Buffalo

On his second album, The Fatalist, Carl “Buffalo” Nichols does things with the blues that might catch you off guard. There’s 808 programming, chopped up Charley Patton samples, washes of synth. There’s a consideration of the fullness of the sonic stage and the atmospherics of the music that can only come with a long engagement with electronic music. But this is no gimmicky hybrid or attempt to turn the blues into 21st century music by simply dressing it with skittering hi-hats. Nichols’ vision for the blues is of a form of music that’s intimately tied to everyday life in 2023, something that’s reflected not only in the choice of instrumentation, but in the complexities of the songwriting and the gray areas his lyrics explore. This is music that comes straight from the present, and as such, it’s a reminder that the same shit that drove the first blues singers to pick up a guitar is still present behind the throbs of deep bass hits today. The Fatalist sounds unlike any blues record you’re likely to hear in 2023.

The Burden of Restlessness will be the first of 3 albums to be released in 2021. We are seeing a progression into progressive metal territories and it feels so natural. King Buffalo are the masters of the slow heavy build up. The way they begin each song on a soft note and gradually bring in the heaviness is brilliant. The craftsmanship of the music and songwriting at hand gives this album an apocalyptic feel. The lyrics and music have this lonesome dystopian theme.

Richard Strauss’ Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme suite was one of his own favourite scores, an absolute jewel of incidental music that combines the composer’s romanticism with his love of the Baroque music of Jean-Baptiste Lully. D. Wilson Ochoa has created a new symphonic orchestral suite from Strauss’ opulent Ariadne auf Naxos, enabling the orchestra to revel in music of extreme beauty and sensuous luxury, studded with gorgeous instrumental solos and the composer’s incomparable blend of poignancy, humour and melodic richness.

King of the Highway is the first solo release from blues harp wailer Norton Buffalo and his band, the Knockouts, since the release of 1978's Desert Horizon. Norton Buffalo is an in-demand studio musician who has played on numerous sessions in all genres of music, highlighted by his involvement with blues slide guitarist Roy Rogers. The majority of King of the Highway is enjoyable (while occasionally predictable) straight-ahead modern blues mixed at times with an occasional hint of New Orleans zydeco rhythm courtesy of Buffalo's unamplificated harmonica. One of the main strengths of this 13 track Blind Pig date is the loose feeling brought by friends including Elvin Bishop, Steve Miller (Buffalo has been a member of his band for 25 years), and Merl Saunders, gathering together simply to jam.

Scriabin composed most of his single-movement fourth symphony The Poem of Ecstasy between 1905 and 1908 in Italy and France. He originally intended it to be called Poème orgiaque (‘Orgiastic Poem’) with its unprecedented raw sensuality and overpowering aesthetic, taking chromaticism beyond even Wagnerian voluptuousness. His earlier Symphony No. 2 in C minor adopts César Franck’s cyclical ideas to which Scriabin layered sweeping climaxes, majestic intensity and rich orchestral colour that enliven its five movements with ceaseless invention.