A classically trained bassist with a mind for cosmology and non-linear math, he set out to build an instrument that could express both intuition and structure. The result […]
Randall Roberts
For anyone building a system on taste, this is where to start. Most of what matters in a turntable lives at the tip of the stylus. The cartridge […]
A look at the artist who fused sound, sex, spirit, and style across decades of iconic album art. Few album cover artists reward gobbling LSD more than Mati […]
“O Dengo Que a Nega Tem,” hidden for 50 years, delivers 7 minutes of slow-building, percussive bliss. In 1972, Gal Costa was riding high. Her live album Fa-Tal – Gal a Todo Vapor had just cemented her as one of […]
Jonathan Ward returns with a rich label-by-label history of early 78 rpm recordings from East Africa, uncovering the region’s first stars, sessions and sonic exports. The first lines […]
A 1959 short captures the obsessive early days of high-fidelity systems. Men chase sonic perfection through wires, cabinets, and carefully measured madness. “You must have one of these […]
From a defunct DIY venue to a modernist chapel, Dismal Niche has spent years staging the improbable — and making it feel necessary. It’s hard to foment a […]
A 1975 copy of High Fidelity maps the world when vinyl and stereo equipment didn’t just occupy a room — it claimed it. In 1975, music didn’t just hang around […]
One new collection draws from Wolfgang Seidel’s counter-history of the German underground, Krautrock Eruption. The other, Ambientale, is compiled by Charles Bals and explores ambient obscurities and digital […]
A reel-to-reel in Mississippi, AM radio in Tennessee, and a new record, Time Indefinite, tuned to the quiet hiss between stations. Time Indefinite is William Tyler’s first solo album […]
New album from two cornerstones of Chicago’s experimental scene arrives ten years after their first collaborative release Ten years ago the Bitchin’ Bajas and Natural Information Society released Automaginary, […]
An archival Musician Magazine profile examines Zorn’s early days in New York’s downtown scene. Note: This profile of John Zorn was originally published in Musician Magazine in 1985. Written by Peter Watrous under […]
Kwame Yeboah and Ben Abarbanel-Wolff’s band returns with a genre-blending new release. “I have a problem with choosing an instrument,” Ghanaian musician and producer Kwame Yeboah said in […]
His long journey was restless, unscripted and unbound. Michael Hurley died last week, more than 60 years after his remarkable debut album for Folkways, First Songs, hit the world. […]
Les Éditions Vermillon revives Western France’s obscure musical moments. Les Éditions Vermillon works more like a cultural salvage operation than a typical record label, driven by a desire […]
A seven-year vocal comeback wrapped in myth and eerie imagination. The opening moments of great records possess a rare magic, where a few carefully chosen sounds cast a […]
Low view counts, high devotion: How a massive subreddit built a culture of beautiful global obscurity. The search for obscure music winds through thrift bins, foreign airwaves, half-erased […]
‘Psychic Geography’ leaves drums behind to explore inner topographies. Roland TB-303, Juno G, Prophet 5, Elektron Octatrack MKII, Make Noise DPO and René, Mutable Clouds, SH-101, Behringer TD3, Sherman […]
Horst Weidenmüller’s mix series didn’t just showcase DJs. It cemented their place in dance music history. The late Horst Weidenmüller, founder of DJ-Kicks and the driving force behind Berlin’s !K7 Records, […]
Dancefloor mysticism and ancestral resonance collide on his recent IBOGA. “The iboga plant is indigenous to the humid, tropical climates of West Central Africa, including Gabon, Cameroon, Congo, and […]
Before Alien Dreamtime became a legendary artifact of the early ‘90s underground, it was a live experiment: a collision of rave culture, psychedelic philosophy, and multimedia spectacle unfolding over 48 […]
DJ Funk once described his style as “…more like a megamix. It’s tracky and minimal most of the time—you’ll just have a beat, a bassline, a hi-hat, a clap, […]
Though no longer active, the magazine’s preserved works continue to influence and inform diggers and obsessives. The news landed quietly, and it still hasn’t fully sunk in for […]
Jelinek’s 2005 album warps time through shifting, eroding textures. The vinyl reissue arrives as he prepares for a rare performance at the Lodge Room. Known for working under […]
Dariush Dolat-Shahi’s Electronic Music, Tar and Sehtar fused Persian tradition with synthesized experimentation, crafting a sound both timeless and otherworldly. Long overlooked, his visionary work has resurfaced on […]
These days, we try and limit our doom-scrolling as much as possible, lest our brains explode from the pressure of it all. When we’re bored and trying to […]
A collection of songs that don’t insist on being heard — but reward those who listen. Ichiko Aoba’s Luminescent Creatures doesn’t introduce a new world so much as trace the […]
Andy Moor, guitarist of Dutch anarcho-punk legends The Ex, shreds “Balada para la corporatocracia” apart and rebuilds it. The current anti-immigration regime in America isn’t just enforcing illegal […]
