Episodes

Hey hey hey, Part 2 of The Magic Organ's 5 episode cycle of the best of 2024 is up and ready for your earholes. All genres all the time. Dancefloor, reggae, free jazz, stripper pole electronic music and dark epic rock -- we got it going on and hope you like it. If you have anything to say about it or want to counterprogram this hit me up, god forbid we break the corporate chains and communicate with one another. Thanks for listening. Excerpts from this episode: Becky Hill: Multiply Mighty ...

Let it begin! The mountain of turkey carcasses has been made (I did not contribute) and the best of year lists will start firing any day. If you have found this podcast then you might think our collective musical culture matters; it matters to me as the corporate music outlets are basically a bag of ass, we know dis. I consider myself to be the widest listening and hardest working new music podcaster in these here 50 states. You can see the variety pack on display in every episode and all thro...

I can't stand the holidays but this is my absolute favorite time of the year in terms of listening to music and finding new music to listen to during the dark days of winter. Year end lists, checking out how garbage-y the New York Times best of year list is, and then finding awesome heavy metal records in the comment sections of other year end lists. Good times for music obsessives. This here episode is the last episode before I rain down upon the masses my best of year list in podcast episode ...

The Magic Organ didn't vote for either murderous bastard that was on offer and it looks like we got the Orange Circus 2.0. The Magic Organ doesn't want his life to be dictated by this insane Orange Cheese Doodle so we're just gonna tell him to fuck himself and get on with what The Magic Organ does best, bust out the flavor pack. We kick it off with some aggro, there's gonna be a lotta aggro comin' up, and then we peep a poppish African tune that is just lovely, get on with an appropriately aim...

Best of the year music lists will start popping out a little before Thanksgiving and they will continue to trickle out into the first week or so of December and then a few stragglers towards New Years. It's looking like 4 best of '24 podcasts for The Magic Organ and maybe an honorable mention if I can squeeze one out. Those shits take time (I've already begun downloading and contemplating my choices), so there will be one or two more non best of '24 episodes before that. Hence the beginning of ...

There are many things we don't do here at The Magic Organ. We don't discuss tits and ass, we embrace ugly ass musicians. We don't celebrate rich musicians, in fact we think they're boring and they shouldn't listen to. We don't stay in our lane, we listen to all the genres and musicians who play all the notes! We do one thing, we bring the bangers, we let 'em out, we drop the mic! I get that might be more than one thing but just blur your eyes and pretend it's one thing, that's what 'Merka does....

This episode, set to go last week, was interrupted by Covid. It is never nice to have the 'vid, but it's receding and we're set to get the Magic Organ back out there. We kick it off with some metal from Thou (heavy metal is good for you, as is eating bitter vegetables), and head out with some funky and poppy hip hop from Rapsody, then a track from Fenya Rai, a group updating older Catalan folk songs. From there we get some some heavy post love diva dancefloor banging from Becky Hill and we must...

Oh, we've got an episode perfectly matched to the mood of late summer. Kick it off with some super funky techno, into some wild ass video game flavored African music, onto some highlife, into some Moroccan gnawa music, build towards the finish with some modern party reggae, and go out on the cumbia tip. You can't beat it with a stick, tbh. If you want to be on the show, if you're a music obsessive, hey just do it, hit me with 6 of your banging-est bangers and see if you make the grade. That's...

This summer has been fruitful in terms of new music and this episode is the kickoff of a flurry of episodes to conclude this season of listening. Whereas I found a ton of amazing African music last summer this summer the action has been spread across more genres. We kick it off with some funky techno, head into some sweet roots reggae, back into techno but a bit more raucous, into the indie, take a turn with some stripper pole electro funk and end up with some weird mostly acapella indie. Than...

Episode 82 kicks off with some minimalist instrumental funk, segues into medium laidback African music out of Senegal, dips into some dark indie from Big Brave, and on and on it goes for 13 minutes. The episode concludes with some electronic metal out of Kenya and nothing signifies where The Magic Organ is at more than a tune by an African metal musician that is distorted and aggro but surely is not typical metal! The Magic Organ is unaffiliated with the corporate bastards who are presently run...

There was music before the internet and a lot of it was really good. This week we feature tracks from Portugal, Russia, America, Israel, and Sweden. All bangers but the opening track is especially hot. Thanks for listening and stay safe out there. Excerpts from this episode: Shegundo Galarza: O Pezinho Ivan Rebreff: Cossacks Must Ride Lionel Hampton: Flying Home Lev Ran Choir: N/A (record face is in Hebrew) Ake Gronberg: Calle Schewens Vals Disco Around the Globe (Compilation): Dancing ...

A response to our last episode focusing on the sad ass music department picks at the New York Times. This by no means exhaustive set of bangers is part of The Magic Organ's continuing mission to present music that moves people, both asses and minds. We kick off with some delightfully funky dumpster electronic, pop out a nugget for all the rockers out there, head into some pumped up dancefloor melancholia, get the horns up with a track from Gatecreeper's new record, on and on and on. 13 minutes ...

