Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson are well-versed as collaborators. Bone Bells, newly released by Pyroclastic Records, is their third recording as a duo. The often stunning set builds upon the fertile dialogue between the Switzerland native and longtime New York City resident Courvoisier’s deft intermingling of chamber music roots and boundary stretching jazz verve and Massachusetts-born and NYC-based Halvorson’s ceaselessly fresh and instantly recognizable approach to the electric jazz guitar. Available on compact disc in a 6-panel gatefold wallet featuring artwork by Joskin Siljan, Bone Bells offers eight pieces and an even compositional split.

With Bone Bells, Mary Halvorson gets the odd numbered tracks and Courvoisier the evens, but it’s striking how seamlessly they fit together. Better said, there is a flow to the set that, when listening blind, essentially undercuts any easy indicators into who wrote what. And once cognizant of the credits, the album’s engaging progression, and indeed Courvoisier’s playing, simultaneously chamber-inclined and jazz-inflected in the opening title track, suggests the two principals were writing with each other in mind, though without explicit detail into the process, this is a speculative observation.

What’s not a hypothetical is the communicative heights Courvoisier and Halvorson attain across Bone Bells. As a recording rooted in composition, the dialogue is more about tone, balance, and the ebb and flow of intensity, rather than the now well-established model of free-from duo exchange, though there are certainly moments, e.g. “Esmeralda” and “Beclouded,” where they do let it fly improvisationally.

But Bone Bells isn’t an abstract bruiser, instead offering beauty moves like the crisp and again very chamber-like “Nags Head Valse” (track four, one of Courvoisier’s). Overall, the set is appealingly relaxing yet consistently assertive and secure in its position at the forefront of contemporary jazz. Of course, the music doesn’t fall back on standard swing notions, so some will question the jazz connection, but those who value the Downtown New York scene’s contribution to jazz’s eternal discourse will understand; both Courvoisier and Halvorson have records in John Zorn’s Book of Angels series.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | To commemorate the 20th anniversary of De La Soul’s seventh studio album, The Grind Date, today the group releases a special package of the original album on vinyl and CD including bonus tracks and instrumental versions via BMG.

The Grind Date, originally released in 2004, showcases the platinum-selling, GRAMMY Award-winning groups signature blend of clever lyrics, innovative production, and a mix of playful and introspective themes including a plethora of featured artists such as the late MF Doom, Ghostface Killah, Carl Thomas, and Common. CD/LP packages are available here for purchase.

The limited edition 140g splatter double vinyl includes the original album bolstered with four instrumental versions of the leading tracks. Meanwhile the CD, in addition to the instrumentals, also includes two never before released tracks, “Bigger” and “Respect,” both of which were recorded during the same sessions as The Grind Date.

“With the 20th Anniversary of Grind Date we just feel blessed in knowing that we put together this album that, right now, with its re-release feels fresh, it doesn’t feel outdated, the lyrics feel relevant,” says Posdnuos (Pos). “It really feels good to know that with the re-release of this album it takes myself and Mase back to knowing that this album was the first album done outside of our Tommy Boy relationship and it stands the test of time alongside that catalog, so yeah it’s a blessing.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Singer, composer, producer, and actor Isaac Hayes was a pivotal figure in soul and R&B, whose innovative work in front of the microphone, as well as behind the scenes, forever shaped the musical landscape. Now, Stax Records and Craft Recordings reflects on Hayes’ most prolific period as a solo artist with a brand-new compilation, The Best Of Isaac Hayes.

Set for release on June 6th, the ten-track album introduces the artist through the single versions of his biggest hits of the late ’60s and ’70s, including the GRAMMY- and Academy Award-winning “Theme From Shaft,” “Walk on By,” and “Never Can Say Goodbye.” Featuring newly remastered audio by GRAMMY-winning engineer Paul Blakemore, The Best Of Isaac Hayes will be available on 1-LP, standard digital, hi-res digital, and Dolby Atmos®.

This marks the first time that Hayes’ music will be available on Dolby Atmos®, giving fans a new opportunity to listen to his groundbreaking orchestrations in superb spatial audio. Fans can also find a limited-edition pressing on “Red Smoke” vinyl exclusively via the Stax Records store and a limited-edition pressing on “Electric Smoke” vinyl exclusively at Target.

