International Anthem: S/D

This Chicago-based jazz label has been dropping masterpieces at an alarming clip. I went with S/D since most label threads do, but I haven't heard anything that hasn't been worth at least a listen yet. And really only the Damon Locks album hasn't wowed me--and hell, I only listened to that once I should revisit.

Search:
Makaya McCraven (all three I've heard are fantastic, but if you're not sure where to start Universal Being is amazing & beloved on ilm)
Jaimie Branch (I've only heard Fly or Die II, which is great, but I noticed Fly or Die I was one of unperson's best of the 2010s)
Resavoir, s/t (a personal fave)
Junius Paul, Ism (big double album that covers a lot of ground; reminiscent of Universal Being at times but with much more stretching out and less beat-driven)
Angel Bat Dawid

Curious about:
Jeff Parker's stuff. I used to love Parker/Tortoise/Isotope/CUD and love hearing his highly recognizable guitar on UB, but he's been off my radar for at least a decade.
Ben LaMar Gay.
Irreversible Entanglements (also on unperson's list)
basically everything else they've put out

oh yeah: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/

I shouldn't start threads when I'm exhausted; it's Universal Beings (plural)

great label — i loved the Damon Locks album from last year.

ah ok that settles it, I'm going to give that another try right now

Pretty sure everything they put out is good. Angel Bat Dawid is my hero, she is so awesome

https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/angel-bat-dawid-oracle-international-anthem-brothahood-jazz/Content?oid=67155097

ooh will read that later, thanks

um yeah this Damon Locks album rules, and I love Phil Cohran, which this is very much in the vein of, so I don't know what happened last time?

They really do have a pretty amazing catalog. Don't overlook stuff like Hear In Now's Not Living In Fear (a violin-cello-bass trio featuring Mazz Swift, Tomeka Reid and Silvia Bolognesi) and the Nick Mazzarella Trio's Ultraviolet (NM on alto sax, Anton Hatwich on bass, Frank Rosaly on drums).

The new Jeff Parker album is really great. More on this (maybe) when I'm not so tired

Parker's gearing up for a hell of a year. In addition to the new solo disc (which is excellent), he's on a disc with saxophonist Chris Speed and drummer Matt Mayhall (under Mayhall's name) and there's a Chicago Underground Quartet album, their first in 19 years, coming in March.

Haven't heard the new one yet, but I love The New Breed.

I too love The New Breed, and that CUQ album, can't wait for the new stuff.

Yes! This label is taking all of my money. All the Makaya McCraven records are fantastic. I especially like Highly Rare and Where We Come From. The Jaimie Branch record is great too.

Haven't heard the new one yet, but I love The New Breed.

― jaymc, Thursday, January 23, 2020 8:47 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I like almost everything he's done (solo or otherwise) and I think Max Brown is maybe his best work

His Eremite LP--while very different--was also excellent and kinda slept on imo

speaking of which, this
is an excellent review that for me encapsulates this record's greatness (and the kind of thoughtful piece that provides a nice antidote to the stuff in the 'worst music writing' thread)

I haven't had a proper headphone listen yet, but I could swear I heard some beatboxing on one of these tracks. One other observation: "Go Away" has the dopest bassline of the year

The New Breed is my favorite Jeff Parker work and my favorite IA record, can't wait to get into the new one.

All the Makaya records are worth a listen of course, but Universal Beings is the one I go back to.

Not so into jaime branch personally, great bands and the records are cool, but I can't get past the trumpet playing.

Loved Junius Paul when I've seen him live, but haven't been able to give his record (or the Angel Bat Dawid one) a real listen yet.

Confirmed, new Jeff Parker is where it's at.

Not so into jaime branch personally, great bands and the records are cool, but I can't get past the trumpet playing.

Is it the tone, technique, or melodic lines / choices? Or something else? Genuinely curious as I find I like a very specific trumpet sound (a more breathy, less 'sharp' sound is the best way I can describe it--Tomasz Stanko, Miles obvs) and certain players really get on my nerves in a way that reeds players rarely do

Definitely the former, she just doesn't sound like a great trumpet player to me. I know I'm being a snob, but I'm spoiled by great technical trumpet players in the New Orleans mode (which is really a trumpet city), and for me that instrument is about having a big sound (even if you're not necessarily playing loud or high). For some instruments technique doesn't matter so much and you can express your ideas without having a lot of it, but idk, trumpet is pretty unforgiving, there's so much that goes into just having a decent sound on it before you even get to anything else.

I've heard her in a variety of contexts (she recorded a bunch as a sideman before coming out as a leader) and she's an extremely skilled player who can make the horn do whatever she wants. She sounds the way she does on her own albums by choice. Just listen to the way she shifts from slurry blues to brassy mariachi horn on "Prayer for Amerikkka."

Great track, and everything works in context, but I still find the trumpet playing in the last couple minutes a little cringe-y, sorry! She definitely has her own thing though.

Maybe slightly off topic (since the album isn't actually on IA), but what does everyone think of the Moses Boyd full length? I'm one of the only people (judging by ILX, anyway) who didn't love "Rye Lane Shuffle," but I absolutely adore "Drum Dance" and was wondering how much of the album sounds like the latter as opposed to the former.

love the new jeff parker great stuff

I am pretty into all the Ben LaMar Gay stuff, though admittedly it is all kind of all over the place so yr mileage may vary
Jeff Parker's stuff for the label is just fucking fantastic

Paul, I listened to that once and don't really remember what I thought (but loved both Rye Lane and Drum Dance, so not a great sign). You might get more of a response on the general rolling jazz thread, or there could be some past discussion on the Shabaka Hutchings one as it sort of evolved into a broader London jazz thread

my to-listen pile for IA is intimidating right now

bookmarked, thanks all

If you haven't checked out Angel Bat Dawid at all, this song is a great place to start. It's what I remember from the first time I saw her play. Her rise has truly been meteoric and she is a gracious wonderful person afaict

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/track/we-are-starzz

thanks, will listen tonight

great album and that profile you posted, LL, made me <3 her

does anyone know anything about angel bat dawid's black hebrew israelite background/ which community or temple she belongs to? just curious.

i feel like i read an article/interview where they talked about it a little but i don't remember which one or where
that's not very helpful sorry

Mordy, all the articles I have seen about Angel Bat Dawid mention her parents being Black Hebrew Israelites, but never say much about her faith . They do say she practices her music a lot and travels a lot. Plus her name is a reference to being a daughter of David ( Old Testament) but that’s about all I have noticed

This has become one of my favorite labels in the last few months. I just picked up the new Jeff Parker, but I'm still working my way through all of the stuff from the past few years I picked up - Angel Bat Dawid, Jaimie Branch and Damon Locks. Was already into the Makaya McCraven album from last year.

Resavoir, s/t (a personal fave)

Damn, thanks for this recommendation. This is really great in a way I wasn't expecting (strings! Fourth World vibes!)

Yes! I've struggled to articulate what is so good about that album, but while I'm not sure I'd argue it's the best IA release, it is my most played

It just does so many things, and in a way that seems natural and doesn't draw attention to the fact that its "eclectic" or whatever. It's just really good music!

Yall know Moor Mother is Present on Art Ensemble of Chicago o We Are On The Edge, right? Got this press release yesterday---heavy hype, but for who better:

Irreversible Entanglements Announce New Album, Who Sent You?,
Out March 20th on International Anthem/Don Giovanni

Watch the Video for Lead Single, “No Más”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLm3HEQgW50&feature=youtu.be

Free jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements announce their new album, Who Sent You?, out March 20th on International Anthem/Don Giovanni, and today present its lead single/video, “No Más.” The group is comprised of Camae Ayewa (aka Moor Mother), saxophonist Keir Neuringer, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Tcheser Holmes. Who Sent You? is the punk-rocking of jazz and the mystification of the avant-garde. This record weaves kinetic soul fusion, dreamy yet harrowing poetry, and intricate rhythms into warmth-giving tapestries that comfort and conceal, confront and coerce all at once.