Imagine if the New York Times recommended passionate music, extreme music, and music reflecting the human condition. But alas it is not to be. Today we cruise through the 8 of the NY Times' best tracks of the first half of 2024. If you disagree with my assessment of this bag of tracks, I will invite you on the podcast to discuss it if you make sense. Part of what makes being a sports fan great is the trash talking of athletes, journos and fans, while in the sphere of music the vast majority of f...

There's the good heat from bangin' new music and there's the bad heat that will f*cking kill you and sometimes we have both. Let's hope for more heat between the musical humans and the listening humans and less heat from the planet (which is our fault, the fossil fuel humans). Stay safe out there. Summer 2023 was full of world music hot rocks and we can only hope for a repeat of that in 2024. We kick it off with the eternally partyistic Omar Souleyman, hit a little hop from Armand Hammer, some ...

Welcome back and we are on the threshhold of the summer of '24. The new music is heating up not quite as fast as the climate but we're just pretending climate change isn't happening because it's a #sadface bummer. Another 13 minute music bomb from all over -- hip hop from Shabazz Palaces, traditional Mexican music from Cana Dulce y Cana Brava, onto some guitar driven world music/rock from Somaliland, some ambient cello business from NYC (go 5 boroughs!!), to some pop punk from Minneapolis, to t...

Episode 76! Could be a soft launch for summer '24 as we kick this episode off with the UK/Caribbean dancehall stylings of Flowdan with the track Do My Ting. He does his ting, I do my ting here at The Magic Organ, and hopefully you get in the ring and do your ting out there wherever you are. For the 80th gabillionth time, we are committed to quality and not genre, I would play more new indie rock and white people rock if there was more high quality indie rock and white people rock being released...

As I initially was constructing this episode I noticed the excellent space rock on offer from Okavango African Orchestra in track 3, and how the Brazilian MCs take American sounds and make them their own in the final track. All these various sounds and sonic subcultures slurping around the interwebz, picked up and checked out by other folks in other places and thereby changed even a wee bit as they spread. It's cool to see creativity in action. I ended up titling this episode Skills and Vibes a...

The Magic Organ returns and if you don't grok the whole 13 minutes (I estimate that to be 1 and one half to 2 toilet sittings depending on diet) make sure you peep the opener by Ahmed Ben Ali as I've been listening to this Liberian reggae dancehall gent do his thing and it is stylish. As usual lots of world music, but not exclusively world music and as we say at the Magic Organ it's not about genre it's about quality. If you want to guest on the show, hit me up, I would love to have a music obse...

Last week 90+ indie artists pulled out of South By Southwest (SXSW) as it's sponsored this year by defense contractor Raytheon and the U.S. Army. This episode features 6 of those indie artists. I understand my podcast has a small audience but anybody who hears these artists should support them and spread the word about them because they did something good and should be supported for it. Passing up money and high quality exposure is not common these days among musicians, in fact more often than ...

Greetings Magic Organ devotees!! Regular listeners know this is the part where I ramble in an entertaining manner, apologize for mistakes made in the recording of this fine podcast, and talk about how awesome this podcasts is. I believe I put the emphasis on the wrong syllable in the second track Basilisk, quality and transparency matter here at the Magic Organ (unlike Boeing!) and maybe I misprounced Mr. Andrew Ashong's name (track 5), I'm not sure. We kick it off with some energetic shit kick...

Episode 71, you can't stop the underground bangers -- it's a tidal wave!!! I can barely contain these 13 minute podcasts as they are bursting with farm fresh musical flavors and creativity. We kick it off with some outstanding guitar work out of the Congo, head into to some dub from a Puerto Rican musician, onto some ambient shitkicking out of Virginia, more reggae-dub flavors out of the UK, indie out of Washington DC (I make a little fun of the indie conceit but I do dig the tune), then wrap i...

America hates everything that doesn't make a ton of money, music maybe most of all. Who cares if 'Merka hates underground music, maybe deep down they realize what an utter crock of shit corporate music really is? Worse and less satisfying than a McDonald's burger, flatter too. We do what we do during every episode, we kick it without regard for genre, location, race or class. Starting with some female led hip hop, moving on to some more African music from '23, into the metal chaos, out into a m...

We continue with the celebration of all the great music that came out in 2023. Billy Woods continued with his sizzling string of hot records, the Kara Jackson record is beautiful, Homeboy Sandman is completely underrated and The Coral, so far into their career, released a great The Coral record. I'm a finicky fckr so for me to go on and on about how much great music came out in 2023 is a sign of how much great music came out in 2023! Check it out, spread it around. #culture #newmusic Excerpts...

Part 3 of The Magic Organ's end of year roundup is here and now. Be careful and don't shit your pants in complete and total amazement. Summer 2023 was an avalanche of incredible African music but other genres, most notably electronic music, were bumping along as well. And don't sleep on the Liturgy album, it's a banger. I say unto ye focus on quality and not on genre and that will produce much happiness for you in 2024. Excerpts from this episode: Groundation: Between Earth and Zion LCY: Be...