Do I really need Paul McCartney singing the music from the Ratpack generation? Sometimes I think it’s a sign of my growing lack of maturity that I can still never completely relate to the music my parents listened too. Intellectually I can dig Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme, and I actually like Tony…
Reviews & Commentary
Orbital Never Say Never
After supposedly calling it quits back in 2004 with the release of Blue Album, the U.K. electronica duo, Orbital are on the verge of completing the inevitable comeback they began back in 2008. A new album, Wonky, is set for April and they’ve already released a teaser single, a light, effervescent bit of alka-synth-pop called,…
Reviews & Commentary
Lola Dutronic Does Suicide (the band, not the act)
I came across this charming video of Lola Dutronic singing Suicide‘s “Keep Your Dreams.” It’s a long way from “Ghostrider” and “Frankie Teardrop.” John Diliberto ((( echoes )) .
Program Highlights
Darshan Ambient’s Other Life.
Most of the musicians you hear on Echoes lead double lives. Many have straight jobs. Others work in different capacities in the music industry as engineers, studio wonks or in working bands. Michael Allison records as Darshan Ambient and since the mid-1990s he’s been releasing atmsopheric albums of electronic music. His latest, Dream in Blue,…
Reviews & Commentary
Progressive Rock Returns WXPN 7-Hour Marathon
I’m just hours away from WXPN‘s Progressive Rock Marathon. I’ll be joining Dan Reed, Biff Kennedy and Star’s End pilot Chuck Van Zyl bringing Progressive rock to the airwaves of Philadelphia, Central PA and the world Saturday, January 7 from 10AM-5PM. Since the show is a special segment of XPN’s “Highs in the 70s,” it…
Living Room Concerts
Oster/Manring/Weingarten in Echoes Living Room
They call themselves Blue Eternity now, but we know them as trumpeter Jeff Oster, bassist Michael Manring, and electric slide guitarist Carl Weingarten. They are all familiar to listeners of Echoes. Michael Manring was a founder of the group Montreux, recorded many solo albums and was the house bassist for Windham Hill Records in the…
CD of the Month
On the Road Scapes & Morningscapes from TIno Izzo
Echoes January CD of the Month Tino Izzo’s Morning Scapes Hear an interview with Tino Izzo this weekend 3/24 & 3/25/2012 on Echoes. Tino Izzo is a musician you may not know but you’ve probably heard his work over the last two decades because he’s recorded with popular artists like Celine Dion. But those sounds …
Best Of
Top 25 CDs for December
DARSHAN AMBIENT’S DREAM IN BLUE Leads December Top 25 CDs on Echoes. It was our December CD of the Month so it’s no surprise that Darshan Ambient’s Dream in Blue topped our Echoes Top 25 for the month. You can read a review and hear tracks here. The first four releases on the list all…
Reviews & Commentary
Sam River’s Final Note R.I.P.
Jazz Giant Sam River’s Passes Away. I was so sad to hear of the passing of Sam Rivers at 88 years of age on December 26, 2011. He was an iconoclastic musician who came up in the free jazz days and cut through that scene with music blazing in serrated slices. I got to see…
Best Of
John Diliberto’s Best of Sleepy Hollow 2011.
I’ve made my own Best of List, an Echoes Best of List, the Echoes Listener Poll and now, here’s the Best of Sleepy Hollow 2011. For those of you who don’t know, Sleepy Hollow is the long-lived weekend morning music show on WXPN in Philadelphia. (It says 30 years on the website but it’s closer…