Staff Picks - July 2023

Staff Picks - July 2023

August 18, 2023

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Check out our selection of albums and compilations released in July 2023. From jazz to experimental music, field recordings, ambient, traditional and improvised music, both new and reissues, check out these 20 releases from the monthly Staff Picks column.

What's new, what's good, what's hot or not, what's obscure or under the radar, music wise, here's the monthly Staff Picks. If you think that we've missed something or want to send a tip, please get in touch.

From Circuit Diagram to Graham Lambkin

Damon Locks & Rob Mazurek - New Future City Radio (International Anthem)
Damon Locks & Rob Mazurek - New Future City Radio (International Anthem)
Circuit Diagram - Werkschau (Crash Symbols)
Berlin/Hamburg-based Circuit Diagram is Nicolas Sheikholeslami (aka Çaykh and one of the heads behind Spiritczualic Enhancement Center) on drums and Kris Jakob (aka F#X) on electronics. Together they make kosmische-tinged psych that feels heady, but concise—the perfect blend of their complementary trance and electroacoustic sensibilities.

CRRDR - Latinx Core (self-released)
Under this album Corredor seeks to propose and consolidate himself as one of the pioneers of the Latin Core sound being today a something, as one of the pioneers of Latin Tek and deconstructed Latin rhythms, the artist seeks to capture through iconic songs and type edits an album that brings together the sounds of Guaracha, Tekno, Nightcore, Reggaeton and more in one. The sound of Latinx Core and Latin Tek characterize this album, with unique sounds focused on the dancefloors of the globe, both for the underground and the club, CRRDR shows a unique vision and opens an unknown panorama. This album consists of 19 tracks and establishes itself as the artist's first full-length release, filled with diverse tracks ranging from 90 BPMs to 220 Bpms.

Damon Locks & Rob Mazurek - New Future City Radio (International Anthem)
New Future City Radio is the first duo collaboration of long-time creative partners Damon Locks & Rob Mazurek. In a hyperactive 40-minute, 18-track suite that runs like a boombox mixtape, the two prolific multi-media artists contemplate community, transformation, and the future through the programmatic format of a pirate radio station for the people.

V.A. - framework:seasonal ::: issue #14 ::: summer 2023 (framework editions)
In 2011, framework editions decided to continue releasing regular showcases of artists working in the field recording community, and began the framework:seasonal series in the autumn of that year. With this series framework editions releases compilations and occasional single-artist specials, featuring new and established artists whose work will be of interest to our listeners. all works are previously unreleased, and are contributed freely by their creators in support of framework radio.



Graham Lambkin - No Better No Worse (Vol 3) (self-released)
Graham Lambkin is a London based multidisciplinary artist and publisher whose work embraces audio, visual and text-based concerns.
MADMADMAD - Behavioural Sink Delirium (Fuzz Club Records / Bad Vibrations)
MADMADMAD - Behavioural Sink Delirium (Fuzz Club Records / Bad Vibrations)

From John Butcher to Lucie Vítková

Hassen Elgharbi & Mohamed El Akkad - Le Qanoun Enchanté (Solos De Cithare) (Les Artistes Arabes Associés / mlp-music)
This album was first released in 1991 by Les Artistes Arabes Associés and is now being reissued by the French imprint mlp-music.



John Butcher - The Very Fabric (self-released)
"In the summer of 2022 Thomas Buhl-Wiggers, of the Cejero festival and label, kindly invited me to play inside the mammoth Brønshøj water tower. The very resonant spaces I’ve worked in before include a giant gasometer, a hollowed-out Japanese mountain, an underground reservoir, a Victorian mausoleum and a massive World War II oil tank.
I’m still fascinated by how different these enormous environments all sounded and felt. They each inspired different approaches in trying to find the music for the actual space, and my recent experience within this extraordinary construction was no exception." John Butcher

Knoel Scott feat. Marshall Allen - Celestial (Night Dreamer)
Sun Ra Arkestra saxophonist Knoel Scott reaches for the sky to release debut studio album Celestial with long-time collaborator Marshall Allen. Best known for his long-standing role in Sun Ra Arkestra, saxophonist, composer, vocalist and performer Knoel Scott is a jazz legend in his own right. A celebration of his tight knit relationship with Arkestra leader Marshall Allen, Celestial marks Scott’s first major studio release after more than 40 years at the vanguard of modern jazz.

Lucie Vítková - Cave Acoustics (mappa)
In 2018, New York based composer and improviser Lucie Vítková made recordings in caves in the Czech Republic and an abandoned Gothic church in Slovakia. Their album Cave Acoustics combines a beguiling exploration of the physicality and acoustics of these unique locations with profoundly personal themes of family legacy and roots.

MADMADMAD - Behavioural Sink Delirium (Fuzz Club Records / Bad Vibrations)
Behavioural Sink Delirium’ is the new studio album from MADMADMAD. Powered by their wild live parties and rooted in the sounds of mutant disco, post-punk and experimental electronics, the London-based trio’s third LP is out via Bad Vibrations / Fuzz Club.
Maro & Anahid Ajemian and friends - Bela Bartok & Alan Hovhaness: First Recordings, 1947-49 (Canary Records)
Maro & Anahid Ajemian and friends - Bela Bartok & Alan Hovhaness: First Recordings, 1947-49 (Canary Records)

From Meridian Brothers to Mort Garson

Maro & Anahid Ajemian and friends - Bela Bartok & Alan Hovhaness: First Recordings, 1947-49 (Canary Records)
This new release from the Baltimore imprint Canary Records comprises early recordings of Maro & Anahid Ajemian and friends, playing composition of Bela Bartok and Alan Hovhaness.

