In the Echoes Podcast, we have Maps. James Chapman is half of the duo onDeadWaves but on his own, he records as Maps, merging electronics with Ennio Morricone grandeur and Beach Boys exultant harmonies.  His new album is Colours Reflect Time Loss. We  talk to James Chapman about childhood memories, creating an orchestra, and The Beach Boys.  Just follow the Maps to the Echoes Podcast..

In the Echoes Podcast, we talk to singer-songwriter Heather Woods Broderick. She’s backed up singers like Sharon Van Etten but on her own, she makes a personal and atmospheric music of peacefully contemplated turmoil articulated through the imagery of nature on the Oregon coast. Her album, Glider was a CD of the Month in 2015 and she finally has another beautiful recording, Invitation. We bring you the Heather Woods Broderick story on Echoes.

In the Echoes Podcast, John Diliberto dissects some of our picks in the top ten of The Best of Echoes 2019 So Far. It’s the midway point of the year which means it’s time to compile our Top 25 albums of the year to date. John Diliberto picks out a handful of those albums and talks about them in the Echoes Podcast. It’s another collection of music that reveals the diversity of Echoes.  We have solo acoustic guitarists, neo-classical composers, progressive rockers, and moody dream pop singers. Hear John's take on the Best of Echoes 2019, So Far. See the complete list here.

It’s a Double Flashback 50 when we explore two albums from June 1969 that could not be more different.  From London, It's White Noise with their debut, An Electric Storm and from San Francisco we'll hear It's A Beautiful Day.

In June of 1969, An Electric Storm  by White Noise was a curious artifact.  it was an electronic journey into the darker side of psychedelia.  Created by members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in their off-hours it has remained very much an underground recording but it would go on to influence people like Meat Beat Manifesto, The Orb and others. In a Flashback 50, we enter an Electric Storm with founding member David Vorhaus who tells us about the creation of the album and we'll hear one of people he influenced, Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto.

On a much more pastoral note, we then take you to San Francisco, and It’s a Beautiful Day, the group who recorded classic songs like “White Bird," "Girl with No Eyes" and “Hot Summer Day.” It’s a Beautiful Day seemed like they were late to the psychedelic faire. Although they formed in 1967, their debut album wasn’t released until June of 1969, two years into the fading afterglow of the Summer of Love. The album was a minor sales hit, charting at #47 on Billboard and earning a gold record, but it was a staple of 70s FM Radio. You can hear their sound, with the electric violin of David LaFlamme and the swirling keyboards of Linda LaFlamme presaging artists like Genesis and Yes, The Paul Winter Consort and Shadowfax and Loreena McKennitt.

We explore these two very different albums in a Double Flashback 50 in the Echoes Podcast. Turn On, Tune In, Trip out.

In the Echoes Podcast, Meat Beat Manifesto.  The legendary British electronic artist who came of age during the industrial and trip-hop sampling days of the 1990s.  Jack Dangers, the group’s founder, is a scholar of electronic music from Stockhausen to Cabaret Voltaire and beyond. He has a new MBM album out, Opaque Couché. We take an electronic trip with Meat Beat Manifesto in the Echoes Podcast

Massergy is the performance name of Eric Jensen. His story includes the loss of his brother, learning electronic music from scratch, psychedelics and recording his electronic music out in his yard. His album, Fire Opal was the Echoes CD of the Month in May.  We go behind this ambient electronic journey of an album, and the spirit behind it, in the Echoes Podcast. Listen here, in your Echoes App or download from Apple Music or other Podcast providers.

by John Diliberto 5/23/2019

The ZMR AWARDS IS OUT OF THE TYPICAL AWARDS ZONE

The Zone Music Reporter Awards or ZMRs, bring a gel-filtered focus on music that often isn’t included in the usual Best Of and Awards lists. The Grammys pretty much ignore these recordings, although some have slipped into the New Age, Electronic, and Contemporary Instrumental categories. You’ll definitely never see these musicians on The People’s Choice Awards and many of them aren’t “hip” enough for rankings like the old Pazz & Jop Poll of the Village Voice. These are musicians in electronic, ambient, world music, neo-classical, solo piano and meditation worlds. Many of them are independent artists releasing their own music. Some, like White Sun, Sangeeta Kaur and Deva Premal, come from spiritual backgrounds more than musical ones. But The ZMR Awards, voted on by DJs who report to the Zone Music Reporter, a New Age music trade website, puts these artists at center stage.

This year’s awards were given out this past weekend, on May 18, at the annual Zone Music Awards Show in New Orleans. As usual, there were surprises, disappointments and for me, who cares winners.

Jeff Oster’s Reach also picked up Album of the Year Honors, beating out a surprisingly much weaker field, except for Erik Scott’s A Trick of the Wind.

In the Best Instrumental Acoustic category, pickings were also a little thinner. This category lends itself to quiet, polite music and that’s pretty much the way voters went, nominating the laid back guitar of Don Latarski’s “River”, Michael Kollwitz’s Serenity II: More Peaceful music for Chapman Stick (the title says it all); and Michelle Qureshi’s classically inclined solo guitar Short Stories. Only Jamie Bonk’s rhythm-enlivened, driving acoustic guitar album, Who Said It Was Easy, deviated from the formula. The win went to Ryan Judd’s album of guitar and cello duets, An Open Sky. It’s pleasant and well-mannered, like afternoon tea.

Pianist Chad Lawson is reinventing the acoustic piano for the electronic age. He came up through classical and jazz and garnered some renown with his album, The Chopin Variations,  turning the Polish composer into something acoustically ambient. But now he’s creating original ambient music, treating his piano with electronic processing to give him a more atmospheric sound. You can hear it on his serene new album, Re:Piano.  We talk to Chad Lawson about reinventing the piano in the Echoes Podcast. You can also catch Chad Lawson's live Echoes performance streaming now.

William Tyler is a guitarist who has made it through to hipster circles and records on the highly regarded Merge label. But he's not afraid to cite Windham Hill Records, astrology, and more as influences. He's also making the most inventive music of any post-Windham Hill guitarist. His latest album is Goes West. We talk with William Tyler in the Echoes Podcast. After the podcast, go hear William Tyler playing live on Echoes, streaming now on demand.

In the Echoes Podcast, The acclaimed English electronica band, Lamb, talks about their new album, The Secret of Letting Go. The title speaks to the duo's sometimes contentious working relationship.

Andy Barlow: I think she’s got a version of the album with all of my lyrics removed.  You didn’t like that much, did you? The whole me writing lyrics thing?

LR: I didn’t like it, no.  It was a real tricky one, yeah, I think that was a big part of almost splitting up and "The Secret of Letting Go," actually, was about lyric writing and stuff.

Through conflict comes the bliss of Lamb's The Secret of Letting Go We counsel Andy Barlow and Lou Rhodes of Lamb in the Echoes Podcast.