Download live sets (MP3 or FLAC) for Skaters, Axolotl, DJ Dog Dick for a limited time, courtesy of Aural States and Jeff the Baltimore Taper. Just click on the artist name to goto the downloads!

Ah yes, an ambient noise show. I don’t want to make a protracted defense of the genre, so I will simply state that this is music; in many cases beautiful music.

But I will concede that musicians in this genre are often hit-or-miss. To be sure, turning knobs on FX pedals doesn’t require great musical chops, but you still better be inspired when performing. With an ambient music live performance, as with any musical performance really, it is immediately apparent when the musician is just going through the motions.

In the case of this genre, watching a person “go through the motions” twisting knobs can be pretty disappointing. But then again there are those absolutely sublime performances. Last night’s show at the Floristree saw both extremes.

Read the rest…

Beethoven’s genius ranges from the large scale orchestral works, like the 9th, to the more intimate sonatas, quartets, and piano trios. A few months back Baltimore was treated to the complete Beethoven cello sonatas, performed by Peabody faculty member Amit Peled, and Peabody alumnus Alon Goldstein. It was a truly amazing performance.

Peled and Goldstein will reunite, along with violinist Ilya Kaler, to perform three of Beethoven’s piano trios– the Gassenhauer (op.11), Ghost (op. 70, no.1.), and Archduke (op. 97). The concert will be a benefit for Community Concerts at Second, which is a really amazing, and free concert series (though this being a fundraiser, it is not free) at Second Presbyterian Church.

Even if you can’t make this highly recommended date (I can’t, I have to work), please keep the Community Concerts at Second in the back of your mind. It regularly features BSO principal performers, like the time I saw BSO Concertmaster Jonathan Carney…for free.

Goldstein-Kaler-Peled Trio

May 3rd 7:30 pm

Second Presbyterian Church

(410) 744-4034

Tickets: $15

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Beethoven – Piano Trio in B flat maj, Op. 11 Gassenhauer

Greg’s take: I was happy that Myspace was granting us a second, more notable secret show than the Circa Survive thing. I mean c’mon, other cities got Smashing Pumpkins and Decemberists… And nothing was necessarily bad about the show, just nothing really good about it. I agree with most of Alex’s much more detailed take. Meligrove was middle-of-the-road, clean but simple mall-fodder indie pop-rock. What more could you expect from a Myspace-sponsored show? Tokyo Police Club were highly polished, but the “wow” factor that was expected to keep consistent with the hype was non-existent. Their music elicited merely a “that’s really nice” response. It was a free show, so I don’t really have any room to complain; if I had paid though, all bets would’ve been off.

Alex’s take: Coming out of the Tokyo Police Club “Myspace Secret Show” at the Talking Head Club last night I found myself thinking Aural States had committed its first major blunder—we got caught up in the hype surrounding a show that probably didn’t deserve as much attention as it got.

Upon receiving the announcement for the show, I was giddy with what I thought was fresh-and-breaking knowledge. Enough to make me forget my original opinion of Tokyo Police Club—a band that makes decent, though completely unremarkable indie pop songs a la mtvU. I had succumbed to dangerous Internet group-think (read: retardation), combined with a music blogger’s fear of missing fodder for snide comments fired at a distance. Read the rest…

While reading, enjoy these Autechre tracks, “Flutter” from Anti EP and the others from Quaristice. If you like what you hear and read, support the artist and pick up their material.

Autechre – Flutter

Autechre – Simmm

Autechre – Notwo

When Kandinsky developed abstract art he looked toward music, and intense aural experiences. The result was totally organic expressions of form and color, paintings with no reference to a figurative world. In a similar way Autechre’s music has always been about total abstraction, about pure sensory experience.
Read the rest…

Seeing a reunited Blectum from Blechdom perform last night at Load of Fun took me back to the good old days of the early 00s (nearly 10 years ago!) It was a time when the whole laptop scene was blowing up– all Kid606, Cex, Tigerbeat6, and Oakland, CA.

Read the rest…

I recently caught up with Symphony and Roxzi of the Baltimore hip-hop group the Get ‘Em Mamis. GEM will have video premier party April 5th at the 5 Seasons for their single “When You See Us” from the Beyond Hamsterdam album.

Their new single “Cold Summer” will be released June 24 as a part of the new Hamsterdam album by Darkroom Productions and Koch Records.

Read the rest…

Starscape, Baltimore’s electronic music festival, will celebrate its 10th year of existence this June 7th (though the graphic claims the 9th) at Fort Armistead Park. As widespread public interest in electronic dance music (EDM) has waxed and waned, Starscape has reliably remained the only event in the region able to draw top-notch DJs. The lineup was announced a few days back. The bill is solid, but not spectacular. One would have expected all the stops to be pulled for the 10th year party.
Read the rest…

Writing about Brother Ali presents a problem. On the one hand I feel dwelling on his background undercuts his music; he even feared this, being so reluctant early on to discuss his race that some mistakenly reported him as African-American.

But on the other hand, an MC isn’t exactly a detached writer striving for Negative Capability. And as his career has progressed, Ali has been increasingly vocal about his Midwestern roots and what the region’s artists have to offer compared to coastal hip-hop, as well as his race and background.
Read the rest…

It was about a year or two ago when French electronic duo Justice was making it’s first US tour. Philly was the closest they were coming to Baltimore, and The Rapture was the opener for that night to boot. I never made it to that show, and I’ve since been wondering what I missed that night.
Read the rest…

I recently talked to Baltimore jazz pianist Lafayette Gilchrist over a cup of coffee at a small lunch place on Cathedral Street.

If asked to pick the jazz musician out of a lineup, you’d pick Lafayette. He puts out a vibe of intense creativity on a level that is rare even among artists and musicians, and might not necessarily come across in the transcript.

Going along with that, he also has strong opinions on a broad range of issues, not just jazz music, so the interview is formatted a little bit looser, the questions a little more general on purpose. With that said, even the most mundane opinion can sound like sage wisdom when voiced by a veteran jazz performer of some repute.

Be sure to check out pianist/ academically trained economist and historian/ boxer/ thinker of thoughts Lafayette Gilchrist and his band The New Volcanoes at Joe Squared on March 22.
Read the rest…