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Year in Review:
A list of Cuneiform's 2013 releases


Cuneiform Records released a staggering total of 17 albums of high-quality cutting-edge music in 2013. Some of them are jazz – but they go beyond jazz's typical boundaries, pushing into genres far beyond. Some are rock – but they've likewise burst beyond traditional borders, infusing classical, electronic and/or noise elements into their sound and staking claim to unchartered grounds.

We invite you to listen, via the sound samples below.


Our 2013 releases include albums of new music, as well as rare, historical/ archival recordings. The artists come from around the world, and include some of jazz and rock's fastest-rising stars (Claudia Quintet, Pixel, Guapo & more) as well as some of the jazz and rock world's most revered, established icons (Robert Wyatt, John Surman, Richard Pinhas). Some artists are new to the label, while others have worked with Cuneiform since its early years. Thanks to all of you for your support during this extremely exciting and busy year.

We look forward to 2014 – Cuneiform's 30th anniversary year.


JUMP TO:
Jazz, Post-Jazz, Jazz-Rock: New Recordings
Jazz, Latin-Influenced: New Recordings
Jazz: Archival/Historical Recordings
Rock/Avant/Beyond Recordings
Rock: Archival/Historical Recordings


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Jazz, Post-Jazz & Jazz-Rock: New Recordings



The Claudia Quintet
September

Genre: Jazz / Post-Jazz
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: September 24, 2013

Drummer-percussionist and three-time Grammy nominee John Hollenbeck, one of the most distinctive and respected composers in jazz and new music, has created an estimable body of work since the late ’90s with his Claudia Quintet. Hailed by Nate Chinen of the New York Times for their “clockwork intricacy and crisp premeditation ... [striking an] accord between the factions of progressive jazz, classical Minimalism and low-glare experimental rock,” the Claudia Quintet tackles Hollenbeck’s highly demanding works with a wry improvising spirit and a backbone of surging, mesmerizing rhythm. The new album, September, pays homage to a time of year when Hollenbeck seeks the isolation and creative focus of artist residencies.

Featuring: John Hollenbeck, Chris Speed, Matt Moran, Drew Gress, Red Wierenga and Chris Tordini

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"September 12th: Coping Song" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTO - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - WAYSIDE MUSIC - BANDCAMP

ARTIST SITES:
johnhollenbeck.com | claudiaquintet.com | facebook | twitter | cuneiform



Pixel
We Are All Small Pixels

Genre: Jazz / Pop / Indie Rock
Format: CD / LP / Digital
Release Date: October 8, 2013


We Are All Small Pixels
– yes, that describes us all in this post-atomic digital age – but some bands pack a big sonic wallop. In the case of Norway’s prodigious indie jazz combo Pixel, the little elements cohere into a singularly arresting sound, combining the improvisational imperative and acoustic instrumentation of a free bop quartet with the impassioned vocals and incisive lyrics of indie rock. On a scene rife with exceptional young female players, Pixel's Ellen Andrea Wang, stands out as a particularly accomplished artist. As a composer, bassist, and bandleader who has melded like-minded players into a capaciously inventive ensemble, she stands at the forefront of a rising generation that’s remaking jazz in their own image. Her notoriety is quickly spreading via captivating performances and appreciative critics, resulting in a stream of impressive awards in Norway and on the international stage.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Space" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
pixelband.no | ellenandreawang.com | facebook | twitter | cuneiform



Curtis Hasselbring
Number Stations
Genre: Jazz
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: January 29, 2013


Mysterious coded messages float through the ether aimed at secret agents who, if they still exist, serve as pawns in a twilight struggle fought deep in the shadows. This ominous phenomenon is the point of departure for the confoundingly creative New York trombonist/guitarist Curtis Hasselbring’s latest project. Number Stations, the persistence of mysterious shortwave radio broadcasts that date back to the start of the Cold War, serves as an apt topic for Hasselbring’s music, which combines propulsive grooves, dark humor, ambient spaciousness and highly choreographed ensemble passages.

