A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #70

RIP KA, new mix, and many reviews

Dear Listeners, Joseph here for your bi-weekly digest of the best of ACL. My personal life has continued to slow me down, and so the final two episodes of Sound Propositions have been delayed a bit longer. But we’ve still got a lot going on over the last two weeks. Stefan Christoff returns for another hour-long mix, celebrating Montreal tape label Jeunesse Cosmique. I’ve collected a few batch releases to highlight alongside my Mini-Reviews. This installment of which includes a few notable reissues, which I’ve collected at the end. And of course we have selections from our daily new music reviews. But first, and I hate that this is becoming a necessary feature of these newsletters, a moment of reflection on the life and works of KA.

RIP KA

Brownsville, Brooklyn’s finest lyricist, Kaseem Ryan (1972-2024), better known as KA, died unexpectedly on October 12. Everytime hip-hop loses another legend too soon, I think of Open Mike Eagle’s Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes, and a later line, “Everything changed since Guru,” referring to the Gang Starr MC who passed at age 48 in 2010. For much of its history, hip hop seemed to be a young man’s game, but in recent years the genre has seemed to mature, as older rappers have demonstrated that there’s something to be learned from experience.

Along with Roc Marciano, a comrade and frequent collaborator, KA has quietly become one of hip hop’s greatest lyricists, often rapping over his own “drumless” productions. Marciano’s Marcberg set the template in 2010, and KA’s Grief Pedigree follow suit in 2012, the same year as billy woods’ History Will Absolve Me, another could-be-swansong from an MC who had been at it for a while and was thinking about throwing in the towel. Instead, both woods and KA got enough gas off those records to fuel legendary runs, showing that rappers can indeed get better with age.

Originally a member of the Natural Elements crew in the ‘90s, since going solo the Brownsville rapper (and firefighter) Ka has been one of the critical lights of truly independent hip hop, releasing record after critically-acclaimed record since his solo debut Iron Works, leading to a feature on the GZA’s Pro Tools thanks to Roc, both in 2008. Ka’s records are often entirely self-produced and exquisitely lyrical, pressed up on his own Iron Works Records. In more recent years he’s held court via pop-ups often selling physicals with lines around the block. Just a few weeks ago there was a pop-up for his latest record, The Thief Next to Jesus. Montages from the event show a who’s-who of hip-hop—rappers, producers, journalists, and just plain fans—who came to show respect to the eminent lyricist who mentored so many.

I was late to tap in to KA, drawn in by the response to 2020’s Descendants of Cain (mostly produced by Ka, along with tracks from regular collaborators Animoss, Roc Marci, and Preservation) and 2021’s A Martyr’s Reward, as part of my pandemic era re-acquaintance with NY underground hip hop inspired by the rise of ARMAND HAMMER. I’d been a fan of hip hop since I was a teen, drawn to Mos Def, De La Soul, and DOOM. But by 2009 I was more interested in producers and the LA beat scene. I still followed rappers like Jean Grae, Quelle Chris, and Earl Sweatshirt, and of course more mainstream MCs like Kendrick, but it wasn’t until 2019 that I really started to understand the strength of underground lyricists active today.

KA’s A Martyr’s Reward was among my favorites of 2021, and the double releases Languish Arts & Woeful Studies were included in my best of 2022 (ACL Weeklt #27). And just last month, in #67, I wrote about KA’s latest (and now final) LP, The Thief Next to Jesus. KA mostly produced and released his own records, and was a true solo artist in every sense of the word. But he was also a collaborator. 2015’s Days of Dr. Yen Lo sees the MC rhyming over beats from Preservation, a restrained abstract masterpiece making for a bridge between the knocking drums of KA’s earlier work and the more subdued hypnotic loops that characterized much of his later work. He also released the stunning Orpheus vs. The Sirens, a 2018 collaboration with Los Angeles producer Animoss, under the name Hermit and the Recluse.

That record deploys Greek mythology to delve into grief, fate, and life on the streets, without ever feeling contrived or heavy handed. “How it's lookin', Brooklyn birth Gods like they do in Crete” he spits on “Atlas,” and eludes to “The Punishment of Sisyphus” on a track of that title when he raps, "Inherited a ready-made plight/ Was too heavy, not many made light." Religion is also a common theme in his work, showing up not just in the guise of mythological figures and themes but in real world contexts. On Descendents of Cain’s “Unto the Dust” he explains that “Y'all played the Dozens, my favorite cousins spent they youth in prisons/ They names known, came home; now, the house got two religions.” That album refers to the stain caused by that Biblical first murder, a theme that anchors the record much as a chess theme grounds 2013’s The Night’s Gambit or bushido 2016’s Honor Killed the Samurai.