A lost TV series, a landmark exhibition, and a reissued book bring her transcendental vision back into focus. Late-night television was a singular platform in the 1980s, especially […]
How a decade of innovation, frustration, and reinvention led to Ultramarine’s most defiant statement—now reissued on vinyl by WRWTFWW Records. Ultramarine’s A User’s Guide is getting a long-overdue return to […]
A legendary archive returns with a massive new collection of rare texts, recordings, and technical resources for sonic explorers. Last week, about a year after it stopped uploading […]
Few artists possess the rare ability to transform their primary instrument, bending it entirely to their will and pushing it beyond its natural limits. The pedal steel guitarist […]
Join us on Sunday, February 2, for a Fire Relief Fundraiser and Record Sale at ROW DTLA. Losing a life’s work to fire is every collector’s nightmare, whether […]
A burning new record by the great Ugandan label Ngeye Ngeya Tapes. Last year, Ale Hop and Titi Bakorta convened in Kampala, a city near the northern edges […]
Going deep with a self-taught electrical engineer and his wild gadgets and devices. “Bruce has been informing me that electronic music perhaps is the thing of the 70s,” […]
A worldwide group meditation will occur at noon PST To say that 2025 is off to a shitty start would be an understatement. You don’t even need examples. […]
The musicians lost everything in the Eaton Fire. Support their brilliant work. The musicians Celia Hollander and Evan Shornstein are among the thousands of people who have been […]
The below link directs you to a list of musicians, producers, label owners, backline help, managers, publicists and other music-related people who have lost their homes in the […]
The term Soca music is shorthand for “Soul of Calypso,” and one man is responsible for making it a thing. That man, Lord Shorty, exploded out of the […]
In 2002, a broadsheet magazine called Arthur started appearing at various locations around Los Angeles. Rich with interviews, features, comic art, and reviews, the publication focused on music, […]
Motian in Motion celebrates the ECM artist as he drums his way through the Village Vanguard, Birdland, the Blue Note, and beyond. Halfway through Motian in Motion, a […]
Listen to a bounty of holiday heat taken from an XL-II 90 made by the Cramps. The deeper and further you dig into the past, the weirder it […]
A primer on one of the great Jamaican vocal groups, whose sibling harmonies soar through every measure. In 1969, two brothers and a friend booked time at Coxsone […]
From Bill Laswell to Mickey Hart to John McLaughlin, the percussion master changed the conversation. Zakir Hussain, who died on Sunday, redefined what it meant to be a […]
The Australian jazz trio is one of the most consistently brilliant groups of the past 35 years. The Necks are a trio consisting of Chris Abrahams on piano, […]
From ‘Dark Magus’ and The Dead to Water Damage and Musique Concrete, the archive hosts an astounding mass of live recordings. This year has been brutal for the […]
Few thrills compare to watching masters find their groove and launch it skyward. It’s pure ecstasy — wild, untamed souls channeling their essence through acoustic instruments, creating a […]
“… you will never find a superior version. This is IT.” So reads the text introducing Blue Note’s acclaimed Tone Poet series of essential jazz titles. Those who […]
From the first listen — Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda — it’s clear why the HK 730 is worshiped. Let’s talk about mono blocks. In the world of […]
Limited edition 6 LP set features ISC favorites including Mary Lattimore, Laraaji, Hand Habits, More Ease, Asher White, Sade, claire rousey, Eli Winter, Arthur Baker (feat. Pharoah Sanders), […]
A celebration of Butterboy’s Compilations, a music blog for diggers in search of brilliance. You know your Kraftwerk. You’ve got the Can essentials. Faust, Neu!, La Dusselfdorf — […]
The Kikagaku Moyo guitarist/vocalist delivers a woozy psychedelic rock burner with an accompanying book titled Dream of the Egg. Those who haven’t yet discovered the work of the […]
Before you start reading this (too late), check out this drum solo from by Roy Haynes, who died Tuesday at 99. It’s a solo from 1966 when he […]
His pioneering work in the 1970s and ’80s pushed boundaries, creating unique, captivating tracks that continue to influence today’s electronic and ambient music. Known for his catchy, whimsical […]
And Thomas Brinkmann drops a new post-election track called ‘Deep Trouble.’ Music can help lighten dark days. Can’t it? This morning, German techno genius Thomas Brinkmann issued a […]
Good Neighbor’s fully recyclable PET vinyl pressings combine superior sound quality with sustainability. Tim Anderson and Scotty Coats remember the moment that proved they were onto something with […]
During the heyday of cassette culture, the respected home audio magazine Hi-Fi Stereo Review published one of its occasional overviews of new-model tape decks. The 1988 feature was […]
Read excerpts from interviews with Jeff Mills, Jessica Ackerley, Jesse Saunders, Toshimaru Nakamura, and Stefan Betke. This is a love letter to documentarians who put in the hours, […]
“I would like to create the 0.1-second sound which condenses all emotions in the universe. When I listen to it, maybe my mind and existence itself will collapse.”
