Grupo Merecumbe - Merengue and Cumbia - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Magnetic Eye Records presents a blistering live document of flagship MER band Domkraft annihilating onstage at the Day of Doom tag showcase at Brooklyn's Saint Vitus Bar. This once-in-a-lifetime gathering was held in November 2019 to celebrate the tag's first decade. It featured nine roster acts performing back-to-back, with the four headline sets captured live by Chris Johnson (Deafheaven, Summoner) to commemorate the event as a set of exclusive live albums. Stockholm trio Domkraft bonded over a love of Spacemen 3, Monster Magnet, Sleep and Hawkwind. Drawing from the heaviest of their combined influences, they've crafted a sound that blends towering dirges, mindbending psychedelia and hypnotic minimalism, embodied on their monolithic 2016 debut The End of Electricity and 2018 follow-up Flood. Day of Doom Live presents Domkraft delivering what Metal Hammer called, Incha sustained torrent of viscous, bubbling sludge that achieves acute psychedelia through distortion and repetitionInch via a tremendous live record, just ahead of new album Seeds (coming in 2021).

Archers of Loaf almost called it quits after All the Nations Airports due to the strain of touring and the rut of the album cycle (i.e., make record, make video, do interviews, tour, tour, tour; repeat) but decided they would make one more album and see how they felt after that process. They again enlisted the help of Brian Paulson to record the album that became White Trash Heroes. On this album the band added keyboards to several songs as well as vocoder, and debuted the lead vocals of Matt Gentling on the track InchI.N.S.Inch InchBanging on a Dead DrumInch found all the members swapping instruments and some of the worst cowbell ever attempted. The band pulled out all the stops to keep it's members engaged, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough and the band decided to make the fall tour of 1998 it's final outing.

Who first invented the meringue has long been a battle of pride for Haitians and Dominicans. While this recording alone cannot provide the decisive answer, it does prove that the lively dance form is played with great facility by Haitian ensembles such as the dance band Ensemble Aux Calebasses led by tenor saxophonist Nemours Jean-Baptiste.