Menahan Street Band’s first album in nine years, The Exciting Sounds of Menahan Street Band, arrived last week via Daptone Records. The powerful, downtempo “Devil’s Respite” contrasts other upbeat tracks on the album. A mix of slow-burning city jazz and an expanding drum beat, the track presents several feats of analog instrumentation, including a memorable, horn-led chorus and a meditative outro with tinkling keys that …
Steady Sun: Truth is a Needle New York-based band Steady Sun’s sonically rich, retro-tinged single, “Truth is a Needle,” provides plenty of psychedelic elements and the Slack Barrett-directed video was designed to match. Floating from your sound system “like lysergic vapor” (record label Daptone Records writes), the song enthralls listeners with its many layers. Simultaneously something to delve into or zone out to, “Truth is …
Commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, Nico Muhly’s 19-minute “Throughline” dazzles throughout its 13 movements. Muhly composed the masterful work to comply with COVID-19 health restrictions—meaning that no more than six orchestral players could be on stage at once during recording, and breath-based instrument were recorded separately. The San Francisco Symphony, Esa-Pekka Salonen and eight collaborative partners—including Bryce Dessner on electric guitar and Esperanza Spalding …