Listen to the bassist’s new album for International Anthem while reading a brilliant Tiffany Ng essay on curation. “As we grow accustomed to the convenience of shuffling a […]
Swedish singer, jazz musician, producer and songwriter Stina Nordenstam’s singular voice isn’t something you can easily shake, even 20 years after she stopped making records. With a distinctive, […]
By the time she was a teenager, Izumi “Mimi” Kobayashi was already a skilled jazz and bossa nova pianist with a love of the Hammond organ, Astrud Gilberto […]
Last week Achim Szepanski, German techno force of nature who founded Force Inc. Music Works and cofounded early 1980s German experimental group P16.D4, passed away after a lifetime […]
There are songs and videos that rewire your brain, shock you with wonder, overwhelm you with spirit and the whoosh of time flying by in remarkable increments. Songs […]
For those of us living in a city, the notion of a dedicated listening room is laughably impractical. Space is at a premium, so carving out an entire […]
Slowcore before there was such a term. Hints of shoegaze and shimmering ambient music. Early post-rock. Released by Brian Eno’s label. Born New York City in the 1980s. […]
Recent mailbox arrivals from Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald, Sandy Bull, Vanishing Twin, and Ø. Although the basic machinations that occur behind the scenes of the In […]
For the past decade, Manchester, England-based reissue label Be With Records has been resurrecting classic 1970s smoothness in all its forms, inspired by what owner Rob Butler describes […]
For more than two decades, the US magazine Musician covered a broader range of music and genres than any other publication of the time. While Rolling Stone was […]
When in doubt, put on something by Eiko Ishibashi. It’s a mantra that will serve you well when looking for new and old sounds. The Japanese multi-instrumentalist, composer, […]
Hear Daedelus discuss extra terrestrial communication, intellectual property and sampling, the views and expectations of the new generation of musicians, and more. Across more than 130 episodes, the […]
In 1986, the ambient composer Harold Budd was introduced to the Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie with the goal of teaming for a TV project. Or maybe it was […]
Words don’t need to introduce a lovely piece of recorded music. Sometimes, as below, the best curtain-raiser is the thing itself. That’s American choreographer, dancer, actress and educator […]
If you’ve been shopping for vintage gear, you’ve seen your share of Pioneer components. Founded in 1938 in Tokyo by Nozomu Matsumoto, Pioneer initially focused on speaker production. […]
About 18 months before sitting down at a famously subpar Steinway in Cologne, Germany for his lauded solo album The Köln Concert, Keith Jarrett embarked on his second […]
We don’t have much to offer about the following trio of videos, other than anyone interested in pristine sound might find them riveting. Represented are twelve components in […]
A collection of “husband & wife duos, pub legends, one-man-bands, preachers’ sons, and country-lounge entertainers.” About two years ago, the Santa Cruz-based archival projects company Smiling C issued […]
Essential footage of early electronic music pioneers Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire. In the 1960s, weird new sounds were infiltrating mass media. Cosmic tones generated through electricity, first […]
The pitch behind Beat Connection, writer Michaelangelo Matos’ newsletter, is basic. Described, simply, as “DJ mixes and the DJs that play them,” the Substack-published column goes deep on […]
Last fall, the Australian label Altered States Tapes released the debut album by Keanu Nelson, an indigenous musician with a strikingly soothing vocal tone and equally beguiling way […]
Griot families such as that which the great kora player Toumani Diabate, who passed earlier this week, was born into play a crucial part in West African culture. […]
The summer is halfway over and you’ve been scrolling for like, what, six weeks straight now? Step away from your phone (after reading this, of course). An analog […]
Let’s allow the great dance music writer Barry Walters set the scene, which takes place not long after Larry Levan’s friend Frankie Knuckles started DJing in Chicago. There, […]
Let’s talk about Roberto Musci, the Milanese experimental composer whose work both alone and with kindred spirit Giovanni Venosta starting in the 1980s has been gaining attention and […]
Join crucial selectors for curated delights on a killer system at our Sound & Vision shop in DTLA. No single statement better encapsulates In Sheep’s Clothing’s mission and […]
Watch John Peel’s Channel 4 TV series ‘Sounds of the Suburbs’ series featuring Aphex Twin, Robert Wyatt, Luke Vibert, and more! “This is how I shall die, incidentally: […]
The forecast is ominous: Sometime on Wednesday, the massive Hurricane Beryl, currently a category 4 storm, will likely hit Kingston, Jamaica with sustained winds of more than 145 […]
Few records get a party started better than The Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru, a 2007 collection that gathers tracks from the utterly beguiling 1960s and […]
In 1994, the late Japanese electronic producer Susumu Yokota was just getting started but only a few years away from releasing a string of brilliant, inventive ambient electronic […]
Celebrating the New York duo’s sample-heavy work from 2002 through 2010. Twenty-five years ago, two struggling musicians living in the same New York apartment building, Nick Zammuto and […]
We’ve set up an Audio Note system in Hollywood and recently interviewed company founder Peter Qvortrup. Here’s Peter Qvortrup, founder of the respected British gear manufacturer Audio Note, […]
“Space and silence are the most important tools you can use in music.” In 1986, high school mates Graham Sutton and John Ling, both then 14 and attending […]
In 1999, a budding UK imprint aligned with Soul Jazz Records introduced its first curated collection. Called Club Africa, it launched a discography that introduced so many disparate […]
The Oklahoma City-born, Los Angeles-raised horn player Don Cherry has been consuming a lot of research and turntable time over the past few months, at least in this […]
A few days ago on his Blissblog, the LA-based writer and scholar Simon Reynolds highlighted a recently released 8-hour, brilliantly crafted ambient and post-rave experimental electronic mix and […]
Temporarily shuttered to improve accessibility, Pioneer Works has more than enough footage to tide you over. If you’ve got a few minutes to experience something deep and grounding, […]
For more than a decade, Optimo was one of the hottest clubs in the world. Few club nights have made more of a dent in the international psyche […]
This hour-long videotape, issued by CTI, is a mesmerizing time capsule Although you should obviously pay attention to the visuals on Elemental 7, the 1983 video album by […]
Her new record, Lost – For Annie, comes out Friday via DC label Outside Time. Here’s a perfect introduction to the work of Ireland-based musician Natalia Beylis, conveyed […]
“Let’s say that this was already inside us, but we were busy doing pop,” Portuguese musician Carlos Maria Trindade said of making Mr. Wollogallu, his brilliant 1991 collaborative […]
File under: the collaboration when never knew we needed. Although all music is connected in a universal way, our favorite artists create singular worlds of sound so immediately […]
“The party is an incredibly complex institution,” the yacht-living, Lamborghini-driving Serbian disco-funk producer Boban Petrović said in reissue liner notes for his 1981 album Žur. He was discussing […]