“No Más” was composed by the Panamanian-born Navarro in a harmonic echo of a Strata East free jazz classic over a movement-inducing Latin rhythm. Over its peak moments, poet/MC Ayewa professes: "No mas. No more... No longer will we allow them to divide and conquer, divide and oppress, define our humanity..." Its stunning accompanying video was shot in Johannesburg, South Africa by filmmaker and photographer Imani Nikyah Dennison. The video explores the concept of Africans escaping planet earth, on a path to liberation. A story of migration told through collage, stock footage, and movement, all being driven by the sounds of free jazz and poetry.
Originally performing as two different ensembles at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event in 2015 (in response to the NYPD slaying of Akai Gurley), the future members of Irreversible Entanglements recognized a shared ethos, and shortly after, assembled as a single unit for an impromptu studio date at Seizure’s Palace in Brooklyn. That session yielded their debut album, 2017’s Irreversible Entanglements. Critical and communal acclaim for the album (including “Best of 2017” nods from NPR Music, WIRE Magazine, Bandcamp, and others) fueled a high demand for the band in the live setting, and the group have since spent much of 2018 and 2019 on the road. They have collaborated in performance with many legends of creative music including Amina Claudine Myers, Pat Thomas, and Nicole Mitchell; and their highest profile shows have included Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, Le Guess Who Festival In Utrecht NL, Barbican in London, and the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

Where the band’s self-titled debut was all explosive noisy anthems and glorious cosmic bluster, Who Sent You? is a focused and patient ritual. Irreversible Entanglements take their time in between these grooves, stalking the war-torn streets of the Deep South and post-Columbian apocalypses—taking their time to dream up an amalgamation that sounds truly euphoric. More than the sum of its parts—war-like basslines, haunting saxophone, cyberpunk brass, the unwieldy storm of drums, and the oracular phyletic incantations of Ayewa—Who Sent You? is an entire holistic jam of “infinite possibilities coming back around,” a sprawling meditation, a reminder of the forms and traumas of the past, and the shape and vision of Afrotopian sounds to come.
Who Sent You? Tracklist:
1.The Code Noir / Amina
2. Who Sent You - Ritual
3. No Más
4. Blues Ideology
5. Bread Out Of Stone

Irreversible Entanglements Tour Dates:
Tuesday, March 31 - Chicago, IL @ Co-Prosperity Sphere
Wednesday, April 1 - Iowa City, IA @ Mission Creek Festival
Saturday, May 23 - Atlanta, GA @ Atlanta Jazz Festival
Praise for Recent Non-Album Track "Homeless/Global"https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/homeless-global

“Just 30 seconds into this 23-minute improv, upright bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Tcheser Holmes hit the runaway-train pocket hard and fast. Folks, the track doesn't let up from there...a dense, moving preview of the group's upcoming album.” - NPR Music

“Against a simmering backdrop, Ayewa holds forth rivetingly on border violence and
forgotten black history.” - Pitchfork

“seriously compelling” - Stereogum

“23 searing minutes that consist of breathtaking, brutal saxophone leads, mournful trumpet drones, and a nervy rhythm. Over the fray, Ayewa ruminates, states and repeats indelible phrases and images” - WXPN’s The Key

“When at full flight, the group is a volcano of emotional sound — a radical, unapologetic Blackness of so-called avant-garde emanating from its every note and syllable, chronicling the pain, rapture and circumstance of our shared moment.” - Afropunk

Dunno what's happening with that video link; it opened instantly in gmail. Another ILM thing--anyway, it's on youtube.

Here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLm3HEQgW50

And here's an hour-long performance from 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diLI9m5PFXs

This new Jeff Parker record is a holy mess but I keep coming back to it.

I was going to ask what the consensus was on the new album. Just ordered the CD.
By holy mess, do you mean it's unfocused? I really hope it's as good as The New Breed.

Not unfocused as such, skittish, certainly, and fragmented. I've not made sense of it a whole yet, but it is coming together.

Could be a slow burner then. They're generally the best.

So far I don't like it as much as The New Breed, but I think it will be a slow burner. "3 for L" is fantastic.

Digging the Makaya McCraven / Gil Scott Heron thing at the moment.

It's really good! I actually really like that Alabaster Deplume album too.

otm! big up calzino for mentioning the DePlume on the rolling jazz thread: it is achingly beautiful

Agreed!

i could use some achingly beautiful today; queuing up now.

Oh, the dePlume is really nice!

Yes enjoyed it on a short flight yesterday

Another vote for the deplume here finished it and immediately restarted it for a second listen thru critical and kind music at this moment

yeah, it's great.

Good god damn this DePlume record is absolutely beautiful.

Thanks for the reminder -- I checked out the DePlume today, and it is wonderful. It has a slight Getatchew Mekurya vibe.

yah, that is right. really a great album, thanks for hipping me to it.

That Alabaster DePlume record is exactly what I needed right now, thank you

"Not My Ask" brings me to tears

Praise for Recent Non-Album Track "Homeless/Global"https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/homeless-global

this is so good rn

Alabaster DePlume = ILM record of the year 2020, calling it now

icymi, rob made a thread for it:

thread of rapturous appreciation for Alabaster DePlume

Interview w Angel https://thequietus.com/articles/28498-angel-bat-dawid-emma-warren-interview-total-refreshment-centre-transition-east

I am two tracks into the new Makaya McCraven (Universal Beings E&F Sides) and it is FYAH

Loving this one

posted unwatched but excited to see this short makaya bio doc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9t86fAuz5s

okay, watched; really great and helpful in understanding his process.

Interested in seeing that. New album is decent but I don't think it's as good as Universal Beings. Some good grooves, though; I can see why it would appeal to Jordan.

Universal Beings continues to be my most reliably enjoyable album of quarantine. Works for anything. I know it gets a lot of love but if anything I think it's underrated. Like, why isn't this guy on tv?

I wonder if the Jaimie Branch agnostics itt have heard the Anteloper stuff with Jason Nazary. It definitely converted me. Great stuff

i do feel like the crossover with makaya and say, the herbie hancock/robert glasper/kamasi washington crowd seems natural and it's either a matter of time for him to break bigger or it's just a sign that he's not interested in pursuing a broader audience.

Again, that doc is great; anyone even a little into makaya should watch it.
Turns out his mother is a lead member of Kolinda (pictured, i think, on this youtube thumbnail on the right)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46C4F7XmYLg

Will check doc, thanks. He was featured on Jazz Night In America not too long ago, should be in their archive. Also in that good recent UK comp Kaleidoscope, which is on YouTube, also w some Brits on https://totalrefreshmentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/makaya-mccraven-where-we-come-from-chicagoxlondon-mixtape A bunch of other stuff on bandcamp I haven't listened to yet, but digging this: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/universal-beings-e-f-sides. And def. Gil Scott-Heron's We're New Here: A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven, as I carried on about over on What Are You Listening To? 2020:
Still haven't heard the original album, or Jamie xx's reworking, but the unmistakable sound and sensibility of classic Gil come through: sharp, reflective glints in the dark, rough-edged a fluid, lyrical and realist, searching and on point, thematic and grooving---jazzwise, yet "blues is a feeling" the overall. Only thing is, some of the originals are really short, like down to 37 seconds: golden kernels of potential and realization---McCraven is def. not showboating, but I wish he extended these--maybe he was required to stick to the original track times? I'd like a bit more---Laswell redoing Marley and Miles? Anyway, it's all good, though faves are mostly because they have longer to make an impression: "New York is Killing Me," "I'll Take Care of You," "Me and the Devil"--yes, Scott-Heron and Robert Johnson and Mr. D. on the Greyhound, seems natural. Speaking voice is worn but clear, singing voice not that different from 1970s.