KA produced conceptually cohesive and dense albums, but like Marci and woods, he also had a knack for tweet worthy bars, as on the classic “Cold Facts” when he spits “I own the night, the heat's my receipt/ I need peace, all that beef shit is weak.” The name KA comes from an Egyptian concept for the part of the individual that survives their mortal existence. On the second verse of “Cold Facts,” KA rhymes “Fruits of my labor, I'm building farms/ The illest psalms written with killer palms,” aware of the legacy he was building while struggling with the realities of life in one of New York City’s most impoverished neighborhoods. “Praise me when I'm dead, make bread while I'm breathin'/Can't take it when I'm leavin'.”

His priorities always seemed to be in order, and when the New York Post revealed his day job as a firefighter in a 2016 hit piece, predictably reducing one of NY’s great artists as an “anti-cop rapper,” KA took the high road, refusing to take the bait, channeling his feelings into his rhymes instead. That day job as a firefighter, one who responded to 9/11 for that matter, further grounded his work in the spirit of a truly independent, working-class, and real artist. KA embodied the hope that hip hop is something that can age, that’s allowed to mature and have a day job.

Over at the Millennials Are Killing Capitalism podcast, host Jared, who reviewed some of KA’s early records and interviewed the MC over the years, brings together a roundtable of fans and collaborators to pay tribute to his legacy. The first guest, Mtume Gant, mentions that Andre 3000 interview, where the Outkast rapper turned New Age flautist claims he has nothing to rap about because he’s old. Gant says what we were all thinking: “Man, go listen to KA bro!”

Our friend GENG PTP shows up at 25:38 to talk about his own relationship with KA, as perhaps the first person to interview the Brownsville rapper, around the time of the release of his breakthrough record, 2012’s Grief Pedigree. PTP is now best known as a label, but as GENG told me on the podcast some years back, PTP started as a blog, doing some East Village Radio shows, and trying to put on new voices in much the same style that Stretch and Bob had done for a prior generation. GENG and so many of the other voices here testify to the strength of KA’s oeuvre, and the success of his desire to be the hip hop Sade, the true artist who never misses and whose music can be a source of comfort, of medicine, for our suffering. RIP KA.

Stefan Christoff presents a Jeunesse Cosmique showcase [mix] 

Stefan Christoff is a friend and collaborator of mine, who has often contributed mixes to this blog. We are pleased to announce that our latest tape will be released as part of the third batch from Polish label OKLA, alongside a new work by the great Manja Ristić. But before we get to that, Stefan has put together a mix to celebrate Montreal tape label Jeunesse Cosmique, who released our previous collaboration, Across Time Patched Together. The label is run by Chittakone Baccam Thirakul, and has released projects from many of our favorite local artists, including Hazy Montagne Mystique, YlangYlang, A Sacred Cloud, Hobo Cubes, Anarchist Mountains, Alexandre St-Onge, and Hellenica, as well as records from out-of-towners, such as Arrington De Dionyso, Forest Management, and Lost Trail. This mix showcases some other artists from the recent Jeunesse Cosmique catalog, including some selections at the end from our recent tape. Enjoy. 

Read more, including some words from Stefan and a tracklisting, here.

Batches

Did you see my recent Archival post featuring Kate Carr? Well, beyond her latest work as half of Rubbish Music, Kate Carr’s Flaming Pines label has announced a few records for November. Lower the Tonearm finds Leo Okagawa exploring understated field recordings in non-dramatic but deeply affecting exploration of lowercase aesthetic. By contrast, Luuma’s Ffroeds displays much more drama with the unpredictability of Chris Kiefer's own invented feedback instruments. And on David Evans’ Can You Hear Me, the Australian composer manipulates just three sound sources—a baby's vocalisations, in vitro heartbeat, and an autoharp—to emulate the calls of endangered birds.

Our friends at Longform Editions have just released their fortieth (!) batch of four compositions for deep listening. Eli Winter’s Ghost Notes is a tapestry for the future of American music, Water Damage’s Reel LE a greasy drone rock minimalism, while Brazil’s Babe, Terror channels old world signals in the ether of digital decay with Pescadou Gualapagouse, and Post Moves explores the avant-astral plane on Love’s Temporary Occurrence.

And finally, the final batch from Seattle’s’ Never Anything Records, who are calling it a day after nine years, having released tapes from many of ACL’s favorite acts, including AMULETS, More Eaze, claire rousay, Abby Lee Tee, Beachers, Nick Storring, Eventless Plot, Jen Kutler, Nils Quak, Hazy Montagne Mystique, and so many others. Their final batch include Death of a Valley by Peter Kris, Parfois by Tereshkova, ABCD by Lustana, and The Strays I Feed by Robert Eggplant. Running the gamut from spacy guitar noodles to sampladelic sound collage, from minimalist electronica to blissful ambient, this final batch has a lot to discover. Never Anything go out on a high note with a catalog to be proud of.