The 1990s were a transformative decade for ambient music, a genre whose name had been coined a mere 15-odd years earlier by Brian Eno with the release of […]
Those of us who think a lot about songwriting but aren’t songwriters still understand the basics of making one. Take a melody or string of words that pops […]
Jessica Pratt’s ‘Here In The Pitch’ is out today! Listen to our pick for album of the year… The Los Angeles musician Jessica Pratt spent three years composing […]
Despite being more than a half-century old, the information delivered in Introduction to Hi-Fi, a 1960 book on the basics of sound reproduction and high fidelity listening at […]
Although major stories on it are frustratingly rare these days, the vibrancy and range of community-run internet radio collectives delivering human-selected music in human-selected combinations makes that region […]
Get lost in a great online portal for New Age music. For more than a decade, the cassette hub Sounds of the Dawn has explored the infinite well […]
A few spots are now open for the record club. Join today for personally curated records delivered to you monthly! Last month a package arrived from Los Angeles […]
Although everyday is Hosono day, those in need of a specific boost on this Monday might find fuel in some video game music by Haruomi Hosono. Inspired by […]
Contrary to popular belief that the discotheque and dance revolution didn’t begin until the mid-’70s, the whole two-turntables-and-a-mixer thing started happening a half-decade earlier. Demand was such that […]
This quiet storm classic is perfect for an eclipse afternoon. The first time we met Sade, she was skeptically casting her eye at a man. As if glaring […]
The scene: Greece, with Halley’s Comet floating overhead. It’s the 1970s and we’re watching three “titans” of synthesizer music prepare to battle it out onstage. “Whoever scores the […]
British pianist/keyboardist Greg Foat has been releasing records at a steady clip since 2011, when he and his Greg Foat Group connected with UK label Jazzman Records for […]
In 2022, the BBC broadcast a documentary that traces the history of the Hacienda, the Manchester club that helped transform the sound of electronic dance music in early […]
Here’s a scenario that virtually anyone who has entered the home listening game by investing in a vintage power amp or receiver has likely confronted. You’re aware of […]
Next year will mark the Sony PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, and as time passes the technology that helped define contemporary gaming is rendered more and more obsolete. Other than […]
Join us at ISC NYC for a Brian Eno Dedicated Listening Session today. If history has taught us anything, it’s that when Brian Eno starts talking about art, […]
Those fortunate enough to have seen the brilliant jazz pianist Austin Peralta before his heart wrenching death in 2011 at 22 understand the bittersweet thrills of listening to […]
At the end of World War II, the US military loaded up all the equipment it used for communication and warfare against the Nazis and brought it back […]
To truly appreciate our conversation below with the brilliant Brazilian pianist Amaro Freitas, you should get a sense of the artist’s approach to his instrument. The video at […]
It’s safe to say that few record labels have been as sampled as Blue Note. The classic New York jazz label, which was founded by Alfred Leon and […]
You only need read the opening sentences of the liner notes to get a sense of the Habitat Ensemble’s world. Deep in the south of the Czech republic, […]
For a long time, casual fans of 1990s British instrumental hip hop, which eventually became known as trip hop, likely only knew the purveyors so-called Bristol Sound: Tricky, […]
In 1981 New York City, the artist Joseph Nechvatal obtained a compilation album called Just Another Asshole #5. Curated by the artist-musician Barbara Ess (Y Pants) and the […]
This is a post about New York musical collective the Sonic Arts Union, but it could be about the magical intricacies of virtually any earthen revelation. Push aside […]
All hail the most durable and iconic turntable ever made. On the way to finding your forever turntable, many vintage brands and models will try and catch your […]
“Here’s some music for listening or not.” It’s been nearly three years since the brilliant musical explorer Jon Hassell passed, and even in that brief time his influence […]
And: Mazzacane Connors live performances with Darin Gray, Jim O’Rourke, and David Grubbs. Few guitarists approach their instrument with the delicacy of Loren Mazzacane Connors, and fewer still […]
Celebrating the album that birthed Yellow Magic Orchestra. Haruomi Hosono released his fourth solo album, Paraiso, on April 25, 1978, three short months after he and members of […]
The late Mexico City composer’s recordings move like Autechre and Aphex Twin tracks. Before MIDI or the 808, before Ableton, before the first home computers, an Arkansas-born, Mexico […]
Feel like watching an A+ drummer let loose? On Friday, British musician Yussef Dayes released the second in a series of live sets, Live in Malibu, to streaming […]
A new reissue by Wewantsounds brings back a raucous free jazz, soul funk session recorded in an empty St. Louis sanctuary. In 1973, the late alto saxophonist Luther […]
ISC NYC will feature Hancock’s classic records during today’s dedicated listening session. It’s been a little more than 40 years since keyboardist Herbie Hancock, searching for new sounds […]
Read McIntosh engineer Gordon Gow’s famed ‘Speaker Wire Listening Test.’ If you hang out in a hi-fi group for any length of time, inevitably the question of speaker […]
In the mid-1970s, Palo Alto and vicinity was becoming a home computing hub. In Cupertino, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had partnered to begin building the first Apple […]
The musician and visionary, a founder of the genre, died Saturday. The best path for understanding the music and philosophies of the artist known as Iasos is to […]
In Krautrocksampler, his great book about German cosmic music, the musician, collector and writer Julian Cope describes the sensation of being a fan of Can, Neu!, Cluster, Amon […]
By the mid-1970s, Herbie Hancock had left bop and post-bop behind as he grew increasingly fascinated with electric keyboards and early synthesizers. Long a genre-straddling innovator, Hancock embraced […]
Happy New Year from all of us at In Sheep’s Clothing! Thanks for your support, good taste, enthusiasm, curiosity, and generosity. We appreciate you attending our events, record […]
In the 1990s, there was no better club in America than Lounge Ax in Chicago. Located across the street from where John Dillinger was killed in Wrigleyville, the […]
Turn up the volume on a newly discovered take on the Christmas classic, recorded at the Village Gate with Eric Dolphy. Did you know that “Greensleeves,” a song […]
We asked a popular vintage audio forum for gear tips. Here’s what came back. Here’s a scenario that virtually anyone who has entered the home listening game by […]
An interview with Jacob Gorchov, whose label has released essential recordings by Yasuaki Shimizu, Woo, Mariah, and, most recently, Dorothy Carter. Over the past decade, the NYC-based label […]
A love letter to curated collections and the people who make them. Seventy-five years ago, Folkways Records began issuing a series of themed albums that corralled recordings made […]
Each December in the 1970s, the monthly magazine High Fidelity delivered a holiday gift guide that offered suggestions for sound freaks — accessories, components, etc.