―

That Where We Come From set is maybe my favorite McCraven thing; you can get it on IA's Bandcamp page (I have the CD):

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/where-we-come-from-chicagoxlondon-mixtape

Can’t wait to hear the new Angel & the Brothahood live album, the backstory is grim but I loved the part about how she sat down at the hotel piano and went off on the guy who told her not to play.

https://pitchfork.com/news/angel-bat-dawid-and-tha-brothahood-release-new-live-album-listen/

^I still haven't gotten to that, but I just listened to Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra's "Dimensional Stardust" and really loved it: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/dimensional-stardust

Her live album is REALLY good, would recommend with the caveat that it's pretty heavy!

It's emotionally a lot to take - not something you're gonna want to listen to every day. But yeah, it's great stuff.

I'm on track 5 of the Mazurek now and am really liking it so far.

It took a few listens to absorb, but I'm now quite taken with the shimmery Chicago Waves by Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. It's much much more new age/ambient than jazz, probably closest to the De Plume record than anything else on the label that I've heard, though it doesn't pierce your heart with melodies like AdP. Maybe some day I can listen to it while strolling through an aquarium (perhaps Shedd...sigh).

As that recommendation maybe implies, I still haven't gotten into the mental space to try the new Dawid

I worked yesterday afternoon in front of a fire with the Exploding Star Orchestra album on and it was very nice.

There's a new Damon Locks/Black Monument Ensemble album coming in April: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/now

the first track is really beautiful (recorded live & outside last summer -- you can hear the cicadas)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQLGNOCb6ZM

I love that. The video is very cool as well.

The whole album is amazing. I said on Twitter that it's like a combination of SAULT, an Adam Curtis documentary, and Archie Shepp's Attica Blues.

Will be pre-ordering this for sure. A little surprised the physical edition isn't out until July though, shit must really be getting backed up.

I've only seen like 10 mins of a Curtis doc but I am intrigued by that description

Well this totally rules—deserves its own thread really, but I'm annoyingly busy today

fyi Sons of Kemet fans should get on this immediately

This = Damon Locks and Black Monument Ensemble? It's great. Wish there was a little less spoken parts, but I get that's an essential part of what their doing.

was a little less = were fewer, jesus

yes that's the one!

Since we have some deathly allergic-to-spoken-word jazz fans around here, I think it's fair to note that, aiui, most of the "spoken parts" are samples not slam poetry, giving the whole thing something of Madlib/sound collage quality (I assume this is what unperson meant by referencing Adam Curtis). Still might not be your cup of tea, but it's a different vibe from some of the declamatory contemporary jazz that I know rubs some the wrong way

Yeah I like the Damon Locks album a lot. The first and last tracks in particular.

Been enjoying it

Went to see Jaimie Branch & her fantastic band blow the roof off last night -- it was my first show post-pandemic and I may have been primed to enjoy it regardless but I LOVED IT. I loved everything about the performance -- the band's chemistry, the energy, the music itself, interaction with audience, guest players!, her performance style. If you have a chance to see her, don't miss it. I think the band is on tour?

Yeah, I've been getting that experience, as much as possible online, from listening to their live album:
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/fly-or-die-live

I am not super familiar with Angel Bat Dawid's work, does she always use autotuned vocals so extensively, like on this?

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology

She uses a lot of different vocal techniques/ways of singing and/or vocalizing -- that's just one thing she does ime. Not broadly representative of her vocal style.

thanks!

PERFORMING AT BASILICA SOUNDSCAPE 2021

“Like a blossom emerging from between the floorboards of a slaughterhouse, Moor Mother’s music is an act of transcending a violent, intolerable present.” - The Fader

Today Moor Mother – aka Camae Ayewa – is announcing her new album ‘Black Encylcopedia Of The Air’, thirteen mesmerizing tracks about memory and imprinting and the future, all of them wafting through untouched space like the ghostly cinders of a world on fire, unbound and uncharted, vast and stretching across the universe.

On the new single “Obsidian”, Moor Mother says the song is about present danger - “thinking about one's proximity to violence. Thinking about violence in the home. Violence in communities." Featuring rapper Pink Siifu, listen and watch the song’s new video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fovnxpu10EA.

from Rolling Jazz:

More Energy Fields, Current
by Carlos Niño & Friends
Tagged in label notes as 10 pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by the Southern Californian sage, elegantly presented in his unique “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” style. And sounds like the improvisational part might feed and respond to the Space Collage: it's more jazz than set piece, like the tracks, never too long, might be scooping up something along the way, lighting in the bottle and vice-versa. Wonder if they play live, with loops, maybe? (I imme

Listening on headphones, I keep getting aerial glimpses of the Pacific Coast Highway, interspersed w more time in little caves and coves: an intimate, though airy, small group sound, always incl. Niño (percussion, sound design, editing, mixing) and I think always Jamael Dean on keys, with others sometims on drums, tenor and/or flute, synths, and voices (on one track: wordless ones, don't worry, of Laraaji and Sharada). Shabaka Hutchings, Dntel, Adam Rudolph, Aaron Shaw, a bunch of others, coming in and moving on, at least for a while, never too many at once.

First one to command my attention was "Nightswimming," then so many of the others that I gave up on linking a favorite in addition to the whole thing:
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/more-energy-fields-current

― dow, Monday, May 31, 2021 4:57 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Niño’s previous album on IA, Chicago Waves, is live if you’re curious! I think I described it as more like ambient/new age than jazz on the IA thread but I liked it a lot

― rob, Monday, May 31, 2021 5:08 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Will check, thanks! Ambient/New Age usually puts me right to sleep, but this got me more awake.
Also, this one has *kind* of a DePlume vibe, or related appeal,anyway, but maybe earlier in the day or evening, and a little more spare?
https://alabasterdeplume.bandcamp.com/
- dow

also from RJ:
omg Dedicated to Saint Escrava Anastacia.
credits
released June 19, 2021

All instruments, vocalz, and synths performed, produced, recorded, arranged & mixed By Angel Bat Dawid.
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology
First encounter w this, and don't know of course if it will seem as amazing now that I know what to expect (nothing like what I did expect from several titles, which is prob the point), but so far it's immediately compelling, often beguiling, with an eerie, tranquil intensity, and some shifting surfaces and perimeters (for inst, what's happening to the vocals going around the room---"I know I should be grateful"---in " 'Goree,' or Slave - Stick"---we also get the improbably redemption of overt Auto Tune sometimes, or maybe keys, emphasizing the inflection (of male group vocals? Or herself treated?) that suggests a African-Hebraic-Isalmic chain, rattling a little (the clarinet encourages this). One of the most affecting tracks is her untreated, a capella , "Bet"--followed, in a plausible way, by a calmly killer finale trilogy. None of this is an onslaught of sounds though; each room is only as full as need be. Seems like a rec to fans of adventurously historical clarinetists John Carter and Matana Roberts (her Coin Coin series, and maybe all of his Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music, although the album from that I'm thinking of, and most familiar with, is Fields).

― dow,

^^ I'm really enjoying that one

Hush Harbor Mixtape is amazing, too bad I'm too late to pick up the tape
Quite an amazing label, starting to feel I can basically buy anything I happen to see out there

Hush Harbor is great, been listening alot (and did order the tape!). Just saw this one dropped with very little info: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/jps-myspace-beats

Not much info to go on as there's no digital release, only the 2xlp. It sounds like it's beats and tracks Jeff Parker has worked on over the years. I can't find internet documentation of much, but did find one of the tracks on his Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jeff-parker/supernat

Has anyone received their Damon Locks vinyl? I think it was supposed to ship in July but there has been a delay?