Mini-Reviews

Short highlights

Greg Davis ~ Full Spectrum 3/7 
The long-awaited follow-up to 2009’s Full Spectrum, the Vermont artist’s homage to blissful New Age tones. Limited to 100 cassettes. Gorgeous side-long diaphanous drones to get lost in, this is that flow state music.

Ka Baird ~ Ictum Exercises (Polyrhythmic Studies)
Ka Baird’s Bearings has been one of our favorite records of the year. Now they’re back with a surprise release on Astral Spirits. These are very rhythmic excursions, as the subtitle suggests, a single random rhythmic pattern modulated, filtered, and augmented by electronics, voice, and breath. The piece was originally devised as a video piece with multimedia artist Camilla Padgitt-Coles as part of a streaming COVID edition of the late Phill Niblock's legendary Experimental Intermedia'sWinter Performance Series.

Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice ~ Phantasy & Reality
These longtime collaborators follow up to their 2022 Moon Glyph tape with more gorgeous interplay between Avery’s piano and nylon guitar and Pulice’s signal-processed sax. Beautiful music not to be missed.

Rain Text ~ III
Giuseppe Ielasi and Giovanni Civitenga return with the third of their collaborations. It seems the only time we’ve mentioned this project is in passing in a 2017 piece on the return of Senufo Editions. While their two previous releases were 12”s of four tracks each, III is a proper full-length, and the duo take advantage of the additional length. Those first two records came out of the same initial recording sessions, but the material on III feels newer and more considered. Not quite dance floor ready, the Rain Text finds Ielasi working in a more straightforward and rhythmic zone. The results are often fun and engrossing, but III uses its extra space to demonstrates some additional range, changing up the pace from track to track, including an almost dark ambient moments on the b-side.

Sarine ~ Asas Terrenas
Hypnotic organ and percussion experiments from Brazil. Mariano Melo is a multi-instrumentalist based in São Paulo, specializing in percussion and drums, best known for his drumming with the band DEAFKIDS. Asas Terrenas is his debut as Sarine, a project built around free-wheeling modal improvisations for electric organ.

Shabaka ~ Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace
Rich included this record in our Spring Previews, but still I wanted to include it here in case anyone missed it. If you were underwhelmed by Andre 3000’s flute record, you might have better results here, though it’s not really a fair comparison. Shabaka does play on New Blue Sun, but he’s made a name for himself as a young multi-instrumentalist on the British jazz scene, best known probably for his groups Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming. He released an excellent solo record last year as Kofi Flexxx, and has in recent years collaborated with artists including Moor Mother, billy woods, and Armand Hammer. But Shabaka announced last year he would be taking a hiatus from playing the saxophone to focus on the flute, and the result is a beautiful record I have found myself returning to again and again. Billed as his proper solo debut, the record calls in quite an impressive list of collaborators. Guest vocalists include Moses Sumney, Saul Williams, and ELUCID, the latter of whose track, “Body To Inhabit,” reimagines his verse from Armand Hammer’s “Switchboard.” Additional guests include Lianne La Havas, Laraaji and Floating Points.

Reissue Corner

James Tenney ~ Postal Pieces
James Tenney was an American composer and music theorist, whose 1961 master’s thesis Meta (+) Hodos has a privileged place on my bookshelf along works by John Cage for its influence on theorizing a formal basis for the innovations of 20th century new music. Tenney’s Postal Pieces, or "Scorecards," are 11 short works for instrumentalists written on a postcard, originally developed during his brief tenure teaching at CalArts in the early 1970s. Though they have been performed often, they only appeared on record in 2004. Die Schachtel’s Blume imprint gave Postal Pieces its first vinyl edition earlier this year. It’s since sold out, but while you wait for the second pressing, you can still have a listen on Bandcamp. And hey, CD editions are still available from New World.

Joe McPhee ~ Black Magic Man (1975), The Willisau Concert ( 1976), and Tenor (1977)
Following up on their 2019 reissue of McPhee’s 1971 classic Nation Time, Superior Viaduct blesses us with three more reissues of the tenor titan’s seventies work. Based in Poughkeepsie, New York, the multi-instrumentalist was too far from the city to make a name in that era’s formative loft scene. Black Magic Man was recorded during the same 1970 sessions that produced Nation Time, but is a pivotal moment in his career, as it was his first international release. The Willisau Concert documents McPhee’s 1975 Euro tour with John Snyder playing ARP 2600, in a much more free and open mode compared with their 1974 duo album, Pieces Of Light. Recorded in a Swiss barnhouse spontaneously after a dinner party in 1976, Tenor, McPhee’s first solo LP, spotlights his tenor sax, as the title suggests. With liner notes from the incomparable John Corbett, a must listen for fans of grooving free music.

