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From the Music Director: April 30th 2016

Here's the updated list of new music arrivals for the past week, shelved on April 30th. There's a large list this week, with 41 new titles.

For the month of April, we've added 173 new music titles in our New Music Arrivals section, in all genres. 
 
Read on for recaps.

 

FOLK: Nashville singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson caught critics’ attention with his previous 2014 release, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, an album that stretched the boundaries of country 
music. Now, with his new release, A Sailor’s Guide To Earth, Simpson, again, ambitiously attempts to push boundaries, such as employing Daptone’s horn section and use of strings. Here’s a link to a 
recent New York Times piece on Simpsonand his new recording.
 

JAZZ: New York-based drummer, percussionist and composer Rob Garcia delivers an ambitious
contemporary work, Finding Love In An Oligarchy On A Dying Planet, with accompaniment by tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger, pianist Gary Versace and bassist MasaKamaguchi, and guest appearances by saxophonist Joe Lavano and vocalist Kate McGarry. 
 
Trombonist, composer and arranger Alan Ferber, veteran of Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, brings together his nonet for unique, atmospheric big band arrangements in his new work, Roots & Traditions, released by Sunnyside. 
 

ROCK: Montreal-based singer-songwriter Laurel Sprengelmeyer, who goes by the moniker Little 
Scream, releases an eclectic new album, Cult Following, inspired by her travels to a remote village. Co-produced by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, Cult Following also features guest appearances by Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Van Etten, TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone and Mary Margaret O’Hara, among others. 

 
East Los Angeles trio, Thee Commons, release a new album, Loteria Tribal (on Burger Records), with their unique and energetic mixture of cumbia, surf-garage and psych rock. Here’s a good bio of the band from Make Music Pasadena Festival site. 
 
Former Gun Club and Cramps guitarist-vocalist, Kid Congo Powers has released an excellent new psychedelic-garage rock album, La AranaEs La Vida, with his band, The Pink Monkeybirds. Here’s a link to arecent interview with Powersfor New Noise magazine. Toronto-based quartet Programm, like their contemporaries such as Moon King, offer a new album of shoegaze, dream pop and post-punk pop influences with A Torrid Marriage of Logic and Emotion. Here’s a link to a recent, detailed review from the music site, The Revue.
 
 

WORLD: World-renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma returns with his eclectic group of musicians, The Silk Road 
Ensemble, for a new recording, Sing Me Home, which features contributions by Gregory Porter, 
Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Rhiannon Giddens, Abigail Washington and guitarist Bill Frisell, among others. Here’s a link to a recent interview with Ma with Mother Jones magazine. Kinshasa-based, “congotronics” pioneer Konono No.1 collaborates with Lisbon, Portugal DJ-producer Batida (Pedro Coquenão) for the release, Konono No.1 Meets Batida, for Crammed Discs. Here’s a detailedreview from All About Jazz (yes, it’s All About Jazz): 

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