Bought it in a shop last weekend so it's out there!

IA tweeted about pressing & shipping of LP's recently:

To Whom It May Concern: an update on vinyl pre-orders (Damon Locks, jaimie branch), pressing/shipping woes, challenges, commitments, ideals and other musings...

To Whom It May Concern: an update on vinyl pre-orders (Damon Locks, jaimie branch), pressing/shipping woes, challenges, commitments, ideals and other musings... pic.twitter.com/Q1VZkF0f7y

— International Anthem (@intlanthem) July 22, 2021

(1) Damon Locks NOW LP's have been stuck customs in the US for the last couple of weeks.. So if you're waiting on this LP which we said would ship July 9th... The albums are out of jail soon. We’ll start shipping them as soon as they arrive in Chicago. Hopefully in 2-3 weeks max

They just announced a new Irreversible Entanglements album, Open the Gates, out in November.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/open-the-gates

Thanks, willem. I found something indicating a September 16 date so just a little longer.

I think this record is just incredible, so gorgeous, almost ambient:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/chicago-waves

yep, that's my favorite IA release that I've heard. I have yet to buy the new Carlos Niño album but I plan to.

New Irreversible Entanglements out in Nov, on Don Giovanni/IA

This label is just absolutely incredible, I don't know that I can pick just one favorite. The new Carlos Niño & Friends album is even better, to my ears anyway.

I think this record is just incredible, so gorgeous, almost ambient:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/chicago-waves

I'd not heard this one. Wow, it's beautiful. First track reminds me of The Lark Ascending, somehow.

These guys have all of my money. Those ambient records are really nice, and I dig all of the projects Jaimie Branch is involved in (like the anteloper/tour beats record). But the Makaya McCraven records are still tops for me, especially Highly Rare.

xp willem or others who wanted that Angel Bat Dawid cassette: I noticed there are 25 copies in the bandcamp store as of today.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology

Thanks cw! IA's IG account recently mentioned extra copies were to be brought to a live event and remaining copies would be sold through bandcamp. Sadly, the shipping costs to the EU are insane since there's only shipped from Chicago. Too bad. Still enjoy it through spotify though

So happy to finally get my hands on a physical copy of the Alabaster DePlume album today.

New Irreversible Entanglements out in Nov, on Don Giovanni/IA While we're waiting, the aforementioned Moor Mother alb is just out:
https://moormother.bandcamp.com/album/black-encyclopedia-of-the-air (This bandcamp also has her Brass collab w billy woods from Dec., which I just now noticed, d'oh!)

BEN LAMAR GAY ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM
OPEN ARMS TO OPEN US

OUT NOVEMBER 19 VIA
INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM / NONESUCH

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR
“SOMETIMES I FORGET HOW SUMMER LOOKS ON YOU”
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/open-arms-to-open-us

it is the best thing i listened to this week. so good!

psyyyyyched to hear the rest of this dos santos album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n23rl_6gdXM

New Irreversible Entanglements is sounding pretty sick!

Waiting for my CD to get here in a couple of days, stoked to hear it. This label.

it's ridiculous how many extremely good albums from the last few years feature Luke Stewart as a bass player.

Yeah, the Irreversible Entanglements album is great, maybe my favorite IA release of the year.

Kicking myself for missing them at Big Ears. I saw Moor Mother's solo set, which was fiery, but not with the band.

Another huge thumbs up for Irreversible Entanglements.

Also stoked for the new solo guitar Jeff Parker record and the new Ben Lamar Gay, basically everything they put out is instant purchase imo.

late pass on angel bat dawid, this is liquid fire
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/track/black-family-2

Jeff Parker's new one is a solo acoustic folky thing, by the look of it. New Ben Lamar Gay is wonderful.

Still superenjoying City of Mirrors. Alma Cósmica is my fave track still but it has a very enjoyable vibe throughout. I’m making seeing them live a priority!

solo acoustic folky thing
it's solo but it's not acoustic or really folky

Very excited about solo Parker, love the preview track (very patient and loop-based, duetting with himself)

Truly a miraculous year for this label. I just listened to the Jamire Williams album; naturally, it's excellent. The Parker is up next

incredible run in '21.

Yes the Jamire Williams is great!

Every album a must buy

It's pretty wild! For ex, the Dos Santos album isn't really my usual thing genre-wise, but it's super well made and sounds great

hello it is fantastic -- the more you listen to it, the better it gets. if you have ever wondered about the intersection of cumbia & krautrock (I have) it really hits the spot.

i should say motorik -- krautrock is too vague

my problem is I only have a vague idea of what cumbia is :/

but I did like it a lot on two listens, just got overwhelmed by IA releasing 4 more albums I had to hear

Soundway Records (another no-miss label imo) has some great comps if you're interested. this was released in 2011 and continues to deliver! https://soundwayrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-original-sound-of-cumbia

I am interested and that looks amazing, thank you!

cosign on that Soundways cumbia comp, it's fantastic

there's two great LP comps via the Mississippi label as well ("A Orillas De Magdelena" and "Remolino De Oro")

saw nicole mitchell performing the xenogenesis suite and angel bat dawid doing the music of yusef lateef. that shit was fucking great but the carnegie audience was extremely square.

enjoying "recordings from the åland islands"

Same, very lovely. Would have been a big lockdown record.

Honer and Chiu opened for Alabaster dePlume when I saw him last night; it was a pleasant new age knob twiddle. I will put the album on now.

Speaking of new age knob twiddle, have you heard this, forks? Pasted way upthread from Rolling Jazz 2021:
More Energy Fields, Current
by Carlos Niño & Friends
Tagged in label notes as 10 pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by the Southern Californian sage, elegantly presented in his unique “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” style. And sounds like the improvisational part might feed and respond to the Space Collage: it's more jazz than set piece, like the tracks, never too long, might be scooping up something along the way, lighting in the bottle and vice-versa. Wonder if they play live, with loops, maybe? While mixing on the fly---?

Listening on headphones, I keep getting aerial glimpses of the Pacific Coast Highway, interspersed w more time in little caves and coves: an intimate, though airy, small group sound, always incl. Niño (percussion, sound design, editing, mixing) and I think always Jamael Dean on keys, with others sometimes on drums, tenor and/or flute, synths, and voices (on one track: wordless ones, don't worry, of Laraaji and Sharada). Shabaka Hutchings, Dntel, Adam Rudolph, Aaron Shaw, a bunch of others, coming in and moving on, at least for a while, never too many at once.

First one to command my attention was "Nightswimming," then so many of the others that I gave up on linking a favorite in addition to the whole thing:
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/more-energy-fields-current

― dow, Monday, May 31, 2021 4:57 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Niño’s previous album on IA, Chicago Waves, is live if you’re curious! I think I described it as more like ambient/new age than jazz on the IA thread but I liked it a lot

― rob, Monday, May 31, 2021 5:08 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Also now I see Carlos has his own Bandcamp page, with lots more to check out.

new to me but will add to the playlist!

LOVING THIS https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/panam-77

Panamá 77 – a vibrant and verdant suite of multi-textural, jazz-laced psychedelic instrumental folk-funk – is the debut album by Panamá-born, Chicago-based drummer and DJ Daniel Villarreal.

yeah this is fannnnnntastic

This album is so freaking good. It reminds me of George Braith's Musart, which is one of my favorite albums of all time.

Which for some reason is not on streaming afaik.

yeah I dig the Panama 77 album! thx for the rec, LL

absolute bliss listening to this outside yesterday as the sun set

I love Jeff Parker's contributions to this

In/On is soooo good

wow the hits just keep coming, psyched for this:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/extra-presence

And the Charles Stepney archival collection is now fully up for preorder

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/step-on-step

new Carlos Nino album "Extra Presence" is fantastic FYI

astonishing list of collaborators including Iasos, Laraaji, Shabazz Palaces, and a bunch of other folks

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/extra-presence

Carlos Niño & Friends

Thanks for the reminder! Like I carried on about way upthread, CN & Friends' More Energy Fields, Current was one of my toppermost picks of '21.

