Artist: Kali Malone featuring Stephen O’Malley & Lucy Railton
Genre: Electronic
Label: Ideologic Organ
When growing up in Colorado, Kali Malone initially trained as a classical singer, but since moving to Stockholm her startling instrumental pieces have set her apart as one of the most original artists of the 21st century.
Does Spring Hide Its Joy is her fourth full-length outing and third essential record in a row, following The Sacrificial Code (2019) and last year’s album of the year contender, Living Torch.
This sprawling triple album features two other close friends, associates, and avant-garde luminaries, Stephen O’Malley of Sunn O))) on guitar and English cellist Lucy Railton. Meanwhile, Malone plays sine wave oscillators, while deftly incorporating drone, ambient and electroacoustic elements on one of the most audacious albums you’ll hear this or any other year.
Admittedly, there is quite a lot to take in, as the project manifested as a four-day-long multichannel sound installation. However, Does Spring Hide Its Joy is far more accessible than it may sound on paper. The haunting organ-based title track of The Sacrificial Code is probably a more palatable place to start, but Malone’s latest long-form sonic excursion will enthral adventurous listeners.
This genre-defying suite of music was performed on a few select stages last year at durations varying between 60 and 90 minutes. Until we get a chance to bask in such a singular live experience from these modern masters of the minimal mediative arts, Does Spring Hide its Joy is an exalting epic to lose yourself in.
If you’ve never heard of “mafia dance” before, the premise is pretty simple. Each member of the group is given headphones, and the song is played for the members to perform. The catch is that one (or more) members will be listening to a totally different song, and the goal is for the group to find out which member is listening to the wrong song. It’s a challenge for the group as well as the mafia—and it’s always entertaining to watch! If you’re in need of a good giggle, these “mafia dance” games will have you entertained for hours.
SEVENTEEN
The members of SEVENTEEN are kings of variety shows, and there’s hardly a single episode that doesn’t end in chaos. The competition is fierce right from the beginning, and it’s nothing but mind games before the music even starts! Set to their song “Left and Right,” the track is appropriate because fingers are pointed left and right before the game is over.
STAYC
If you want a master class in acting, then this is the episode for you! STAYC’s Yoon is so convincing with her arguments that you might even forget that she’s the mafia. Fellow mafia member Sieun, however, is eliminated immediately—she had to dance to her dad’s song, and the distraction was just too much!
NCT DREAM
NCT DREAM is known for their energetic choreography, so as soon as Jeno starts to slip up while performing their song “We Go Up,” he’s totally busted! The members are hilariously competitive when it comes to the discussion section, and the punishment for the losing team is every bit as funny as the game itself.
NCT 127
Having NCT 127 play the “mafia dance” games means that the youngest members Mark and Haechan are back for a second round—and they proved that they’re pros! Haechan is perfect as the mafia, and Mark guessed all three mafia members correctly on the first try. He gets eliminated before he can do anything about it though, meaning it’s all chaos from there!
Dreamcatcher
Dreamcatcher’s choreography is pretty detailed, meaning that it should be difficult for the mafia—however, the members are so suspicious of each other that even those who are listening to the right song get the beats wrong because they’re too busy looking around! Watching the mafia dance to the tune of a ringtone is hilarious, and the members are giggling the whole way through.
THE BOYZ
Main dancer Q, actor Hyunjae, and comedy king Sunwoo were chosen as the mafia for THE BOYZ’s round of “mafia dance,” so there’s no way it could be anything but hilarious! There are false accusations, drama, and tons of laughs, all thanks to the fact that THE BOYZ members take their mafia games really seriously. The results are unprecedented!
Rain and TWICE
This version of “mafia dance” is a little different from the rest, but it’s still every bit as fun! The players are each given a set of earphones, only one of which plays no music. Everyone dances to the same song, and the mafia has to try to match them. The game even gets the producers laughing, and it’s down to the wire before the mafia is finally discovered!
What are your favorite episodes of “mafia dance”? Tell us in the comments!
