Gosta Berlings Saga – “Glue Works”
Afuche – “Highly Publicized Digital Boxing Match”
Based in Brooklyn, New York, Afuche is a young band whose high-octane, cross-continent, post-rock/avant-progressive/math-rock music defies easy description and generates immediate appeal. Afuche’s music is aligned with a new wave of 21st Century rock music that draws influences from world music (African, Middle Eastern, Latin) and from progressive rock, which it melds into a hybrid of contemporary rock and pop composition. “Highly Publicized Digital Boxing Match” is Afuche’s third album and its Cuneiform debut. It was recorded live in the studio in a single day, with minimal textural overdubs.
Cheer-Accident – “No Ifs, Ands or Dogs”
Emerging from the incredibly diverse crucible of music that is Chicago, prog-pop-noise collective Cheer-Accident embodies and re-affirms the “promises made” by previous generations of progressive rock, post-punk, and post rock bands-the creation of a thoroughly new rock-based music. There are bands with pretty melodies, bands that rock, bands that dazzle with exalted technique, bands that make you laugh, and bands aiming to perplex even the most intrepid listener. Cheer-Accident is all those things and more, truly a band for the 21st century, forged from the best aspects/influences of classic/iconic bands: Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, Art Bears, mid-‘70s Yes, National Health, Pere Ubu and Beach Boys.
Gosta Berlings Saga – “Glue Works”
Amidst the resurgeance of all-instrumental bands on the international rock scene over the past decade, Swedish progressive rock/ post-rock group Gosta Berlings Saga is one of the most exceptional groups. Without retro affectation, the foursome Gosta Berlings Saga combine the cool sleekness of the Ventures and Shadows, the jazz-informed psychedelia of Gong, the wry humor of fellow Scandinavian Laika & the Cosmonauts, the textured knottiness of Yes (in their early ‘70s prime), the exotic evocations of film music, the eclectic whimsy of the Canterbury school, and the droll menace of Mogwai. Glue Works is G?sta Berlings Saga’s third album, its first recording released outside Sweden and its first on Cuneiform.
Richard Pinhas & Merzbow – “Rhizome
Pinhas and Masami ‘Merzbow’ Akita crossed sonic swords most recently on Pinhas's 2010 Cuneiform release “Metal/Crystal”, but the particular blend of sensual derangement and delight their two-man musical conspiracy creates simply demanded another full-fledged duo recording. So when the pair headlined at Washington, DC’s prestigious Sonic Circuits Festival at La Maison Francaise on September 24, 2010, capturing their improvisations in all their senses-shattering glory seemed like an obvious choice. “Rhizome” is the product of that recording. Pinhas has been perfecting his Robert Fripp-influenced six-string sea of sustain and delay since his days helming Heldon, and when his aggressive-but-aqueous sound meshes with Merzbow’s carefully crafted cacophony, the two have a transformative effect on each other.
Wadada Leo Smith's Organic – “Heart's Reflections”
Lauded by Coda as "one of the most vital musicians on the planet", Wadada Leo Smith is a highly regarded trumpeter who has, over the course of five decades in jazz and free music, seldom slackened his prolific pace. Smith’s latest CD and fifth release for Cuneiform, “Heart’s Reflections”, is a bold double-disc set that features Wadada Leo Smith's Organic, a predominately electric, fourteen-piece group that is both active and performing at festivals worldwide.