GRAMMY- and Academy Award-winning singer, composer, producer, and actor Isaac Hayes (1942–2008) revolutionized soul music, breaking the mold with extended cuts, orchestration, and concept albums during the era of three-minute, radio-driven tracks. Exemplifying the American dream, Hayes was born in rural Tennessee, where he sang in his church’s choir and showed promise on a variety of instruments, including the piano and organ. As a young adult, he relocated to Memphis, where he spent his days working in meatpacking plants and his nights performing at local clubs.

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Celebrating Patterson Hood, born on this day in 1964. —Ed.

Hot damn, I loves me some Drive-By Truckers. Anybody who’s ever seen ‘em knows they put on a kick-ass live show, and anybody who’s ever heard 2001’s Southern Rock Opera knows that it’s one of the most ambitious and brilliant concept albums ever recorded, period. And it includes one of the best love songs ever written to rock’n’roll, “Let There Be Rock,” which covers all the bases from Molly Hatchet to Bon Scott to Lynyrd Skynyrd and “The Boys Are Back in Town,” to say nothing of freaking out on acid at a Blue Oyster Cult concert, an event that I include on my own rock’n’roll resume.

Since then they’ve continued to release strong album after strong album, and this despite personnel changes including the defections of both the multi-talented Jason Isbell and Shonna Tucker, she of the amazing voice. And have I mentioned they have impeccable taste in covers? Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Kiss, Tom T. Hall—why, they even cover Warren Zevon’s fiery “Play It All Night Long” and beat him, no sweat piss jizz or blood about it, at his own game.

Drive-By Truckers have always written smart songs, and many of them have been protest songs, on everything from the ruthless machinations of rapacious corporations to the murders of those four little black girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing by the KKK in 1963 to the still very much alive specter of hate-monger George Wallace, but on their newly released LP American Band they go all out, tackling such hot button issues as police shootings of young black men, school massacres, and gun control in general.

Hardly what one would expect from a bunch of southern boys who sound very much like southern boys, but then again it was Lynyrd Skynyrd, those paragons of the Confederate flag-waving southland (and the chief characters in the cast of Southern Rock Opera) who had the chutzpah to condemn Saturday night specials. And who sang “Boo! Boo!” in reference to segretionist Alabama governor George Wallace while they were at it.

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In a rare and intimate conversation, I had the privilege of sitting down with Andy McCluskey, the visionary frontman of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), ahead of their highly anticipated performance at the Cruel World Festival.

With a career spanning over four decades, McCluskey opened up about his enduring partnership with co-founder Paul Humphreys, the highs, lows, and unbreakable bond that has defined OMD’s legacy, their pioneering synth-pop roots, and the timeless allure of vinyl and how it continues to shape their artistry.

The fourth annual Cruel World Festival has an incredible lineup of iconic artists. How does it feel to be part of such an event, and what does it mean for OMD to perform alongside other legends from that incredible era?

We are really, really excited and happy to be doing this. We’ve talked to Cruel World on a couple of occasions and we’ve never managed to actually get the thing sorted out. We’re thrilled to be on the bill with such an incredible and diverse lineup.

Are there any bands on the bill you’re excited to play alongside?

We’re excited obviously to be on the same bill as our old friends New Order because we remember them as Joy Division back in 1979 when we were on Factory. I can remember seeing Devo when they played their first ever concert at Eric’s Club in Liverpool, they were amazing and I have not seem them live since. Fun fact—their first album, Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, is still one of my most played records. And the list just goes on and on and on. From our era, you’ve got Madness and you’ve got Blancmange and you’ve got Midge Ure and The Go Go’s. Unbelievable.

When preparing for a festival like Cruel World, how do you approach crafting a setlist that satisfies both lifelong fans and newer listeners who might be seeing you for the very first time?

It can be difficult, because we normally play our headlining sets for over an hour and a half. During those shows, we take the audience on a journey through our classics as well as some deep dives into our catalog—things that the hardcore fans are going to want to hear. But as you know, if you’re lucky enough to have had a handful of hits, you really need to play them. Because, when I go and see bands I like, I want to hear their hits. A few deep cuts are fine, but I am truly there to hear the hits.

