Month: July 2019

Different Places in Space

Different Places in Space is an indie shoegaze outfit out of Pittsburgh, PA.

Their new single is a shimmering song speaking of empowerment and not worrying about what others think about you.

“I Can Do What I Want” is a psychedelic ensemble infused with elements of dream pop in an enchanting journey through time and space. Now sit back, turn up the volume, and soak in the radical vibrations. You will not regret it.

Frogi

“I wrote time in the bedroom of my apartment when I was really heartbroken.”

Frogi, a Los Angeles based artist, spills her heart out on her latest track with retro vocals that explore the inner workings of the fragmented mind. She weaves ethereal vocals into a subdued soundscape — inducing a dream-like state.

“I lost someone very close to me when I was nineteen, and after that all I could do was write songs all the time. It was the only thing (besides my dog) that got me through it.” 

PERCASSETTE Ft. BELLSAINT

PERCASSETTE Ft. BELLSAINT dishes up a fresh new chillhop jam wreaking of quintessential lo-fi bedroom music.

“Like Gold To Me” is a lackadaisical slow dance into the inner depths of a midsummer afternoon. It’s like gravy on potatoes, or chocolate oozing down the spherical slopes of a steaming hot fudge sundae.

And now sit down, take a load off, and soak in the intoxicating sound-waves of PERCASSETTE & BELLSAINT.

Dante Mazzetti

Dante Mazzetti is a storyteller who was born and raised in New York City, he started playing the fiddle at the age of three. And by five, he was learning guitar and writing his own songs. The rest is history.

Mazzetti’s new track “Hey Now” focuses on an individual who is completely honest about who he is and where he’s at in life — broken and now hardened. He knows that he must leave the life he once had and be born again. But it’ll be hard.

“The songs are doors that open easily into bizarre worlds rather than places of comfort.” – Mazzetti

Àbáse

Àbáse (Szabolcs Bognar) is a multi-instrumentalist creating a magical blend of West African, Brazilian, hip hop, jazz and club music. He focuses on the rhythm section and drifts between funky riffs and silky smooth chord structures. The word “àbáse” comes from the West African Yoruba language and stands for “collaboration” — a key facet of Àbáse’s music.

Àbáse studied at the Jazz Conservatory in Budapest and has had stints in Paris, New York, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador de Bahia — but is currently based in Berlin.

Àbáse’s latest project is a seven piece adventure of instrumental artistry, each channeling a musical journey of its own, while inviting the listener on a personal, emotional journey with guests he encountered along the way…

Pearla

Pearla, the project of 22-year-old Nicole Rodriguez — sounds like your childhood toys all hiding in a trunk up in the dusty attic — innocent, familiar, and at the very same time, tragic and quite sad. Pearla’s songs are intricate artifacts of profound emotion — playful yet evocative, contained yet complex. It’s a perfect balance.

The waxing instrumentation of “Daydream” is a fleeting glimpse into the intricately complex mind of Pearla. And while roots music builds the foundation of her music, Pearla tinkers with stray noises from all edges of the world to relay her hazy, pastel-colored feelings of displacement and wonder.

“This song is about clinging onto a memory until it becomes distorted in your mind, and turns into an almost absurd attempt to escape the present.” – Pearla

The Virtual Conductor

The Virtual Conductor’s “La Vida es Bella” is one of Eamonn Watt’s more experimental tracks, featuring classical guitar on cassette tape, mellotron flutes, strings and celesta to create a nostalgic, reflective sort of sound.

Although Watt is a classical composer from the Shetland Isles — he dabbles in other genres and seems to stretch the creative limits of his human mind. The fringe is where he resides.

Now sit back, relax, and feel free to reap the profound essence of all that is The Virtual Conductor. Here is “La Vida es Bella” off his new album ‘Aquarelle’.

Dakota Blue

Dakota Blue is an experimental indie pop artist from the concrete jungle of LA.

“At the Gala” is a lackadaisical single glimmering of a sweet nostalgic resonance off Dakota Blue’s upcoming album — ‘Specific System’.

