Noctorum - Offer The Light - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Nocturnus is a two-track EP from Florida death metal band, Nocturnus. It was released in 1993 on Moribund Records and follows the full-length studio album, Thresholds. It features a different line-up in that Jeff Estes and Mike Browning were replaced by Emo Mowery and James Marcinek on bass and drums respectively.

On the Pine Hill Haints' latest long-player, The Song Companion of a Lonestar Cowboy, they go there and to other colorful places on the Americana and Appalachian trail. The fifteen song sequence kicks off with InchFall AsleepInch and InchBack to Alabama,Inch a fiery pair of rockabilly-meets-Irish-jig rave-ups, then winds through standout tracks like the Bo Diddley-grooved InchPretty Thing,Inch a pounding tom-tom and fiddle take on the traditional InchJohn HenryInch and the catchy, cajun-flavored squeezebox pop of InchLone Star Kid.Inch There are excursions into Sun Records-style country (InchMidnight MayorInch and InchLouiseInch) and swampy blues (the saw-singing InchWade in the WaterInch and InchDowntown Blues,Inch which features guest J.D. Wilkes on harmonica). Throughout, Barrier's strong tenor voice rings familiar and friendly, with deep echoes of everything from John Lee Hooker to Buddy Holly to Johnny Cash. And the band plays with a sense of abandon that comes from thousands of gigs behind them. It all sounds deceptively simple, but anyone who plays music knows better. The Pine Hill Haints do something very few roots bands can, which is to transcend influences and sculpt age-old sounds into soul music for our time.

The mythical Phoenix speaks of reemergence and continual development, flying higher with each rebirth, riding on the winds of creation. So too does the man of this moment. A pianist of vast skill and experience, Dave Kikoski's eminence in serious jazz circles is beyond dispute. He's taken deep dives with everybody from Randy Brecker to Roy Haynes, served as the harmonic host for the Mingus Big Band, contributed to expansive cooperative enterprises like Opus 5, and pushed his own music to the limits and beyond. Kikoski has seemingly done it all during his three-plus decades on the scene, yet his playing somehow remains something of an underrated asset. The Phoenix metaphor, hyperbolic though it may be, proves apt in it's embrace of this monumental talent's steady surge. This exciting endeavor makes that case in inarguable fashion.