Here’s just a sampling of some of the best releases I’ve heard over the last month.

Elkhorn and Mike Gangloff – Shackamaxon Concert (VHF Records)

The improv-based acid folk worlds of Elkhorn and Pelt compliment each other so well, a blending of the two seems perfectly natural.

This beautifully recorded live LP captures Jesse Sheppard and Drew Gardner weaving fertile soundscapes with their acoustics while Pelt’s Mike Gangloff glides ribbons of twangy Hardanger-style fiddle across it like a clipper ship cutting across a windy sea. The album’s two suite-length tracks are stunning examples of just how ‘out’ American string band and guitar soli music can go while still retaining much of the DNA of the genres’ ancestors.

Impressionistic, full-bodied and packed with way too many delights for the ears to count, Shackamaxon Concert is a truly standout record in the discographies of all those involved. Check it out.

D.C. Cross – Wizrad (No Drums Records)

While we’re on the topic of guitar soli music, let’s make a stop in Australia and check out the latest LP by Darren Cross.

Subtitled Adventures into Ecstatic Guitar (and Madcap Ambient), Cross’ fourth album finds the artist combining blues and folk fingerpicking with ambient soundscapes in a way that I have not really heard before. One minute you could be treated to some James Blackshaw or Mississippi John Hurt-like fingerstyle guitar fantasias, then the next you could be swept away by a flood of synth drones or a collage of manipulated field recordings. You feel that you’re not only hearing the music of the artist, but also the sounds of his very world that influence his music as well. This is the purest environmental solo guitar music you’ll hear this side of Daniel Bachman.

With Chuck Johnson presiding over engineering duties, you know this is going to be a deep and beautiful listen. Click here to get your copy on vinyl, CD or digital today.

Cara Beth Satalino – “Dandelion Weed” (Worried Songs)

Now we move along to my home of New Jersey for the utterly transfixing “Dandelion Weed,” by singer-songwriter, Cara Beth Satalino.

This song, the first to be released from her upcoming LP, Little Green, reveals much of the artist’s country-folk influences, with her delicately soulful harmonies, sympathetic pedal steel and bell-like acoustic strums. The track is at times reminiscent of Joan Shelly, Dolly Parton and Marissa Nadler, but there’s a well of deep honesty felt here that is truly Satalino’s own. You get the feeling that this song came directly from the depths of her own heart and nowhere else. Expect great things from this LP. It’s going to be a highlight of 2024, without a doubt.

Click here to preorder your copy ahead of its May 3rd release date.

Itasca – Imitation of War (Paradise of Bachelors)

Itasca returning was one of the best pieces of music news I’ve heard over the last 6 months, as it’s been about 4 years since their last full length album (a major favorite here), but let me just say that the wait was indeed worth it.

Released on Paradise of Bachelors, the LA-based group beautifully melds together their unique brand of hazy folk rock with a cooly upbeat Lou Reed-esque vibe. Tracks like the title cut are shadowy and sly with a driving beat, while the guitar wanders away with a mid-70s Jerry-like freedom in the instrumental breaks.

Then at other points, like on “El Dorado,” or the acoustic “Dancing Woman,” the group leans heavier into a raw and biting direction, sounding like something Joni or Neil might have recorded if they were reborn and freshly on the scene today.

This is an album to hold close to your heart and seek out during your most lonesome moments. Click here to get your copy today.

Dave Harrington, Max Jaffe, Patrick Shiroishi – “Dance of the White Shadow and Golden Kite” (AKP Recordings)

Talk about a power trio. Harrington, Jaffe and Shiroishi individually are all powerhouse talents with incredible back catalogs, so it’s no wonder that sitting the three down together to jam for the first time would result in this jaw-dropping release.

Recorded in a single afternoon, this record shows off how varied and disparate the three artists are individually, and how their unique schools of thought actually blend together beautifully. On tracks like this first single, you can hear how each artist compliments the other, as they flourish in the studio, sending the listener deep into the kosmische jazz stratosphere. I could not recommend this one enough.

Fans of 75 Dollar Bill, Joshua Abrams and Moebius & Plank are surely going to love this record. Preorder yours from AKP Recordings today.

Vague Plot – “Cyclic” (Island House Recordings)

We’ll leave you with the latest offering from good ol’ Island House Recordings. “Cyclic” is the exciting lead track from the debut album by the new hot jam outfit, Vague Plot.

Vague Plot consists of Zachary Cale, Phil Jacob (Psychic Lines), Ben “Baby” Copperhead, Uriah Theriault (of Woodsy Pride), and John Studer (also of Woodsy Pride). The group started as a jamming outlet for this gang of Brooklyn-dwelling friends as the world started to wake up again after the pandemic.

With blaring sax skronk and ringing guitars, the group stretches out in a reserved, yet loose way over a propulsive beat that keeps the band chug along in a mechanically repetitive groove. Fans of stoic post rock and minimalist kosmische musik will surely dig this.

Just you wait ’til you can hear the whole album. Click here to preorder yours today!

-KH