Category: Releases

Action Friend – bon•ho•mie

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Formed in 2005 beneath the shadow of The Berkeley Inn in Denver, CO, Action Friend has achieved true ‘road warrior’ status through hundreds of live shows, two studio albums with acclaimed producer Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Tool, Mike Patton, Big Business) and three different bass players. Action Friend are now based in LA, and original members Jeremy McLean and Paul Alexander have initiated John Schuller (Master Musicians of Bukkake, Earth, Asva, The Youngs) and Mark G. Thornton (God Of Shamisen) into the fold. ‘bon•ho•mie,’ their third album and first for Chant Records, finds the band in top shape, digging deeper into their singular, genre-hopping brand of rock music.

Paul Alexander -Drums
Jeremy McLean – Guitar
John Schuller – Bass/Vocals
Mark G. Thornton – Keyboards
Recorded, and mixed by Toshi Kasai @ Sound Of Sirens Studio (LA, CA) Recorded in April of 2017. Produced by Action Friend and Toshi Kasai.

Tracks:

1. Airborne Infant Tree
2. AxA
3. DemoNSkuLL
4. OxO
5. LMNOP Whole
6. YxY
7. Sewer Abuse
8. Night Brunch
9. WxW
10. She Wasn’t, She Isn’t

The Modulators – Drivetime

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brianmarsella.com

Drivetime is the latest album from ultra-prolific madman keyboardist Brian Marsella and presents the debut of The Modulators, with Reid Taylor on bass and Kenny Grohowski on drums. Drivetime is the perfect car playlist, tunes to accompany you whether driving on the open road or stuck in an unrelenting LA traffic jam. From surf rock to punk to glitch synth, psychedelia, circus music, film noir and more, Drivetime never stays in neutral. Throughout the 44 minute journey are sprinkles of references to Twin Peaks and the surreal world of David Lynch. Featuring special guests Cyro Baptista on percussion and Jon Irabagon on clarinet, Drivetime will get you where you want to go in style. (And by the way, despite what your ears may tell you, no guitars were used in the making of this album.)

Tracks:

1. Start Your Engines
2. TP Is Coming Back In Style
3. C#
4. Chinese Food In New Jersey
5. Just In Case
6. The Fibers Are Telling Me Something About What LIES Beneath
7. Easy Rider
8. No Sleep Tonight
9. Basement
10. Time Travelers Overture
11. Space Between Dimensions
12. Fecal Core
13. Dr. Jacoby Ain’t Nothin’ but a Gigolo (The Doctor Is In)
14. Stupid
15. Cul-de-sac
16. Smoke
17. The Timely Death of 2017
18. Better Days

Event Horizon (Greg Cohen and Randi Pontoppidan) – Space Geode

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randipontoppidan.com
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Greg Cohen on Wikipedia

Greg Cohen is one of the world’s most sought after bass players, collaborating with everyone from Woody Allen, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson to Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, and Brian Eno. He has also worked as an arranger, producer, musical director and composer for the theatre, film, television and recording studios. Randi Pontoppidan is a Danish vocalist, improviser and composer. At home in the worlds of free improvisation, jazz, performance art and contemporary classical music, she has collaborated with artists including Paul Hillier, Else Torp, Theatre of Voices, Sissel Vera Pettersen, Thomas Agergaard, Simon Toldam, Lotte Anker, Morten Søndergaard, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Morten Søndergaard and Stuart Lynch. Cohen and Pontoppidan recorded ‘Space Geode’ on one November day in a dark room in Berlin called The Funkhaus, once the headquarters for East Berlin Radio.

Tracks:

1. Space Geode
2. Dogs
3. Alfalfa
4. Neptune Moon
5. Mercury’s Comet
6. Universes Bb
7. Nova LOX
8. Interstellar Smorgasbord
9. Under a Rock
10. Pearls of Fizzdom
11. Pluto’s Cry
12. Galactic Glop

Dark Ages

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Dark Ages is a recording by five stalwarts of the restless New York City scene who gathered on a snowy winter night in Brooklyn to improvise together with one twisted mind. Working with legendary producer Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Helmet, Bill Laswell), the resulting album references everything from the doom metal of Sleep’s “Dopesmoker” to punk pioneers Black Flag and No Wave music. Members of Dark Ages have worked with a diverse roster of musicians and projects including Blue Man Group, Shudder To Think, Gary Lucas and Doctor Nerve.