Mario Migliardi ~ Matalo!
Reissue of the cult soundtrack to Cesare Canevari 1970 western film Matalo!, composer Mario Migliardi’s score bucks all the trends associated with spaghetti westerns. Keeping up with Canevari’s visual innovation, Migliardi embraces groovy themes and dark atmospheres for an experimental and genre-bending masterpiece of electronically processed acoustic jams.

RECENT REVIEWS

Reviews are at the heart of ACL. Here are selections from a few of my favorite reviews we posted on the blog in the last few weeks.

Cruel Diagonals ~ Calcite
Cruel Diagonals (L.A.’s Megan Mitchell) is quickly becoming one of our favorite artists.  Fractured Whole, recorded only with the sound of her voice, was one of our top albums of 2023.  This year Cruel Diagonals returns with Calcite, a confident EP that is both science fiction story and cautionary tale, spanning the entire history of life on earth in only fifteen minutes.  The brevity is consistent with the fact that humans have only been on earth for 0.007% of its history, while making a monstrous impact on its health and the health and existence of its other inhabitants.  Mitchell’s music is sombre and elegiac, suggesting that species burn bright and disappear, and that any sense of superiority stems from a limited perspective.  Mitchell adopts the geological view of time, and shifts her appreciation of the world’s treasure from living beings to geological formations, especially the limestone and basalt of Southern California.

Ellen Reid ~ Big Majestic
What does it mean for music to be of a physical place? The question is explored by Ellen Reid on her latest album, Big Majestic.  Reid is an American composer who won the Pulitzer in 2019 for her opera p r i s m. The music on Big Majestic originated in a different project, Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK: a geographical experience where music was composed for specific locations, such as Central Park in New York.  A GPS-enabled app arranged the music according to location as one walked. I’d love to experience it in real life, but sadly not all of us can go hang out in Central Park, so the composer has gifted us this album. This is a Good Thing. The music is great.

Marc Namblard & Yannick Dauby ~ Brownsberg & Other Topographies
Marc Namblard and Yannick Dauby engage with contrasting soundscapes in the split set Brownsberg and Other Topographics.  Dauby’s dérive (an urban walk) mirrors the “drift” of being lost in an urban environment.  Namblard’s composition, recorded in Suriname, restores the connection with nature. Recorded in Taiwan and Tokyo, Dauby’s “Other Topographics” reinforces the idea of an aimless, rewarding wander. At first the sounds are industrial, and non-specific; but the latter part of the piece takes listeners to a city soundscape where everyday sounds proliferate: children playing, prayer rhythms, public announcements, heavy machinery, traffic and transit. Silence and pauses, sudden hums and roars, beats and pulses suggest a world of chaos and complexity; bird, insect and water sounds are reminders that nature has a way of breaking through.  

Nonconnah ~ Nonconnah vs. the Spring of Deception
It’s always nice to return home and be welcomed by old friends.  After years away, Nonconnah (Magpie + Denny Wilkerson Corsa) has returned to Absolutely Kosher, which has greeted them with open arms; label mates Spencer Krug and Spaceheads lend their talents to what may be the duo’s most cohesive and positive album yet.  Their haunted, abraded stylings remain, culled from thrift shop tapes and unearthed mediums, making this a perfect October album; but Nonconnah vs. the Spring of Deception also boasts a surprisingly bright ending, and a cover that seems more fantasy than horror. Despite the changes in instrumentation, there’s an internal consistency to the work of Nonconnah. Their music conflates past and present while looking toward a future that may or may not involve spiritual apocalypse.  Legends intermingle with fantastic imaginings, pre-recorded music with live instrumentation.  While old cassettes are a primary part of the LP mix, Magpie leaves a new voice mail on an analogue tape recorder.  The album ends with “…Like Some Distant Star Collapsing,” which starts with the album’s loudest drone, but finishes with a train whistle and a serenade of strings and bells.  In execution and in theory, it sounds like coming home.  

Patrick Shiroishi ~ Glass House
Patrick Shiroishi is not only a multi-instrumentalist, but a multi-genre composer.  Glass House extends his talents even further, to the world of dance.  The album is the score to a theatre piece from Volta Collective, directed by Mamie Green.  From the snippets we’ve seen and the reviews we’ve read, the live presentation is sensual, original and audacious.  One of our favorite ideas: throwing a coin into a fountain occupied by two dancers.  As a sweet bonus, Green also choreographed the album’s first video, “Procession,” seen below. Leave behind any assumptions you may have about a Shiroishi album, save for the saxophone, which makes only sparing appearances.  The highlight is the variety of tones, which notches perfectly with Green’s vision.  The record’s entire first side is filled by a single piece, “memories (i am in the vortex)”, which begins with the sound of a ticking clock, the hush of the sea and a low, growing drone.  The light hammering sounds like footsteps, or the other way around; a door slams.  Before the first piano note lands, the mind is already making associations, especially between the clock, the title and the tide.  Soon other objects rattle about, like the detritus of a life.  Rain falls on tin.  Text messages whoosh back and forth.  A kitchen table is cleared while planes pass overhead.  And then the sounds of the great outdoors: children, laughter, birds, thunder.  In the closing minute, a “classic” phone continues to ring, unanswered.  Are these memories as well, or are events unfolding in real time?  One can only imagine what is transpiring on stage.

