Ghost Rhythms – Sierra de Tamuraque

Ghost Rhythms – Sierra de Tamuraque

Bands in the jazz-rock genre can sometimes overplay their welcome, stretching songs into unending, elliptical exercises in excessive soloing. Ghost Rhythms smartly avoids such overkill by often favoring shorter, yet still opulent, numbers.

Sierra de Tamuraque is a musical petit fours, a delectable, bite-size composition that wonderfully displays the multidimensional talents of this French ensemble that had previously released a live record for the eclectic Cuneiform label. Barely more than two minutes in length, the song captures the essence of this Paris-based outfit by balancing avant-garde chamber music leanings with its prog-rock influences.

Led by drummer Xavier Gélard and pianist Camille Petit, Ghost Rhythms plays an adventurous style that sounds slightly reminiscent of the band Happy the Man and occupies a middle ground somewhere between Canterbury and Zeuhl. Although typically favoring brief ideas, Ghost Rhythms is not unwilling to explore extended numbers as well.

The song, which is being promoted with a cool short film by Guillaume Aventurin, comes from the group’s fifth full-length album, Imaginary Mountains. With the pandemic rendering weekly rehearsals impossible, the band chose to showcase more intimate material that showcased the ensemble’s orchestral side.

Ghost Rhythm’s late 2020 release is an unquestioned quarantine triumph.

Other Lives – Sound of Violence

Other Lives – Sound of Violence

Other Lives plays a highly stylized, very literate form of rock that is layered in melancholy and meticulously measured misery which is uncharacteristically moving for the genre. If John Steinbeck had been a rocker, he might have joined these lyrical Greats of Wrath.

Sound of Violence is supposedly inspired by a passage from Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, which explains the use of reverse World War II-era footage in the song’s corresponding video (a reference to the book’s flashbacks to the bombing of Dresden). The images present a stark contrast to the song’s soaring strings and sweeping soliloquy.

Hailing originally from Stillwater, Oklahoma, Other Lives assembled material for their fourth full-length release at their own Cooper Mountain Sound studio in rural Oregon. It was the perfect place to find the respite and rejuvenation needed to record the beautifully lush and ornate songs that would result in the ten-track collection, For Their Love.

Having met the band after one of their Midwest shows during their tour supporting their previous record, Rituals, I can attest that these are very modest and humble musicians who are dedicated to their craft. For true artistry in rock today, it’s hard to top Other Lives.

Countless Thousands – Lazar Wolf

Countless Thousands – Lazar Wolf

If there is one thing missing from music these days, it’s a sense of humor. Countless Thousands is a band of playful punks who are unafraid to tickle the funny bone while others just tickle the ivories.

Lazar Wolf is the band’s unhinged version of kosher kookiness. Their Fiddler on the Goof offers a riotous recipe of musical matzah that comes fresh and unleavened in its screw-loose silliness. Of course, one would expect nothing less from a group that has created a musical decoupage of demented ditties during its decade-long existence under the radar of radio (and most of the Internet).

This, after all, is the group from Glendale, California, that has set the words of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and Trump sycophant Lindsey Graham to music, the same band of mirthful merrymakers who penned a rather enthusiastic jam about Space Nazis.

While their anthemic antics may not be for everyone, their everyman tales of rebellious jocularity are sure to put a smile on the faces of most. Check out their old video for Gang Fight for further proof.

Countless Thousands is a band that seems hard to ignore. Perhaps something funny is to blame.

Sunstorm – Swan Song

Sunstorm – Swan Song

A great voice can carry a band, especially in the world of hard rock, where autotune and other enhancers are the unequivocal kiss of death for listeners accustomed to singers with the talent of Jimi Jamison or Ronnie James Dio.

Sunstorm is a music project originally created by Frontiers Records for singer Joe Lynn Turner, best known for his work with Rainbow and Deep Purple. The band released five albums before Turner exited the enterprise, leaving a void recently filled by Ronnie Romero, a Chilean singer noted for his associations with numerous bands, including Rainbow, the Michael Schenker Group, Lords of Black, and Vandenberg, among others.

Swan Song is a strong showcase for Romero, who sings with all the necessary passion and power. It’s a fittingly sturdy melodic rock number that fits nicely in the Sunstorm catalog. And it doesn’t hurt that Romeo is backed by a solid band, including guitarist Simone Mularoni from the Italian metal band DGM.

Some longtime Sunstorm fans are bemoaning the belief that the band is not the same without Turner’s involvement. That’s a rather unforgiving attitude. Judge the music on its own merits – not on the participation of people unavailable or missing from the recording.

Swan Song appears on the Afterlife album, which will be released on March 12, 2021.

Gösta Berlings Saga – Konkret Music

Gösta Berlings Saga – Konkret Music

Gösta Berlings Saga seems like an unusual name for a band, but these Swedish sonic adventurers are no ordinary opportunists seeking fame and fortune in the music business. Formed in the suburbs of Stockholm back not long after the arrival of the new millennium, the group has shown a willingness to evolve and embrace everything from dark symphonic to electronica to post-rock.

For a band known for its instrumental prowess, their moniker ironically owes its existence to words. The name is a nod to the debut novel of Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf, whose story famously became the film that launched the career of Greta Garbo, one of the greatest screen actresses of all time.

Konkret Music is the title track of the group’s sixth studio album, which delves deeper into the amazing amalgam of sounds, opting for an aggressive, high-energy romp that bounces Oingo-Boingo-like on speed and psychedelics. The karaoke dance on display in the video for the song is the perfect depiction of its delirious effects.

Gösta Berlings Saga is organized chaos at its best – compositional complexity that drives the music in a powerful, rhythmic way guaranteed to make you prick up your ears and get your body moving.

