It’s Under The Stars babe…A quasi-weekly column that presents new music releases, upcoming shows, opinions, and other adjacent items. We keep moving with the changes and thinking outside the margins.
Be sure to check for the Oakland-based DJ and part-time party-thrower discnogirl Thu/22 at California Academy of Sciences. Juke, footwork, club edits, garage and jungle will be flowing at the Noise Pop Music and Arts Festival jump off event! Grab tickets here.
Let’s get it!
WAVEDASH, MADEON, “ALL UR LUV (FT. TORO Y MOI)“
You can’t deny good pop. Properly layered vocals. Aggressive chord progressions. Killer hooks. All executed in under three minutes.
That’s what our boy Toro y Moi has cooking with Madeon.
Any fan of the entire Oakland-based Chaz Bear brand—spinning bass music wearing sandals, jetting around San Francisco proper in a Jeepney, doling out weird and hitting tunes with the Bay Area artist Salami Rose Joe Louis or playing a musical role of a rural southern kid in his Sandhills creation—admires his chameleonic transcendence of the “chillwave” label in the past decade. He’s so much more.
“All Ur Luv” is a cool, saccharine treat, built on veteran songcraft, that delivers another costume Chaz can slip on with ease and then slide out of after three minutes.
Pardon my 415/510 pride, but Toro Y Moi is one of the game’s most versatile musicians today who can pop up anywhere and get in on the get down, no matter the presentation. You know how football coaches have coaching trees, he has musician branches that ranges from Vinyl Williams to Brijean, and that’s just for starters folks.
Always keep an ear out for what he’s got cooking next; it’s interesting, different from the last, and more often than not, it’s on point.
ALICE COLTRANE AT CARNEGIE, FINALLY RELEASED
So it was announced earlier this month that a previously unreleased recording of a historic performance, Alice Coltrane’s “The Carnegie Hall Concert,” which took place on February 21, 1971, will drop on March 22, 2024.
The original multi-track recording was commissioned by Impulse Records but never saw the record shop shelves.
It features Pharoah Sanders on tenor and soprano sax, flute, and percussion; Archie Shepp also on tenor and soprano sax and percussion; Kumar Kramer on harmonium; both Cecil McBee and Jimmy Garrison on bass; Clifford Jarvis and Ed Blackwell on drums, and Tulsi on the Tambora.
The single “Shiva-Loka” is now available. You can pre-order the album here.
Before this announcement, I randomly saw a tweet from Flying Lotus, the grandnephew of Alice Coltrane, mention how over the past 20 years he’s watched the conversation about Alice Coltrane turn from “What about John” to “What about Journey in Satchidananda.”
Sometimes it takes decades for the world to catch up.
HERBIE HANCOCK TO CELEBRATE 50 YEARS OF HEADHUNTERS
In the same week, it was also announced that Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters would play the Hollywood Bowl on August 14—a late 50th-anniversary celebration for the album that gave the band its name. Drummer Harvey Mason, who left the group shortly after that album came out, will return for this special performance along with saxophonist Bennie Maupin and percussionist Bill Summers. Bassist Paul Jackson died in 2021, so Marcus Miller, a longtime Hancock collaborator, will stand in for him.
The album Headhunters, similar to the following record by Hancock, Sextant, both of which were recorded right here in San Francisco at Hyde Street Studios, advanced ideas put forth on the Miles Davis fusion records Bitches Brew and On the Corner.
The accessible Headhunters, which combined rock and jazz in abstract charts and funk jams, has been sampled ad infinitum. Sly Stone being a key point of inspiration for the record; they named the tune “Sly” after him.
Buy tickets for the show here.
Speaking of Herbie…
JAHARI MASSAMBA UNIT, MADLIB, AND KARRIEM RIGGINS: YHWH IS LOVE (LAW OF RHYTHM)
Somehow, when Madlib teams up with Riggins, these production ninjas get right down into theDNA structure of peak Herbie doing his Sextant thing, but with such swing. Verve. Beauty.
“Stomping Gamay” the first single from this second link-up, promises those clear running colors again, challenging all those Night of the Ever-Living and Loving jazz New Jacks: Get yourweight up.
Pre-order here.
SCIENTIST MEETS ORCHESTRA GOLD, MARCH 1 AT THE CHAPEL
Jamaican audio engineer Scientist is on a straight line that traces back to the innovation of King Tubby from the ’60s and progresses through to Prince Jammy in the 70s.
Due to the fantastically dense dub works he created while working as an apprentice engineer at King Tubby’s studio, many dub fans consider Scientist to be the last of the classical Jamaican dub mixers.
So, combining that mastery of mixing sound with the cosmic swirl and Fela-like groove of Orchestra Gold, the African psychedelic rock group based out of Oakland, means that March 1 at The Chapel will be one for the books.
Just recently announced, this perfect combination is the type of show that attracts all types of music aficionados. Good on you, The Chapel!
Grab tickets here.
BATOV RECORDS ARTISTS 3
Supplying global funk, world beats, and Middle-Eastern grooves to the discerning ear since 2013? Listen up, Batov Records, a London-based record label, has been crushing it with authenticity for the past decade.
Hey music nerd—are you prepping, getting ready for that heavyweight Khruangbin vibe dropping on April 5? Welp, this label, started by DJ Kobayashi and Bob Martyn, is kinda sorta a lodestar to that type of funk.
The imprint’s roots remain firm, platforming idiosyncratic funk hybrids from all corners of the globe. Expect Batov’s Records Artists 3, to be loaded with a hand-picked tracklist from selector-in-chief DJ Kobayashi curating a living room, red cup party jump-off for sure. Batov Records is running the table again in 2024. You need to get in on this now.
Download the comp at a pay-what-you-want price here…..this time. I guarantee you’ll be buying whatever project they have lined up next. The label is just that good. ENJOY!
BETH GIBBONS, LIVES OUTGROWN (DOMINO)
I can wholeheartedly tell you, expecting a Beth Gibbons solo debut record this year—that’s right, known for her work with Portishead, that Beth Gibbons—was not on my dance card for 2024.
But dang it, here we are.
Featuring 10 new tracks recorded over 10 years, the album was produced by James Ford of Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, The Last Dinner Party fame, and Gibbons herself, with additional touch by Lee Harris.
The lead single, “Floating On a Moment,” is a somber and quiet affair, but it’s just so good to hear that voice once again.
You can pre-order the album here.
MARY TIMONY, UNTAME THE TIGER (MERGE RECORDS)
If you wait for all the chapters of sound and song transitions to run their course on the single “Dominoes,” you’ll hear a veteran singer-songwriter and guitar hero, Mary Timony, give a mini-tutorial on how to make independent music sound interesting, popular, and devoid of sell-out bullshit. Described by Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein as “Mary Shelley with a guitar,” there is a reason Lindsey Jordan aka Snail Mail is Timony’s former student.
Untame the Tiger sounds like an indie-underground goddess getting their bearings and props all at the right time. Pre-order here.
