Jen Monroe – Page 5 – Listen To This

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 42: Pipe Organ Special

My most recent episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio is an organ special. While I’m sure many of us are looking for music that’s relaxing, reassuring, or generally positive during this high-stress time, I should give you a heads up that this mix isn’t really any of those things. It does, however, feel like an appropriately hellish soundtrack to the apocalypse.

I recently had the pleasure of hearing the second piece in this mix, the Finale of Jean-Pierre Leguay’s Sonate I pour Orgue, performed live at Saint Thomas Church by Nicholas Capozzoli. As easy as it is to sometimes feel jaded about the possibility of total musical novelty, it was a truly life-changing experience to hear it in the acoustics of a cathedral, to feel it reverberating in my chest, to let it properly melt my face off. I didn’t know that organ music so deeply avant-garde and strange existed–it was easily the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.

I don’t think the internet needs another personal narrative about how this current global crisis is affecting somebody, but I will say that I’m grateful that my last concert experience for the foreseeable future was this one, seated next to a friend I’ve been missing recently, in a church full of strangers. I’m currently scrambling to get as much work as I can while it exists, but once that work dries up I hope to get back into blogging here, as I’d love to be able to share more music in this chaotic time. In the mean time, please enjoy this mix, which you can download an mp3 version of here. Sending love to all, everywhere.

Tracklist:
1. Olivier Latry – Improvisation (Trois siècles d’orgue à Notre Dame de Paris)
2. Olivier Latry – Sonate I Pour Orgue: Finale (Jean-Pierre Leguay)
4. 3. Terry Riley – A Rainbow in Curved Air
5. Jean-Pierre Leguay – Deux improvisations: No. 1, Improvisation I
6. Palestine / Coulter / Mathoul – Schlongo!!!daLUVdrone Revisited #3
7. Peter Michael Hamel – Organum Part 3 (excerpt)
8. Unknown – Toccata und Fugue d BWV 565 (J.S. Bach)

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 41

My newest episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio is an hour of housey favorites with a few R&B and trancey moments thrown in. I hope you like it! You can download an mp3 version here; thanks as always for listening.

Tracklist:
1. Bappi Lahiri – Dream
2. Sybil – Don’t Make Me Over (Daytime Mix)
3. Craig T. Cooper – Sweet Water
4. Marco Tegui, Max Almazorra & Cari Golden – Next To Me
5. Artful & Ridney ft. Terri Walker – Missing You (Eric Kuppers Directors Cut Tribute FK Mix)
6. Crazy Penis – Keep On (Daniel Wang & Brennan Green Vas Referens Mix)
7. Chris & Cosey – One Minute More
8. Frankie Knuckles, Director’s Cut, Sybil – Let Yourself Go (A Director’s Cut Master)
9. Laava – Wherever You Are (I Feel Love)
10. Kim English – HIgher Things

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 40: Early Choral Music Special III

This month for NTS Radio I put together a third volume of early Western vocal music. Completely acapella and largely sacred, though I went a little ~crazy~ this time and threw in a couple of courtly love motets. I’ve listed the performers as the artist, and then the composers in parentheses after the song title. In full transparency, I’m neither an expert on this stuff nor am I at all religious–I just really love this music, and I think it makes an ideal winter hibernation soundtrack. I hope you like it too. You can download an mp3 version here. Stay warm!

Previous early choral music specials: 2019, 2018

Tracklist:
1. Anonymous 4 – Peperit virgo (Unknown composer, England)
2. Huelgas-Ensemble – Apostolo glorioso (Guillaume Dufay)
3. The Gesualdo Six – Te lucis ante terminum (Thomas Tallis)
4. Anonymous 4 – Je te pri de cuer par amors (Unknown composer, France)
5. The Hilliard Ensemble – Sabbato Sancto: Responsorium 3 (Carlo Gesualdo)
6. Tonus Peregrinus – Credo: Da Gaudiorum Premia (John Dunstable)
7. Theatre of Voices – In hoc anni circulo (Unknown composer, France)
8. Tonus Peregrinus – Beata viscera (Pérotin)
9. The Hilliard Ensemble – Ave regina (Walter Frye)
10. Anonymous 4 – Quant je parti de m’amie (Unknown composer, France)
11. Ensemble Organum – Répons: Hodie nobis caelorum rex de virgi nasci (Unknown composer, France)
12. Sequentia – Nunc aperuit nobis (Hildegard von Bingen)
13. The Cambridge Singers – Libera nos, salva nos (John Shepperd)

25 Favorite Releases of 2019

In the spirit of the season, I wanted to share some of my favorite releases of the year. Such a brooding year for music, with some really strong aesthetic and political statements and boundary-pushing uses of both guitars and electronics, suggesting many exciting changes on their way in the next decade. Obviously this isn’t meant to be exhaustive or authoritative; just some personal highlights. Quite a few of these are giant major label releases, so I’ll be taking down those download links quickly or leaving them off accordingly. Let me know if links are broken. Happy new year!

