Category: ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Ibises’ “In The Swim”
Ibises is a trio of Chicago-based musicians who were not even a band yet when they played the gig that

Essential New Music: Bill Nace’s “Through A Room”
Across a couple of decades, Bill Nace has filled his dance card with a who’s-who of noise liberators. If you

Essential New Music: Shells’ “Outside”
Musician, DJ, show organizer—Shelley Salant is the kind of person who makes scenes keep on happening. The southeastern Michigan music

Essential New Music: Peter Brötzmann/Keiji Haino Duo’s “The Intellect Given Birth To Here (Eternity) Is Too Young”
If any two guys have earned the acronym GOAT, it’s Peter Brötzmann and Keiji Haino. Both are titanic performers and

Essential New Music: John McCowen’s “Models Of Duration”
Play Models Of Duration to the unprepared, and they won’t know what hit them. They’ll undoubtedly recognize that they’re facing

Essential New Music: Baba Commandant And The Mandingo Band’s “Sonbonbela”
Baba Commandant And The Mandingo Band achieves a classically elemental mix of sounds on its third album. The West African

Essential New Music: Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartett’s “Live ‘82”
The Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartett took its name from the two German land regions where its four members resided. Rüdiger Carl (reeds,

Essential New Music: Various Artists “Manos Ocultas: A Contemporary Guitar Music Compilation From Spain”
The guitar may be easily portable, but it is nonetheless freighted with all manner of baggage. In diverse locales around

Essential New Music: Thumbscrew’s “Multicolored Midnight”
“Shit Changes,” proclaims one of the tunes that bassist Michael Formanek wrote for Multicolored Midnight, but Thumbscrew persists. That’s pretty

Essential New Music: Marisa Anderson’s “Still, Here”
Marisa Anderson has spent most of the last four years angling away from the solo music she made during the

Essential New Music: Dredd Foole & The Din’s “Songs In Heat”
“On any given night, it’s a different band that’s the greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world,” Keith Richards

Essential New Music: Elkhorn’s “Distances”
More is more on the latest longplayer by these East Coast guitar spellcasters. Elkhorn’s core combo of Drew Gardner (six-string

Essential New Music: Bitchin Bajas’ “Bajascillators”
Musicians are just like you and me, see? What did you do with your pandemic? If you were lucky, you

Essential New Music: Hans Reichel’s “Bonobo Beach”
Hans Reichel was a one-of-a-kind guy. Born in Germany four years after the end of World War II, he showed