Singer, hip-hop artist and songwriter Johnathan Machen, aka Profit, is living and breathing proof that regardless of how many battle scars your trauma brandishes you with, success will always be in the sightline if you look for it.
Following his viral debut single, Daydreaming, which has amassed over 1 million streams on Spotify alone since it dropped in 2021, his sophomore single, Refuge, is a consoling reminder that everyone deserves sanctuary regardless of the hostility the world has shown you before.
The country hip-hop-meets-pop instrumentals against his compassion-soaked vocals that run through the lyrics and affirm everyone deserves another soul to fall into hits all the right evocative notes while unravelling as a hook-rife melodic earworm.
Johnathan Machen’s distinctive approach to music starts to contextualise around the understanding that his life experiences shaped his creativity more than any artist came before him. After suffering from extensive burns that covered 90% of his body, his self-confidence ebbing away at an early age through bullying and becoming a single father of three while dealing with the grief of losing his mother and everything he owned, music has always been his peace and motivation. Now at 35 years old, in a happy marriage, he is here to confirm that injustice never has to last forever.
Refuge was released on January 6th; check it out on Spotify.
GRAND RAPIDS — Moonshine and canned cocktail marketer Sip Shine LLC plans to bring a new nightlife experience to Grand Rapids’ west side this spring at the former Harmony Hall building.
The Grand Rapids Planning Commission today approved a request from the Jenison-based company to operate a bar and restaurant with daily live music and rooftop seating. Sip Shine is in a purchase agreement with Harmony Brewing Co. LLC for the building at 401 Stocking Ave. NW, and plans to take ownership of the building in the first quarter of 2023. Harmony Brewing announced in September 2022 that it was closing the satellite location and moving its brewhouse to a separate production-only facility.
Sip Shine’s plan calls for a first-floor private dining room and a tasting room where people can sample the brand’s line of flavored moonshines. A retail space where people can purchase Sip Shine pre-packaged spirits to-go would also be included on the first floor. The second floor would feature a bar with a small stage featuring free, daily live performances of mainly country music. A rooftop deck would feature ambient music, seating and a bar.
“The rooftop deck is to get a view of the city,” Sip Shine owner Kyle Search said during today’s planning commission meeting. “There will be no entertainment out there. We are planning acoustic music that will be performed every day that is something to give patrons something nice to listen to, and offer a different environment than we’re used to here at bars and restaurants.”
Plans also call for expanding the elevator up to the rooftop bar and installing a ramp for easier access. The total occupancy of the building would be 408 people, an increase from Harmony Hall’s 260-person occupancy.
“Our goal is to be a business that is welcoming to all, especially those in the community, by providing foods not currently offered and providing an opportunity for some local musicians to perform ‘country’ music on a small stage,” reads part of Sip Shine’s site plan narrative.
Orion Construction is the general contractor for the build-out and WLP & Associates Ltd. serves as the project’s architect.
The West Grand Neighborhood Association, Bridge Street Market, and Kusterer Brauhaus submitted written support for Sip Shine’s redevelopment plan.
“Outdoor rooftop seating would provide an opportunity to serve the community during the summer months and allow for continued observance of COVID-19 protocols while increasing their capacity,” Annette Vandenberg, executive director of the West Grand Neighborhood Association, wrote in a letter to the planning commission. “Feedback from neighbors has been positive and many similar venues in the area have expressed support for this project.”
Sip Shine was founded in 2019 and was inspired by the Gatlinburg, Tenn. moonshine scene. The beverage company was producing its spirits in Des Moines, Iowa, but is moving its production operation to Wise Men Distillery LLC in Kentwood. Wise Men’s line of spirits also will be available at Sip Shine’s tasting room and restaurant.
Sip Shine beverages can be found at many retailers throughout West Michigan and across the country. The beverage company also offers alcoholic slushie machines at venues around the country, including locally at Van Andel Arena and the LMCU Ballpark.