Premiere of a new Angel Bat Dawid composition streaming here tonight (Saturday 8/20):

https://m.twitch.tv/elasticartschicago

Literally can’t believe we will never hear new music or see the exuberant performance of Jaimie Branch again — the realest of the real, will pour one out for her tonight 🥲

I kinda can't believe this. Shocked. What a loss.

just terrible news

what the hell

Well shit. For real one of my favorite new artists of recent years. So lucky I got to see her at Big Ears. Really sad to hear it.

this sucks so much

Oh no that is awful and shocking news

Well shit. For real one of my favorite new artists of recent years. So lucky I got to see her at Big Ears. Really sad to hear it.

Saw her twice — once with a trio (Luke Stewart on bass, Mike Pride on drums) and once as part of an expanded version of Harriet Tubman (HT + the James Brandon Lewis trio + Branch + Darius Jones) performing a re-interpretation of Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz". Fantastic both times. And all three of the Fly Or Die albums are just stunning.

What the fuck

only 39, fucking hell

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2WTLKvbhWA

an absolute and gutting loss; she should've had decades of great albums ahead.

xxxpost Pour one out on my behalf as well, LL.
Rough x mellow like no other.
Fly or Die Live audience singing along with
"Thi-i-s, is, a lo-o-ve song, for ass-holes, and clowns..."

No!

Hadn't see this interview before

My first AD interview was with Jaimie Branch. What an artist. https://t.co/FF4If0i3kr

— Jennifer Kelly (@jkellyfinwriter) August 23, 2022

just heard. so sad. so young!

Sweet post by Alabaster dePlume (saw them play together at Big Ears too): https://www.facebook.com/100057753771232/posts/pfbid0E1D2NzQpXReurcDBryXvTSY9Bje7febpxNN9tEdEbtLv2Mn9khbTf2Zdu8tRk2cul/?d=n

https://chicagoreader.com/music/jaimie-branch-has-flown-away-too-soon

Written by someone who knows everyone, worth a read

she fell hard for punk, ska, and hip-hop; she had a feel for abstract styles, and just as firm a grasp on music that communicated directly.

she understood that people who think they’re good guys can be assholes, and that even assholes need love.

She got people, and people got her. They recognized the human complications that were as much a part of her music as her combo’s practiced rapport and exhilarating spontaneity.

"they think they run this shit" is the quote that keeps sticking with me

(from the live album)

https://aquilesnavarro.bandcamp.com/track/el-amor-que-ella-te-dio-para-jaimie-branch

Feels sad to move on from mourning Jaimie Branch itt, but ... this upcoming Tom Skinner album seems v promising. A band with Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings on saxes. (It's funny, when I first looked at the page it listed all the personnel, but now that's gone. I wonder if they're still working out contracts or something.)

https://tom-skinner.bandcamp.com/

personnel (and colored vinyl) are on the International Anthem page for the album ():

Tom Skinner – Drums
Kareem Dayes – Cello
Nubya Garcia – Tenor saxophone and flute
Tom Herbert – Acoustic bass
Shabaka Hutchings – Tenor saxophone and bass clarinet

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/voices-of-bishara?

Ah, I didn't see I'd defaulted back to the main artist page. Well, the preview track is good!

Not what I expected from the description (ie influenced by Tony Williams Lifetime and chopped up like Makaya McCraven), but I'm looking forward to hearing the full record.

Big fun---her other group (didn't get into their previous, but better check it again):

“We’re improvisers first and we’re bringing “moment music” into these other zones of hip hop and electronic music, drum-machine music, sound-system culture… Acoustic musicians sun-kissed by electro-magnetism, flowing out into everything. This is the shit that we want to be playing on big ass systems. Omnivorous, energy space time, mosh pit dance-music. Get it in the subwoofers so you can feel it hit, cuz the music has to begin in the body!” – jaimie branch

Jaimie branch - trumpet, electronics, percussion, vocals
Jason Nazary - drums, synths
Jeff Parker - guitar, bass guitar, percussion, Korg MS-20
Chad Taylor - mbira (track 2)

Also, from unperson's Burning Ambulance newsletter:
Hank Shteamer, a friend and colleague, conducted what is almost certainly Jaimie Branch’s final interview. It’s a tremendous piece, very much worth your time:
https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/hank-shteamer-jaimie-branch?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Also AMEN to all:

LOVING THIS https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/panam-77

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Friday, May 20, 2022 1:52 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Panamá 77 – a vibrant and verdant suite of multi-textural, jazz-laced psychedelic instrumental folk-funk – is the debut album by Panamá-born, Chicago-based drummer and DJ Daniel Villarreal.
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Friday, May 20, 2022 1:53 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah this is fannnnnntastic

― tylerw, Friday, May 20, 2022 5:13 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

This album is so freaking good. It reminds me of George Braith's Musart, which is one of my favorite albums of all time.

― PBKR, Friday, May 20, 2022

this is fucking great, label is unstoppable atm

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/an-offering

Been listening to a ton of stuff from this label. The latest one to get me was Irreversible Entanglements - Open the Gates. Are the other IE albums as good?

The only other one I've heard is Who Sent You?, so great.
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/who-sent-you

And---fine-wine summer '22 music by Jaimie Branch's other group, Anteloper:

“We’re improvisers first and we’re bringing “moment music” into these other zones of hip hop and electronic music, drum-machine music, sound-system culture… Acoustic musicians sun-kissed by electro-magnetism, flowing out into everything. This is the shit that we want to be playing on big ass systems. Omnivorous, energy space time, mosh pit dance-music. Get it in the subwoofers so you can feel it hit, cuz the music has to begin in the body!” – jaimie branch

Forgot I already posted that, sorry! But worth it.

Thoroughly enjoying this at the moment: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/voices-of-bishara....Tom Skinner, Tom Herbert, Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia...

Yeah, really like that Tom Skinner album.

Just catching up on some recent releases, both the Tom Skinner and Dezron Douglas albums are really great. The latter is the most "traditional" sounding thing I've heard from this label in a long time, but it still really works.

Agreed on the Douglas "oh! this is 'normal' jazz" reaction. I'd love to see that group live.

I've listened to the Skinner twice and would say it's very good but it also faded from memory quickly (possibly a result of my listening to too much [old] jazz lately though).

International Anthem musicians: They're Just Like You update:

Spotted M McCraven behind me in line at Target today!

only time i ever saw him in public, I started approaching him to tell him how much i loved his music and he gave me a clear "please don't talk to me" look
i dunno, i probably caught him at a bad moment

I’ve seen him 3x now — twice at the restaurant where I work and this once at Target. I didn’t say anything about being a fan any of those times but did get to make limited small talk when I delivered his drink once.

I met him at the Green Mill once. He wasn't playing, just there for the after-hours jam the night that Anderson Paak was playing at the theater next door and so Kamasi Washington and everyone from the band was in the house. The drummer was late and I was 'joking' that he should play the first tune, but he was off the clock. Super nice though.

Saw him again at a very intimate club with a (guitar) trio, incredible show.

Daniel Villarreal brought the house down last night at the venue attached to my workplace. I caught a tiny bit of it (I was working) and could only wish I was not working so i could see the whole show. People were raving on their way out.

Ooh very jealous!

Thanks for reminding me how much I listened to that earlier this year. Need to pull it out again.

the new / upcoming Angel Bat Dawid album is incredible.