Pietu Arvola ~ Meidän täytyy valvoa jottemme nukkuisi, sillä maailma on liukas
Meidän täytyy valvoa jottemme nukkuisi, sillä maailma on liukas (Google translation: We must watch that we do not sleep, for the world is slippery) refers to a letter written by nineteenth century painter Pekka Halonen to his sister.  He warns that one must stay vigilant in the face of information overload, and not allow one’s self to grow jaded, apathetic or overwhelmed.  One wonders what might have constituted “information bombardment” in the 1800s, although the physical increase in noise is easy to identify as the byproduct of the Industrial Revolution.  The cover image, which references Ophelia floating down the river, is apt; the subject matter remains startlingly relevant. The album was conceived “during a year of loss and a remarkably grey time.”  Pietu Arvola lost himself in the landscapes of Fallout 4, but then emerged to wander the Finnish forests, recording sounds that would eventually end up on this album.  This contrast contributes the album’s tone, simultaneously grounded and otherworldly, akin to a phantasm.  One is reminded of the fairy tale realms of fellow Finns Paavoharju, although this album is topped with a thicker film of melancholy.

Socks And Ballerinas ~ A Little Jumpy!
The kinetic energy of Bristol looping duo Socks and Ballerinas is hard to resist – so why try?  It’s easier to give in to their supercharged tone.  Just check out the video for “Newton,” the album’s first single, a cracker at only 2:22. Leonardo Calamati plays guitar, bass and synths, while Katalin Helfenbein plays drums.  The looping helps them to sound even larger.  Splitting the difference between rock and electronic, they exude a cheerful, upbeat vibe, coming across as a jam band.  In the video, the colors and angles keep changing, a reflection of the duo’s free approach to shifting time signatures.  They make funny faces.  They lie down.  In the most exciting scenes, they start bashing the walls. This duo knows how to have fun, a facet that should translate well to their live shows.

V/A ~ Cybernetics, Or Ghosts?
The arrival of ChatGPT has accelerated the discussion of the relationship between art and A.I.  Are the words we are reading “real,” and what does “real” mean?  In time, will the average human being be able to tell the difference between human and A.I.-generated texts? Will the music we listen to be “artificial,” and will we be able to trust the reviews?  On the scary side, A.I. is already affecting elections and public discourse; on the optimistic side, the hybrid art shows promise.  All of these developments were predicted by Italo Calvino in his 1967 lecture “Cybernetics and Ghosts,” which is the starting point for this Subtext Records release. Cybernetics, or Ghosts? is a literary anthology edited by Michael Salu and a music compilation compiled by James Ginzburg.  The stories are inspired directly by Calvino, while the tracks are inspired by the stories.  The presence of a writer named ∀ I is already troubling, turning things literally on their head, suggesting not collaboration, but replacement.  But Calvino’s lecture was not meant to be cautionary; instead, the author considered it to be a “thought experiment” investigating the origins of language and storytelling.  In response, Cybernetics, or Ghosts? is an extension of the discussion around generative texts, music and visuals, a mutual venture between human and non-human artists.

V/A ~ Inner Demons Batch 2024B ~ Part Two
Last weekend we covered the first eleven of Inner Demons‘ massive 33-strong Batch 2024B.  Today we’ll cover the middle 11, and next weekend we’ll finish the set.  The whole idea of releasing so much music in a single day is absolutely insane, but since it caught our attention, maybe it wasn’t so crazy after all! While there’s no compromise in the music, there is a sense of building drama.  Then suddenly, buried in the onslaught of 33 releases, we find the humble Dan Fox, the head of the Inner Demons label, with his own project Fail.  Dan admits that he’s been haunted by his own inner demons, which led to the name of the label.  The music is dark and distorted, but by no means a failure; instead, it’s a statement of vulnerability. Dark music sometimes comes from dark minds, but not always.  Sometimes dark music reflects dark minds, dark thoughts or dark situations; other times dark music is fascinated with the dark, and this fascination can produce a surprising light.  And sometimes dark music is simply meant to be fun, reflecting the multiple opinions about Halloween, the trick and the treat intertwined.  Fox’s label gets this.  

