Dear readers, I’m writing to you with a gnarly head cold. It’s taken everything I have to squeak this issue out while it’s still Pisces season. And here’s a little admin reveal: I, myself, am a pisces. Proud of it. Deeply a fish. In love with the water. All the feels. But also! moon and rising signs both Virgo… go figure. In honor of my birthday season, I’ve decided to start a donations page: Buy Me A Tape.
I’ve always wanted for Music Regular to be free and I don’t imagine that changing. But after one kind soul voluntarily pledged money towards this project recently, I revisited the idea of earning some kind of income from the newsletter. Here’s what I settled on:
All the money I receive will go back towards music (eg. purchasing physical/digital music, merch, concert tickets, supporting other music outlets, etc.). I want all the money earned from the newsletter to go back to great artists and those who work to support them. I'm wary of turning this into a serious source of income and more interested in having my obsession with music supported every now and then with a lil' treat.
Please only consider donating if you feel financially able and so inclined.
Other great ways you can support Music Regular include forwarding it on to someone, or liking / sharing / following on Instagram. I’ve quietly started doing extra little features there, so if you’re not following - check ça!
As ever, thanks for listening and reading along.
click the covers to listen or go your own way ~~
Mind Maintenance - Mind Maintenance (2021)
Both literally and figuratively, it can feel like there’s no end to the music of Joshua Abrams. The Philly bassist / composer / improviser has countless projects and collaborations, and his is a sound that persists without edges; warm, rooted and recurrent, his rich percussive melodies often seem as though they might go on forever (in the most welcomed way). Here, he’s in a guimbri / mbira duo with percussionist Chad Taylor, an artist equally dialed into infinity. Mind Maintenance is music for thinking, wondering, tinkering, and basking in the fact that everything goes in forever, and everything goes out forever. And on and on and everything.
Antonio Adolfo - Antonio Adolfo (1972)
This is beach music, but it’s not exactly ‘music for the beach’. It’s more like music of the beach. But also not field recordings, or new age music… let me explain: This debut album is the sound of a gentle existential yearning, the kind we might find ourselves personifying at the water’s edge, strolling ‘neath the pier, eyes cast downwards, shirtless, donning pristine white, high-waisted slacks. This particular version of música popular brasileira sounds real soft and sweetly burning. If you like that Sessa record I wrote about at year’s end, this LP came from his Record Rundown for Wax Poetics.
** I do not speak Portuguese so may be entirely misrepresenting the emotional-intellectual content of this album 😬
Various - A Living Tradition: Selections From Folk-Legacy Records (2019)
I don’t go in for much ‘trad music’ but this really landed like a balm. I also don’t usually include music here that I haven’t spent a significant amount of time with. I just heard this for the first time last week and felt immediately compelled to ‘make it Regular’ after the first few notes. It’s a comp intended to act as an introduction to Folk-Legacy Records (b.1961), a catalog that Folkways acquired the year this was released. It runs loosely along folk, bluegrass and gospel lines, highlighting many modes of ‘singing together’. If you dig and wanna dig deeper, click here for a lil’ context as well as some further listenings.
Sakar Khan & Lakha Kahn - Tunes Of The Dunes Vol. 1 (1999)
Drawing up a list of favorite instruments would have to start with the kora, but somewhere not far behind would be the sarangi, one of the two South Asian folk instruments on display here. And this collection (compilation? honestly not sure…) has been a heavy favorite in that regard for a good while. It’s the kind of music I’d recommend to almost anyone looking for something new, regardless of listening habits. It’s such clear and glorious music. I had a hot minute with my partner’s Spotify account recently and discovered, to my great joy, that Volume 2 (heretofore eluding me) actually exists! But only on Spotify? C’mannnnn internet… Quick info on either volume is decidedly sparse. Reading on Sakar Khan and Lakha Kahn themselves is a little more available.
Theo Parrish - Parallel Dimensions (2000)
Everything, EVERYTHING about this music is absolutely stunning: textures, tones, movement, arc, execution. Listening back while trying to think of something clever to say and I’m just in total awe. HIGH 👏 TECH 👏 JAZZ 👏
I’m super interested in feedback / dialogue / suggestions. If you have ideas about the newsletter, want to share music with me, have specific questions / requests, don’t hesitate to get in touch. And please: share this newsletter with a pal if you feel so inspired!
Yrs.,
Andrew P.
andrewdanielpatterson [at] gmail [dot] com