Chain Around The Spirit!!!

https://i.imgur.com/L6vaN8wl.jpeg

saw tortoise in portland last night and dan bitney was wearing a fly or die shirt <3

<3

I wish the rest of this Rob Mazurek album was less free and more like the first track, I had high hopes

Angel Bat Dawid album felt corny as hell to me but I stopped after five tracks

same

She can be a bit much. I think Damon Locks does something similar to her but a whole lot better.

I like The Oracle a lot, but I couldn't get into the choral stuff on this one. Plus I still need to see The Cry of Jazz, so that reference is lost on me

My first take, when a friend sent it to me recently (the gist: I got more into the second half on first listen)

Tue, Mar 28, 3:21 PM (4 days ago)
to John

Dammmm---gonna take me a while to wrap my head around all of that---at first, was put off/distracted, in my secular way by extended, layered, ornate use of themes otherwise recalling spirituals (chorales not her specialty) as associated, in less pressing way, with Ra, and Ellington, for that matter, also somewhat distractingly, though the notes warned me, w The Cry of Jazz/Ed Bland's insistently polemical POV---but the second half pulled me in more, as often happens, maybe takes my brain that long, but also got more into reeds, strings, some electronics, perceived in more of a prominent, supportive partnership with chorale--also emerging w for inst klezmer-associated motifs, also dig the early New Orleans groove of another track, and of course Marshall Allen and Knoell Scott get into thee penultimate performance--I like how these live sections are mutable, without going on too long--will take some more listening, but some great stuff here, obviously------she pulls off a much more concise collage ov speculative fact and effects here, a trip : https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology On this latest, she incl. some fellow members of the Monuments Ensemble; they all have some bracing urban offroad excursions here: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/now

I have to say the new Angel Bat Dawid is a rare miss from this label. I love her other stuff, but this really feels like an event you needed to see in person to appreciate. On the recording, it comes across as really stilted and episodic, it rarely coheres in an engaging way and I wonder if the stage spectacle would have helped with that. I don't think it's corny at all and appreciate what she was trying to do, it just doesn't hold up as an album.

*announcing* IARC0066 jaimie branch -
Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))
LP, CD, Digi album out August 25th, 2023

LINK: https://t.co/itzFirAMIs pic.twitter.com/9jsXJpGkR7

— 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 (@intlanthem) June 20, 2023

Pre-ordered my copy already.

amazing cover imo, can't wait to hear it!!

Surprised not to be seeing much about the new Asher Gamedze, Turbulence and Pulse. I know it's not as forward looking as some of the other stuff these guys put out, but I think it sounds great!

it's really good

finally getting around to the Gamedze today, and, yeah, it's excellent

Not IA, but of related interest:

Hi everyone,

Infrequent Seams keeps at it, releasing an astounding amount of astoundingly creative music. I wrote to y'all about this last week, but today's the day we announce the debut recording from Chicago's Mad Myth Science, to be released 8/25.

It's been four years since Elaine Mitchener put together her brilliant Vocal Classics of the Black Avant Garde playlist for The Wire* and if she reprised it today, I have to believe Mad Myth Science would be a top contender for inclusion. Julian Otis's beautiful, fragmented, passionate poetry and vocalizations thread together these shimmering and forward-thinking improvisations, helping to elevate what was already exceptional to something beyond.

Texture and timbre are central to this work. Mad Myth Science finds power in nuance, in sensitive and subtle –– if not always gentle –– interplay between the idiosyncratic mix of instruments: flute, saxophone, cello, harmonica, vibraphone ... the pre-Don Moye era Art Ensemble of Chicago might come to mind here, with good reason.

For years I used to attend Umbrella Music's jazz night at the Hungry Brain in Chicago every Sunday and frequently visited Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge. Mad Myth Science reminds me of the very best of these evenings; it feels like a distillation of many things memorable and powerful about avant garde jazz and creative music, definitely recommended for fans of Angel Bat Dawid, Matana Roberts, Jeanne Lee, Irreversible Entanglements, and the aforementioned Vocal Classics of the Black Avant Garde playlist.

Please share news of this forthcoming release and share "We Instruments."

Peace,
mark at clandestinepr dot com
SINGLES & RELEASE CALENDAR

JULY 19 _ album announce + "We Instruments" single release
AUG 25 _ full-length release

LIVE

AUG 11 _ Lafayette, IN at Spot Tavern

AUG 13 _ Chicago, IL at The Hungry Brain
with Keefe Jackson / Julian Kirchner / Fred Lomberg-Holm trio

LINKS
Mad Myth Science Instagram
Infrequent Seams Bandcamp

ALBUM CREDITS
Molly Jones: saxophone, flute, toys (Untoward Sound LLC)
Julian Otis: voice, electronics
Wilson Tanner Smith: cello, harmonica, bells & whistles
Ben Zucker: cornet, vibraphone, percussion (ASCAP, Ben Zucker Sounds)

*https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/elaine-mitchener-selects-vocal-classics-of-the-black-avant-garde

And speaking of vocals, excerpts of Clifford Jordan's previously unreleased Drink Plenty Water, recorded in 1974, incl. cosmic chorales and bent-nose spoken words in ways that suggest Sun Ra and Mingus, as reviewer Kevin Whitehead notes here:
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/1188651008/newly-unearthed-1974-session-by-clifford-jordan-is-a-striking-one-of-a-kind-albu

This is exciting—a new track from Resavoir with the promise of an album in the future: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/inside-minds

ooh yes

Daniel Villarreal Announces New Album Lados B
Out Oct. 6 2023
Featuring Jeff Parker & Anna Butterss
Releases Video for Lead Single "Sunset Cliffs"
Fall US Tour Dates

On October 15th and 16th, 2020, drummer Daniel Villarreal was joined by guitarist Jeff Parker and bassist Anna Butterss for two afternoons of recording in the backyard of Chicali Outpost in Los Angeles. For all three musicians, it was the first ensemble recording session they’d done in-person since the pandemic locked the world down just seven months prior. Some choice moments from these sessions made it onto Villarreal’s critically-acclaimed 2022 album Panamá 77, but most of the music remained unreleased.

Lados B is a deep dive into the high-level spontaneous music made by Villarreal, Parker, and Butterss across those two days in 2020. Villarreal is heard leading the group through various rhythmic modes and structures for improvisation – flow as informed by the Latin funk of Fania Records as it is by the otherworldly humanity trance of Brain Records – while Parker and Butterss draw on their extensive experience playing free together (as heard on Parker's recently-released Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, and the LA side of Makaya McCraven's 2018 LP Universal Beings) to build harmonic buoys for their spontaneous melodicism. The result is a beautifully vivid illustration of context, creativity, and collective composition from a particularly rich moment in history.

DANIEL VILLARREAL ON "SUNSET CLIFFS"

This song brings me back to when I used to visit my daughters down in Ocean Beach, San Diego. It has a total cruiser vibe as we used to drive up and down the shore as a family and go to these lookout points at the cliffs and enjoy magnificent sunsets colors by the ocean and watching the waves crashing into the rocks.

US TOUR DATES

Wednesday, October 18th - Public Records - Brooklyn NY -
Friday, October 20th - Solar Myth - Philadelphia PA -
Saturday, October 21st - Solar Myth - Philadelphia PA -
Friday, October 27th - Jack London Revue - Portland OR -
Saturday, October 28th - Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts - Beverly Hills CA -
Monday, October 30th - Yoshi's - Oakland CA -

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/lados-b

Yeeeeessssss I saw him play recently at my workplace and it was fantastic!! I love his whole vibe and the folks he plays with are also all top notch.