V/A ~ Inner Demons Batch 2024B ~ Part Three
Today we wrap up our coverage of Inner Demons Records‘ massive 33-release batch, which is a good time to point out that the label has already released a bunch of EPs and albums since then.  There’s just no stopping this Tampa, Florida powerhouse!  Today’s installment covers the last eleven in the alphabetical batch, as previewed in the sampler. If one is looking for Halloween music, there’s plenty to find here, more than one release for every October night.  But Inner Demons isn’t just about fear, or even disturbance.  The label’s music is a reminder that it’s okay to feel disillusioned, disjointed and disconnected; that we all have inner demons, and that it’s better to recognize them than to deny them; even to make peace with them.  None of these 33 artists try to cheer the listener up, but they still end up offering solace in their realistic way; and this sense of authenticity is the label’s greatest strength.

UPCOMING RELEASES

(complete list with Bandcamp links here)

Hundreds of amazing fall albums have already been announced, with many linked below, more in our Fall Music Preview and even more to come.  Fall is the best season for music, a consolation for the end of summer.  We’re particularly excited about this year’s crop, as it has as much color as the soon-to-fall leaves.  From big names to fresh discoveries, there’s always something new on the horizon; we’re adding new albums daily, and hope you’ll find your next favorite album right here!  Happy autumn, everyone!

Innesti ~ Diaphanous (Past Inside the Present, 16 October)

Andrea Giordano ~ Àlea (Sofa Music, 18 October)

a0no ~ Revolving Lantern (ato.archives, 18 October)

Anna Webber ~ simpletrio2000 (Intakt, 18 October)

Bodzan Raczynski ~ You’re Only Young Once But You Can Be Stupid Forever (Disciples, 18 October)

Brandon Seabrook ~ Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic, 18 October)

Bryan Perri ~ Few Words (18 October)

Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka ~ Magnificent Little Dudes, Volume 02 (Gearbox, 18 October)

Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band ~ Live at the Texas Theatre (Astral Spirits, 18 October)

Frise Lumière ~ Ambo (18 October)

Guy Blakeslee ~ EXTRAVISION (Leaving, 18 October)

Hidden Fort ~ Dreams from the Roller Palace (Pleasant Place, 18 October)

Isaka ~ Elytra (SFX, 18 October)

Jihye Chang ~ Boston Etudes (New Focus, 18 October)

Kinkajous ~ Nothing Will Disappear (Running Circle, 18 October)

Marysia Osu ~ harp, beats & dreams (Brownswood Recordings, 18 October)

Masahiro Sugaya ~ Overflowing Signs (ato.archives, 18 October)

Michaël Attias ~ Quartet Music Vol. II: Kardamon Fall (Out of Your Head, 18 October)

The Necks ~ Bleed (Northern Spy, 18 October)

Nour Mobarak ~ Dafne Phono (Recital, 18 October)

Nzʉmbe – Ardor or Entropy (Drowned by Locals, 18 October)

Oliver Coates ~ throb, shiver, arrow of time (RVNG Intl., 18 October)

Pat Thomas ~ This Is Trick Step (577 Records, 18 October)

Rubbish Music ~ Fatbergs (Persistence of Sound, 18 October)

Saagara ~ 3 (Glitterbeat, 18 October)

SO SNER ~ The Well (TAL, 18 October)

Sujevara ~ S/T (Kamizdat, 18 October)

Svaneborg Kardyb ~ Superkilen (Gondwana, 18 October)

Ueno Takashi ~ ARMS (Room40, 18 October)

V/A ~ Cybernetics, Or Ghosts? (Subtext, 6 October)

Various Artists ~ VINT (Lapsus, 18 October)

Yengo ~ Unaesthetic Harmony (ato.archives, 18 October)

Zachary Paul ~ Calendar (Recital, 18 October)

Cephas Azariah ~ Joy Paradox (Reflections, 21 October)

Érick d’Orion & Martin Tétreault ~ Cisterciennes (No Type, 22 October)

Ard Bit ~ Field Recordings – 05 Bohemia (23 October)

Manja Ristić and Tomáš Šenkyřík ~ Vstal (Skupina, 24 October)

Mode Collapse ~ Alternative Dreaming Techniques (24 October)

Acid Rooster ~ Hall of Mirrors (Cardinal Fuzz, 25 October)

Alex Cunningham and Eli Wallace ~ The Terrible Habit of Theatre (Storm Cellar and Personal Archives, 25 October)

Alma Laprida ~ Pitch Dark and Trembling (Outside Time, 25 October)

Angelo Harmsworth ~ Without Blinking (Warm Winters Ltd., 25 October)

Black Aleph ~ Apsides (Art As Catharsis/Dunk, 25 October)

Body Meπa ~ Prayer in Dub (Hausu Mountain, 25 October)

Charlotte Jacobs ~ a t l a s (New Amsterdam, 25 October)

Craven Faults ~ Bounds (Leaf, 25 October)

Cruel Diagonals ~ Calcite (Beacon Sound, 25 October)

Daniela Huerta ~ Soplo (Elevator Bath, 25 October)