Previously: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015

	A.C. Marias – One Of Our Girls, 1989 buy / download
	The B-52’s – Cosmic Thing, 1989 buy / download
	The Blue Nile – Hats, 1989 buy / download
	The Cure – Disintegration, 1989 buy
	De La Soul – 3 Feet High And Rising, 1989 buy
	dip in the pool – Retinae, 1989 download
	Forrest Fang – The Wolf At The Ruins, 1989 buy / download
	Galaxie 500 – On Fire, 1989 buy
	Harry Case – In A Mood, 1989 download
	The Hilliard Ensemble – Pérotin, 1989 buy / download
	Haruomi Hosono – Omni Sight Seeing, 1989 download
	Inner City – Paradise, 1989 buy
	Janet Jackson – Rhythm Nation 1814, 1989 buy
	Joan Bibiloni – Born, 1989 buy / download
	Julee Cruise – Floating Into The Night, 1989 buy
	Kate Bush – The Sensual World, 1989 buy
	Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine, 1989 buy
	Nirvana – Bleach, 1989 buy
	Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster & Panaiotis – Deep Listening, 1989 buy / download
	Piero Milesi & Daniel Bacalov – La Camera Astratta, 1989 buy / download
	Pixies – Doolittle, 1989 buy
	Ryuichi Sakamoto – Beauty, 1989 buy
	Soul II Soul – Club Classics Vol. One, 1989 buy
	The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses, 1989 buy
	Woo – It’s Cosy Inside, 1989 buy / download

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 39

Here’s my most recent mix for NTS Radio, in which I’m still on an autumnal tip. Psychy acoustic folk, dreamy shoegaze, and a really gorgeous, tears-inducing children’s choir rendition of a song from my childhood favorite, Watership Down. I hope you like it, and that you’re staying warm! You can download an mp3 version here.

Tracklist:
1. Woo – Fanfare
2. Eloy – Horizons
3. A.C. Marias – Looks Like
4. Maxine Funke – Make That Dream
5. April Stevens & Nino Tempo – You’ll Be Needing Me Baby
6. Esther & Abi Ofarim – Every Night
7. Woo – When You Find Your Love
8. Kyu Sakamoto – 上を向いて歩こう
9. Hydroplane – Wurlitzer Jukebox
10. Judee Sill – Jesus Was A Cross Maker
11. Colin Blunstone – Misty Roses
12. The Small Choir Of St. Brandon’s School – Bright Eyes
13. Ichiko Hashimato – A Stranger In Paradise
14. Cocteau Twins – Round
15. Linda Cohen – Madman Samba
16. Karen H. Oznick – I Miss You
17. Scribble – Mother Of Pearl

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 38: Robbie Băsho Special

This month for Getting Warmer on NTS Radio, I made a mix in homage to the great Robbie Băsho, who makes some of my favorite fall listening. I did my best to incorporate both his classics and some of his less known moments, all of which evidence such an incredible range of musicianship and emotion.

Though Băsho’s life was tragically cut short by a freak chiropractic accident, he accomplished so much in his twenty years of making music and left us an impressive catalogue to celebrate. He went to military school, then pre-med. He painted, sang, played trumpet, played lacrosse, lifted weights, wrote poetry, and changed his name to Băsho after the Japanese poet. He went through phases of cultural and musical obsession, including Sufi, Buddhist, Hindu, Japanese, Indian classical, Iranian, Native American, English and Appalachian folk, Western blues, and Western classical “periods.” He “used open C and more exotic tunings and he developed an esoteric doctrine for 12- and 6-string guitar, concerned with color and mood. He spoke of ‘Zen-Buddhist-Cowboy songs’ a long time before Gram Parsons mentioned his vision of Cosmic American music.” He studied under Ali Akbar Khan. He pushed for a broader appreciation of the steel-string guitar as a classical concert instrument. He made 14 studio albums in 19 years. He wrote “a Sufi symphony” and another for piano and orchestra about Spanish and Christian cultures coming to America. He’s considered one of the geniuses of American folk and blues, and yet his name often gets lost in conversations about John Fahey, Leo Kottke, and Sandy Bull.

If you’d like to hear more, you can listen to two of his records here and here. You can download an mp3 of the mix here. Take it for an afternoon walk if you’re able. I hope you enjoy it.

“My philosophy is quite simple: soul first, technique later; or, better to drink wine from the hands than water from a pretty cup. Of course the ultimate is wine from a pretty cup. Amen.”

