2020 suggestions from here at Pen & Mallet

 

Some folks are putting together their end of the year lists. Lots to talk about as usual. I am sure a ton of great records will come out before the end of the year, but I thought I would help out the compilers with some titles that may not have gotten noticed. Since the latest aboombong album, asynartetic was the only official release from me this year, I guess it gets the local call. Some others to pay attention to this year include a string of releases from Sister Black Lagoon who are selling their whole discography for a tune. Also worth your notice are the releases from Hive Mind Records this year - including Jaipongan Music of West Java and "Aicha" from Maalem Mahmoud Gania. Another one to check out is Rabbit Hole Variations from Greg Nieuwsma of Sawak. And I would be remiss not to mention the work from Pen & Mallet regulars Dynamo Stairs album Nickel Chrome, or Kanawha's best yet. 

Sister Black Lagoon

First it was the The Sisters Doom, now Sister Black Lagoon. More from the fertile roots of the Las Cruces, NM music scene circa the mid 1980's Raul, from AOS and his long time collaborator Alex have let their first EP as Sister Black Lagoon drop. Since fishy love was all the rage at the Oscars...it is time for you to give it a try yourself.

Sisters Doom; Dynamo Stairs

Lots going on from the Las Cruces alumni this month.

First up is The Sisters Doom from Vague Choir leader Mark Earnest. Roots metal hitting all the right notes. Just straight up, balls out, rock. Buy it.  Next up two from Dynamo Stairs spanning 30 years of creativity. David Liso of Choke has been releasing music as Dynamo Stairs for 30 years. This month he has released new music and a great historical re-issue of his first release. This one includes unreleased tracks from 30 years ago and a pristine re-mastering of the original cassette release from 1988. And, impossible to ignore is a new plead for sanity from Dynamo Stairs with new songs in a well-practiced mode, Seasoned. Check it.

Backyards: a film by Raul Dorn & Circle of Bears

Raul from AOS made this video for his son's band Circle of Bears. For more visual art from Raul go to http://matrixfineart.com/raul-dorn-2/  or https://www.oacgallery.com/artist/raul-dorn/. Sound and vision.

Out Standing Rock - Turqouiz Noiz - Sweat Lodge (2016)

The perfect soundtrack for your road trip to North Dakota. Punk rock. 

the door and the window-singing on the roof

From Bendle's garden...

 
Other stuff to sample

Digging the Idaho dirt - ancient psychic

Some nice roots from Idaho. 

Bandcamping

 Some nice stuff on bandcamp to take note of...

Alastair Galbraith

New Zealand's Alastair Galbraith is, to my mind, a singular musical voice that everyone should know - sadly few do. The first album I heard by him was mirrorwork. It changed the way I thought about the concept of "song" in ways that I can't really express. It is now available along with some of his other works at Bandcamp.

To my taste, the 2008 album Orb is, next to mirrorwork, the stand out from the four available on bandcamp.



But you really can't go wrong with anything that Galbraith has been involved with. If you can track it down his work with Plagal Grind is particularly nice.



Being immersed in Galbraith's works was a huge player in my being able to contribute in a small way to the Dustdevil & Crow records, which are really some of the work I am most proud of. Bendle's work is tilted on a different axis than Galbraith's, but they share some strange orthogonal relationship to each other and the rest of the musical world.

Circle of Bears - Daylight (the next generation)

A.O.S. resident genius Raul Dorn had a kid a couple of decades ago. He's a musician.
This is his band.
I like it. -



That's his dad on the left - you can hear dad sing here

Beautiful Like Smoke - The Sextants

RIP Bugs...

.

The Sextants are perhaps the most successful group to emerge out of the music scene that flourished in Las Cruces, New Mexico in the mid 1980's. Like a.o.s. and The Young Pros, The Sextants emerged out of a scene full of talented folks both younger and older that shared members and ideas in groups that sometimes only lived long enough to explore an idea or to play a single show. Bugs Romeo/Salcido was a troubled troubadour that was a mentor for many of the younger members of that scene. I played with him and Elaine Walker in a project with Grant Garner who would later play in Choke. Bugs was charming and charismatic and went on to make music that made a lot of people happy. The Sextants reformed to record this song in tribute.

From the bandcamp link: "Bugs Salcido was a friend, supporter and influence on all of us in The Sextants. He passed away on September 10th, 2014. This song that he wrote is our tribute to him. You may download it for free or pay whatever you choose. Any money collected will be passed on to his family. "

Enjoy. Bugs would want you to. 

Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant

 Nice little diddy from our neighbhors to the East.

Atlatl - Piano Finalist

Just noticed this one. Nice...and check out the photography. Damn.

Black Silk

Kids got some skills. I like it. Mellow. 

Vague Choir: Non-Ultra Joy

My old buddy Mark has a new record out.
This time with his group Vague Choir. 
Well worth your time.
 Check it out.
And here's Mark as a youngster (he's the one on drums).

 

Przyzwoitość

Oddly nice...or nicely odd. I like it.

bandcamping

Some recent bandcamp finds


And some aboombong

bendle - jesus

One of my favorite new releases, a little tune called jesus is from a great friend here at pen & mallet. The main instigator behind dustdevil & crow, bendle has been doing his own thing musically since the late seventies (e.g., the door and the window and The 49 Americans and many, many other projects you can check out at his bandcamp page). This one is a collaboration with rob tarana and has been in heavy rotation since I downloaded it.

atlatl - the gratification of ambition

A quick one before I have to put the baby to bed. Friend of the show atlatl has a new one up on bandcamp. Worth your time if you like the abstract sound art.




In news, aboombong's next is coming along slowly but surely, and the next dustdevil & crow is in the works.

MSOTT Podcast

A new podcast from Rachel Evans, AKA Motion Sickness of Time Travel and the stellar blog Her Beats , a blog focusing on women in electronic music. Well worth checking out.



In aboombong news, the new album is in the works and should be out by summer. Going to be quite different than the previous works, but I am excited about the way it is sounding. Also have contributed a little to the next dustdevil & crow release. I think it is going to be bendle and Michael's best yet. Should be out sometime this year, methinks. Even some talk about live shows here in the Northwest if we can pull it all together. Stay tuned.