Dayoung ~ Latency (CHINABOT, 25 October)

Eunhye Jong ~ End of Time / KM-53 Project, Volume 2 (577 Records, 25 October)

Felicia Atkinson ~ Space As An Instrument (Shelter Press, 25 October)

Flock ~ Flock II (Strut, 25 October)

Foudre! ~ Voltæ (Chthulucene) (Nahal, 25 October)

Ghosts of Glaciers ~ Eternal (Translation Loss, 25 October)

Giacomo Merega & Joe Morris ~ Opus Dichotomous (Infrequent Seams, 25 October)

Gneiss ~ Ruthless (Tripalium, 25 October)

Hammock ~ From the Void (Hammock Music, 25 October)

Joe Mygan ~ Add Water (Moon Villain, 25 October)

Jonas Munk ~ Mirror Phase (Azure Vista, 25 October)

Massimiliano Viel ~ Cluster (Elli, 25 October)

Mouse on Mars ~ Herzog Sessions (sonig, 25 October)

Mud Deep ~ Anor Londo (D.KO, 25 October)

NFL3 ~ O Days (Prohibited, 25 October)

Patrick Yim ~ One: New Music for Unaccompanied Violin (New Focus, 25 October)

Righteous Rooster ~ Fowl Play (Shifting Paradigm, 25 October)

Robert Schwartz ~ Stridulations (Superpang, 25 October)

Snowdrops ~ Singing Stones (Volume 1) (Gizeh, 25 October)

SUUMHOW ~ 5ILTH (n5MD, 25 October)

Tachycardie ~ Musique pour structures sonores Baschet (un-je-ne-sais-quoi, 25 October)

These Liminal Days ~ Empty Spaces 2 (25 October)

Toma Kami ~ missed heaven (mb studio, 25 October)

V/A ~ HoxV-1: ECDYSIS / 5 years of Amniote Editions (Amniote Editions, 25 October)

Yenisei ~ Home (25 October)

V/A ~ Resistance: Compilation of experimental music from Ukraine (Flaming Pines, 26 October)

Daniel Scheide ~ Seduced by a Vampire (Original Soundtrack) (Infrequent Seams, 29 October)

OKRAA ~ La Gran Corriente (A Strangely Isolated Place, 30 October)

Diaries of Destruction ~ DoD II (31 October)

DIEMAJIN ~ S/T (Drowned by Locals, 31 October)

Glyn Maier ~ Interbedded Gneiss II (enmossed, 31 October)

Rich God ~ Unmade (Somewherecold, 31 October)

ADRA ~ Music for Psychiatric Wards and Fluid Structures (1 November)

Alan Lamb ~ Night Passage (Room40, 1 November)

Andert Tysma ~ Hana (Apollo, 1 November)

Blurstem, Elijah Bisbee ~ Mirage, Vol. 1 (Bigo & Twigetti, 1 November)

Caleb Wheeler Curtis ~ The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery (Imani, 1 November)

Cybotron ~ Parallel Shift (Tresor, 1 November)

David Wallraf ~ نه (no) (Brachliegen Tapes, 1 November)

Dean Drouillard ~ Mirrors and Ghosts (1 November)

The Henrys ~ Secular Hymns and Border Songs (1 November)

Mike Cooper ~ Slow Motion Lighning (Room40, 1 November)

Philip Clemo ~ Through the Wave of Blue (1 November)

Philippe Petit ~ A Reassuring Elsewhere, Chapter 3 (Oscillations, 1 November)

Sarah Neufeld, Richard Reed Perry, Rebecca Foon ~ First Sounds (Envision, 1 November)

Scrimshire ~ Music for Autumn Lovers (Albert’s Favourites, 1 November)

Sermons by the Devil ~ Excorcismo Electronico (1 November)

Soshi Takeda ~ Secret Communication (100% Silk, 1 November)

Stuart Bogie ~ Patient Music (Historical Fiction, 1 November)

Sun Yizhou ~ 辛口 (Super Dry) (Brachliegen Tapes, 1 November)

Zagušljivi dim ~ Durchfall der Lebensmaschine (Ramble, 1 November)

Lifting Gear Engineer ~ Recovery (Machine, 2 November)

Lamina ~ Sueños acuáticos (mappa, 4 November)

Andrea Belfi & Jules Reidy ~ dessus oben alto up (Marionette, 8 November)

BANTAR ~ This Heat Is Exhausting (8 November)

Bit Cloudy ~ The Visitation Plays (8 November)

Black Rain ~ Neuromancer (Room40, 8 November)

HUM ~ Live in Milano (Elli, 8 November)

Leo Okagawa ~ Lower the Tonearm (Flaming Pines, 8 November)

Lili Holland-Fricke & Sean Rogan ~ Dear Alien (Melodic, 8 November)

