SML - "Three Over Steel"
The new West Coast outfit that brings together bassist Anna Butterss (Makaya McCraven, Daniel Villarreal), synth-smith Jeremiah Chiu (Ariel Kalma), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Carlos Niño), percussionist Booker Stardrum (Lee Ranaldo, Patrick Shiroishi), and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann (Meg Duffy, Perfume Genius). Stardrum lays down an aggressive bedrock of percussion, slicing at the sensibilities of German Progressives while tipping into ‘70s funk. Uhlmann’s guitars scrape and gnaw at the senses and Johnson rides the revelry with a surfer’s skill. “Three Over Steel” tattoos itself into the psyche, prepping the listener for the band’s elemental debut, Small Medium Large. 

嵓宫 (Ganguu) - “よふかし”
Post-De Lorians outfit 嵓宫 (Ganguu) has quickly become one of my favorite repositories of proggy outings and their latest single seems to be getting closer to the source. The band’s been strictly singles these days, and “よふかし” locks into the jet-propulsion of NEU, then runs it through a kind of druggy nu-jazz jumble à la Mildlife, before lacing it with guitar scorch that’ll leave a lesion on ya. 

Steel Fringe - "In My Head"
Steel Fringe still captures the canyon country quite ably. The Portland outfit, featuring RSTB fave Barry Walker Jr (Rose City Band, Mouth Painter), offers up a pretty perfect debut EP — four songs of cosmic country that wind through the mountains and lay down a cascade of green hues and sumptuous harmonies. Feeling like The Byrds and Burriotos are in their blood, the first single “Klickitat County” served as a nice entry point to what the Fringe are all about, but there are more expansive horizons embedded in their eponymous EP as well. The opener, “In My Head,” adds a bit of twang and ramble. It turns down the layered approach but lets pedal steel and a pump trolley pulse that pushes the song down the tracks, soaking in the sun.

A monthly round-up of sounds that filter through the blog Raven Sings the Blues, presented here as a two-hour block of psychedelic seep. While constantly trying to draw lines between the fringes of the past and the fringes of the present, the show explores music from all manner of independent labels, threaded together with a sense of exploration and joy in reshaping pop along the z-axis. Guaranteed good times. Broadcast from Hudson.