One of the musical acts i’m always hoping might get back together at some point is Ektoise, an Australian group who from 2010 to 2013 put out a series of albums and EPs that forged an experimental synthesis of rock, ambient, doomjazz and shoegaze without once missing a step. While that hope – being almost a decade since their last album – grows increasingly vain, i want to revisit and celebrate their EP Down River, released in 2012. The four tracks are effectively remixes and reimaginings of ‘Down River’, a 16-minute piece included on their 2011 album Kiyomizu (which was one of my Best Albums of that year). However, that piece was structured in three very different sections – a hugely intense 5-minute introduction followed by a lengthy, drifting, ethereal middle sequence, ending with a crunchy coda festooned with a mess of beats and tangled melodies – and it’s essentially just the introduction that’s explored here.
To make that point, the first track, simply called ‘Down River’, consists of that 5-minute intro, though a quick comparison indicates that it’s been mastered differently from the original (the notes confirm that group member Greg Reason mastered the album, while the EP was mastered by Mark Godwin). In some respects i prefer the EP version more, as certain details are teased out more strongly, though there’s really not a lot in it. It says a lot for this music that its short duration supports over 40 minutes’ worth of further exploration on the rest of the EP, and to a large extent this rests on its sheer overwhelming intensity. It has the acute solemnity of a black passacaglia, processing onward according to the sluggish momentum of its abyssal bassline, while clunking sounds (possibly field recordings of boats and river passage) collide against each other and a nasal lament emerges from the dry friction of a kamancheh.
Its apocalyptic tone is shared by each of the three remixes that follow, two of which are significantly longer. The 17-minute ‘Down River From the Golden Bough is a Perilous Place’, created by the duo zK, ups the ante somewhat. Its opening five minutes correspond to a reworked take on the original, initially putting more emphasis on the field recordings, more heavily evoking the real world. Yet as soon as some of the track’s slow-moving material starts to fade in, the field recordings immediately recede, making the transition from reality to heightened hyperreality feel all the more acute. The duo make the brave decision to introduce beats to this leaden soundworld, setting up a combination of light percussion acting as a foil to the heavyweight elements they skitter across. It’s a combination that works, and which in turn reinforces further the weight a few minutes before the end, leaving us drowning in deep bass-laden fuzz as the kamancheh sings to the end.
Most extreme of all is the 21½-minute remix by Noah Landis. It’s a highly adventurous remix, reimagining ‘Down River’ within an environment filled with undulating bands of wind-like noise. When Landis introduces the original’s bassline, it’s so deep that it almost loses its pitch focus, creating a nicely polarised unpitched marriage of bass and noise. Landis adorns the processional tone with brighter synth elements, some vibrating across the space, others burning through the texture, while the field recordings are multiplied to create a dense percussive field. Seemingly impossibly, the bass gets lost in this, though Landis makes up for that by ramping up the force of the synth elements such that they end up grinding and buzzing in our faces. In its latter half things are pulled back a bit, and there’s the brief appearance of something akin to processed vocals, sounding like a strange combination of crying, singing and chanting. It continues as a constant tension tilting between bass, melody and noise, passing through some light quasi-tribal beats before reaching a wonderful climax, caked in abrasive overload. As it began, so it ends: polarised, the bass buzzing in the depths, while something unfathomable squalls above.
The final track, ‘Mangroves’, is a 4-minute epilogue that returns more closely to the original, adding some rogue guitar notes but otherwise allowing the elements to jostle and swirl around each other as if stuck in the viscous water of a sonic swamp.
Self-released by Ektoise in July 2012, Down River is available free from the group’s Bandcamp site.
Rock the Ocean’s Tortuga Music Festival is back again this year in Fort Lauderdale.
Held on Fort Lauderdale Beach Park, the event is a three day, multi-stage music festival “featuring some of the biggest names in country, rock and roots music,” the festival’s website said.
Tortuga Music Festival will kick off on April 14 and conclude on April 16.