Rafael Anton Irisarri ~ FAÇADISMS (Black Knoll, 8 November)

SABIWA, Queimada, Nathan L. ~ Sons of _ (Phantom Limb, 8 November)

Vazesh ~ Tapestry (Earshift Music, 8 November)

Yoo Doo Right ~ From the Heights of Our Pastureland (Mothland, 8 November)

Glitchkase ~ KALI (ALLES, 10 November)

mastroKristo ~ Passage (Lost Tribe Sound, 14 November)

Abdullah Miniawy ~ NigmaEnigma أنيجم النَجم (Hundebiss, 15 November)

Baldruin ~ Mosaike der Imagination (Quindi, 15 November)

Bestia Astrum ~ Fury 161 (Cold Spring, 15 November)

Blake Lee ~ No Sound in Space (OFNOT, 15 November)

civic hall ~ the trembling line (Lost Tribe Sound, 15 November)

Ffroeds ~ Luuma (Flaming Pines, 15 November)

Ka Baird ~ Ictum Exercises (Polyrhythmic Studies) (Astral Spirits, 15 November)

Lara Sarkissian ~ Remnants (btwn Earth+Sky, 15 November)

Manja Ristić ~ Dew (okla, 15 November)

Murcof ~ Twin Color (vol. 1) (InFiné, 15 November)

Nizar Rohana ~ Safa (Worlds Within Worlds, 15 November)

Oöhna Call ~ Bauerngarten (L’octuple lunaire, 15 November)

Pleizel ~ Primal Touch (Mesh, 15 November)

R Grunwald ~ Iterations (15 November)

Samuel Rohrer ~ Music for Lovers (Arjunamusic, 15 November)

Sly & The Family Drone ~ Moon Is Doom Backwards (Human Worth, 15 November)

Stefan Christoff & Joseph Sannicandro ~ Transmissions in Silver (okla, 15 November)

Various Artists ~ Have Faith (Faith Beat, 15 November)

Zacc Harris ~ Chasing Shadows (Shifting Paradigm, 15 November)

Zaumne ~ Only Good Dreams For Me (Warm Winters Ltd., 15 November)

michaela turcerová ~ alene et (mappa, 18 November)

numün ~ Opening (Centripetal Force, 20 November)

Brueder Selke ~ Stimmen in Prague (oscarson, 22 November)

Chloe Lula ~ Oneiris (Subtext, 22 November)

David Evans ~ Can You Hear Me (Flaming Pines, 22 November)

Eva Novoa ~ Novoa / Carter / Mela Trio, Vol. 1 (577 Records, 22 November)

HAPTIC ~ Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions (LINE, 22 November)

Human Error ~ S/T (Astral Spirits, 22 November)

Kristen Roos ~ Universal Synthesizer Interface Vol. III (We Are Busy Bodies, 22 November)

Lia Bosch ~ Polar Code (Glacial Movements, 22 November)

Quiet Husband ~ Religious Equipment (Drowned by Locals, 22 November)

Driftwood ~ S/T (Room40, 25 November)

Belief Defect ~ Desire and Discontent (raster, 29 November)

Ben Klock & Fadi Mohem ~ LAYER ONE (LAYER, 29 November)

Ben Lukas Boysen ~ Alta Ripa (Erased Tapes, 29 November)

Evan Parker ~ The Heraclitian Two-Step, Etc. (False Walls, 29 November)

Kenneth Kirschner ~ April 27, 2023 (Room40, 29 November)

Passepartout Duo ~ Argot (29 November)

Tolouse Low Trax ~ Fung Day (TAL, 29 November)

Various Artists ~ The Jettison OST (Crooked Acres, 29 November)

Rikuko Fujimoto ~ Distant Landscapes (FatCat/130701, 30 November)

Rosales ~ Half-Light (Home Normal, 1 December)

Adam Tendler ~ Inheritances (New Amsterdam, 6 December)

Alvin Curran ~ ARCHEOLOGY//ARCHEOLOGIA (Room40, 6 December)

Ava Rasti ~ The River (Fatcat/130701, 6 December)

indek ~ Cringe Wold (Rubber City Noise, 6 December)

microplastique ~ blare blow bloom! (Irritable Mystic, 6 December)

Philip Samartzis & Michael Vorfeld ~ Air Pressure (Room40, 6 December)

Pope John Paul Van Damme ~ Disinfamy (Gearbox, 6 December)

WANU ~ Magma (No Sun, 6 December)

Ben Glas ~ Music for Listeners (2) (Room40, 13 December)

Glim ~ Tape I (Room40, December 13)

Baldini/Dafeldecker/Strüver ~ Prismatic (Room40, 20 December)

V/A ~ Winter Vol. 2 (Bigo & Twigetti, 27 December)

Emily Mikesell & Kate Campbell Strauss ~ Give Way (ears&eyes, 24 January)