Featuring: Curtis Hasselbring, Trevor Dunn, Mary Halvorson, Matt Moran, Ches Smith, Chris Speed and Satoshi Takeishi.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Green Dress, Maryland Welcome Center, 95 NB"
(mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTO - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
curha.com | cuneiform



Rob Mazurek Octet
Skulls Sessions
Genre: Jazz
Format: CD / LP / Digital
Release Date: January 29, 2013


What does it sound like when worlds collide? For the protean cornetist, composer, and conceptualist Rob Mazurek, the fusion of his celebrated Exploding Star Orchestra with his roiling Brazilian ensemble São Paulo Underground ignites a beautiful cosmic burst. Skull Sessions, the first release by the newly minted Rob Mazurek Octet, captures a series of shimmering, enveloping jazz soundscapes.  Skull Sessions is composition and group improvisation as revelation, epic in scope, crackling with unexpected reactions and volatile collisions, charging the atmosphere like a thunderstorm that washes away all manner of sonic detritus. Lapidary and luxuriant, marked by an accretion of simultaneous lines and textures, Skull Sessions features an international cast of masters from North and South America.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Galactic Ice Skeleton" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
robmazurek.com | cuneiform



São Paulo Underground
Beija Flors Velho E Sujo
Genre: Jazz / Tropicalia / Electronic / Experimental
Format: CD / LP / Digital
Release Date: June 4, 2013


São Paulo Underground
isn’t just an international musical conspiracy. It’s an electronica-laced Tropicalia funhouse, a secret passage between Chicago’s volatile avant garde jazz scene and Brazil’s teeming creative capital, an intoxicating state of mind where Sun Ra lays down in a field of giant poppies with Ol’ Dirty Bastard to debate whether the Wizard of Oz is full of juke or jive. SPU, consisting of Rob Mazurek, Guilherme Granado and Mauricio Takara, delivers its fourth revelatory album Beija Flors Velho E Sujo. SPU is a power trio and a post-modern orchestra rolled into one, marked by glistening sonic textures, seductive eletronica beats, unabashedly beautiful melodies, an expansive improvisational palette and fiercely gleeful interplay.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"The Love I Feel For You Is More Real Than Ever" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
robmazurek.com | cuneiform



S.O.S. [John Surman, Mike Osborne, Alan Skidmore]
Looking For The Next One
Genre: Jazz / Archival
Format: CDx2 / Digital
Release Date: May 21, 2013


S.O.S.
were one of the great but under-documented ensembles in 70s British jazz, consisting of three genuine superstars of the 'Brit-jazz scene': Mike Osborne, Alan Skidmore and John Surman. Anyone expecting three saxes at once at all times will be very surprised when they hear the heavy, sequenced, synthesizer parts mixed with driving drums and blowing sax lines! Looking For The Next One, a compilation of rare and unissued studio sessions and live recordings. The live disc reveals S.O.S.’s penchant for connecting multiple compositions with open improvisations not heard on their studio output. This album will not only rekindle discussions about S.O.S.’s innovative music among connoisseurs, but introduce their exciting, virtuosic music to a new generation of listeners.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Country Dance" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
johnsurman.com | alanskidmore.info | cuneiform



Tatvamasi
Parts of the Entirety

Genre: Jazz / Rock
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: October 8, 2013


Born out of cataclysm and nurtured in silence and solitude, the music of Tatvamasi reveals hidden depths of the 21st century Polish soul. Inspired by both traditional (Slavic folk music) and avant-garde music (genre-defying NY downtown groups like Curlew), and inflected by jazz, avant and progressive rock, and Delta Blues, Tatvamasi is an extraordinary instrumental ensemble that plays scorching, electric jazz infused with Eastern European rhythms and defined by searing tenor sax riffs, crunching electric guitar, and a loose and sinewy rhythm section tandem of bass and drums. With the quartet’s debut album Parts of The Entirety, released internationally on Cuneiform Records, Tatvamasi opens up new territory, bringing the narrative heft of jazz to the sturdy forms of folk music.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Unsettled Cyclists Peloton" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