Randall takes us to one of his favorite local spots in Columbia, Missouri. College town record shops rule, and for a pretty specific reason: a polyglot clientele with […]
Full service retipping, diamond-only replacement, coil rewinds, suspension repairs from Joseph Long aka Groovetickler. You likely know this, but the mechanical thing at the tip of your tonearm […]
It’s sweater season in much of the country. The leaves have turned. The mice are coming in from the cold. Fire in the fireplace. Coffee steaming. Melancholia. Blankets. […]
Last week she released Exit Simulation, her debut album for Chicago-based Kranky Records. The South Carolina-based artist Niecy Blues grew up in a religious household, where she absorbed […]
Join us today at In Sheep’s Clothing NYC for a listening session dedicated to Arthur Russell. For those who believe in the notion of hallowed ground, of land […]
This year marks Luluc’s 15th anniversary, and in that time singer Zoe Randell and multi-instrumentalist Steve Hassett have produced five LPs worth of precisely crafted, sublimely streamlined songs. […]
One of the scariest film scores ever was the product of a gift placed under a Christmas tree. “My father bought me a pair of bongos for Christmas […]
A lost gem from NPR classical critic Tom Manoff and master vocalist Jill Talvé. Jill Talvé was in her late teens when, in the early 1980s, she moved […]
Daniel Villarreal’s Lados B is out now on International Anthem. Panama-born, Chicago-based percussionist Daniel Villarreal’s new album, Lados B, is powered by a mere three players — him, […]
The late composer co-founded “a kind of musical version of the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, with every entry registering like a report from some farflung orbital station.“ […]
Il Sesso della Strega (‘Sex of the Witch’) is available on vinyl for the first time via CAM Sugar. Launched in 1959 Rome to capitalize on the ascent of […]
For Monday’s dedicated listening session, we’re going deep on the trumpeter’s expansive creative output. “Repetitious boredom.” “An insult to the intellect of the people.” “Nameless, faceless go-go music.” […]
Featuring The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith Group, Talking Heads, Cool Herc, John Cale, Afrika Bambaata, Fab 5, and more. “If it doesn’t work in New York, we’re in […]
So much Zorn! The Tzadik Records catalog is now available on streaming… Last week, more than 25 years after it launched, the crucial New York label Tzadik released […]
Our friend Sam Wilkes shares some favorites w/ personal write-ups on each pick… You could be forgiven for scratching your head at news that the Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist […]
If you’ve never done so or it’s been a while, you should cue up “Metronomic Underground,” the opening track on Stereolab’s Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Released in March, 1996, […]
There are records that are as potent as psychedelics. Records that whoosh you into another realm the moment the stylus locks into the groove, embrace you in their […]
This week, while much of the music world has been discussing the blowback from Rolling Stone cofounder Jann Wenner’s confounding interview with David Marchese at The New York […]
In advance of her mesmerizing new album, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, the LA-based harpist recommends some gems. You’ll want to carve big chunks of time out of your busy […]
Join us for a listening session dedicated today to Richard D. James’ aka Aphex Twin from 2-5pm at In Sheep’s Clothing NYC. Although many consider Aphex Twin’s two […]
Inside the Harvest Time Project, an ambitious archival initiative created for Pharoah Sanders’ website, is a simple story about the birth of ‘Love Will Find a Way,’ the […]
Join us for a listening session dedicated to Japanese ambient classics today 2-5pm at In Sheep’s Clothing NYC. Let’s talk about the sonics of water and the way […]
Remembering a musician and thinker whose work created a singular kind of bliss. When Stars of the Lid started releasing music in the mid-1990s, critics and tastemakers had […]
The birds aren’t an affectation on the first record by Flaer. Their chirps score Preludes because the artist behind the project, the visual and musical artist Realf Heygate, […]
When it tore through London before taking over the world in the early 1990s, the jungle/drum ‘n bass scene was unlike any other in the world. Harnessing samplers, […]
On Monday in New York, we’ll be spinning Brazilian classics as part of a weekly listening session. Unless you’re looking for a collection of toe-tapping ditties designed for […]
Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground. In a disputed territory called Fashaga near the border of Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea lives a man whose name, […]
Many deep listeners and hi-fi heads have been inculcated into the Church of Spiritual Jazz through prominent disciples including Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra, all travelers […]
Dive into a favorite from our collection at In Sheep’s Clothing NYC and join us for a listening party Thursday 4-8pm. The story goes that Hydroplane, the self-titled […]
The Birmingham, England band led by Trish Keenan left an indelible mark on the post-shoegaze sound of the ’90s and ’00s. It’s a Tuesday and we woke up […]
“They were from the left, these kids, but the traditional left didn’t agree with their ideas, and the right neither.“ During an interview with the director Marcelo Machado, […]
Ever the explorer, the British folk guitarist and songwriter carved a singular path, mixing jazz, dub and Echoplex textures. Few testimonials carry more weight than that of the […]
Contort yourself !! Let’s talk about logo hunting, one of the many strategies for finding jewels amid the junk when you’re out looking for unknown sure-shots. It shouldn’t […]
Join our ECM Dedicated Listening at In Sheep’s Clothing NYC today from 3-7pm! On Monday at our new location in Lower Manhattan, we’ll officially resume our regular programming […]
