“My level of I-don’t-give-a-fuckery is so high right now,” Mustafa Stefan Dill, oudist, guitarist, composer, told me on the phone. He meant that in a positive way. Explode Yourself, the new release from Love Unfold the Sun, is a liberated celebration of life, unconcerned with fitting itself into any box‚ blowing the box wide open, in fact. This Friday, the band celebrates the album’s release at Paradiso in Santa Fe.
The Santa Fe/Albuquerque-based quartet Love Unfold the Sun and the Boston-based band Club d’Elf share a number of characteristics. They both blend Middle Eastern/African and Western elements, and incorporate an exotic instrument. Texture plays an important role in the musical development of their material. Flow is prized over destination. Yet, even with these similarities, the two groups make music that is quite different.
Continue readingPray for Brain, None of the Above (indie)
A Review
Album cover, with artwork by bassist Christine Nelson.
Fair warning number one: the music on the premiere release from Pray for Brain, featuring Mustafa Stefan Dill (guitars, oud), Christine Nelson (bass), and Jefferson Voorhees (drums, percussion), may induce you to dance naked in the backyard and howl at the moon.
That may also be a good way to describe the genre of music the trio writes and plays.
Arabilly, indofunk, sufisurf, and countryeastern—terms the group has coined in an attempt to convey what they do—don’t quite cover it.
It’s easier to say what it isn’t. It’s not power-trio rock, surf music, or funk. It’s not Sufi devotional music, bhangra, or jazz. It’s not bluegrass, jam band, or flamenco. In fact, as the title says, it’s None of the Above, but it does incorporate
elements from all of the above, sometimes within the same song. It’s an ecstatic dance party perfumed with coriander. Continue reading