MUSIC VIDEOS:
"Unsettled Cyclists Peloton" (Official Video)
Parts of the Entirety (LIVE Album Teaser)

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
tatvamasi.pl | facebook | twitter | cuneiform



The Kandinsky Effect
Synesthesia
Genre: Jazz / Alt-Jazz
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: January 15, 2013


Conceived on Paris’s cosmopolitan jazz scene, forged on the road in America, and informed by international currents in electronic music, The Kandinsky Effect is a jazz power trio for the 21st century.  The trans-Atlantic band, based in NYC and Paris, makes its Cuneiform debut with Synesthesia, a roller-coaster ride of an album marked by fierce grooves, subtle electronic textures, intricate metrical shifts, and a commitment to empathic group interplay. Featuring Warren Walker on saxophone+effects, bassist Gaël Petrina, and drummer Caleb Dolister, the band explores a distinctive swath of sonic territory, inspired by similarly electronica-laced ensembles like Kneebody and Jaga Jazzist, that are simultaneously rhythmically gorgeous, groove-laden, compositionally interesting and immediately accessible.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Johnny Utah" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
thekandinskyeffect.com | facebook | twitter | cuneiform



Blue Cranes
Swim

Genre: Jazz / Post-Jazz
Format: CD / LP / Digital
Release Date: June 4, 2013


Since their formation in 2007, Blue Cranes have developed a singular musical voice grounded in melody and explosive improvisations—marking off their unique microcosmic territory in “post-jazz” circles. Swim is a departure from Blue Cranes' previous, and in some ways simpler, albums. More than half of the album incorporates arrangements for a string trio cementing the group's love affair with that lush sonic palette. Steered dutifully by producer Nate Query of The Decemberists, it is a window into the sometimes messy emotional space of a group struggling with and celebrating the ephemeralness of life. The heart of Swim lies in indelibly profound life events—the passing away of two dear friends, a serious injury, two weddings, and the birth of a child—events at tragic and uplifting extremes, both cathartic and celebratory.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Everything Is Going To Be Okay" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - WAYSIDE - BANDCAMP

ARTIST SITES:
bluecranesmusic.com | facebook | twitter | cuneiform



Dylan Ryan / Sand
Sky Bleached
Genre: Jazz / Fusion
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: January 15, 2013


Featuring his volatile, Los Angeles-based trio Sand, Sky Bleached is Dylan Ryan’s debut album under his own name. Ryan’s best known as the catalyst behind the pugnacious prog-jazz sextet Herculaneum. Sky Bleached is a stunning, guitar-drenched slab of visionary, 21st century jazz informed by pop culture and 3rd millennium fusion. Featuring guitarist Tim Young, a versatile player sought out by artists such as Fiona Apple, John Zorn and Beck, and bassist Devin Hoff, who’s worked extensively with the Nels Cline Singers, Xiu Xiu, and Good For Cows, the trio restlessly ranges between moods, textures and styles. Whether exploring a melancholy soundscape or an ecstatic rave up, Sky Bleached constantly subverts expectations with music that defies categories, and embraces all possibilities.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"White Nights" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
dylanryanmusic.com | facebook | twitter | cuneiform



Jazz: Latin/Latin-Influenced



São Paulo Underground
Beija Flors Velho E Sujo
Genre: Jazz / Tropicalia / Electronic / Experimental
Format: CD / LP / Digital
Release Date: June 4, 2013


São Paulo Underground
isn’t just an international musical conspiracy. It’s an electronica-laced Tropicalia funhouse, a secret passage between Chicago’s volatile avant garde jazz scene and Brazil’s teeming creative capital, an intoxicating state of mind where Sun Ra lays down in a field of giant poppies with Ol’ Dirty Bastard to debate whether the Wizard of Oz is full of juke or jive. SPU, consisting of Rob Mazurek, Guilherme Granado and Mauricio Takara, delivers its fourth revelatory album Beija Flors Velho E Sujo. SPU is a power trio and a post-modern orchestra rolled into one, marked by glistening sonic textures, seductive eletronica beats, unabashedly beautiful melodies, an expansive improvisational palette and fiercely gleeful interplay.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"The Love I Feel For You Is More Real Than Ever" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
robmazurek.com | cuneiform