The go-to book on the Lower Manhattan post-disco scene is required reading – and a great resource. One of the first tasks after moving into a new neighborhood […]
His sublime score for Burden of Proof, the HBO limited true crime series, is as haunting as it is beautiful. The haunting Chuck Johnson score for HBO’s limited […]
One of our all-time favorite records is finally getting a proper reissue… By 1977, Pharoah Sanders was moving through a particularly notable transition. Three years prior, his eight-year […]
There’s a new collection of previously unreleased Arthur Russell music out now… Last year marked the 30th anniversary of Arthur Russell’s passing, a melancholy milestone that served as […]
A breathtaking new vinyl version of John Coltrane’s ‘Coltrane’s Sound’ comes to the market. Over the past five years, a growing number of specialized labels or sublabels have […]
Epic concerts and excerpts that illustrate why the Boredoms’ mesmerizing tribal explorations are unlike anything else on the planet. We’ve celebrated the Boredoms before, and recently added DJ […]
It’s not a coincidence that the birth of electronic dance music coincided with the rise of animated computer graphics. Scene: It’s 1993 and you just called the rave […]
Incredible 16mm footage featuring Keith Hudson, Big Youth, John Lydon (Sex Pistols), Ari Up (The Slits), Tapper Zukie, and more! Few have experienced more than Don Letts when […]
Don’t miss Eli Winter this Sunday, June 25th at the Lodge Room in Highland Park. Over the past half-decade, the Houston-born, Chicago-based instrumental guitarist and writer Eli Winter […]
First-ever vinyl release of the artist’s Eno-mixed 1989 concert near the World Trade Center. We’ve previously written about Jon Hassell’s legendary 1989 performances at the Financial Center in […]
Affordable vintage CD players from Marantz, Harman Kardon, Sony, Nakamichi, Rega, and more! For decades, the main format-facing argument between analog freaks and their CD-loving counterparts revolved around […]
Remembering a Detroit legend… To hear the late Ron Murphy discuss cutting records is like getting the lowdown on designing lamps from Charles Lewis Tiffany. The Detroit audio […]
A subtle, cool masterpiece that upended popular music. Astrud Gilberto recorded “The Girl from Ipanema” because no other singer in the studio could do so in English. It […]
Words, tracks, and guest playlists from Ghostly International’s founder Sam Valenti IV. Dig in the crates all you want, but if you don’t have a clue what you’re […]
And: How a multimillion-dollar audio company was born after a series of listening sessions. In the early 1950s, a 32-year-old audio afficiando named Hideo Matsushita landed a job […]
Celebrating the eye candy that sold ear candy. This is a post without many words. Mostly the aim is to offer drool-worthy, curious, or otherwise engaging advertisements from […]
Essential albums from Chicago-based from singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Gia Margaret. “Instrumental music it can be kind of endless. Sometimes you wonder if what you made is music at […]
This morning’s post is devoted to the Japanese graffiti artist turned occasional music video animator Katsura Moshino. Though hardly a household name, and despite the minimal output available […]
A look at the experimental musician and video artist’s work and influence (and featuring a Peter Brötzmann cameo) This week the renowned American Masters series on PBS premiered […]
The 33 track playlist features Alva Noto, Erik Satie, Ennio Morricone, J.S. Bach, Debussy, and Laurel Halo. When David Bowie passed, he gifted the world his final album, […]
A home for vinyl and analog culture in Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv cultural hub Beit Romano (Romano House) is a stunning compound that houses restaurants, a jazz […]
Listen to one of the great jazz quartets from the CD era. The 1990s will never be known as a decade of great jazz. An era in which […]
Recent favorites from Chicago, Brooklyn, New Zealand, Basque, Amsterdam, Munich, Tokyo, and Sweden. Each week the global listening community gets bombarded with new releases, reissues and restocks. As […]
The jazz supergroup features Benji B, Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings, and more. The new double album London Brew was originally slated to be a 50th anniversary ode to […]
The LA-based ambient country-folk duo share recent favorites! Last month, the meditative Los Angeles instrumental outfit North Americans released Long Cool World, its fifth album overall and second […]
In 1964 as the Beatles were going viral among the kids and remaking youth culture along the way, Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy were ferrying the adults to […]
The science of sound – how high-fidelity systems do what they do, and why – has been a subject of obsessive fascination since the rise of stereophonic systems […]
An essential album in any collection, ‘Erik Satie: Piano Music’ featured cover illustration by Pablo Picasso. One of the best additions to your record collection, and to your […]
The long out-of-print holy grail private press album is finally being reissued on vinyl. One of the best parts of being a music freak is having your brain chemistry forever […]
“It’s all business as usual, really. Chaos, but good chaos.” That description of Mark E. Smith and the Fall opens the BBC 4’s 2004 documentary of the Mancunian […]
Black Editions Group presents Shizuka’s sole studio album, 1994’s Heavenly Persona, for the first time on vinyl. Mind your volume control when dropping the needle on the opening […]
“One of Rota’s most eerie and enigmatic scores, as if the Maestro had finally poured into a soundtrack all of his love for esotericism.” Those who follow the […]
The beloved Ethiopian jazz pianist was 99 years old when she passed earlier this week… You likely know by now that Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guèbrou, the piano-playing, Jerusalem-based Ethiopian […]
