Grex-Auntie + Tebs; Geomancy Records, 2026

 

The last time that Disaster Amnesiac crossed paths with Oakland CA based Grex was during the sickeningly manipulated time of Autumn 2020, and thankfully those darkened days are in the rear view mirror. At least for now anyway. I'm thankful for recently receiving news of Auntie + Tebs, the new recording from guitarist/vocalist Karl Evangelista, keyboard player/vocalist Rei Scampavia, and drummer Robert Lopez. These three, along with some pretty well considered guests, comprise Grex on this album, and they all submitted top notch performances for it. For starters, the guitar playing of Evangelista. Let's consider his sounds that resemble at times radiation as on Nikki Swango or their searing attack on Hera Syndulla. Then there's its ability to steer collective improvisation on Rita and give distinctive solo statements on Atomized!. Disaster Amnesiac has been familiar with Karl's playing for over a decade now and I can testify that he's continued to develop his musical language on the electric guitar. Can't see him stopping that any time soon, either. It's the Jazz Way and Karl Evangelista is one of its proponents. He has a really captivating Battle Rap style of vocal delivery, and it's all over Auntie + Tebs too. They describe topics of really lived life and the passions/struggles contained therein. Nods to Val Wilmer and Milford Graves are fascinating too. Rei's keyboard playing rises to the high bar set in the guitar department. Percolating sounds on Rise and cool Prog strokes on Toodles being fine examples of this, or the spooky moods displayed on the title track. Rei sings more than raps, which really works in contrast to Evangelista's vocal performance. The lyrical focus sounds to have changed as it's less impressionistic and more worldly than on the last Grex LP.  At the drum seat, Robert Lopez holds things down, drawing from his broad tool kit of drumming approaches. Very appealing to this listener are his European Improvisation chops on Auntie + Tebs II and his deep focus grooving on Auntie + Tebs.  His swagger gets metallic on Full Mantis and one just has to delight in the snares being turned off for the tune as well. As stated, there are guest appearances on Auntie + Tebs. Bobby Bradford plays some cool cornet on Midas while Zoh Amba goes positively Ayler-ish on Atomized! in a seriously bonkers Free Jazz breakdown. Auntie + Tebs has many and varied moods and blends from minimal Funk to drone-ey dirges and nightmare Trip Hop to the stated free zones and liminal Hip Hop corridors. It's a fantastic album of urban musical fusions. Take note of it when it drops physically this September, because it's a very noteworthy new statement from this long lived trio of creative musicians. 

AIDS Wolf-Harsh Human Style; Skin Graft Records, 2026

 

On the one time that Disaster Amnesiac was aware of AIDS Wolf playing near me, there was some kind of schedule conflict on my end that made it so that I could not attend. A dude that I ran frequently with at the time did go to the show, and his assessment was simply "they were cool". If you know or knew S., you'd already be appraised that he's a man of very few words, and his capsule review potentially spoke volumes about his perception of the live AIDS Wolf performance that he'd just seen. It's recalled that the band's reputation for insane, unhinged sets reached far and wide. I'm sad that I didn't ever get to take in an AIDS Wolf show, that's for sure. That being said, AIDS Wolf has remained a band that's listened to often enough in these parts, and the news earlier this year of an archival release of unheard material was received with great enthusiasm. That release is Harsh Human Style, and Disaster Amnesiac has listened to it a lot, especially recently as there were a few days of being able to really blast it at high volume on account of having mi casita to myself while Mrs. Amnesiac was visiting with a pal in a different part of the state. A doom-ey riff kicks off Sixty Eight, one that's paired initially with a pounded snare drum and some kind of vocalized beseeching. The drum kit playing gets gradually more beat centered as singer Chloë Lum joins in with higher register intonations. Eventually drummer Yannick Desranleau pounds the track home and guitarist Alexander Moskos marches along with him. Is Lum singing in a language of her own devising? The players start mixing things up right away on Sixty Nine, an example of less is more as regards the drumming. The guitar makes a cool racket atop the machined hits until everyone decides to battle for the space. Eventually a cowbell-centered groove takes the lead. Disaster Amnesiac can't recall any No Wave with a cowbell, but then again I haven't heard everything that mastering engineer Weasel Walter has produced and presumably he's utilized one at some certain point. Still, that's a first for this fan. AIDS Wolf does their version of straight up Hardcore on Sixty Six. The guitar lines swoop like engines being gunned while the drums scatter and skitter. Lum continues with her surreal chanting as strings bend and twist. This track's wonderfully unbridled guitar performance makes an old blogger smile! Harsh Human Style concludes with Sixty Seven, and it's a big, bold No Wave statement done correct in terms of that genre. This is not to imply that the track is a knock off, for it is not. It's just that as I've listened it's always been clear to me that AIDS Wolf are firmly a No Wave band and a lot of their music has pointedly No Wave gestural figures and that's fine because they did it so incredibly well. Guitar turbulence that melts away in the face of the lyrics, ones that drip with mystery. Some type of hook arises again from the strings as the AIDS Wolf melee groove deepens before it too breaks down for one last time. Chloë's lyrics sound as if she's running down reasons to dislike someone, but that's just conjecture because they're still mostly indecipherable. Finally, some strings echo and the (presumably) final AIDS Wolf statement is over after a mere fifteen minutes or so. Oh how Disaster Amnesiac wishes to have been able to have changed my plans on that evening in 2009 in order to have gotten over to 'frisco and seen them jam out live! Sacre bleu! 

