"Hardy shot to fame singing airy, carefree pop before she took control of her career, hung out with 60s rock aristocracy and became a sophisticated singer-songwriter of rare sensuality and melancholy."
Françoise Hardy: France’s girlish yé-yé star was a groundbreaking musical artist:
"Stuart Sutcliffe looked like someone completely out of time, like some spaceman who’d stepped back to give the others a glimpse of what the rest of the 60s was going to look like. He looks like he’s laying the blueprint for indie bands when everyone else at that time looked like their dads."
Mexican-American musician Joshua Josué discusses his debut 'Beneath the Sand', recorded at a solar-powered Mojave studio — where years of grief found release through bilingual songs written during motorcycle trips across Mexico and Central America.
The Chicano Rock of Joshua Josué:
"Co-founded in Kentucky by guitarist/singer Rick Rizzo and drummer/singer Janet Beveridge Bean in 1983, and shored up by future Tortoise bassist Doug McCombs, Eleventh Dream Day began with 'the sound of a band that was on the verge of falling apart,' as Rizzo tells it."
Today's Tonal Treat ✨
#SongOfTheDay #NowPlaying #MusicSky #TonalTreat
"I’m paraphrasing Ben here, but 'Discovery' was more of a simulacrum, two 20-somethings dreaming up the sound of their childhood in the late 1970s and early 1980s, while 'Random Access Memories' was a recreation of the actual, real thing."
From French Touch to Future Funk:
✨ article by @tangentuniverses.bsky.social
✨ 'Sunbeam of No Illusion' out now on @akprecordings.bsky.social
✨ Ben Seretan on Bluesky → @benseretan.bsky.social
On 'Sunbeam Of No Illusion', Ben Seretan and John Thayer find melody where ambient music usually forgets to look, treating amplified mistakes, grass-bundle drumsticks, and borrowed sustain as the raw material of a minimalist document of place.
The Minimalist Gospel of Ben Seretan and John Thayer:
"Hear new music featuring unexpected flutists Shabaka (Hutchings) and Andre 3000, on various flutes from different continents in work by vocalist Ganavya, Kamasi Washington, Yusef Dayes, and their own recent solo music."
New Sounds — Unexpected Flutists:
When the Jazz Gallery handed Ben Wendel an open-ended commission, he assembled four of the most distinctive mallet players working today—Joel Ross, Simon Moullier, Patricia Brennan, + Juan Diego Villalobos—stood in the center of a semicircle of vibraphones + marimbas, and called the result BaRcoDe …
"[Boards of Canada duo] Eoin and Sandison’s painterly approach to aging and distressing sound purposefully sought to tap into a shared reminiscence with the listener, and was later cited as pioneering the ‘hauntology’ aesthetic that would become popular in the years that followed."
"It's now 30 years since 'You Don't Love Me' became the sound of the summer of '94; the same amount of time it took to become a hit single in the first place."
You Don’t Love Me (No No No) & Dawn Penn’s Three Decade Journey To The Top:
Naomi Moon Siegel's trombone compositions merge the musical traditions of urban jazz scenes with lessons learned in rural quiet spaces. Her album 'Shatter the Glass Sanctuary' captures this musical evolution.
Naomi Moon Siegel — A Wind Player Finds Her Ground:
"Audiophile sanctuaries for a premium auditory experience, listening bars — or hi-fi bars — are increasingly common in the UK and Europe. They prioritise a top-notch sound system and equipment, but increasingly differ from their Japanese forerunners."
The new era of hi-fi listening bars:
"But Elms isn’t just Blitz-jiving, as he refers to the dance of choice on the floor, driven by Rusty Egan’s selections. Blitz really did kick off many of the visual and a good many audio trends that would define the eighties."
Robert Elms, ‘Blitz — The Club That Created the 80s’:
German production duo Modha discuss their resistance to the music industry's rat race, the shift to collaborative live-band recording with trusted friends, and why protecting the raw joy of music-making matters more than chasing metrics.
The Groove-Centered Ease of Modha's 'At Your Pace':
"When I bought The Kelso Run for $5, I had no idea that band-leader Bruce Licher is one of the most respected letterpress artists in the world. I only knew his guitar work from Savage Republic."
Scenic — Mojave Desert Music From 1992:
Here's the NPR Music newsletter in case you don' subscribe. Wrote about "political music" yet again, some thoughts on why the mainstream feels dull now too, @chrishousman.bsky.social you got a shoutout here view.nl.npr.org?vawpToken=UP...
Sure that @catbus.phd will appreciate this Mongolian Slowdive cover from a rival platform (no, not that one) even if no-one else does
In 1964, legendary jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie ran for US President as a write-in candidate. He wanted to rename the White House to the Blues House and would have appointed Charlie Mingus as minister of peace and Ray Charles as Librarian of Congress. [kottke.org]
A portrait of singer Asha Bhosle, taken in Sydney, Australia in 2007.
"And even if you never heard her sing, you might still recognize her name: it's Asha Bhosle that the British band Cornershop was referencing in its 1997 hit, 'Brimful of Asha.'"
Asha Bhosle, the voice of Bollywood, has died aged 92: www.npr.org/2026/04/12/8...
Today's Tonal Treat ✨
#SongOfTheDay #NowPlaying #MusicSky #TonalTreat
Band photo of Ben Wendel and BaRcoDe
In episode 300 of The Tonearm Podcast, Wendel talks through the project's origins at the Jazz Gallery, the logic behind the album's title, and what it was like to inhabit that particular sonic space.
Listen in on today's new episode of The Tonearm Podcast: podcast.thetonearm.com/ben-wendel-a...
When the Jazz Gallery handed Ben Wendel an open-ended commission, he assembled four of the most distinctive mallet players working today—Joel Ross, Simon Moullier, Patricia Brennan, + Juan Diego Villalobos—stood in the center of a semicircle of vibraphones + marimbas, and called the result BaRcoDe …
"But beneath the surface was a complex world of turmoil and uncertainty, one whose narrative unfolded across three markedly different albums … [and] by the end of the '70s, Big Star were all but forgotten."
The story of Big Star:
"Since emerging as a pre-eminent figure within Jamaica’s Reggae Revival movement of the previous decade, Protoje, 44, has grown into one of the most powerful global ambassadors of the island’s signature beat."
Protoje, One of Reggae’s Premier Ambassadors, Doubles Down on His Roots (gift link):
"He told me I was crazy if I thought we’d reach the 12 stores on my original list, but he quickly got on board and helped expand the list to 19 as we added stores in towns surrounding Austin. I listed everything in a spreadsheet, including their addresses and hours, and mapped the optimal route …"
So much depends on Sarah Cracknell's airy timbre. When Saint Etienne argue for the power of pop music her ageless voice offers their best defense. Happy birthday. wp.me/pzXeC-8hm
