John Carpenter and his crew are about the freshest thing to come into Los Angeles in quite some time. The scene is simply better for them being here. They tore up The Echo on Valentine’s Day, and Joe Albanese, erstwhile drummer of Carpenter’s band, sent over this clip: Cross-posted at A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music.

We covered a Renaissance composer with the same name in the previous post. This one was a 20th Century avant-garde composer who died at the age of 47 in 1997, which was a pity, as he was beginning to look like one of the leading lights in contemporary classical music. Here is a sample of his work: Cross-posted at A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music.

Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, was a giant among those who enjoyed folk music, early blues and work songs.  To this day, his body of work still influences musicians in the field of rock music, folk, blues, country and a host of other genres (even grunge, thanks to Nirvana covering ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’).  This particular piece is one that would have sounded familiar to anyone who had ever worked on a chain gang:

Cross-posted at A Miscellany of Tasteful Music.

It’s been some time since someone posted any music here, so I thought I’d post a couple of tracks. This first one comes from a rather nice Balkan pairing: George Dalaras is something like the Bruce Springsteen (gone dark) of Greece, and he is paired with a legendary rocker from the former Yugoslavia, and now both an incredible performer on his own and soundtrack composer, Goran Bregović. This piece, Nychta, mixes elements of Serbian, Greek and Gypsy music, with some nice shifts in time signature, that could almost pass for a Balkan rhumba. Enjoy!

As a teenager, I have to admit that, though I was not at all a metal-head (my thing was more punk and “Industrial” music of the mid-80s), I did have a soft spot for Judas Priest. Thanks to cartoons like “Beavis and Butt-Head, one can still rock out on occasion to “Breaking The Law” from time to time. What caught me by surprise was that Rob Halford, the extremely campy singer of said Priest, is a practicing Christian. An interesting fun-fact.

You may now go back to bickering about politics.

Gier Jenssen has been making chillingly beautiful ‘arctic ambient’ music since 1983, and has released albums which are not only stark in terms of listening, but in packaging as well. Whoever does his graphic design should be commended. He has recorded under the name Biosphere since 1991.

This particular track comes from a compilation called X-Rated – The Electronic files. The music doesn’t have the pornish vibe one would expect from so-called “X-rated” music, though there is a bleak sensuality to the track.

A note of thanks to my friend Qualo Infinity, who posted the track at his Facebook account.

Cross-posted at A Miscellany of Tasteful Music.

Never in the wildest dreams of my youth did I ever thing that bagpipe music would ever have the potential of being sexy. Cristina Pato, once a green-haired mohican, has metamorphosized herself into a Celtic enchantress, playing a bagpipe in a manner that could easily remind one of a saxophone, with just as much emotional depth.

I do not know the names of the tracks she performs here, but I can tell you that she is performing on TVG (Television Galicia) on a program that appears to be dedicated to the late Galician film director Chano Piñeiro.

Cross-posted at A Miscellany of Tasteful Music.

It’s not often that either myself or my readers have a chance to sample a slice of vintage Turkish psychedelic music. Here is a track from Anatolian legend Barış Manço, along with his band.

A hat tip goes out to my dear friend, Yasen Kazandjiev, for posting this video.

Cross-posted at A Miscellany of Tasteful Music.

Breton harpist Alan Stivell has done more than many to spread his and other Celtic cultures. Here is a clip of him performing a Welsh standard. The title, “Land of My Fathers,” is a translation from the Welsh “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” and the Breton “Bro Gozh ma Zadoù.”

Cross-posted at A Miscellany of Tasteful Music.

John Carpenter is originally from New Jersey, but has become a breath of fresh air to the sometimes stagnant Los Angeles indie music scene. He performs frequently, and has been seen at Spaceland and The Las Vegas Shakedown Festival in (where else?) Las Vegas, Nevada. His music is a combination of Scott Walker, The Velvet Underground, hints of The Gun Club and Joy Division, and perhaps a dash of early Roxy Music. The man, and the band, are a record collection compressed into a tight performance troupe.

Cross-posted at A Miscellany of Tasteful Music.

I’ve become a bit of a classical guitar nut recently, thanks to a rather lovely woman inspiring me to delve into the genre a bit deeper these days. Some years ago, I took in on consignment the records of a Los Angeles-based label called MA Recordings. One of the artists I listened to was Serbian-American maestro Dušan Bogdanović. The disc was amazing, but the label’s advertising budget was nil, and we sold few. Still, his name kept popping up when I lived in the Balkans, and I’d talk with people who worked with him off and on.

This piece, Ricercar Kalij, is a favorite of mine, and it is performed by Vera Ogrizović, a splendid guitarist herself.

Cross-posted at A Miscellany of Tasteful Music.