Accompanying fans will be a star-studded line up of performers in country music like Eric Church, Shania Twain, Kenny Chesney, Brett Young, Lauren Alaina, Carly Pearce and more. You can see a full line-up here.
Fans can shop for tickets now on third-party ticket vendors like VividSeats, StubHub and SeatGeek.
*New customers who purchase tickets through VividSeats can get $20 off a $200+ ticket order by using the promo code MassLive20 at checkout.*
Below is a look at ticket prices as of Wednesday, Jan. 11.
3 day general admission pass (April 14-16) start at $316 on Vividseats
3 day VIP general admission pass (April 14-16) start at $1,838 on Vividseats
3 day super VIP general admission pass (April 14-16) start at $2,999 on Vividseats
3 day general admission pass (April 14-16) start at $382 on StubHub
3 day VIP general admission pass (April 14-16) start at $2,159 on StubHub
3 day super VIP general admission pass (April 14-16) start at $3,510 on StubHub
3 day general admission pass (April 14-16) start at $332 on SeatGeek
3 day VIP general admission pass (April 14-16) start at $2,157 on SeatGeek
3 day super VIP general admission pass (April 14-16) start at $3,213 on SeatGeek
Creator of music ‘full of imagination and colour’, Doming Lam studied composition in Canada and film music in California before forging his career in Hong Kong
A composer, broadcaster and educator, he helped found the ensembles that became the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Macau Orchestra
Prolific composer Doming Lam Ngok-pui, known as “the father of Hong Kong modern music”, has died at the age of 96.
Lam’s family said the death occurred early on the morning of January 11.
On Thursday friends and long-term collaborators paid tribute to Lam, praising his contribution to the Hong Kong music scene as well as his creative talent.
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Yan Huichang, artistic director and principal conductor of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, recalled Lam’s support for the ensemble as well as his compositions, and expressed deep condolences on its behalf.
From 1977 to 1993, Lam was an honorary consultant to, and guest conductor of, the orchestra.
Grace Lang, programme director at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, told the Post: “Doming was a master of contemporary music. His music is full of imagination and colour, [with melodies that are] clear, precise and easily accessible for players and audiences.”
Lang is in the process of obtaining for future festival performances the score for Lam’s 1979 work The Insect World, which the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra notably performed at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria, in 2002.
Throughout his career, Lam was celebrated for his contribution to Hong Kong’s performance culture and his commitment to modernising Chinese music by fusing influences from East and West.
Adopting the creed “search for roots in tradition, find ways in the avant-garde”, he was a musical maverick, and one of few among his generation of Chinese musicians to earn an entry in the authoritative Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Born in Macau in 1926, Lam moved to Hong Kong in 1947 and helped found the Sino-British Orchestra, for which he played the violin. It was later renamed the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
In his thirties, he moved abroad to further his knowledge, earning a diploma in composition in Canada in 1958 and studying film music under the three-time Academy Award winner Miklos Rozsa at the University of Southern California from 1960 to 1964. He interned in Hollywood alongside his studies.
After his North American stint, Lam returned to Hong Kong, where he worked as a producer of cultural and entertainment programmes for Rediffusion, which operated a radio station and launched the first television station in Hong Kong.
In the 1980s, he produced a series of programmes about classical music for public broadcaster RTHK, a period during which he was also instrumental in the founding of various music groups and communities in Hong Kong. In 1981, he organised a conference to bring together composers from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Lam taught music at the University of Hong Kong and was its composer in residence from 1989 to 1994. He also served as music director of the Macau Chamber Orchestra (which later became the Macau Orchestra) and the Hong Kong Children’s Choir.
In 2020, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts awarded Lam an honorary doctorate.
In his final years, Lam enjoyed a tranquil yet productive life, spending time with his grandchildren while devoting himself to writing music.
One of his last compositions, titled Calm, was a chamber work for a Chinese ensemble, with clean musical lines that conveyed a sense of peace and being at ease.
