News & Updates — psych

This entry into the series may well stand as one of the controversial ones, given not only some of the cheese that Les Baxter was involved with, but also for his role in the 1950's phenomenon of the white man's interpretation of "Jungle Drums", etc...as well as (unsubstantiated, and seemingly likely untrue when looking at it deeply) claims of compositional theft made by his understudies. But since it is my piece to write here, I am not going to flinch on calling myself a fan of Baxter's wacky arrangements, particularly in the field of "exotica" and exploito-film scores. Regardless of...

Unless you are a Brasileiro or follow modern Brazilian music you probably don't know who Chico Science was but he was a favorite of mine. In fact his band, Nação Zumbi, have continued to tour the world and make fresh albums mixing samba, psychedelia, funk and hard rock, along with regional folk styles of Northeast Brazil. Francisco de Assis França was born in the Northeastern state of Pernambuco, literally coming out of the swamps ("mangue"), and he helped found the manguebeat movement in Recife, a collective identity that nurtured the highly original arts and music scene that was on the...

Here's a brand new mixtape put together by DJ Studebaker Hawk of tunes found on Peace & Rhythm releases to date, from the very first 7" to the freshest! Give it a listen, check out the links, buy some records, support independent music!! A huge thank you to all the artists we've had the pleasure of working with, Studebaker Hawk for the mix, Margot Glass for the art, and YOU for listening!! Track list: 0:00 Peliroja - Situaciones (comp: J. Batista, M. Eckroth, J. Plasse) - from Situaciones / Ciudad de Nadie 7" P&R-45-002  (OUT OF PRINT) band website, official...

Here's a birthday shout-out to the groovy guitarist Gábor Szabó, who infused jazz with the folk music of his native Hungary, Indian & Middle Eastern musics, gypsy styles and pop. He used feedback as part of his music, and he worked well with vocalists. He cut a bunch of excellent '60s albums on Impulse!, as well as the Skye label (which he ran with Cal Tjader and Gary McFarland). He worked with Chico Hamilton, Charles Lloyd, Lena Horne, Bobby Womack, Coke Escovedo, Paul Desmond, Gary McFarland, Chick Corea and others. Santana recorded his "Gypsy Queen" (the instrumental part of "Black...

For the third time in six months, the NY funk behemoth Big Mean Sound Machine and the Peace & Rhythm DJs will team up for a night at The Root Cellar, P&R's home base in Greenfield, Massachusetts. But this time the party will celebrate the arrival of the brand new album by Big Mean, Runnin' For The Ghost, due out April 7 on Peace & Rhythm and Blank Slate. The Root Cellar will be jumping yet again as we sweat to the extended psych-funk explorations of B.M.S.M. with a full dancefloor entranced in the deep grooves. P&R DJs Andujar and...