Coyote Oldman returns and Gerry O’Beirne creates a career defining album with new CDS. Coyote Oldman is the Native flute and electronic duo that single-handedly carved out the Native American space music genre in the 1980s and 90s. Michael Graham Allen, a scholar and maker of Native American flutes, plays most of the music on…
Category: Reviews & Commentary
Reviews & Commentary
Echoes on the Road: Tom Rothrock, Jon Hassell, Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin and more
The first live performance by acclaimed producer Tom Rothrock and a transporting set from Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin highlighted a recent excursion to Los Angeles. After Kimberly Haas and I attended the Public Media Conference in Los Angeles, Jeff Towne flew out as we remained to record 7 interviews and performances in 3 days. Among the…
Reviews & Commentary
The Academy Awards Soundtrack Rejects
Another Academy Awards telecast is coming and while I usually find little serious disagreement in the films and actors nominated, the award for Best Soundtrack (officially Achievement in music written for motion pictures -Original score) always seems to elude me. Year after year, the Academy Awards selects bombast, sentimentality and faux classicism over innovation, atmosphere,…
Reviews & Commentary
50th Annual Grammy Awards Post Mortem: What do I know?
Apparently, absolutely nothing. While I didn’t make any predictions for this years Grammy Awards, I did make some personal picks. Evidently, that’s the kiss of death. Paul Winter took the New Age Grammy for his very fine album, Crestone, but I would’ve preferred Eric Tingstad’s Southwest, which was a much more ambitious recording and a…
Reviews & Commentary
A Reimagining of The 50th Annual Grammy Awards:
The 50th Annual Grammy Awards happen this Sunday, February 10. The Grammy’s wouldn’t appear to have much relevancy for Echoes listeners or most people interested in non-commercial or alternative music. And as far as the TV spectacle goes, you’re right. There hasn’t been an interesting non-Rock act on there since forever. The New Age Grammy,…
Reviews & Commentary
Synthesizers vs Acoustic Guitars-A False Paradigm
Is Echoes a haven of acoustic guitar or an outpost of electronic music? I ask that question because at a Loreena McKennitt show in Harrisburg, PA that Echoes hosted with WITF, a listener walked up to our table and stated simply, “Less electronic music. More acoustic guitars.” I glibly responded, “I hear you, but that’s…
Reviews & Commentary
A couple we may have missed: Mystical Sun, Japancakes and Patrick O’Hearn
Albums by Mystical Sun, Patrick O’Hearn, and Japancakes may have gotten lost in the shuffle of our year end best of lists. Mystical Sun’s Deeperworlds was a disc I’d been waiting for since we interviewed him in 2004. We played this CD a lot, but I think since we had been so familiar with…
Reviews & Commentary
Five Rules for Christmas CDs
I hope many of you enjoyed our seasonal programming this year with Sonic Seasonings, An Echoes Christmas and An Echoes Winter Solstice. WEXT in Schenectady ran 30 straight hours of Echoes Christmas programming. WXPN in Philadelphia scattered at least 8 hours of programming throughout Christmas day. These programs tap into a more contemplative and often…
Reviews & Commentary
The Perfect Echoes Gift-The Brian Eno iPod
iPods have revolutionized music listening. Music fans can travel around with 160 gigabytes of storage. That’s 40,000 songs and more than 4000 CDs worth of music. For ambient musicians like Steve Roach and Robert Rich, whose compositions last the full 72 plus minutes of a CD or the 7 hours of a DVD, the iPod…
Reviews & Commentary
Leave Your Laptops Home: Radio Massacre International and Trevor Dunn
I’ve attended a few concerts recently that pushed me further into the No-Laptop Zone and they couldn’t have been more different in their sound, influences, and effect. The best of them, Radio Massacre International and the Trevor Dunn’s Schemes of Omission employed no laptops, prefab drum loops, sequencer patterns or CD replicated soundscapes. Trevor Dunn…