Dark Ages:
Tom Shad, BEAD Bass
Jesse Krakow, Bass
Nick Didkovsky, Guitar
Nick Oddy, Guitar
Dave Miller, Drums

Tracks:

1. Golem
2. Factorial
3. Pawns
4. Exhumed
5. Sweat
6. Clot
7. The Gates of Arotaakh
8. Post Mortem

Alon & Joca with NDR BIGBAND – Dança Das Águas

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Alon Yavnai’s website
Joca Perpignan’s website

With roots in Latin America, Africa, Israel and the Middle East, the virtuoso duo of Alon Yavnai (voice, piano) and Joca Perpignan (voice, percussion) are joined by Germany’s acclaimed NDR Bigband on Dança Das Águas. One of the most acclaimed big bands in Europe and the official jazz orchestra of German public radio in Hamburg, NDR Bigband has performed with a who’s who of jazz including Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Don Cherry, McCoy Turner, Lionel Hampton, Carla Bley and Wayne Shorter.

Tracks:

1. Jogo do Viver
2. De Partir Chegar
3. Arrancada
4. Ondas Di Sangui
5. Axé
6. Rosas Amarelas
7. Céu De Aruanda

Personnel:

All arrangements by Alon Yavnai
Conductor Jörg Achim Keller
Vocals + Percussion Joca Perpignan
Piano + Vocals Alon Yavnai
Guitar Marc Kakon
Drums Kiko Freitas

NDR Bigband:
Trumpets
Thorsten Benkenstein
Ingolf Burkhardt
Claus Stötter
Reiner Winterschladen

Saxophones
Fiete Felsch Alto
Peter Bolte Alto
Christof Lauer Tenor
Lutz Büchner Tenor
Frank Delle Baritone

Trombones
Dan Gottshall
Klaus Heidenreich
Stefan Lottermann
Ingo Lahme Bass Trombone/Tuba

Bass Ingmar Heller

Percussion Marcio Doctor

Recording Date: 21.–25.9.2015
Recording Venue: NDR Studio 1, Hamburg
Recording Producer: Oliver Bergner
Recording Engineer: Sven Kohlwage
Mixed by Oliver Bergner
(except Track 4 – Ondas di Sangui – mixed by David Feldman)
Mastered by David Feldman
Producers for NDR: Axel Dürr & Stefan Gerdes

Midwood – Out of the Narrows

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midwoodband.com
jakeshulmanment.com

Led by violinist Jake Shulman-Ment, Midwood is an experimental klezmer/rock/avant garde celebration of freedom and the Jewish tradition of wandering and migration. This new supergroup, featuring some of the most exciting young performers on the international world music stage, seamlessly traverses borders through original compositions, expansive improvisations on traditional melodies, and heart-wrenching re-imaginings of Yiddish folk songs. Their debut album, Out of the Narrows, draws from deep Eastern European Jewish roots to explore the power of love, movement, and wilderness to transform the human mind and heart.

Midwood:
Jake Shulman-Ment, violin
Yoshie Fruchter, guitar
Richie Barshay, drums, percussion
Eléonore Weill, vocals

Tracks:

1. Isaac
2. Ansky
3. Ahava Raba
4. Dortn
5. Bughici Nign
6. Bughici Khusidl
7. Waltz
8. Az in Droysn
9. Gute Nakht

Bret Higgins’ Atlas Revolt – Illusion Machine

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brethiggins.com
facebook.com/brethigginsatlasrevolt
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Picking up from where the band left off with their 2015 debut CD on Tzadik Records, Bret Higgins’ Atlas Revolt digs deeper, refining a collaborative sound which draws upon film score, desert-blues, psychedelia, Balkan, and Central and South American music. On their sophomore recording Illusion Machine, the usual line-up adds sixth man of the year, virtuoso Columbian percussionist Juan Carlos Medrano to the fold, elevating the overall sound into a darker and more orchestral version of itself. The music on Illusion Machine is overflowing with exciting rhythms, searing guitar work and beautiful melodies, performed by an incredible group.