The project utilizes the 12-string guitar and synths to create a dreamy atmosphere around a gala in a garden. “The gala hasn’t started. Drama arrives early. She wears a pricey dress. He looks always unimpressed.”

Crave On

Crave On is an intoxicating band playing rock and roll music from deep within the eclectic hub of Nashville, Tennessee.

Their latest psych-folk project entitled “Ace on the Outspeaker” is a shimmering reflection of a collection of small moments that seem to fade away into a distant memory — as life just seems to keep rolling on by.

“Black night putting my nerves to the test. Like I knew I was the best, like I was better than the rest. Wild child putting the first things first.”

On Tonight’s Programme

Twas 66 & among the heads of the Haight, Spores of Disillusionment were germinating- inhaled twixt tokes of Acapulco G. Nam cocktailed with the Lysergic Prohibition were proving a potent downer

The bud of 66 bloomed a 67 & the Spores were palpable to a growing bouquet of Flower Chillen. The Dream was all but over when Time ran a story on hippies in Jan 67. No head had HEARD of a hippie & next thing ya know, they were coming to look at us like we was in a glass bowl, said Mickey Hart. Literally- 67 saw the maiden voyage of Gray Line’s Hippie Tour, billed as A SAFARI THRU PSYCHEDELIA

Press drew youth like moth to flame. FORGET FLOWERS IN YA HAIR The Oracle headline read- pilgrims bring sleeping bags & scratch instead

Like THAT, Utopia became a cesspit of B&E; VD; bum trips on STP. The Spores’ prime symptom, spiritual void, was taking hold- exacerbated by culdesac forays into krishna, zen & the occult

& in this darkness… The Living Room

Est. by ex-beats who found salvation on LSD, TLR was a coffeehouse that offered beds for bible readings. 1000s of youth dropped by in 67, listening to the word of these counterculture evangelists. Their Jesus was presented as a revolutionary outlaw and their strain of worship stressed direct contact with Jesus via drug metaphors aplenty. This was a mainliner to the soul of the disenchanted doper- soon TLR was Saving over 20 a week- Jesus Freaks were here

coffeehousi/ street ministries swiftly dotted the Coast. TLR convert, Lonnie Frisbee, held services at SoCal’s Calvary Chapel, now THE hippie church, it’s membership growin from 200 to 2000 in 3 months. Among the converts were musicians, many of which had played in bands in SF, who were now writing music for praise/worship, sonically rooted in the Frisco Sound. Performances by these freshly minted Christian Psych (dubbed Xian Psych by 90s collectors) bands were incorporated into services and went down a storm. Soon they were in the studio recording privately pressed LPs funded by the church/ by the bands themselves. In time, the lyrical subject matter had evolved, waxin not only on the XTC of Jesus, but also pre-conversion experiences with drugs/promiscuity & the alternative that was the Jesus Trip

As headlines blurred from RFK to MLK to Altamont, The Jesus People spread, with Calvary affiliates founding 20 communes across Cali before departing en masse, sending teams across the US & Canada. Other factions of Jesus People toured the US (& by the end of ’70, Europe) too, sharing the gospel/ the farout sounds of Xian Psych. New communes were founded as were new bands who lay down their own private press LPs, flying the Frisco Sound’s freakflag

As Nam’s curtain closed, counterculture was absorbed by pop culture and so too, most of the Jesus Freaks folded into m’stream Christianity. The once radical music of the movement was dropped in favour of an MOR sound, later the lucrative Christian Contemporary Music industry. Though some bands from the salad days of xian music became stalwarts of that scene, most disappeared but some, like NYC based commune/collective, The Trees Community, spent the rest of the decade travelling the US, sharing their otherworldly sound in a converted school bus housing 
10 people
2 cats+dog
80 instruments. Now if THAT aint The Dream…

The cornucopia of Xianedelic delights on Tonight’s Programme were recorded largely by American Jesus Freaks, with a few sounds by their EU/CA counterparts. 92% of the records were privately pressed (with the remainder released by church funded indie labels), usually produced in numbers of 50-200, allowing the bands full creative freedom, which as you’ll hear, was used to the fullest

Now, Praise The Lord, Take a Trip & Take it Sleazy

j.