Digging for Something with Nathan Stevens of The Woodhouse
Overlooked, underrated, over-hated or regionally specific gems.
I’m reaching out and asking writers, band members and music curators to tip us all off to their favourite underrated albums, overlooked or unfairly obscure gems… even the downright over-hated. Hopefully it’s another fun way for you to find some new-to-you music to love.
I’m very excited to say that joining me today is Nathan Stevens, Editor in Chief at The Woodhouse.
The Woodhouse is my favourite type of music publication, which is the kind that feels like you’re rummaging around the creator’s brain as you browse. Interviews here, articles over there, and new music discoveries in abundance. I hope you check it out!
And now, let’s get to their album recommendations:
Bastarda & João de Sousa - Fado (2021)
Genres: Chamber Music, Portuguese Folk Music, Contemporary Folk, Fado, Morna, Progressive Folk
Nathan says:
The long history of Portuguese Fado can be transcribed simply: smoky sad bastard music in a bar near the ocean. The people of Iberia know that the sea is as enthralling as it is deadly, and hundreds of years of sailing have soaked their way into this musical tradition. There is always a beguiling danger at the center of any great Fado tune.
When Lisbon-London-Warsaw transplant João de Sousa found jazz/chamber ensemble Bastarda, they’d craft not just the best Fado album of the 21st century, but one of the most entrancing folk albums of its time.
Fado takes songs from the Portuguese canon and fuses them with the sensual muscle of Bastarda’s odd, compelling trio of cello, clarinet and contrabass clarinet. That contrabass growls, moving like a riptide beneath an unwary swimmer. De Sousa duets with the regular octave clarinet, both of their cooing and lilting tones like the sirens whispering come-ons from deadly shoals.
Dan says:
Definitely sits outside of my wheelhouse, in terms of things I’d come across if not for doing this series, and for that I am always thankful. One thing that surprised me about this is the bursts of intensity, like you hear on “Gondarém”. Really makes sense when taken into consideration alongside the context (“hundreds of years of sailing”) that Nathan puts this album in.
Arve Henriksen - Places of Worship (2013)
Genres: Chamber Jazz, Nu Jazz
Nathan says:
Arve Henriksen views the trumpet as the extension of his voice, rather than an instrument unto itself. That’s given him a range that most brass players can’t reach, but also a deep, rich well of tones that radiate empathy. You can hear his breath fail, like he and the trumpet are gasping at the sight of overwhelming beauty. And that is the project at the center of Places of Worship.
Henriksen wanted to chart his feelings while visiting places that touches his soul. Much of it revels in the natural wonder of Henriksen’s native Norway, but on opener “Adhān” (the Islamic call to prayer) the chorus of horns that suddenly lift off behind him like a flock of migrating birds creates the impression of a mosque at dawn, light softly rippling through marbled windows.
Places of Worship feels like a companion piece to Áine O’Dwyer’s “Music for Church Cleaners,” both attempting to translate the peace they have found through absurdly gorgeous music.
Dan says:
Outside of the incredible trumpet playing—spoken to above by Nathan in a more eloquent way than I could achieve—the atmosphere on this album is incredibly surprising. The textures to this stuff, particularly “Saraswati”, really stuck me as something I’ve never heard before.
LAM - LAM (2016)
Genres: Post-Minimalism, Avant-Garde Jazz, Ambient, ECM Style Jazz
Nathan says:
Wacław Zimpel is tertiarily famous. Coming from the surprisingly vibrant Polish jazz scene, he’s become your favorite composer’s favorite composer’s favorite composer. With recent works alongside Shackleton and James Holden, the Polish polymath might be on the verge of critical consensus.
But back in the 2010s he was secretly crafting some of the most sterling chamber-jazz in Europe. The very hard to google LAM is Zimple alongside Krzysztof Dys on piano and Hubert Zemler on drums. The slow moving, churning suite lands somewhere between Steve Reich and spiritual jazz. The motions evolve slowly, piles of low clarinet notes unspooling below a cascade of pianos and an ever-growing bushel of clanging percussion.
Dan says:
Ooh, okay this hits upon a few things that I find really fascinating. Ever since I stumbled upon Skalpal in college (a Ninja Tune duo who leveraged a lot of Polish jazz samples) I’ve been very interested in Polish jazz music. On top of that, a few of my very favourite off-the-beaten-path discoveries of the past few years have involved post-minimalism.
This is incredibly hypnotic and “LAM 1 (Part Two)” immediately sent shivers all over my skin. This is another one today that I really, really love the texture you can hear sitting all around and in-between the performances.
Canary Room - Christine (2021)
Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Indie Folk, Alt-Country
Nathan says:
More albums should be recorded in backyards. Helps if they’re impossibly pretty folk albums. Portland’s Canary Room had a stunning debut in 2021 with Christine, brimming with unrequited love, days by the Willamette River, and birdsong happily haunting the EP. Maddy Heide’s soft, sighing voice has plenty of Vashti Bunyan in it, but the charm of Bunyan’s English country-side tales has been replaced by the rainy, foggy myths of Multnomah County. It’s impossible to remove the rain jacket off Christine, a perpetual fall filled with grey skies and the turning trees.
Dan says:
I hate doing the “compare an artist to someone they sound similar to” thing, but this gives big time Julie Doiron vibes to me. Have I said that about something else in a previous release? Not sure, but anyway… this has that lo-fi, emotionally raw folk thing going for it that thankfully I always have time for. Also reminds me a little of American Weekend. Gorgeous vocals on this.
Narujuan - Where’s Spring? Side A (2013)
Genres: Instrumental Hip Hop, Lo-Fi Hip Hop
Nathan says:
The wonders of the internet allows us to skip through time and find things that should’ve been big—if they had been released earlier or later. The double album Where’s Spring from the mysterious Narujuan (not on streaming platforms, conflicting information on their socials, I talked to them a few times on pre-Musk twitter back in the day and left more confused than anything) is Lo-fi beats to study to 4 years before that anime gal with headphones popped up on YouTube.
Where’s Spring? is a delightfully colorful selection of microbeats, vibrant and cheerful, with the slightest hint of wintery melancholy at the edges. It’s clearly in the Dilla/Nujabes school of thought, but when it was released, it was in a strange no man’s land for lo-fi hip-hop, crowded out by trap and throw back boom-bap. Alongside a slew of beautiful singles, Narujuan briefly inhabited a niche that the similarly sample happy and beauty first producers Knxwledge or Tall Black Guy would claim.
Wherever you are Narujuan, I hope you’re well and know you made some amazing tunes.
Dan says:
I find it hard to write much about this kind of music, though I have spent a good amount of time absorbing it from varying sources - be it internet radio, big playlists, and elsewhere. This is as good an example as any, and very nice in a darkened room this fine fall evening.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.