Rob Mazurek Octet
Skulls Sessions
Genre: Jazz
Format: CD / LP / Digital
Release Date: January 29, 2013


What does it sound like when worlds collide? For the protean cornetist, composer, and conceptualist Rob Mazurek, the fusion of his celebrated Exploding Star Orchestra with his roiling Brazilian ensemble São Paulo Underground ignites a beautiful cosmic burst. Skull Sessions, the first release by the newly minted Rob Mazurek Octet, captures a series of shimmering, enveloping jazz soundscapes.  Skull Sessions is composition and group improvisation as revelation, epic in scope, crackling with unexpected reactions and volatile collisions, charging the atmosphere like a thunderstorm that washes away all manner of sonic detritus. Lapidary and luxuriant, marked by an accretion of simultaneous lines and textures, Skull Sessions features an international cast of masters from North and South America.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Galactic Ice Skeleton" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
robmazurek.com | cuneiform



Archival/Historical Recordings



S.O.S. [John Surman, Mike Osborne, Alan Skidmore]
Looking For The Next One
Genre: Jazz / Archival
Format: CDx2 / Digital
Release Date: May 21, 2013


S.O.S.
were one of the great but under-documented ensembles in 70s British jazz, consisting of three genuine superstars of the 'Brit-jazz scene': Mike Osborne, Alan Skidmore and John Surman. Anyone expecting three saxes at once at all times will be very surprised when they hear the heavy, sequenced, synthesizer parts mixed with driving drums and blowing sax lines! Looking For The Next One, a compilation of rare and unissued studio sessions and live recordings. The live disc reveals S.O.S.’s penchant for connecting multiple compositions with open improvisations not heard on their studio output. This album will not only rekindle discussions about S.O.S.’s innovative music among connoisseurs, but introduce their exciting, virtuosic music to a new generation of listeners.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Country Dance" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
johnsurman.com | alanskidmore.info | cuneiform



Robert Wyatt
'68

Genre: Rock
Format: CD / LP / Digital
Release Date: October 8, 2013


Some have called this - the complete set of Robert Wyatt's solo recordings made in the US in late 1968 - the ultimate Holy Grail. Half of the material here is not only previously unreleased - it had never been heard, even by the most dedicated collectors of Wyatt rarities. Until reappearing, seemingly out of nowhere, last year, the demo for “Rivmic Melodies”, an extended sequence of song fragments destined to form the first side of the second album by Soft Machine (the band Wyatt had helped form in 1966 as drummer and lead vocalist, and with whom he had recorded an as-yet unreleased debut album in New York the previous spring), was presumed lost forever. This release is fully authorized by Wyatt, featuring an in-depth interview with him (by music historian Aymeric Leroy) about his recollections of this period, with insights into his songwriting process, recording procedures and previously untold anecdotes of his American sojourn.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Rivmic Melodies" [excerpt] (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]
COVER IMAGES [ CD | LP ]

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
cuneiform



Mats/Morgan
Radio Da Da / The Teenage Tapes
Genre: Rock / Fusion / Avant-Progressive
Format: CDx2 / Digital
Release Date: May 21, 2013


Swedish collective Mats/Morgan occupy, or more aptly, create their own sphere in the transcontinental music scene, a zone wherein progressive rock, jazz-rock fusion, experimental rock, electronica, and progressive pop overlap and intertwine. The double-CD set Radio Da Da/The Teenage Tapes compiles Mats/Morgan’s earliest works but with a difference: These albums have been lovingly remixed, remastered, resequenced, and overdubbed by Morgan Ågren himself--they are virtually new offerings. Recorded in 1992 (Radio Da Da) and the years 1981-2008 (The Teenage Tapes), this compendium captures Mats/Morgan to some extent in embryonic phases, yet there’s nothing tentative or unfinished about its contents. Everything comes from someplace, and the genre-defying breadth of styles, bracing ideas, and high level of musicianship will appeal to both longtime followers of the group and neophytes, as well as fans of prog-rock and experimental rock in general.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Djungle Man" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
morganagren.com | facebook | cuneiform



