Wading into the liminal spaces of seashores and tide pools with Flung on "Apricot Angel"
A tiny history of the Gladiators' early 2000s reggae set in SF; Sunfear haunts Dark Entries Records; plus Dregs One, Goth Lipstick, heru, Ozer, and SMARTBOMB
Anyone miss when this newsletter featured “classic” records? Here’s a great one—with a long-winded back story to introduce it.
A couple weeks ago I saw LA duo Chasms open for Telefon Tel Aviv at Gray Area, and after the show I stumbled upon this article in which the bandmates selected their favorite dub tracks. This article, of course, sent me down several rabbit holes researching the discographies of several iconic roots reggae and dub techno artists. One of their selections was “Soul Rebel” by the Gladiators, a 1970s Jamaican classic originally written and performed by Bob Marley, which inevitably led me to this turn-of-the-millennium recording of the Gladiators performing live at the Maritime Hall in SF.
The what hall? I wondered the same thing.
An independently operated 3,000-capacity concert hall at 1st and Harrison in SoMa, Maritime Hall didn’t last long. Soon after opening in 1995, the venue operators apparently had to contend not only with an antagonistic city police department and false perceptions that raves and metal shows bred violence but also the monopolistic promoter Bill Graham Presents (BGP, which was bought by national entertainment giant SFX in 1998, which in turn was bought by Clear Channel in 2000, which rebranded as iHeartMedia in 2014):
In a music scene where the mainstream has been dominated by Bill Graham, the Maritime Hall is one of the few competitors to have faced down the monopoly and scratched out a place for itself.
Maritime has done that by appealing to disenfranchised music fans. The hall specializes in hippie rock, reggae, hip-hop and rap—music, for the most part, roundly ignored by the big-time music business.
— Joel Selvin, SFGATE, 2000
Before closing six years later in the middle of the dot-com crash of 2001, however, Maritime Hall managed to play host to a long list of stars and emerging artists alike, from Lee “Scratch” Perry, the Beastie Boys, James Brown, Willie Nelson, Herbie Hancock, and the Chemical Brothers to Papa Roach, Incubus, Ozomatli, and the String Cheese Incident. Many of the reggae shows were recorded, and the Gladiators one is a joy. Legendary dub producer Scientist is at the controls and the band—made up of veterans and younger players—is in top form. The beat never stutters. Not once.
Peace,
ronny
LIMINAL EXPERIMENTAL POP
“The most focused thing that I’ve ever done. But it's funny because, in my mind, I'm already onto the next one.”
It’s fitting that she’s already moving on, because Apricot Angel is all about transitions. Transitional spaces, transitional times, transitional ways of being, and musical transition. Out now on Virginia/NYC label Citrus City Records, the new album from Oakland-based multi-instrumentalist Flung, aka Kashika Kollaikal, is a meditative, meandering collage of sparkling experimental pop inspired by the Bay Area’s most transitional ecosystems: shores and tide pool. Not just serving as “an important imagined site for explorations of her transness,” these liminal spaces directly inform the music, with special attention paid to the transitions between tracks as much as the changes and transformations that occur within them. An exploration of nature, the world, self, and between states, Apricot Angel couldn’t sound any riper.
Listen to Flung’s performance on Lower Grand Radio.
Read our interview with Kashi.
Join Flung, Mars Kumari, and Pearl Onion for the album release at the Knockout.
LUXURY NOIR FOR THE TORTURED
Octopus by Sunfear, the project of Istanbul-based multidisciplinary artist Eylül Deniz, is a gorgeous addition to the catalog of SF’s Dark Entries Records. The album drips with a luxurious noir caliber, hugging the day close like velvet. Mysterious, sometimes discordant melodies ooze from poignant guitar strings and dark synthesis like a bittersweet sap; they trickle into the mind, numb, then touch the heart with the aid of haunting vocals. Gritty and heart-wrenching, Sunfear achieves a brooding, aquatic goth sound suitable only for tortured souls.
— Elise Mills
MORE SELECTIONS
Buchlaworks: Module III by Beaunoise
ambient, drone, experimental, Berkeley
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I paint you, I paint you, I paint you by Goth Lipstick
experimental, hyperpop, noise, San Francisco
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Paradise by Healing Potpourri
experimental, pop, San Francisco
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ACROSS THE ASTER FIELDS by heru
beats, boom bap, hip hop, Bay Area
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Spaceships on the Blade by Larry June
hip hop, San Francisco
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Heartbreak in Paradise by Ozer
hip hop, San Francisco
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SMARTBOMB x LOUD CINEMA 2021 ft. Imogen TV, Chris Keys & Daoud Anthony, Sandu Ndu, IDHAZ, and Xyla
electronic, hip hop, jazz, soul, Oakland
LIVE
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[hip hop] Album release for Aspirations by Power Struggle — Aug 19 at Kapwa Gardens
[rock] Madeline Kenney, Shannon Lay — Aug 19 at Presidio Theatre
[club] Garage Access ft. Chrissy, Nightware, Dan Frandisco — Aug 19 at Monarch
[club] Fight for Our Rights: Abortion Access Fundraiser — Aug 19 at 1015 Folsom
[experimental] Flung, Mars Kumari, Pearl Onion— Aug 20 at the Knockout
[experimental] SMARTBOMB x LOUD CINEMA — Aug 20 at Gray Area
[club] Second Session ft. Dan the Automator, DJ Nu-Mark — Aug 20 at Public Works
[folk] Freight Fest ft. Azuah, Diana Gameros, and more — Aug 21 at Freight & Salvage
[club] Amor Digital x FAKE AND GAY ft. Ms Nina — Aug 21 at Crybaby
[ambient] Sound Bath ft. Destani Wolf — Aug 22 at Grace Cathedral
[rock] Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Fake Fruit — Aug 22 at August Hall
[latin] Son Rompe Pera, Chika Di, Philthy Dronez — Aug 23 at the New Parish
[metal] King Woman, Cel Genesis, Ritual of Mine — Aug 23-24 at Crybaby
[rock] Sour Widows, Landlady — Aug 24 at Martial Arts
[folk] Loving, Mae Powell — Aug 25 at Starline Social Club