Nickie’s NIches #22: October 2023

Start Artist Song Time Album Year 0:02:19 Materialeyes Longship 5:25 Inside Out 2023 0:08:20 Ivan The Tolerable String To Ball 4:26 Ritual In Transfigured Time 2023 0:13:10 Steve Broomhead Sun – Moon 4:25 The Night the Stars Fell from the Sky 2023 0:18:01 Flaer Follow 3:49 Preludes 2023 0:22:17 Dengue Fever Wake Me Up Slowly 3:21 Ting Mong 2023 0:25:58 Fearful Symmetry Shifting Sands Extended Play 14:56 The Difficult Second 2023 0:41:26 Hanford Flyover Shallow Waters 6:07 Source 2023 0:47:56 In The Labyrinth Sanctus 3:18 To our rescue 2023 0:51:42 Olivia Cheney Montagne que tu es haute 2:43 Six French Songs 2023 0:54:59 Rafe Pearlman Awen 4:06 Kanu 2023 0:59:41 Quicksilver Night Ft. Dikajee For You 6:44 P’tichka 2023 Inside Out by Materialeyes favorite track Longship Manchester trio Materialeyes return with another fine offering of progressive music, played as it should be. The pieces are mostly epic in length, complex, and each one tells a story. True to the story-teller’s pantheon, you’ll hear tales of caution, haunting history, and even a recitation of a nightmare apparently caused by a Wensleydale cheese. Ritual In Transfigured Time (LP/DL, Echodelick/Worst Bassist/We Here & Now, 2023) by Ivan The Tolerable favorite track String To Ball Ambient psychedelic with severe lashings of jazz from the UK. This is the brainchild of Oli Heffernan on bass, guitar, drum machines, synths, with additional players providing drums, vibraphone, sax, flute, trumpet, and French horn. Perfectly hypnotic and addictive The Night the Stars Fell from the Sky by Steve Broomhead favorite track Sun / Moon These pieces are all rather dark and moody, precisely what I enjoy. You get a sense of eavesdropping into the sessions within this multi-instrumentalist’s studio, perhaps as the music drifts from an open window long after midnight. Synths, impassioned guitars and hushed vocals add to the feeling of intimacy and desolation Preludes by Flaer favorite track Follow