It seemed to sum up Lam’s ethos, which he once explained by saying: “Nothing should bother one’s mind. One is not affected by gain or loss. When faced with the external world, one always stays rational, grounded, and merciful. This is the natural state of mind.”
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Joni Mitchell will receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced Thursday that Mitchell will be honored with an all-star tribute concert on March 1 in Washington, D.C. “Joni Mitchell: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song” will premiere on PBS nationwide on March 31.
“Joni Mitchell’s music and artistry have left a distinct impression on American culture and internationally, crossing from folk music with a distinctive voice whose songs will stay with us for the ages,” Hayden said in a statement. “Joni Mitchell’s music has so many artists and music lovers all singing her tunes. We are honored to present the Gershwin Prize to this musical genius.”
Mitchell, 70, is the third woman to earn the prize following Carole King and Gloria Estefan, who won the honor alongside husband Emilio.
The Canadian icon has received nine Grammys Awards and the Polar Music Prize; she was celebrated at the Kennedy Center Honors; she was named MusiCares Person of the Year; and she’s been inducted into both the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
“This is a very prestigious award,” Mitchell said. “Thank you for honoring me.”
The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song was created to honor the legendary songwriting team of George and Ira Gershwin. Last year’s recipient was Lionel Richie, and others who have earned the prize include Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
“Joni Mitchell: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song” is a co-production of WETA Washington, D.C., Ken Ehrlich Productions, Inc. and the Library of Congress.
More Black Thought for the 99 and the 2023? Yes, please!
After connecting with producer Danger Mouse for their incredible Cheat Codes project in 2022, the legendary rapper connects with the New York-based cinematic soul group the El Michels Affair for the collaborative project Glorious Game. A friendship and healthy admiration between Thought and EMA founder Leon Michels spanning twenty years, Glorious Game began to take shape during the height of the pandemic and will now be released on April 14.
To set things off, the pairing have released the project’s first focus track “Grateful.”
Black Thought & El Michels Affair Announce Collaborative Album, Drop “Grateful” Single was last modified: January 11th, 2023 by Meka
The organization’s first showcase of the new year features ambient trio G. Dix and multimedia artist eryn tempeste Sunday afternoon at at Co*Lab
eryn tempeste is a multimedia performance artist from Edmonton and their latest project, Blushing Phantom, is being exhibited Jan. 15 as part of New Music Edmonton’s first event of the new year. Supplied
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New Music Edmonton has been presenting and promoting some of Edmonton’s most unique music and sound art for nearly four decades. First founded in 1985 as a concert series, NMW has endured and evolved through the years and is kicking off 2023 with two groups that align beautifully with its purpose, “to advocate and support the always-intriguing and ever-evolving categories of sound-inclusive art production.”
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Queer, non-binary multimedia artist, dancer and performer eryn tempeste explores intangible elements such as movement, imagination and emotion, interpreting the meaning and translating it using texture, tone and technology. Their latest project, Blushing Phantom, is partly inspired by their parents who also appreciate unusual objects and materials.
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Also on the bill is the band G. Dix. The local trio — Jared Epp, Alena Manera, and Jacqueline Ohm — morphs musings on the sometimes dull, quirky and industrial life in Edmonton into ambient, experimental sounds. The band will play a half-hour set mixing rehearsed and spontaneous material, synchronized with a video projecting some of Edmonton’s most iconic sites and cultural moments.
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The New Music Edmonton showcase happens Sunday afternoon at Co*Lab (9641 102A Ave.) and is also being live-streamed. It’s an early show with a 2 p.m. start at general tickets are $15 while a live-stream ticket is $10, available at newmusicedmonton.ca.
ART
Thru 1/14: Give Me Tomorrow (Mitchell Art Gallery)
Thru 1/14: Heather Shillinglaw: miyotamon nananis (Strathcona County Hall)
1/17-2/10: Jill Miller; Alcuin Society Awards (FAB)
![NCT DREAM - We Go Up [MAFIA DANCE] [마피아 댄스] 엔시티 드림](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/P277tMfyTCA/hqdefault.jpg)
