chamber atmospheres, and downtown jazz + Doom & Gloom From The Tomb will jam some new favorites from 2024 — motorik workouts, early morning ambient and dreamy drones. Sunday, 4-6pm PT.
Transmissions Live : Will Sheff (Okkervil River) in Conversation with Sean Howe (Agents of Chaos) : Aquarium Drunkard
Saturday, April 20th, Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions returns to the esoteric setting of the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles for a living taping with guest host Will Sheff (Okkervil River) in conversation author Sean Howe, discussing Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s, book on High Times founder, provocateur, and trickster Thomas King Forçade. It's all part of PRS' Earth Day celebration Plantstock. AD subscribers get in free with a code.
somesurprises : The Aquarium Drunkard Interview : Aquarium Drunkard
somesurprises began modestly, but with the band’s latest record, the excellent Perseids, they’ve moved into a positively widescreen space. It’s a dreamy sound, occasionally reminiscent of such legends as Stereolab, Grouper, Mazzy Star or Yo La Tengo. But it’s not just dreamy. Beneath the gorgeous drones and sweet motorik pop-rock, there are plenty of sharp edges, both sonically and lyrically.
Sufferer's Time : Michael Crow At The Controls : Aquarium Drunkard
Sun is shining. The latest installment in Michael Crow Taylor’s dank reggae mix series, Sufferer’s Time, winds a path through deep devotionals, primo dub and loping, cosmic love jams. Mixed at Dad’s Bar and Grill, Durham, NC. You can find Taylor onstage with Hiss Golden Messenger, and in the studio with Hiss, Revelators Sound System and many other friends ...
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin : Ghosted II : Aquarium Drunkard
This second round of Ghosted rides a sinuous pulse, a tricky pop of rhythm playing out over multi-toned drumheads, a subtle nod of bass, a flame-like fluctuation of tone and feedback. Oren Ambarchi who more typically works in the studio, layering texture on texture in post-production, here again sinks into a live, intuitive groove, reacting on the fly to long-time compatriots Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin.
Goro Ito Ensemble : Amorozsofia - Abstract João : Aquarium Drunkard
Equal parts João Gilberto tribute and freshly inspired arrangements, this is a fulfilling experiment reaching cinematic depths. A restless arranger and film composer in Japan, the prolific Giro Ito Ito is perhaps most inventive when playing homage to the Brazilian musicians that perennially influence his compositions. Sean O'Hagan describes it best: "The harmony he manages to craft is post-Jobim and Gilberto but collides with European and Japanese experimentation to create a sound unique to Goro".
Stereolab : Black Session (La Maison de la Radio: Paris, France) : Aquarium Drunkard
March 30, 1993. Paris, France. Following the release of their studio debut, Peng, and eight months before the release of the, now classic, Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, Stereolab touched down in the 16th arrondissement to record a Black Session at La Maison de la Radio. Sublime Silver Apples cover, naturally.
Agitation Free : At the Cliffs of River Rhine : Aquarium Drunkard
Agitation Free emerged in the early 1970s in the same Berlin circles as electronic experimentalists like Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel. But this killer 1974 concert from Cologne reveals them in their true form, a first-rate psychedelic jam band influenced by open-ended American boogie outfits like the Allmans and the Grateful Dead.
Prophesies of a World to Come : On Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill : Aquarium Drunkard
The singular and enigmatic singer-songwriter Judee Sill has been gone nearly 45 years, yet her work is in a renaissance. Over the past twenty years, there has been a growing fascination in both Sill’s music and story, with a series of reissues, posthumous releases, and retrospectives opening her work to a contemporary audience. Now a new documentary on her life and career, Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill.
High Llamas & Healing Potpourri : In Conversation : Aquarium Drunkard
Sean O'Hagan's High Llamas project has always followed its creator's whims. But with Hey Panda, the Llamas embark on their most unexpected journey yet, straight into the heart of the auto-tuned, hyper pop fixated social media feed. Simi Sohota of Healing Potpourri joins O'Hagan to unpack the new album, consider the spiritual life of pianos, and reflect on the way the '90s changed how musicians approach—and shatter—the concept of genre.
Television : Live at the Academy, NYC 12.4.92 : Aquarium Drunkard
Television have two well-known live albums to their name, both taped in 1978 — the classic ROIR release The Blow-Up, which came out in the early 1980s, and the incendiary Live at the Old Waldorf, emerging about 20 years later. Live at the Academy is much more under the radar; originally sold in unassuming CDR format at merch tables in the 2000s, it’s been available only fleetingly since on various streaming services. This year’s Record Store Day, however, sees the performance getting a well-deserved double LP reissue. It’s a necessary addition to Television’s relatively small discography.