Bret Higgins – Double Bass
Aleksandar Gajic – Violin
Robbie Grunwald – Electric Piano and Organ
Tom Juhas – Electric Guitar
Juan Carlos Medrano – Percussion
Joshua Van Tassel – Drums

Recorded and Edited by Jeremy Darby at Canterbury Music Company, Toronto
Additional Editing by David Hermiston at Woodbine Studio, Toronto
Mixed by Justin Phelps at Hallowed Halls, Portland, Oregon
Mastered by David Travers-Smith
Artwork and Design by Asli Alin – aslialin.com
Produced by Bret Higgins
All music composed by Bret Higgins

Tracks:

1. Shadowboxing
2. Hunter
3. Last Man Standing
4. Euculipsa
5. Astral Soul Shake
6. Sun Gazers
7. Stero
8. Illusion Machine
9. Zebop
10. Moon Catchers

Curha – I

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Curtis Hasselbring is a New York-based trombonist, guitarist and composer. Since moving to NYC in the 90s he has been a fixture in the jazz and experimental music scenes, working with Slavic Soul Party, Golem, Frank London, Anthony Coleman, Bobby Previte, Matt Wilson, Chris Lightcap, Medeski Martin and Wood and many more. Curha is Hasselbring’s alter-ego and the name of his musical project involving a combination of his multi-instrumentalist skills and love of electronic music. His first release on Chant Records, “I”, integrates elements of electronica, tropicalia, surf and a wide variety of other influences to create a body of work that he describes as “groove music representing various stages of human evolution.”

All music composed, performed and produced by Curtis Hasselbring

Tracks:

1. Scissors
2. Egon
3. Respect the Pedestrian
4. Mystery Guest
5. Madgit
6. Sir Fish
7. ’68
8. Alpaca Lunch
9. Party Platter People
10. Fish Coda
11. Ana-lo

Matt Mottel – Slid City

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Matt Mottel is an internationally recognized multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer who has co-led (with drummer Kevin Shea) the dadaist duo Talibam! since 2003 and has worked with Karole Armitage, Rhys Chatham, Cooper-Moore, Yasuano Tone and many others. Talibam!’s album Endgame of the Anthropocene was described by Bandcamp as a “spiked Slurpee party at the end of the world” when featured as Album of the Day in 2017. Mottel goes solo on his Chant Records debut ‘Slid City,’ combining lo-fi drum machines with electronic synth sounds of all stripes, trash-rock guitar and laser sounds. For fans diverse artists including Suicide, Royal Trux, Omar Souleyman and Carla Bley, ‘Slid City’ is a layered and experimental sound world whose aural landscape simultaneously grooves, enlivens and stings your senses.

All music composed, performed and produced by Matt Mottel

Tracks:

1. Clunk Rok
2. Uniq Rok
3. Untal Cloc
4. Slide Ways
5. Hiegh Weis
6. Schizno Res
7. Resona Moan
8. Bo Dome

Welf Dorr Unit – Blood

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welfdorr.com/

‘A meaty, weighty sound driving like a freight train.’ – NYC Jazz Record

The Welf Dorr Unit (WDU) combines free jazz spontaneity with the urgency of funk and rock. The fiery quartet takes inspiration from the motto “Jazz is the Teacher, Funk is the Preacher,” taken from the title of a song by James ‘Blood’ Ulmer (who also inspired the WDU’s album title).

WDU features Welf Dorr on alto sax and bass clarinet, Dave Ross on guitar, Dmitry Ishenko on bass and Joe Hertenstein on drums. The quartet was originally formed in 2012 for a performance at the Evolving Music Series curated by Arts for Art, presenters of the renowned Vision Festival in NYC. Dorr’s other main project is Underground Horns, a 6-piece brass band called “an unapologetic party band with brains…with tonal inflections from the Big Easy, central Africa, the Maghreb and the Baltic states” by the New York Jazz Record. Dorr has performed at venues and festivals throughout the world (including concerts in Egypt, Tudo é Jazz in Brazil, Willisau in Switzerland and Jazz at Lincoln Center) and has shared the stage with musicians including Rebirth Brass Band, Big Sam’s Funky Nation and B.B. King. Besides leading his own projects, Dorr is a member of Karl Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra, Kenny Wollesen’s Himalayas, On Ka’a Davis and the Famous Original Djuke Players and the Nublu Orchestra conducted by the late Butch Morris. He has also played and recorded with Frank Lacy, Sonny Simmons, Sabir Mateen, Kim Clark, Ronnie Drayton, Graham Haynes, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jeffrey Shurdut, Daniel Carter, Steve Swell, Lukas Ligeti, Vernon Reid, Juini Booth, Jojo Kuo and the Goldsparkle Brass Band.

Tracks:
1. Sympathicus
2. Blood
3. Dixie
4. Two Down (One To Go)
5. Outcry
6. Big Tree
7. Left Alone