Music I Liked – Festival Prep, Rereleases, and Blog Discoveries

I listened to so much music last week I can’t begin to do it all justice. It’s the 20th anniversary of Pickathon, the festival in the woods outside of Portland and this is the first year I’m going. I checked out all the bands and came up with a list of literally dozens that I want to see, but today I’ll just mention HARAM and Marisa Anderson. I usually don’t pay attention to rereleases, but in the last week remastered versions of two albums I love (by Dynfari and Mouth of the Architect) were released. And I got caught up on the Bandcamp blog, which exposed me to Pod Blotz and Consider the Source.

HARAM

Pickathon, as the name suggests, leans toward Americana and Indie-folk, but the lineup is quite diverse. Even in a diverse lineup, HARAM would stand out. Haram means “forbidden by Islamic law.” HARAM is a New York-based punk band with lyrics in Arabic on their album When You Have Won, You Have Lost. I tend to think all punk sounds the same, but that’s just enough of a twist on tradition to catch my ear.

Marisa Anderson

Another Pickathon discovery. I never learned to play one, but I’m a guitar nerd at heart. No matter how widely I explore the worlds of orchestral or electronic music, I always come back to good old fashioned noodling. Marisa Anderson‘s Cloud Corner is American guitar tradition straight up no chaser and I’m hooked.

Dynfari

I came late to Dynfari‘s 2012 release of Sem Skugginn but once I found it I listened the hell out of it. Now it’s back all remastered and I’ma listen some more.

Mouth of the Architect

Same story. Arrived late to the party, partied hard, back for seconds on Mouth of the Architect‘s newly remixed and remastered Ties That Bind.

Rivers of Nihil

Rivers of Nihil are like parfait. Everybody loves parfait. So how did I miss their March release charmingly titled Where Owls Know My Name? I don’t know. Also, I want to read a novel with that title, too. Probably a portal fantasy. Anyway, now that I know, I’m making up for lost listening time.

Pod Blotz

On Bandcamp, Pod Blotz is described as

Industrial music dark in context, bright in texture

Okay, that works. The scraping, abrasive music of In Between Worlds (Light Mass Body) reminds me of Icelandic artist AMFJ, and that makes me happy.

Consider the Source

In an Bandcamp article on microtones, I found Consider the Source‘s album Fuck It, We’ll Do It Live Volumes 1 & 2. You know what? With that name, a band could sound like pretty much anything and I’m going to give them a thumb’s up. I listened to volume 2, and fortunately, their blend of ‘70s jazz/fusion, traditional Middle Eastern and Central Asian styles, prog, and metal was just my kind of weird.

Whoa. That’s a lot of music. And I didn’t even get to the stuff I heard at the Ballard Seafood Fest last weekend.