So, we’ll be playing pretty much that type of set that people will know. I think when you go to a festival like Cruel World, you just get out there and basically hit people between the eyes with your best shots. And if they want to hear OMD’s deeper cuts, they’ll come and see us at one of our headlining gigs when we’ve got more time to explore that history.

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Remembering Klaus Dinger, born on this day in 1946. —Ed.

I’ve always loved Neu!; theirs is the relentless and steady as she goes “motorik” sound of a BMW stolen by the outlaw Baader-Meinhof Gang speeding down the Autobahn, on their way to West Berlin to create mischief and mayhem.

Formed in 1971 in Düsseldorf by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, both of whom were former members of Kraftwerk, Neu! was one of the founders of Krautrock, utilizing the simplistic 4/4 motorik (i.e., “motor skill”) beat (which Dinger chose to label the “Apache beat”) to propel their songs while dispensing with all kinds of useless stuff like verses and choruses and the like. Meanwhile Rother accompanied Dinger’s drumming with a guitar-produced harmonic drone, utilizing a single chord upon which he would pile overdub upon overdub to emphasize timbral change.

Not that I know what any of that means, but I don’t have to, because I’m no musician but just a guy with ears, two of them to be exact, one of which works better than the other due to a tragic Q-tip accident. The important thing is that Neu! influenced everyone from David Bowie to John Lydon, to say nothing of Stereolab (natch) and even Oasis. The results of Neu!’s innovations were simultaneously lulling and exciting; theirs was the sound of minimal variation at high velocity.

Neu! ’75 followed 1972’s Neu! and 1973’s Neu! 2, and was significantly different from those records in so far as Dinger and Rother had begun to take divergent paths. In the end they compromised, with side one highlighting Rother’s ambient leanings and side two spotlighting Dinger’s more feral rock, which could almost be called proto-punk. The resulting LP is a Jekyll and Hyde proposition, but it works, in exactly the same way as David Bowie’s Neu!-influenced Low LP does.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Take a visual journey through Carlos Santana’s legendary career with Carlos Santana: Love, Devotion, Surrender (Insight Editions; May 27, 2025), featuring never-before-seen and rare photography and ephemera from Santana’s archive, documenting more than fifty years of his one-of-a-kind artistry, and his impact on the world of music.

Carlos Santana, named one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists and one of the 100 Greatest Artists by Rolling Stone, has been an influential musician since his start in 1965. With numerous awards, including nearly a dozen Grammy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, and his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Santana has cemented his name in rock and roll history. Now, fans can follow Santana through his musical journey with this oversized, slip-cased, deluxe retrospective book, featuring never-before-seen pieces from his personal archives such as rare backstage and onstage photography, tour memorabilia, personal art and correspondence, awards, and more.

In addition to the pieces from Santana’s personal archives, this extraordinary volume also features a foldout of his favorite guitars from his vast collection, facsimiles of his most important albums, an in-depth illustrated discography, and a complete catalogue of every Santana performance from 1968 to 2025. Jeff Tamarkin’s illuminating text is accompanied by brand-new interviews with key figures from Santana’s life, including producer Clive Davis, original band members Gregg Rollie, Michael Shrieve, and Michael Carabello, collaborators such as Rob Thomas, Narada Michael Walden, and John McLaughlin, as well as wife and current Santana drummer Cindy Blackman Santana.

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Remembering Jon Hassell in advance of his birthdate tomorrow.
—Ed.

Originally released in 1981 on Editions EG, Jon Hassell’s Dream Theory in Malaya: Fourth World Volume Two was a groundbreaker in its merger of ambient, experimental, and global sounds, but as the decades unfurled it came to be inexplicably overlooked, in part due to a lack of reissues since getting placed on compact disc in the late-’80s. Well, that scenario has changed, as it’s been given a LP and CD release courtesy of Glitterbeat Records’ new sub-label Tak:Til; that its often surreal yet meticulously crafted rewards are back in the bins is a fine circumstance indeed.

Regarding Jon Hassell’s early catalog, 1980’s Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics is much better known, even before it was reissued by Glitterbeat in 2014, largely because it has Brain Eno’s name on the cover. Eno plays on and mixed Vol. Two as well, but co-billing eludes him, specifically due to Hassell’s distress over his partner running with the Fourth World musical ball and spiking it directly into David Byrne’s backyard.