39 minutes of futuristic electronic music and psychedelic visuals on MTV’s Amp program. As one of the earliest artists on the essential 1990s label Astralwerks, Future Sound of […]
The massive set features new music by Nick Cave, Blake Mills, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Seu Jorge, Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes and dozens more Listen to the birds. That’s […]
Listen to one of Thurston Moore’s favorite guitar recordings. In 1967, a young electric guitarist named Sonny Sharrock joined flute player Herbie Mann’s jazz band. It was a […]
The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion […]
Two years ago, the Barcelona-based DJ, writer and electronic music expert Philip Sherburne teamed up with Albert Salinas to launch Balmat Records, a boutique label devoted to experimental […]
Past & present sounds from LA-based saxophone player Patrick Shiroishi. The Los Angeles saxophone player, improvisor, composer and inexhaustible creator-collaborator Patrick Shiroishi doesn’t seem to stay in the […]
“An exploration of the production, transmission, and mutation of affective tonality—when sound helps produce a bad vibe.” Next year will mark the singular British label Hyperdub’s 20th anniversary, […]
One listener’s experience having his sonic mind blown… Getting lost in music is an act of vanishing, and if the ultimate goal of high-fidelity sound, vinyl culture and […]
Going deep inside a hypnotic recording derived from a Serbian brass band. It’s up to you to choose which of the below pieces you want to listen to […]
“Visions of space and atmosphere – the absence of busy, human life – populate a lot of what I do. It’s regenerative, an existential thing.” Nearly 30 years […]
Abstract, ambient and classical music from the legendary Cologne-based electronic label. In 2001, electronic music was at a crossroads, one that felt more like a massive highway interchange […]
Want to get inspired about dance music? About the exuberant, profound joy of dancing itself? About the importance of physical spaces for stretching out and-or letting loose? And […]
The mysterious true story of mid-century New York City singer songwriter Connie Converse… What happened to Connie Converse? When she vanished in 1974 at age 50, never to […]
Watch Peter Greenaway’s ‘Four American Composers’ featuring John Cage, Meredith Monk, Philip Glass, and Robert Ashley. Few people could discuss listening like John Cage. One of the great […]
From the 1950s through the 1980s, the home audio explosion was documented in real time. Online archives have digitized the bounty. It’s true. Those wanting to better understand […]
On Feb. 2, 1973, the famed production premiered after The Tonight Show. For much of the 1970s and some of the ’80s, a weekly syndicated rock show called […]
By now you’ve likely learned that Tom Verlaine, the brilliant New York guitarist, singer and lyricist best known for his work with Television, has passed. Though a foundational […]
Hear the late Talk Talk founder’s early attempt at landing a record deal. Before forming Talk Talk in 1981, Mark Hollis was a singer and songwriter attempting, as […]
In the third issue of Synapse, a mid-1970s magazine devoted to news and features on the burgeoning field of electronic music, editors Douglas Lynner and Angela Schill offer […]
By the year 2000, various forms of electronic dance music had begun consuming global music culture, part of an evolution that began with the rise of home computers, […]
With his passing, celebrating the great drummer, singer and composer through video footage With his metronomic timing, calm vocal delivery, and movie-star good looks, musician Yukihiro Takahashi left […]
The 5+ hour, 79-track mix moves from Coil to the Scientist to Eno, YMO, Model 500, 808 State, and beyond. Got plans this weekend? Autechre’s got the dance-all-night […]
Richard D. James has never released a sanctioned DJ mix. Fans have stepped in to meet the demand. More than three decades into his career, Richard D. James […]
Improvisational Turntablism, Meta-Concert, Hypermobility, and more key performances from artist Christian Marclay. The visual and sound artist Christian Marclay is best known for The Clock, his 24-hour film […]
A primer on the birth and evolution of recorded sound and the rise of high-fidelity stereo systems… Cheesy 1990s graphics? Check. Dated approach to documentary TV? Obviously. Woefully […]
If you notice some of your older music-head friends seeming a little out of sorts over the holidays, know that it’s because we lost Terry Hall, the co-founder […]
Record totes, weights, portable turntable, books for your beloved vinyl and hi-fi friends. Here’s a challenge for you: The holiday season is in full effect. Those who celebrate […]
“When I found out E2-E4 was played in clubs, I couldn’t imagine people dancing to it…” When the great German musician and thinker Manuel Göttsching passed on Monday […]
Private press folk compiled by Perfect Lives’ Bruno Halper and Samuel Strang for the great NTS Radio. It’s no secret that the holidays can be hard. All these […]
Makers across the country have expanded their shelving options. Another tactic? Buy your woodworking friend a bottle of Scotch. Let’s not belabor the point: Ikea’s KALLAX shelving unit, […]
Don’t miss Ulla performing live this Thursday at In Sheep’s Clothing HQ. The term glitch was coined sometime in the 1990s to describe an emergent movement of artists […]
Featuring hurdy-gurdy, harp, voice, and Bruno Menny’s arrangements. In 1977, when much of Western music culture was being upended by both the distorted aggression of the global punk […]
As the remarkable series approaches its 10th anniversary, a look at the musician-producer’s online project. In 2013, the musician and producer Jim O’Rourke started releasing a series of […]
Absolutely essential Detroit ambient from the legend Neil Olivierra a.k.a. the Detroit Escalator Co. By the mid-1990s, synthesizers had fully integrated with computing software, resulting in a kind […]