Aaron Frazer – Over You

Aaron Frazer – Over You

Great music has a timeless quality that cannot be defined to a single decade, and yet many would not have a problem singling out the Sixties and Seventies as an unparalleled period in soul music. Performers like Marvin Gaye, Al Green, and Curtis Mayfield testified to the glory of songs that stood out because their sinewy yet sophisticated arrangements made their melodies so memorable.

Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys has long championed the sounds of the Seventies, so it’s no surprise that he saw fit to produce the debut album by Aaron Frazer, a multi-instrumentalist who established his retro reputation as the co-lead singer for Durand Jones & The Indications. His ability on the drums is only surpassed by his fabulous falsetto, which is given an extra shot of adrenalin on Over You, a propulsive smack of gospel soul flavored with dancefloor-ready drum and bass.

There is something reassuring about the glorious old-school groove set forward by Frazer, who clearly has been influenced by the musical game-changers of the past but still seeks to make himself heard in a contemporary setting that can be unforgivably trendy in its desire for new faces.

Aaron Frazer, with a little help from Auerbach and a long list of heavy session players at Easy Eye Sound, has created a record that brings back memories of fantastic 45s and solid-state transistor radios.

Oklou – God’s Chariots

Oklou – God’s Chariots

Marylou Mayniel is a French musician known by the stage name of Oklou, a young singer-songwriter who creates cosmic cotton candy with an ethereal voice and soothing synths. The result is a sound that combines the seductive side of Dido with the brilliant beats of James Blake.

God’s Chariots shows Mayniel has talent galore – Galore being the title of her debut mixtape, which she released in September 2020. It’s the product of an increasing fascination with electronic music that came to light after a classical education for piano and cello during her early years growing up in the countryside of west France.

A relocation to Paris in 2015, followed by a move to London, allowed Mayniel to become immersed in DJ culture, which further fostered her development as an artist. Her narrative dreamscapes feature an almost whispered intimacy that draws the listener into her experimental sound.

In the Internet Age, when practically anyone with a laptop computer and a bedroom can aspire to make music, it’s easy to dismiss new artists who are desperate to be heard. But Mayniel is the real thing, so remember the name of Oklou as someone to watch. There’s an unmistakable delicateness to her sound that is positively empowering.

X – Goodbye Year, Goodbye

X – Goodbye Year, Goodbye

There are few iconic bands as resilient as the raucous X, the L.A. legends who unfortunately are often not given their true due for the role they played in defining the punk sound for the U.S.

Goodbye Year, Goodbye is the band’s audacious anthem to the longest year in recent memory, a musical middle finger to 2020 and the protests, pandemonium, and problematic pandemic that made it the year from hell. The song is a blast from the past with a nod to the now – a perfectly punk answer to a simply unforgettable year.

I had the good fortune of catching X in concert back in 1982 when the band had just signed with major label Elektra and released Under the Big Black Sun, which mixed bits of Americana into their pioneering punk oeuvre. Goodbye Year, Goodbye presents X exactly as I remember the band – raw, rebellious, and really fun.

It is comforting to know that all four original members – vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist-bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer D.J. Bonebrake – can still rock with the best. Alphabetland, the band’s eighth album but first in 27 years, shows X remains a vital force. In saying good riddance to a godforsaken year, thank goodness some things that have not changed.

Travis – The Only Thing

Travis – The Only Thing

Travis is one of those consistently good bands that is largely underappreciated in North America, where its mellifluous melodies have failed to connect with listeners as they have with their British faithful.

The Only Thing is pure Travis with the delightful addition of American Susanna Hoffs, the Bangles co-founder who shares his smoky, sultry voice to a lovely, lilting tune that is gorgeously orchestrated. It’s a serious attempt to reach American audiences while the song’s video tempers any soberness with the band’s wry response to the la-la-la harmonizing between Hoff and singer Fran Healy midway through the song.

You could pick any Travis album from the past 20+ years and be delighted by the superb songwriting of this band from Glasgow, Scotland. Healy and compatriots have dutifully delivered the goods while performing in the shadow of the relatively more successful Coldplay. Most Travis songs don’t have the same anthemic quality as those of their Brit counterparts, but they are no less worthy of one’s attention.

10 Songs, the ninth studio album from Travis, was released in October 2020 under the pandemic veil of the coronavirus, virtually assuring that the group will stay under the radar for the foreseeable future. The Only Thing shows Travis remains undeterred.

Eivør – Í Tokuni

Eivør – Í Tokuni

There is something unexplainable about the allure of discovering something new. The experience provides an undeniable thrill that is very real and revelatory.

For the aurally adventurous, there is nothing quite like being excited by an artist who was previously unknown. It is the emotional equivalent of sightseeing in a new country for the first time.

The music of Eivør Pálsdóttir is likely unknown to most people in North America and most would struggle to locate the singer’s native Faroe Islands on a map. But both are beautifully evident in the song, Í Tokuni, which many will find magical and mysterious.

Located roughly halfway between Iceland and Norway, the Faroe Islands is a self-governing nation within the Kingdom of Denmark and it is where Eivør puts her distinctive voice to work. Her music is hauntingly hypnotic in its ability to create an atmosphere that is absolutely mesmerizing. The song’s dynamics – the catchy keyboards, the banshee-like quality of its chorus – are matched by the choreographic connection between her stylized performance and its sinister but seductive tone.

Eivør has an otherworldly quality that is very pure and pleasing. For further proof of her powerful talent, check out the vocal acrobatics evident in her performance of Trøllabundin during an outdoor concert at a mountain farm in the fjords of Norway. It is utterly breathtaking.