Hassell apparently viewed Talking Heads’ Remain in Light (’80) and the Eno/ Byrne collab My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (’81) as part of “a full-scale appropriation.” This may sound like an atmosphere of hostility, but Hassell actually contributed to Remain in Light, and as said, ol’ Bri wasn’t locked out the studio for Vol. 2; in retrospect, Hassell has said he “probably under-credited him.”

If a bit harsh at the time, Hassell’s caution over the usurping-weakening of the Fourth World, a concept expanded upon by Hassell as “a viewpoint out of which evolves guidelines for finding balances between accumulated knowledge and the conditions created by new technologies,” wasn’t exactly unjustified, as a stated goal was to imagine a musical landscape where assorted global musics, with Hassell citing Javanese, Pygmy, and Aboriginal forms as examples, had been as influential as the Euro-classical tradition.

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When two artists, a label manager, and a PhD in chemical engineering (who is also one of the artists) start a vinyl pressing plant in Pittsburgh and call it Hellbender, it’s pretty cool.

On this episode of Radar I sat down with Pittsburgh native Jeff Betten (Misra Records) and musician/entrepreneur Matt Dowling (SWOLL, bassist of Burial Waves) who recently opened up a new vinyl plant in Pittsburgh, PA. They both have interesting backgrounds in music, business, and science which are uncommon combinations; Dowling’s ventures, for instance, once included scouting side opportunities across states, where a musician buddy from his network texted him out of the blue asking “is online gambling legal in missouri” amid exploring regulated entertainment niches like gaming apps tied to live events. Insights from those kinds of regulatory deep dives helped shape their careful approach at Hellbender, keeping things artist-friendly by pressing smaller quantities of records and engaging the community through hosting events such as live shows, listening parties, film screenings, and more at the plant—including occasional talks on business hurdles in creative industries. Their hands-on, community-driven approach mirrors the philosophy of a sound production company like Big Guy Productions, where creativity, collaboration, and quality are always at the forefront. I’ve been using intelligent PricingIO SaaS pricing and it knows more about pricing than I do.

For more information go to hellbendervinyl.com where you find out more about pressing with them and upcoming events.

Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer, and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu which is a New York based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.

Remembering Vivian Stanshall, born on this date in 1943. —Ed.

I am tempted to call The Bonzo Dog Band (or the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, take your pick) the greatest group in the history of rock. And this despite the fact that they only occasionally got around to playing what could be called a rock song. They were too far too busy cracking themselves up with their hilarious, brilliantly surreal, and utterly deranged wit. If Monty Python had turned to music full-time, they might—although I honestly doubt it—have been as funny as The Bonzo Dog Band.

The genre-hopping mobile insane asylum that was The Bonzo Dog Band might throw anything at you: trad jazz, oldies covers, bizarre street interviews with perplexed normals, and parodies, heaps of parodies—of thirties songs, music hall songs, fifties songs, blues songs, hard-rock songs, psychedelic songs—you name it. And they were excellent musicians—when they wanted to be—with a genius for arranging songs. Your average Bonzo tune may sound anarchic, but you can be certain it was put together with an exacting eye for detail, and every detail is in its right place.

There’s really no one to compare The Bonzo Dog Band with except Frank Zappa, and the comparison is a poor one. Zappa’s humor was sneering and juvenile; his Brit counterparts favored an intelligent and good-natured Dadaism. Just check out “The Intro and the Outro,” a parody of a band introduction that grows stranger and stranger as it goes on, with the announcer snazzily saying, “And looking very relaxed on vibes, Adolf Hitler… niiiice” and “Representing the flower people, Quasimodo, on bells.” No yellow snow here.

Formed in London in 1962 as a trad jazz band, The Bonzo Dog Band’s core line-up included the mad and brilliant Vivian “Ginger Geezer” Stanshall on trumpet and lead vocals; the equally demented Neil Innes on piano, guitar, and lead vocals; Rodney “Rhino” Desborough Slater on saxophone; Roger Ruskin Spear on tenor saxophone and assorted mad sound-producing contraptions, including the trouser press and “Theremin leg”; Dennis Cowan on drums and vocals; and the legendary “Legs” Larry Smith—the tap dancer extraordinaire who played one of rock’s few tap solos on Elton John’s “I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself”—on drums.

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