Avant-Rock & Beyond
[AVANT-PROGRESSIVE / ROCK-IN-OPPOSITION / POST-ROCK / EXPERIMENTAL / ELECTRO / NOISE]



Robert Wyatt
'68

Genre: Rock
Format: CD / LP / Digital
Release Date: October 8, 2013


Some have called this - the complete set of Robert Wyatt's solo recordings made in the US in late 1968 - the ultimate Holy Grail. Half of the material here is not only previously unreleased - it had never been heard, even by the most dedicated collectors of Wyatt rarities. Until reappearing, seemingly out of nowhere, last year, the demo for “Rivmic Melodies”, an extended sequence of song fragments destined to form the first side of the second album by Soft Machine (the band Wyatt had helped form in 1966 as drummer and lead vocalist, and with whom he had recorded an as-yet unreleased debut album in New York the previous spring), was presumed lost forever. This release is fully authorized by Wyatt, featuring an in-depth interview with him (by music historian Aymeric Leroy) about his recollections of this period, with insights into his songwriting process, recording procedures and previously untold anecdotes of his American sojourn.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Rivmic Melodies" [excerpt] (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]
COVER IMAGES [ CD | LP ]

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
cuneiform



Richard Pinhas
Desolation Row
Genre: Rock / Electronic / Noise / Experimental
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: May 21, 2013


Morally outraged by the corporate greed that caused Europe’s (and America’s) 21st century economic collapse, shattering the public’s wellbeing and democracy itself, Desolation Row finds avant-rock icon and philosophy PhD/writer Richard Pinhas returning to his philosophical roots and his stance behind political barricades.  The album is as politically charged, musically radical and artistically potent as those he created during a prior era of socio-political change with his band Heldon. Desolation Row is a work that stands both with and apart from the respective oeuvres of its principals. The continually evolving Pinhas reaches ever-newer artistic vistas – and draws attention to Europe’s sociological, political, and economic turmoil on Desolation Row. Desolation Row contains some of the elements we know and love from Pinhas—dense, subtly shifting banks of sonic bliss; sustained guitar tones, textures alternately dreamlike and nightmarish, and well-nigh elemental, pulsating rhythms.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Circle" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
richard-pinhas.com | facebook | twitter | cuneiform



Guapo
History Of The Visitation
Genre: Rock / Experimental / Post-Rock / Avant-Prog
Format: CD+DVD / LP+DVD / Digital (audio)
Release Date: January 29, 2013


Prepare yourself for an experience that’s simultaneously otherworldly and assaultive. The sound Guapo create is based around ideas like controlled chaos, atonal harmony, uplifting darkness, and beautiful destruction. Nothing about this British quartet or their work seems to adhere to even the most open-minded set of preconceptions about the meaning of umbrella terms like “rock,” or “progressive,” or even “experimental.” But when you abandon the need to reconcile any of these concepts with each other, and simply let History Of The Visitation, speak for itself, everything becomes radiantly clear. The band currently comprises drummer and founding member David J. Smith with mainstays Kavus Torabi (Cardiacs, Knifeworld) on guitar and James Sedwards (Nøght) on bass, joined by recent addition Emmett Elvin (Chrome Hoof, Knifeworld) on keyboards.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"The Pilman Radiant" [excerpt] (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
guapo.co.uk | facebook | cuneiform



Chrome Hoof
Chrome Black Gold

Genre: Nitro-Pop / Rock / Space-Prog / Electro
Format: CD / LP / Digital
Release Date: October 8, 2013


