Dream Division Returns Larger Than Life With ‘A Rose in the Garden of Winter’, Out 8/23; Listen To The Giallo Funk Of “Midnight Visions”

Tom Mcdowell has been making music as Dream Division for quite some time now. Starting out as a solo heavy synth project he’s allowed the project to evolve and mutate into something far more than its humble beginnings. From sci-fi synth dread to imagined soundtracks to classic horror literature to baroque ghost tales to 60s/70s […]

Marc Moulin’s ‘Sam’ Suffy’

I first came across Belgian musician and journalist Marc Moulin back in 2014. I was visiting Neat Neat Neat Records in late April 2014 with my wife. We were there to pick up the LCD Soundsystem box set The Long Goodbye(a RSD 2014 release.) He still had a copy from the big day a week […]

“Mr. Clean”

Other names tend to pop up when you think of jazz trumpeters. Of course Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Dorham, and Louis Armstrong come to mind, as does Chet Baker and Lee Morgan. But there’s one cat that was born in Indianapolis, IN that for my money is one of the most underrated jazz trumpeters […]

Sml : Small Medium Large

The latest to come out of Chicago’s forward-thinking record label International Anthem is by Sml. Sml consists of the quintet of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann. The project began as a series of long form improvisations at the beloved but now closed LA venue […]

Lenny Kravitz : Blue Electric Light

Lenny Kravitz has had a long, successful career. 35 years to be exact. While never creating something truly original or singular, he’s successfully built a decades-spanning discography on the shoulders of innovators like Sly and the Family Stone, John Lennon, Prince, Stevie Wonder, and the list goes on. His take on 60s free love, 70s […]

John Runs The Voodoo Down : Me, Miles, and The Portal That Is ‘Bitches Brew’

Even before I found myself going down the jazz rabbit hole(a hole I’m still dizzily finding myself descending into 15 years later) I knew of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. As a teen seeing that album cover by French painter Malti Klarwein perusing Musicland or Super Sounds, it would always make me stop and gawk. The […]

Charles Stepney : Step on Step

Charles Stepney may not be a household name, but the Chicago-based producer, arranger, and composer was an enigmatic musical mind in the 60s and 70s. First as a staff producer at Chess Records in the 1960s where he was the creative force behind artists like Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Marlena Shaw, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, […]

Fischer & Forde : It’s Just Business

There’s an uninhibited joy on Fischer & Forde’s debut album It’s Just Business. The dance/disco/house LP begs you to unplug from the big machine, put on your dancing shoes, and give into the grooves. It’s the kind of album you decimate your eardrums with in the car and drive an extra couple blocks just so […]

Dive Into The Deep End With London Odense Ensemble and “Jaiyede Suite, Pt. 2”; Album Out in June

It seems that there’s a new ensemble in town, London Odense Ensemble. Comprised of El Paraiso Records luminaries Jonas Munk, Jakob Skøtt, and Martin Rude, along with London-based jazz artists Tamar Osborn and Al MacSween, London Odense Ensemble came together for some seriously heady jams and it seems they’ve got an album’s worth of early […]

Dive Into The Deep End With London Odense Ensemble and “Jaiyede Suite, Pt. 2”; Album Out in June