Most-- if not all!-- of the new music I discover these days is what gets played on the Listening Club, so
it felt a bit redundant to pick a couple of tracks from any of the ear-opening selections that club members have regaled our assembled multitude with in the last year-- dare I say, especially these last few months? So I thought I'd share a couple recent surprising tracks by two very different, dear musical friends--
Jon Royce (Around That Time of Night) is a graphic artist, animator & multi instrumentalist based in Hamilton, Ontario. He grew up in Puerto Rico and he and Léné Lovich are the only two people that flattered me by asking for flute lessons- talk about the pupils outpacing the teacher! This selection, as far as I know, is his first published & shared song form, although I believe he has earlier composed &/or arranged instrumental pieces. Hmm-- there's two versions of it now on his https://soundcloud.com/jonathan-royce-1 page...
José 'Popu' Román, (Snowstorm, as O.P.A.L.) on the other hand, is a prolific programmer-composer of electronica and other musics across a wide spectrum of genres-- from the industrial trash punk of D35C0JóN UR84N0 to the tropical(?) shoegaze of his O.P.A.L. project. It's all published through his online label, 'Rojo y Negro records', and posted on the label's Bandcamp page: https://descojonurbano.bandcamp.com/music
All the best to said assembled multitude in this anxiously developing 2023! Let's see if I can focus & find the threads to finally spool out those story fragments from my musical youth. BTW...I'd love to find a soprano sax-- ideally for less than a grand-- as I am increasingly in need of some musical self-care & therapy...putting this out there, working on my positive intention-ality towards the universe...