Essential new music from the great Jeff Parker… Starting in 2018, LA-based guitarist Jeff Parker set up camp at the Enfield Tennis Academy in Highland Park for an […]
A new reissue of Horace Andy’s Wackie’s classic ‘Dance Hall Style’ has arrived and is available now in the shop. In 1982, Horace Andy carried his sweet, sweet […]
Though many of us have spent hours (days? weeks?) on end consumed in Can live performances over the years – really, is there any better reason for YouTube? […]
“I don’t think we’ve ever feared how people would react to our music,” Mimi Parker told the Quietus last year. The musically fearless Parker, who with husband-collaborator Alan […]
A deep dive into Albert Ayler’s classic free jazz composition “Ghosts.” Three years before the great free jazz tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler was found dead in the East […]
Forty-five years ago, the respected home audio magazine Hi-Fi Stereo Review published an overview of new-model cassette decks. Written by a hi-fi critic named Craig Stark, the 1988 […]
Sun Ra improvising on a Prophet VS synthesizer in 1986? Pump it straight into our veins. In the summer of that year while in Boston with his band, […]
And then read Dave Tompkins’ book about the “machine that tears speech to pieces,” How to Wreck a Nice Beach. Before you watch the below 10-minute documentary on […]
The lives and recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe & Cosey Fanni Tutti. Earlier this month Cosey Fanni Tutti, cofounder of Throbbing Gristle and one half of Chris […]
Going deep with cult Detroit electro-techno outfit Drexciya. Sometimes submergence is the only way to explore and understand the mission of a particular artist: dive in, ignore everything […]
The experimental guitarist’s latest album Shebang! has arrived on Chicago-based independent label Drag City. To discover Oren Ambarchi’s discography is like coming upon a shimmering labyrinth in the […]
On June 1, 1973, a drunken Robert Wyatt fell out of a fourth-floor window and broke his spine. A founding member of British band Soft Machine, in a […]
John Oswald’s deconstructionist ‘Plunderphonics’ collage approach meets the Grateful Dead. In the early 1990s, the Canadian sound artist John Oswald was granted full access to the Grateful Dead’s […]
Hallucinogenic journeys with the soon-to-be-disbanding Japanese psychedelic rock band. Earlier this year the great Japanese psych-prog-folk-jam-band Kikagaku Moyo released what they say will be their swan song. Called […]
A collection of interviews with the late great “Astral Traveler,” Pharoah Sanders. This weekend the world lost a giant. Pharoah Sanders, whose singular approach to composition and performance […]
Explore some of Impulse! Records’ latest releases ahead of our in-store listening party 5-7pm tonight. Some logos hold a special kind of power. Even design elements – color […]
tl;dr: It’s not fun. Do it very carefully. It’s going to be expensive. Your back will ache and your legs will throb – even if you use a […]
Considered one of the great albums of the 1970s, it’s a mystic Rastafarian ode to Jah. The refrain arrives as if the singing narrators are announcing a new […]
A potent alchemy of texture and rhythm akin to ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ or early Material albums. During the spring of 1984 in a semi-rural […]
Extreme Animals is a long-running project by artist Jacob Ciocci. A crucial member of the ’00s Providence, RI music and art scene that helped birth Lightning Bolt, he […]
Fly or Die. Rest in peace jaimie branch. Like the rest of the world, Tuesday afternoon turned dark for us as news broke that trumpeter, bandleader, and composer […]
Remembering an iconic ’90s track that bridged Northwest indie-pop and sample-based electronic music. In mid-1990s America, the independent underground music world was frustratingly balkanized. Detroit was producing sturdy […]
Mid-80’s digital new age meets the voices of Lyra Pramuk, Holly Herndon, and Mindar the Buddhist Robot on the Seahawks’ latest album. Let’s talk about headphone music – […]
“This film is the ultimate reference about reggae. A pure gem.” One great thing about a crucial music documentary is its ability to crack open a portal to […]
Sights, sounds, and mathematics from Japan’s leading audiovisual artist Ryoji Ikeda. Since his arrival on the international stage in the mid-1990s via his early releases for Touch, +/-, sonic […]
All hail the Sims 2: Nightlife soundtrack. In the late 1990s a trio of 10-inch records by a little known London beat-based duo called Lemon Jelly hit the […]
In the late 1980s, rap labels Jive and Profile issued a series of killer house and techno comps featuring remixes by Marshall Jefferson, Kevin Saunderson and dozens more. […]
McIntosh, Technics, GLI, Acoustic Research, and more legendary gear and memorabilia from the godfather of rap, DJ Kool Herc. Later this month the esteemed auction house Christie’s will […]
Recently one of the great mix CDs of the so-called electronica age, Kruder & Dorfmeister’s The K&D Sessions from 1998, finally landed on streaming services a quarter-century after […]
Phonographs, shellac discs, dusty 45’s, and archival videos curated and presented by Lance and April Ledbetter. For the past 20-plus years, the Georgia-based archival imprint Dust-to-Digital has been […]
A suite of raga-inspired compositions and improvisations centered around just tuning, deep listening, and resonant spaces. To better appreciate the sublime forthcoming collaboration by Christina Vantzou, Michael Harrison […]
30-minutes of pure cosmic joy and wonder from Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Arkestra. By 1972, Sun Ra had firmly established his Arkestra as a formidable presence on […]
Klipsch, Altec Lansing, JBL, Advent, Acoustic Research, and more classics that won’t bust your budget. A great stereo system, the saying goes, is only as good as its […]