Finally got around to hearing the Mazurek/Locks thing and, I hate to say it, but man that is disappointing. If there were more of "Twilight Shimmer" type moments it would have been great, but this was kind of a letdown.

got a promo of that Villareal album, it is fannnnnnntastic

super stoked for that and the new Fly or Die

i just saw DV perform recently and -- as usual -- he was great! i extra enjoyed the extended solo. his band was absolutely smokin too.

the bass player in particular but all of them were really fun to watch. he played two shows at the venue attached to my workplace and they were not esp well attended but that's everyone else's loss. lots of people don't know what they're missing.

this Jaimie Branch record, wowwwww

Listening now, sounds great. I was so bummed out by her death. This must have been recorded just like a month after I saw her play.

Finished listening and immediately started it again. Hot damn. I realize I'm in the buzz of first listen, but serious AOTY contender. All the parts of it work. She was so great, and what a band.

sleeve and tipsy otm, listened to this loud in the car on a long ride home yesterday, what a blast!

I love the way that Meat Puppets song is folded in there. I'd have to think a bit to articulate exactly why it fits, but it really does.

this Jaimie Branch record, wowwwww

yes indeed! Take Over The World!!

IA alumni, Irreversible Entanglements new album on Impulse! is also getting a lot of plays this week.

The new Alabaster DePlume record is really lovely, much better than the 'main' companion album the sessions came from imo

very much looking forward to the Bex Burch album

I’m ok admitting I’m in love with the Jaimie Branch record — so great to hear her vocal and trumpet voice, hear body music with an improvisational bent, and I just love the whole thing.

Finding myself wondering who tf is Bex Burch?

Looking forward to that one as well, not familiar but the preview tracks sound great

IE are great and anything with Moor Mother rules, I forgot this group had been on International Anthem. Also love to see DC guy Luke Stewart get recognition and acclaim.

Open the Gates might be my favorite IE release I've heard.

My first encounter with Moor Mother was Art Ensemble of Chicago's We Are On The Edge: a cast of thousands, but she stood out among the standouts. Fave IE is still Who Sent You?, but haven't heard the latest yet.

Speaking of Bex Burch, got this today:

oday, composer, percussionist, producer and instrument maker Bex Burch (Flock, Vula Viel, Boing!) shares the second single “Don't go back to sleep” from her forthcoming LP, There is only love and fear, along with a music video she made herself.

A twinkling piece of arcadian minimalism, “Don’t go back to sleep” eavesdrops on an electro-acoustic conversation with the avian world. Pulsing and playful, Burch and Dan Bitney (Tortoise) merge the organic qualities of synthesis with the synthetic qualities of the organic to create an intuitive tone poem that takes the rhythms and melodies of birdsong as its natural cue. Recorded at the Center of Search & Research where Burch was based while in Chicago, its homely feel bathes the track in dappled sunlight. Deceptively simple in its construction, “Don’t go back to sleep” is an invitation to wake up and listen to what is already out there.

The music video for “Don’t go back to sleep,” created by Bex Burch, demonstrates the unspeakable beauty of nature’s synchrony and how it reflects in Bex’s and Dan’s interplay.

Read the full story of the album by Emma Warren:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZO15FMKKByTAmHF4-yVuQwzSnnnh42bFy58YgzMbYp4/edit?pli=1

TOUR DATES
October 13 - RIAA, Hamburg, Germany (Listening session w/ Bex Burch)
October 20 - Cafe Oto, London, UK
October 27 - King Georg, Cologne, Germany
October 30 - Rhinoçéros, Berlin, Germany (Listening session w/ Bex Burch)
November 03 - ÜBERJAZZ Festival, Hamburg, Germany
November 17 - Jazz Brugge, Belgium

<<< for more information >>>
Label: Scottie McNiece // scottie at intlanthem.com

Not sure if gossip is welcome here, but I heard that Andre 3000 is working on an album for International Anthem

:0

I can see it, he's already guested on an IA record (I think it was Carlos Ninos?).

this Jaimie Branch record, wowwwww

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, August 26, 2023 9:11 PM (three weeks ago)

finally got around to listening to this (extremely hectic fall here) and it is so great!

^

picked up the LP over the weekend and the cover is astonishingly gorgeous

The Daniel Villarreal / Jeff Parker / Anna Butterss record sounds fantastic so far.

agreed!

as does the new Jeremiah Chiu!

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/in-electric-time

new Bex Burch also sounding great this morning, man this label!

Really lovely, yeah.

I didn't realize Bex Burch was also involved in the Flock album from last year that I really liked.

https://flock.bandcamp.com/album/flock-2

I’m off to see Bex Burch tonight and am looking forward to it a great deal. “Messy minimalism”, yes please.

Bex Burch was every bit as good as I’d hoped. The show was mostly solo with some interjections on violin.

They encored with a version of “O Superman”, using whatever member of the xylophone family she was playing. I couldn’t believe my luck. That verse that starts “When love is gone, there’s always justice” always seemed like a punch in the guts to me- now, more than ever.

unperson recommended the new Thandi Ntuli with Carlos Niño record on another thread. Absolutely lovely Sunday morning music and I imagine just excellent at other times. Ordered a copy.

new chiu, honer & kalma 👌🏽

Yes, real good.

otm x2

yeah, I was underwhelmed by Recordings from the Åland Islands, but this is beautifully immersive

Anyone else enjoying the new Villarreal/VV Lightbody Valebol album? I’m absolutely loving it — so springy, reminds me of Antena

It’s very accessible and I can see people well outside the IA world enjoying it.

This one (Row Row Row) is my favorite so far https://open.spotify.com/track/3UZv2dCGfVS1cllt4oVPhO?si=b592c32c71fe4934

Woops this is not released via IA — a different label called Otherly Love Records

It’s still good!

agreed, really enjoyed that one. thanks for the mixup haha

This is really fun, thanks LL! Her voice reminds me of someone. I want to say Liz Fraser?

Always I am mixing up this label with the very different but equally good Imaginational Anthem label.

I feel like a chump getting psyched about promo copy but this sounds amazing (and the one available track is p cool): https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/small-medium-large

Yeah, I'm really excited for that one!

Cool advance single by SML--more than any of the big-name comparisons in the one-sheet hype, though, I'd compare the production style and funk-jazz approach to something contemporary like "Ekuté" off of the still-quite-recent Pino Palladino & Blake Mills jawn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXQUVKko5J8

this one is great too

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/mestizx

That’s my first drum teacher! He’s the best.

I was a little worried the new Carlos Nino & Friends was going to be too similar to the new age Andre 3000 stuff, but it's really good and weird! I mean, most definitely still some new age moments (I mean, Iasos is on it!), but it's all over the place, in a good way. Just lots of different things to latch onto.

This album from SML (which is Jeremiah Chiu, Anna Butterss, Joshua Johnson, Gregory Uhlmann, and Booker Stardrum) is pretty great: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/small-medium-large. It's pulled from two two-night concerts at ETA in L.A. Josh Johnson's solo album from earlier this year "Unusual Object" is really good too.

I'll never get why Josh Johnson's records aren't more popular. Consistently innovative artist making great music. And yes, the new one is fantastic

i love unusual object, thanks for tipping me of on this - i do sometimes find Chiu's stuff too polarized formless/klaxony, curious to hear what they're doing here

Johnson has some great videos up on his site of him playing stuff from Unusual Object: https://www.joshjohnsonmusic.com/#video

I'd love to see him play live. SML has two free shows in L.A. next week, really wish I could make it to those.

Ooh I gotta check this one out. Anna Butterss - Activities is one of my fav albums to just throw on whenever, great vibes (not the instrument)

^^ yes, yes, yes

i am generally more miss than hit w/ this current jazz-adjacent stuff, but Butterss, Johnson, SML and Chiu all are "hits" for me over the past couple of years.