There are solo performers, duos, and bands, and then there are concepts, bigger than and beyond any particular singer, central instrumentalist, style, or ego. Chrome Hoof is one such concept, an evolving organism whose singular approach spans progressive rock, electronic dance music (especially electro), metal, funk, classical music, and more. Like Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, Sun Ra, Magma, Trans-Global Underground, and Afro-Celt Sound System, Chrome Hoof is an ever-developing affair, unpredictable yet with a drive and focus that makes their music (like the aforementioned icons) truly memorable. Moreover, Chrome Hoof serve up their sonic gumbo with a truly theatrical flair evoking the spectacles of Devo, Gong, George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic, Hawkwind, and Sun Ra’s Arkhestra, transporting their audiences on a Trip Into the Beyond.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"When The Lightning Strikes"
[ft.
Shingai Shoniwa (of The Noisettes)]
(mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - WAYSIDE MUSIC - BANDCAMP

ARTIST SITES:
chromehoof.com | facebook | twitter | cuneiform



Miriodor
Cobra Fakir

Genre: Rock / Avant-Progressive
Format: CD / LP / Digital Download
Release Date: September 24, 2013


A cobra fakir is a snake charmer, who uses carefully concocted melodies to put the mighty reptile under a sort of sonic spell. That’s an apt analogy for what will happen to even the hardiest ears upon introduction to Miriodor’s newest eccentric-but-bewitching batch of tunes. Miriodor's core tenet has remained a commitment to creating challenging (yet welcoming) music that freely incorporates everything from progressive rock and jazz to avant-garde experimentation and even elements of various folk traditions. The multi-layered complexity of the pieces they’ve crafted for Cobra Fakir belies the relatively spontaneous method in which much of the music was made. Each of the 11 tracks on Cobra Fakir is like a little world unto itself, with its own indigenous nooks and crannies waiting to be explored, and each boasts its own musical river into which you can enter at the same spot time after time and encounter something different upon every immersion.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"La roue" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

MUSIC VIDEO:
Expérience 7 (Official Video)

PRESS MATERIALS:

PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 ]
COVER IMAGE [ CD | LP ]

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
miriodor.com | facebook | twitter | cuneiform



Zevious
Passing Through the Wall
Genre: Rock / Metal Jazz / Jazz
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: September 24, 2013


Boundaries are meant to be crossed. In recent years, a wave of brainy, ballsy bands has begun to blur the lines between electric jazz, progressive art-rock, punk, and metal. Defiantly original in their approach and sound, Zevious are in the forefront of this movement, and their third album, Passing Through the Wall, is an emphatic, dimension-smashing statement of artistic purpose. According to the band, the goal on Passing Through the Wall is to induce a trance-like state in the listener through repetition, non-conventional melody and challenging song structure. The compositions are based around large cycles of layered poly-rhythmic patterns against octave displaced melodies, the individual parts working together to create dense, pulsating textures. Passing Through the Wall is a ferocious 48-minute slab of muscular, intelligent instrumental rock that will thrill fans of progressive rock, jazz fusion, electric jazz, art-metal, and punk alike.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Entanglement" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 ]
COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
zevious.com | facebook | cuneiform



Mats/Morgan
Radio Da Da / The Teenage Tapes
Genre: Rock / Fusion / Avant-Progressive
Format: CDx2 / Digital
Release Date: May 21, 2013


Swedish collective Mats/Morgan occupy, or more aptly, create their own sphere in the transcontinental music scene, a zone wherein progressive rock, jazz-rock fusion, experimental rock, electronica, and progressive pop overlap and intertwine. The double-CD set Radio Da Da/The Teenage Tapes compiles Mats/Morgan’s earliest works but with a difference: These albums have been lovingly remixed, remastered, resequenced, and overdubbed by Morgan Ågren himself--they are virtually new offerings. Recorded in 1992 (Radio Da Da) and the years 1981-2008 (The Teenage Tapes), this compendium captures Mats/Morgan to some extent in embryonic phases, yet there’s nothing tentative or unfinished about its contents. Everything comes from someplace, and the genre-defying breadth of styles, bracing ideas, and high level of musicianship will appeal to both longtime followers of the group and neophytes, as well as fans of prog-rock and experimental rock in general.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Djungle Man" (mp3 download)
stream: @SoundCloud | @Bandcamp | @YouTube

PRESS MATERIALS:
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 ] - COVER IMAGE

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - ITUNES - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE

ARTIST SITES:
morganagren.com | facebook | cuneiform


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