It’s fairly uncommon for me to get jazzed about and anticipate new releases, especially since I’m still discovering old stuff I haven’t heard before (Krautrock and death metal being two recent interests), but there are a couple records with awesome potential coming out in the next month or two…

Boris with Michio Kurihara - Rainbow

I’ve liked Boris since I first heard Akuma No Uta a few years ago (which might make me a johnny-come-lately to long-time fans, but whatever) and I first heard Ghost (Kurihara’s band) shortly thereafter, their album Hypnotic Underworld quickly becoming a favorite of mine. So with that in mind, I’m interested to see what that sort of collaboration can cook up. Here’s hoping it’s more along the lines of the SunnO)))/Boris collaboration quality-wise than the Boris/Merzbow outing (though to be fair, I’ve only heard Sun Baked Snow Cave and not the newest one). Drag City is showing May 22nd as the release date on this one.

Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls & Before the Day Breaks

Harold Budd piqued my interest the first time I heard his and Brian Eno’s brilliant Ambient 2: Plateaux of Mirrors (still my favorite of Eno’s Ambient series) and I’ve listened to him fairly regularly ever since. Fast forward to about a year later and I casually hear the Cocteau Twins namedropped on a forum, realize I haven’t ever heard them, give ‘em a shot and fall in love with most of their discography. Early on in my discovery of the Twins, I came across with Moon & the Melodies, their collaboration with Budd. Shortly after that one, I discovered that CT guitarist Robin Guthrie and Budd had also done the soundtrack to the amazing (and disturbing) film Mysterious Skin. The Mysterious Skin soundtrack is one of my favorite albums, one of those rare ambient albums that manages to be both completely relaxing and musically interesting at the same time. Last I had heard, Budd had retired from the music game, going out on top even after 30 years of pretty consistent music, which while completely understandable, was a bit of a bummer. Then I googled Guthrie’s name one day to see what he was up to and found his blog and saw that he had not one, but two brand-new albums with Budd coming out, and better yet, very soon. While his blog isn’t showing any dates, the US release date appears to be June 12th. Can’t wait.