News & Updates

Check out our exclusive interview with Ray Lugo (Kokolo/Boogaloo Assassins/etc). Lots of biographical info here! http://peaceandrhythm.blogspot.com/2014/09/peace-rhythms-interview-with-producer.html

Check out Andujar's latest record reviews round-up at the Peace & Rhythm blog. A whole lot of sonic ground gets covered. http://peaceandrhythm.blogspot.com/2014/08/pardon-my-ears-interplanetary-music.html

(photo by focalchrome) This is the highly publicized Black Sabbath tribute from members of Brownout and Grupo Fantasma. I have seen both of those bands several times and have been continually amazed by their tight live shows with swingin' horns and rippin' grooves. Intrigued further, I decided to gain access into their world and tried to find out what makes them so sick. I was told to meet them in some late night Texas heat (I took a left at the longhorn, vultures circling). When I arrived on the scene there was a wicked feeling that came over me. The...

Jim Thomson is an enthusiastic promoter of music, with a hand in booking, producing and distributing the wide variety of sounds he digs. A percussionist with several notable ensembles (discussed within), his Electric Cowbell label puts out (mostly) 7" records with seemingly no stylistic boundaries. Since 2009 the label has released "a marching band that thinks it's a rock band" (Mucca Pazza), a funk band with people from USA Is A Monster (CSC), an Ethiopian groove band (Debo), a progressive salsa band (Bio Ritmo), a collaborative 7" with ESP-Disk (Talibam!), a record by Greg Ginn...and that is just a tip...

Chuck Nessa is the man who birthed the Nessa Records label. Operating out of Chicago starting in the mid 60's, Nessa supported the up-and-coming musicians from the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and issued artifacts from the avant-garde of jazz/modern creative music including such seminal albums by Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, the unsung Hal Russell, Von Freeman, Air and others. An underground rare groove classic by the Art Ensemble of Chicago ("Theme de Yoyo") finds its home on an early Nessa release. Today, the label is still producing exciting new music and we check in with Mr...