(March 2021) Episode 323 is THE ESSEX GREEN. Another fine indie band from the Elephant 6 world, with a little more folk and country tones than others in the cohort. “Everything Is Green” is an excellent homage to 60s baroque psychedelic pop, and “Primrose” sounds more like the Zombies than anything else I can think of.
Favorite album: Everything Is Green
Favorite song: Primrose
Compared to expectations: same
(March 2021) Episode 322 is VANILLA FUDGE. They made their mark with heavy, slowed, over-wrought versions of contemporary pop songs (you may recognize their version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”) and, oddly, it still kinda holds up. I prefer the albums with more original material. Their heavy sound, slathered like so much fudge in Hammond organ and fuzzy guitars, helped birth heavy metal. You can hear it most immediately in Deep Purple’s early work, and Mark Stein’s vibrato vocals presaged the operatic style of Bruce Dickinson el at.
Favorite album: Renaissance
Favorite song: Good Good Lovin’
Compared to expectations: same
(March 2021) Episode 321 is UNSUK CHIN. A South Korean-born contemporary classical composer with a diverse array of influences (she studied under Ligeti), styles and forms, both conventional and experimental. Many of her works feature frenetic bursts of notes, and make full use of available sounds from instruments (sliding along strings, tapping the body).
Favorite piece: Cello Concerto
Favorite piano piece: Etude No. 5
Favorite choral work: Cantatrix Sopranica
Favorite experimental piece: Double Bind?
Compared to expectations: ↑
(March 2021) Episode 320 is ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO. Avant-garde jazz at its most avant-gardy. Prolific free jazz with a whole mix of styles and too-many-to-count instruments and noise makers. Apparently their stage performances were pretty wild.
Favorite album: Live in Paris
Favorite song: Theme de Yoyo
Compared to expectations: same
(February 2021) Episode 318 is SHOCKING BLUE. The Netherlands’ top contribution to the psychedelic explosion of the late 1960s, Shocking Blue is most famous for “Venus” (you know, covered by Bananarama). They put out several decent albums of rock songs with a somewhat groovy/hippie vibe.
Favorite album: Inkpot
Favorite song: Shadows
Compared to expectations: same
(February 2021) Episode 317 is GYÖRGY LIGETI. You will recognize him from the monolith music in 2001: A Space Odyssey, excerpted from his innovative choral works composed in a technique he called micropolyphony, which characterized his late 1960s focus. But his breadth extended to electronic, chamber, orchestral and piano, making him one of the most influential and one of my favorite avant-garde composers of the second half of the 20th century.
Favorite piece: Chamber Concerto for 13 instrumentalists
Favorite choral work: Requiem
Favorite orchestral piece: Ramifications
Favorite chamber piece: String Quarter #2
Favorite keyboard piece: Hungarian Rock (Chaconne)
Compared to expectations: ↑
(February 2021) Episode 316 is AMON AMARTH. When you need some Swedish death metal — and who doesn’t? — Amon Amarth amply satisfies. They offer the full package: double-pedal thunder speed, 99% growl vocals, Norse mythology, and doom themes. Consistently fast and loud. Good stuff.
Favorite album: Twilight of the Thunder God
Favorite song: The Last With Pagan Blood
Compared to expectations: same
(February 2021) Episode 315 is NINA SIMONE. There is so much that is remarkable about Nina Simone. Her deep and expressive voice, best suited to the jazz tunes of her early career IMO. Her skills on piano, arranging and songwriting. The diversity and eclecticism of her musical tastes (from gospel and blues to The Beatles and Hall & Oates). Her independence and activism for civil rights. She owned the 1960s.
Favorite album: Pastel Blues
Favorite song: Four Women
Compared to expectations: same
(February 2021) Episode 314 is OF MONTREAL. I like most anything that comes out of the Elephant 6 collective, but of Montreal was overall a disappointment. They start out in typical E6 fashion — lo-fi, Beatles-philic songs — followed by a couple of Kinks-esque, music hall-style, baroque pop albums, all with quirky song titles and lyrics. But after that it’s mostly synth-laden electro-pop stuff that did not interest me.
Favorite song: Doing Nothing
Favorite instrumental song: The Gay Parade
Compared to expectations: ↓
Episode 313 is LA MONTE YOUNG. Inspired by Cage, he set out to question the definition and nature of music: one work is just pushing a piano against a wall. He deeply explored sustained tones — what was later dubbed drone music — which made him a pioneer in minimalism. Young also composed in just intonation, collaborated with Indian classical musicians, and did all sorts of avant-garde stuff with his Theater of Eternal Music and elsewhere.
Favorite piece: Just Charles & Cello in The Romantic Chord
Compared to expectations: same
Opus Project 