Tracklist:
1. Robbie Băsho – Redwood Ramble
2. Robbie Băsho – Cathedrals et Fleur de Lis
3. Robbie Băsho – Roses and Snow
4. Robbie Băsho – Twilight Peaks
5. Robbie Băsho – Rocky Mountain Raga
6. Robbie Băsho – Rodeo
7. Robbie Băsho – The White Princess
8. Robbie Băsho – Mehera
9. Robbie Băsho – Variations on Clair de Lune
10. Robbie Băsho – Salangadou
11. Robbie Băsho – Basket Full Of Dragons
12. Robbie Băsho – Sweet Medicine
13. Robbie Băsho – Orphan’s Lament
14. Robbie Băsho – Call on the Wind

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 37: Country Special

I made an all-country* special for my most recent episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio. I grew up thinking I didn’t like country music because the woman who effectively raised me listened exclusively to the contemporary country radio station and it, uh, wasn’t very good. I didn’t get into the good stuff until I was 19 or so, and still regret being so late to the party. This is a mix of my favorite kind of Golden Age country: mostly from the 50s and 60s, swimming in reverb, warbly with ghostly backing choirs, hazy heatwavy pedal steel guitar, and some of the most gorgeously tortured vocals. I hope you like it! You can download an mp3 version here.

*For the purists, a few of these tracks aren’t strictly country, but are definitely country-adjacent!

Tracklist:
1. Slim Whitman – Cool Water
2. Brenda Lee – Break It To Me Gently
3. Patsy Cline – Lovesick Blues
4. Don Gibson – Sea of Heartbreak
5. Connie Francis – Tennessee Waltz
6. Wanda Jackson – One Teardrop at a Time
7. Waylon Jennings – Love’s Gonna Live Here
8. Houston Wells – All For The Love of a Girl
9. Dolly Parton – Gonna Hurry (As Slow As I Can)
10. Roy Orbison – Blue Bayou
11. Kitty Wells – I Can’t Stop Loving You
12. Patti Page – Dark Moon
13. Conway Twitty – It’s Only Make Believe
14. Billie Jo Spears – It Makes No Difference Now
15. Lonnie Donegan – Nobody’s Child
16. Loretta Lynn – Any One, Any Worse, Any Where
17. Jack Greene – There Goes My Everything
18. Ray Price – Crazy Arms
19. Brenda Lee – Fool #1
20. Charline Arthur – Please Darlin’ Please
21. Connie Francis – Second Hand Love
22. Sammi Smith – Help Me Make It Through the Night
23. Patsy Cline – Sweet Dreams (Of You)

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 36

Here’s my newest episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio, also marking my show being three years old! I tried to get slightly out of my wheelhouse with this one and be a little braver about mixing genres and moods, but it still feels very airy and spacey and summery to me. I hope you like it. Mp3 download is here if you’d like it. Flyer image by Eric Epstein.

Tracklist:
1. Sandy Salisbury – Come Softly
2. MJ Lallo – Before Brazil
3. Goddess in the Morning – Ucraine
4. UCC Harlo – Ceres
5. Yumi Murata – TOKIの音
6. CFCF – Closed Space
7. Enno Velthuys – In the Royal Woods
8. Annie Haslam – If I Loved You
9. Kissing the Pink – How Can I Live
10. Mouth Music – Hoireann O
11. Matt Bianco – Half A Minute
12. Masashi Kitamura + Phonogenix – ヴァリエイション・III
13. All In One – Rich Man, Poor Man
14. Sth Notional – Yawn Yawn Yawn
15. Björk – Come To Me

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 35: Summer Disco Special II

Hi! I’m still here, and still missing sharing music. The good news is that I just quit my day job to focus on food full time (scary, but cool!), and my plan is to continue blogging regularly once I’ve figured out how this whole new life format works. In the mean time, here’s my latest episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio. It’s full of what I want to listen to in the summer time: classic disco, funk, and soul. I hope you get a chance to listen to it en route to the beach, or at a barbecue, or that at the very least it makes you bop your head around a bit. You can download an mp3 version of it here. See you soon, thanks for being here 💙

Tracklist:
1. Jocelyn Brown – Somebody Else’s Guy
2. Melba Moore – Standing Right Here
3. Loose Joints – Tell You (Today) (Original 12” Vocal)
4. Bonnie Pointer – Free Me From My Freedom
5. Patrice Rushen – Never Gonna Give You Up (Joey Negro Re-Grooved Mix)
6. Family Of Eve – Having It So Bad For You
7. Phreek – May My Love Be With You
8. First Choice – Love Thang
9. Sybil Thomas – Rescue Me
10. Rose Laurens – American Love
11. Keiichi Oku – Heat Wave
12. Nile Rodgers – My Love Song For You

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 34

Hello! I’m still here, still up to my ears in food projects, still missing sharing music, and still very much looking forward to getting back to it. In the mean time, here’s my most recent episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio. This one is very spacey, with lots of reverb and a few psychy things. You can download an mp3 version here. Thanks as always for listening, and happy spring <3

Tracklist:
1. Gigi – Abay
2. Jun Miyake – Third Eye
3. Aragon – かかし
4. Francesco Messina – Comunicazioni Interne
5. Nuno Canavarro – Segredos M
6. Mychal Danna – Inanna
7. Bryan Ferry – Boys And Girls
8. Goddess In The Morning – 14
9. The Millenium – The Island
10. Yoshiaki Ochi – Dawning
11. Masayuki Sakamoto – Psy’chy
12. Quigley – If I Could Fly
13. Gigi – Guramayle (Slight Return)
14. Curt Boettcher – Lament Of The Astral Cowboy