RecommNeds | Jacco Gardner & My Baby

Otherlands

Instead of the usual around-the-world, I’m going to spend the next couple weeks with more extended stays in some overseas locales. This week brings us two bands from the Netherlands.

Jacco Gardner: Hypnophobia

Following up 2013’s ear-opening Cabinet of Curiosities, Jacco Gardner delivers yet another glorious soundscape with Hypnophobia. Mixing instrumental passages that could easily find a comfortable home in a Gabriel-era Genesis song with his own unique psych-folk hybrid, Gardner continues to evolve his sound while mining the past for new tidbits to groove on. Despite the album title, this is daydream psychedelica: smooth, shiny, easy.

Rdio: http://www.rdio.com/artist/J acco_Gardner/album/Hypnophobia/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3PD gKBSnMy41T0IDRqIudq

Rhapsody: http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/jacco-gardner/album/hypnophobia-polyvinyl-records

Bandcamp:: https://jaccogardner.bandcamp.com/al bum/hypnophobia

My Baby: Shamanaid

The first few notes of “Seeing Red,” the opening track of My Baby’s Shamanaid sound a bit like just another soul-band knockoff. But after a second or so, the music mutates into this unique salad of roots music: leafy gospel greens meet crunchy acoustic blues veggies meets New Orleans voodoo sprouts with a funky dressing that’s got more zest and zing then you were expecting. Over the course of the record, the whole sound dissociates and comes back together in all sorts of unexpected ways, slide guitars and harmonies and punchy rhythms, with plenty of addictive, groove-on surprises. Then you find out this trio are not from the Mississippi delta, but the Netherlands(?!) and somehow this makes it even more interesting.

Rdio: http://www.rdio.com/artist/My_Baby/a lbum/Shamanaid/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2It mzzv39Z7w6mL8WVeU3x

Rhapsody: http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/my-baby/album/shamanaid

Bandcamp: https://mybaby.bandcamp.com/album/shamanaid