Black Sun Ensemble-Whirlpool Ocean; San Jacinto Records, 2026

 

When liner note writer and co-producer of Black Sun Ensemble's Whirlpool Ocean Fred Mills first encountered the band, Disaster Amnesiac was likely also just hearing about them also, via Forced Exposure magazine, and only just down the road from him in Virginia. After that, though, Fred went on to get to know Black Sun Ensemble and its main figure, Jesus Acedo quite well, while they just remained an imagined sound for this listener. Thankfully, that situation changed recently as Whirlpool Ocean is affordable and easily accessible. Yes of course I was going to grab a copy and listen to it. 

The sense that's gotten from the writings of Mills and Rich Hopkins is that Jesus cut a chaotic path throughout his earthly stay. What's also becomes clear after repeated spins of Whirlpool Ocean is that his musical intelligence and creativity cut diamond bright as long as his perceptions were not beset by what was at one time called "demons" and currently more summarized as "chemical imbalance". Let us pause here to acknowledge the travails that Jesus Acedo endured before continuing on to the musical vision that was quite clearly a gift that he had. 

Now, having paused, let us continue on and talk about the main focus of Whirlpool Ocean, that being the guitar playing of Jesus Acedo. The album is full of examples of what made him such a special player. There are the crazed tones on Baby Serpentine Love Sea, the wild solo action at the end of Dangerous Pussy, his off the cuff hitting on Dove Of the Desert, his feedback mastery on Children Look Like Burnt Paper and the shredding action of Lord Of the Fleas. This album abounds with examples of his cold mastery of the electric guitar and its sonic potentialities. Jesus was clearly a player that could execute anything that he heard going on within his musical imagination. That he had such a grooving and supportive rhythm section from Odin Helgison on guitar, Mike Glidewell on bass and Ratshit on drums certainly did not hurt his musical efforts. The ways in which this band grooves and shakes and rolls and rocks on the album is always compelling. Just dig on their Sonoran style Harmelodic pulsing on Blues For Rainer In C Minor and the Surf/Spy Music tones of The Hunger for ample evidence of just how greased Black Sun Ensemble could be when they were hitting right. For further convincing one can spin the title track or the very SST 1987-88 of 667 or It's Not The End Of The World with its driving, Prog Funk moves and its elastic syncopations. This was a tight group that pushed and pulled and drove its music into highly creative zones of musical exploration, led by a player who was clearly touched by some divine fire and inspiration. 

It saddens Disaster Amnesiac to realize that, despite being resident in the home town of Jesus Acedo, I will never get a chance to hear him play live. There's consolation, however, in knowing that Whirlpool Ocean and its fine, powerful playing is easily accessible. Its sounds will continue to enhance my views of Tucson. That said it would rock in whatever town where it gets played. 

Live shot(s) #230!

 

All shots taken at Che's Lounge Tucson 7/2/26.

Below: Goggles bring primitive Psych Rock with a great guitar player.

Above: Stetson Heat Seeker are out on tour from Seattle. Seriously tight rhythm section and incredible guitar solos. Bringing the tenor sax rockin' spirit of the PNW to America! Get out and see 'em!

Below: Marta brought things back to the desert earth with their simple songs. A wonderful change in the Sonoran nighttime. 

Above: It's a fact that Working People cannot put on a disappointing show. They're getting tighter and tighter. New t-shirt design by drummer Dave is a winner! 

Live shot(s) #229!

 

Shots taken at Che's Lounge Tucson, 6/27/26. 

Below: Smoker Dad are a powerful road band that get down with authority. Great harmonica playing too.

Above: Family Worship Center present well crafted American song forms. This band is a cooker!

Both of these groups are currently touring the country. Get out and see them if you can. 

Live shot #228!

 

The Mermen, Stork Club Oakland CA 2012. 

Lob Instagon-Blues For Nobody; Love Earth Music Records, 2026

 

Musicians and music fans of a certain stripe within the general areas of southern California, northern California, and Arizona will know who Disaster Amnesiac is talking about when I'm talking about Lob Instagon. Lob's been an underground music scene denizen for decades, one who has been actively producing and promoting at a very approachable, d.i.y. scale. While I can's speak to Lob's personal feelings, the sense that I've always had from interactions with him is that he cares deeply about creative works and the people who make them, and does his best to accommodate their aspirations when they deal with his organizational proclivities. Lob has had his own project, Instagon, going for quite a while as well. Instagon is fascinating because it's a long running concern that has never had the same personnel twice, and this after close to nine hundred performances. It's a point of pride for the man behind Instagon and it certainly keeps things fresh for him as I'd imagine. A few weeks back, while doing business in Miami, AZ, Disaster Amnesiac was presented with Blues for Nobody, this year's Instagon release, and it must be stated that it may be his deepest record yet. Blues for Nobody is a record that fuses tight/loose jams by various Instagon lineups, deeply strange Electronic Music explorations, and plenty of recitations by Lob of several of his poems. As for the latter, it's clear that Lob has evolved into an expressive and compelling poet. His spoken words describe situations of personal dilemma, sepia'd memories, strange dreams/nightmares, and the sublime states attained from love. His delivery is always on task, even when a given piece is characterized by steam of consciousness attack. Lob's voice, somewhat gravelly now, has a gravitas that is well earned. On that front he has evolved into a true Beat Poet and Blues for Nobody is quite enjoyable for that. Regarding the former, the jams show groups of players who clearly are in simpatico with Instagon's titular leader. The jams at Miami's Thee 23 Skidoo bar, where Lob is the musical director/booker, must be getting legendary! Taken as a whole, Blues for Nobody is an undeniable statement from Lob Instagon: he's making great poetry and music and sound art, and I hope it's not for no one out there. Be a somebody and give it a listen. Lob's earned that consideration a hundred fold.