Meridian Brothers - Ayuda / Help para Glenda Torrado!
"Glenda Torrado is a fantastic artist and drawer. She has made several record covers of some of our most important projects. Meridian Brothers, Derya Yildirim & Graham Mushnik, Mirlitorrinco, La Chinos, Santa Dharma band, Romperayo, Tortuga alada, Los Champeteros del Jùjú and 17 años bajo tierra (Santiago Botero) have some of her genius drawings. Glenda has been fighting cancer for years. This is the third time she has a crisis and an operation (Condrosarcoma). This campaign has a goal of getting resources for her treatment in general aspects such as medical exams, and general care taking. All the purchases of this album will go directly to Glenda's Paypal (donations: octupopo(at)gmail(dot)com)."

mödulatorrr - Science Vessel Technology (Lotophagus Records)
With Science Vessel Technology, mödulatorrr offers a dark, spacey trip into the universe of Jack Vance and other masters of the golden age of science fiction. Deep and haunting, this intergalactic rollercoaster is available at free price.

Mort Garson - Journey to the Moon and Beyond (Sacred Bones Records)
Like a perennial that returns with each new spring, the Mort Garson archives (Plantasia, Ataraxia, Lucifer) have brought to bear yet another awe-inspiring bloom. Journey to the Moon and Beyond finds even more new facets to the man’s sound. There’s the soundtrack to the 1974 blaxploitation film Black Eye (starring Fred Williamson), some previously unreleased and newly unearthed music for advertising. Just as regal is "Zoos of the World", where Garson soundtracks the wild, preening, slumbering animals from a 1970 National Geographic special of the same name. The mind reels at just what project would have yielded a scintillating title like "Western Dragon", but these three selections were found on tapes in the archive with no further information.

ꆀꃅꆈꌠꉙꇁꑵꃚ ꂱꆹꊨꌠ:ꉼꉹ 涼山彝族音樂 第一輯:口弦 Nuosu Music from Liangshan Vol. 1: Mouth Harp (WV Sorcerer Productions 巫唱片)
On the southeastern edge of the Chuanxi Plateau, along the northern bank of the Jinsha River, stand the majestic Liangshan Mountains. Here, the children of the Apu Dumu took root and sprouted. They became known as the Yi people and have continued to thrive in this region for thousands of years. The Yi have created a dazzling culture and artistic tradition, in which the Yi mouth harp is the brightest star.



The Man from Atlantis with Camila Nebbia and Simo Laihonen - Blues for Archie Shepp (Ramble Records)
The Man from Atlantis with Camila Nebbia and Simo Laihonen - Blues for Archie Shepp (Ramble Records)

From Raja Kirik to Tony Buck

Raja Kirik - Phantasmagoria of Jathilan (Yes No Wave Music)
The Phantasmagoria of Jahtilan is a music performance by Raja Kirik in collaboration with singer Silir Wangi and performer Ari Dwianto. This project investigate the Jathilan horse dance, a folk trance dance popular in Java, Indonesia, as a way of regaining strength despite defeat. Jathilan is an acronym of "Jarane jan tjil-thilan", which translates to a horse that dances irregularly.

Sote & Mazdak - Forsaken Clouds (Zabte Sote)
This new release from Zabte Sote presents a four-pieces collaboration between Mazdak Khamda (acoustic music composition) and Ata 'Sote' Ebtekar (electronic music composition).



Svitlana Nianio & Tom James Scott - Eye of the Sea (Skire)
Recorded in correspondence throughout a calamitous and uncertain 2020, “Eye of the Sea" is a collaborative record made by Tom James Scott of the United Kingdom and Svitlana Nianio of Ukraine. Active since the late 1980s, Nianio has released a treasure trove of diverse and beguiling music under her own name, as a member of the legendary Ukrainian experimental unit Cukor Bila Smerť, and in collaboration with the late musician and instrument maker Oleksandr Yurchenko. For his part, Scott has steadily published solo recordings since the mid aughts on labels such as Bo’Weavil, Students of Decay, and Where to Now?, and worked often in collaboration with kindred spirits like Andrew Chalk and Timo Van Lujik.

The Man from Atlantis with Camila Nebbia and Simo Laihonen - Blues for Archie Shepp (Ramble Records)
The Man from Atlantis (TMFA) is the signature of Michael Sill, the head of the Australian, Melbourne-based imprint Ramble Records, producer and a guitarist-vocalist playing folk, country, blues, punk American primitive guitar, Indian classical, psych and free jazz.

Tony Buck - Environmental Studies (Room40)
An incredibly dense matrix of interwoven voices and layers, each occupying and exploiting a unique space within the fabric of the sound-environment, co-existing to slowly reveal themselves in multiple interconnected relationships. Each voice devised to represent the instruments most resonant voice, claiming a unique location in the massed sonic field, not only in terms of register, timbre or rhythmic density, but also in relation to the unique and most sonorous characteristic inherent in each instrumental sound-source itself.
About the Author

Dragoș Rusu & Victor Stutz

Dragoș Rusu is co-founder and co-editor in chief of The Attic and allround music adventurer.

Victor Stutz is a sound adventurer and music selector from Bucharest – currently based in Barcelona - with a background in anthropology.

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