Speaking of JJohnson live: here he is at Enfield Tennis Academy again, with Butterss, Parker , and Bellerose; he's seated and using two foot pedals (w embouchure, yas):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T9yEgppRYo

that SML album is awesome

yeah it is! not sure it lives up to the promo copy I mentioned upthread, but it's probably better for that as it sounds totally contemporary

and new Butterss solo coming out in November: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/mighty-vertebrate

Press release now saying Oct release for album---new video here

http://international-anthem.lnk.to/MightyVertebrate

ANNA BUTTERSS LIVE
September 28 - Marz Brewing - Chicago, IL
October 4 - 2220 Arts + Archives - Los Angeles, CA

ALBUM CREDITS
Produced by Ben Lumsdaine and Anna Butterss.
Recorded by Chris Schlarb at BIG EGO Studios and Ben Lumsdaine at Laundry Works II Recording Services.
Mixed by Ben Lumsdaine.
Sequenced by Scott McNiece.
Mastered by David Allen.

Artwork by John Herndon.
Layout by Jeremiah Chiu.
Photographs by Robbie Jeffers.

Josh Johnson - alto saxophone, effects
Gregory Uhlmann - guitar, effects
Ben Lumsdaine - drums, percussion, guitar, lap steel, drum programming
Anna Butterss - upright bass, electric bass, guitar, synths, flute, drum machine
Jeff Parker - guitar (on “Dance Steve”)

All compositions by Anna Butterss

That link leads to audio options and to the video, which is on youtube.

that SML album is awesome

― alpine static, Tuesday, July 9, 2024 4:57 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is great, never really clicked with this label, based on descriptions of stuff in the catalogue, i guess the SML album is closer to what i would've expected/hoped but never got

it definitely is for me.

i kinda think Jeremiah Chiu is the secret ingredient that i need in there. not just him, but i like everything he does.

label is extremely hit and miss for me, but the good stuff is very good

They were much stronger in their first couple of years. They've diversified their "sound" and allowed in way too much watery indie psych disguised as post-New Age spiritual jazz, but they still manage to pull it together about half the time.

watery indie psych disguised as post-New Age spiritual jazz

yep, this is my primary complaint. I have a hard time taking some of these guys seriously (Alabaster and Carlos in particular)

The ETA IV is quite good.

I'm not keeping up with this label like I once was, but running down their catalogue I'm not seeing such a huge change. You could say they've gone from "jazz label that releases other stuff" to "other stuff label that releases jazz" but it's a fairly subtle shift imo

Paul, you praised Carlos upthread -- did you change your mind or am I misreading that post? Not trying to gotcha you or anything, I'm curious because I liked the first couple of his but lost interest. I like 2/3 De Plume albums but would rather not talk about him on ILM ever again (will make one point I've made before: he makes more sense viewed as post-punk than jazz)

I find Carlos Niño to be a fascinating dude (I had him on my podcast this summer and it was a really good conversation) but I don't listen to his records very often.

my primary complaint is the prodigous release schedule.

Paul, you praised Carlos upthread -- did you change your mind or am I misreading that post? Not trying to gotcha you or anything, I'm curious because I liked the first couple of his but lost interest. I like 2/3 De Plume albums but would rather not talk about him on ILM ever again (will make one point I've made before: he makes more sense viewed as post-punk than jazz)

― rob, Thursday, November 28, 2024 4:40 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was definitely crazy about Chicago Waves, which in retrospect was relatively light on some of the more conspicuous new age love guru aspects I find objectionable. I bought a few Carlos records after that one, and to say it was diminishing returns would be an understatement.

I also think that, in my mind, I sorta bundled Chicago Waves with Aquiles Navarro & Tcheser Holmes’ Heritage Of The Invisible II, a truly great record that, if I'm remembering correctly, came out around the same time. Those two, along with To Cy & Lee – which I also loved – had me thinking I’d found a new favorite label. I still think IA does great work, and almost always check out new releases, but the spiritual-jazz-as-hippie-ambient stuff is a big buzzkill for me, and Carlos and DePlume are the biggest offenders.

New Anna Buttress album does not disappoint.

SML is very nice but washes over me even more than other similar records, I don't remember anything after it's over. It seems like I should love it, but Lados B and the new Jeff Parker have more to grab on to.

thanks for the response, Paul. I had a similar trajectory w/ Carlos Niño

The new Butterss is a notch below Activities for me, but still very good.

I've also found the SML to be fun while it's playing but not super memorable, though I can't quite decide if I think that says anything about its quality or not.

I haven't gotten to the new Parker yet -- stirmonster otm!

Jordan, I'm with you on the SML take. I think they are just editing together live recordings run through a modular synth and other processing. So on the one hand it's the Miles/Teo thing which is my favorite thing ever, but on the other hand they're just editing together live takes run through a modular synth. There is not a lot of structure to the songs.

i don't put it on to remember every little bit. i put it on to vibe / work / write.

i wouldn't argue that disappearing from the brain after it's done is a positive, but it does what i need it to, and i enjoy how it *sounds* when it's on.

Ah yeah that’s a good way of phrasing it

Don't get me wrong I listen to tons of vibey ambient jazz these days - I can't remember much about the new Jakob Bro record after I listen to it, but I keep feeling compelled to go back to it. I'm just not getting that feeling from SML after a couple listens.

damon locks’ new album is very bracing and powerful

saw daniel villareal + band a few weeks back, was awesome — think he's hitting the east coast in a week or so. highly recommend.

Thanks for heads up , but it looks like NY and Philly gigs only.

https://danielvillarrealmusic.com/shows

Thanks, seeing one of the Philly shows and just reading that he's now apparently based here? V cool

noooo
he left Chicago?

The Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes record sounds like a hit from the preview tracks, I'm even more impressed with the ETA recordings after reading that interview with the engineer.

New Anna Buttress album does not disappoint.

The Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes record is really good, features probably one of the few Beatles covers I can really get behind ("Fool on the Hill").

Just saw Villarreal live in Chicago. Amazing show.

new jeremiah chiu and marta sofia honer came out yesterday. excited to check it

yes it's wonderful

New Ben LaMar Gay is fantastic. I've found IA pretty hit and miss of late, particularly its mediocre UK releases, but this and the recent Damon Locks are the shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cuk4OLhK7uQ

Ben LaMar Gay is amazing. He's become one of my favourite contemporary musicians, genuinely sui generis, and yeah the new album is super. I've been pondering starting a dedicated thread for him, mostly because I'm curious if anyone has sifted through all those old albums he put out before Downtown Castles (I have not).

New Ben LaMar Gay is great, w/r/t to the old records, I really liked Confetti in the Sky Like Fireworks soundtrack and East of the Ryan though that one is a real yr-mileage-might-vary type record

thanks, chr1s! looking up Confetti to add it to my queue, I realized I did listen to Benjamin e Edinho and liked it.

(also I should have said "recorded" not "put out" since the whole point was they weren't released at the time)

Chicago FTW!!!

haha yeah my fondness for Chicago is definitely part of why I like him. I adore "Oh Great Be the Lake" on Open Arms to Open Us

my brother works at a restaurant in Chicago and once served him

He made a wonderful mix for The Wire https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/wire-mix-ben-lamar-gay

Makaya McCraven sat in my section once! He was really nice.

McCraven seems to be touring in the fall — there's a Denver date in October anyway. Hopefully he's got a new one coming out soon!

Faintly related, Jeff Parker is on my Neil Young podcast today: https://www.talkhouse.com/all-one-song-jeff-parker-on-the-needle-and-the-damage-done/

New Chicago Underground Duo coming out in August.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hyperglyph

enjoying the new resavoir

yesss so good, love that project

loving the ben lamar gay

4 new makaya mccraven eps on the way

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/track/away

Xp Yowzers is such a great album!! So many ideas, super enjoyable to listen to.

He played the Sound & Gravity launch party earlier this month.

the international anthem youtube channel posted this jaimie branch video recently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmAC4YC1pV8