Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: Saturday

Multi-instrumentalists Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich are almost done with their week day album series. For the penultimate one, Saturday, they decided to go long with a sprawling extravaganza, consisting of 14 parts starring off-beat characters like Cousin Waffleboat and a stoner named Benge Deltondo. Anything was allowed to happen in telling this wordless story wherein normal rules no longer apply, the very fabric of civilization comes apart at the seams, and being a billionaire has become meaningless.

The freaky free jazz sits comfortably next to ringing guitar interludes, loops go wild after a couple of repeats and there is no Hollywood ending in this dense fabric over stacked layers. Both musicians must have been grinning like Cheshire cats when they decided to give the track another pass to find space to even more shards of noise. Exhausting and exhilarating stuff that makes listening to Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica a walk in the park.

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: Bask 2

When multi-instrumentalists Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich teamed up with drummer Bill Ray for Bask, an album with demented funk, they had so much fun that they got back to the studio for a second helping, simply called Bask 2, so buyers of the first one did not have to think about snapping it up post haste.

The musicians settle into a groove pretty much instantly, now that they know what this particular branch of their output is about. Conversation is key, with Kennealy as the straight guy in the vocal department and Radulovich circling around him, with scattershot surrealistic snippets. The overall mood is a bit more laidback, a dance record that will get the condescending musos seriously considering to move their asses to, after the mainstream lovers have vacated the dance floor in bewildered disarray.

HCTF's best of 2025 (10-6)

• 20-16
• |
• 15-11
• |
• 10-6
• |
• 5-1

» Best of playlist

» Listen here

HCTF's annual list of the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come. As per usual many genres are represented. Here Comes The Flood covers a lot of ground and it shows in this eclectic, final tally. Caveat: only albums that got a review are in these listings. I listen to a lot more music than I have time to write about.

Today: countdown from number 10 to 6.

Please shop at your local record store. Most of the stores have a pretty good website where you can order your stuff. It might even be cheaper than the big ones on the 'net. The folks who work there know their stuff and can recommend artists you might like.

Buy directly from the artist, attend live shows and stop by the merch table. And be sure to tell your friends about that great new act you discovered. Word-of-mouth can't be beat as the prime source to discover new music. Algorithms always play it safe, which is fucking boring.

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: "Meeting the Kid for Lunch" video

Marcelo Radulovich used quite a bit of AI to create a video for Meeting the Kid for Lunch. It is a track from Friday, an album he recorded with fellow multi-instrumentalist Mike Keneally: "[It] is quite gentle, with a skewed rhythm as the equivalent of the kid fidgeting and playing with his food."

» keneally.com
» titicacaman.com

HCTF review of Friday

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: Friday

Multi-instrumentalists Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich take it slow on Friday, the fifth album of their week day album series. Maybe their minds were already engaged with the looming promise of a relaxing weekend for this one. That does not mean it is all smooth sailing. A Shower is interrupted by stops and starts, as if the water refuses to come out. No One's Off is a conversation piece, with the bass and keyboards having the upper hand, as the two dominant voices drowning out the other participants.

The two avant-garde musicians keep it close to home. Meeting the Kid for Lunch is quite gentle, with a skewed rhythm as the equivalent of the kid fidgeting and playing with his food. Si and Am is obviously inspired by the Siamese cats from Disney's Lady and The Tramp, in which the guitar strings were bended to get a feline sound. They bring the album to a close with the dreamy Simon and Garfunkel in Anza Borrego, inviting the listener to join them for a stroll through that desert park in California, just in time to catch the sunset.

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: Thursday

7

For Thursday, the fourth album of their week day album series, multi-instrumentalists Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich went back a couple of decades, using cassettes that were recorded decades ago and use them as stepping stones for twisted party songs. It is all firmly rooted in the avant-garde and post-rock brackets, but some it is accessible for the uninitiated.

Kicking off a radically reconstructed version of the French chanson Seul Sur Son Étoile - Kenneally was only 11 when he made the original tape - the pair bonded over using loops, distorted guitar and eclectic percussion. The Wedding Song is a freaky jazz Zappa-esque showstopper that will confuse the revellers, should it ever be played at such an occasion. Titi Bar at Noon is an excursion that Steely Dan never had the nerve to try. Pushing themselves of a cliff and somehow manage to land safely is no mean feat, but for these musicians it comes off as another day at the office. It is OK to be jealous.

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: Wednesday

In their quest to record an album for each day of the week multi-instrumentalists Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich choose Wednesday to become an avant-garde concept album of sorts, easing in the listener with the dreamy AM to wake up too and putting the listener to bed with PM as night has fallen. In between those two lengthy soundscapes the pair find themselves messing around a bit with a child's toy (Paper Airplane) and having a friendly encounter with a fabled former Can vocalist (Damo Suzuki On a Bicycle).

A bit more subdued than its predecessor Tuesday, Kennealy and Radulovich set out to tell a story without words, safe for the free-flowing conversations in Spanish that have found their way into some of the tracks. It is an album about a day that never actually happened, more likely the summation of various daydreams that deserved to be captured in ambient post-rock musings.

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: Tuesday

In 2024 multi-instrumentalists Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich started recording a string of albums, all which were named after a day of the week. Monday was released in January of that year. They are currently putting the finishing touches on Saturday. As a guitar, bass and keyboards player Keneally has been at the vanguard of adventurous music for decades and Radulovich has been juggling a wide variety of bands and projects, all of which share an unabashed originality, exploring the outskirts of jazz, drones and rock. Playing catch up with this project, let's have a look at Tuesday, on which the pair explores ambient textures and post-rock.

Whether it is Brian and Budd's Breakfast, with soft notes and echo as accompaniment for the sunrise that the pair might have been watching, or the glistening bass lines propping up Blue Piano, Keneally and Radulovich always take care to put each piece of the puzzle in the right place, making it next to impossible to trace the lines between them. A pair of decent headphones is recommended to fully appreciate the intricacies.

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: "Aviarium" video

Marcelo Radulovich used quite a bit of AI to create a video for Aviarium. For some reason he ended up with a bunch of kids holding different bundles of vegetables - which did not make any sense considering the prompts he gave to the software. He decided to use it anyway.

It is a track from Monday, an album he recorded with fellow multi-instrumentalist Mike Keneally: "a sonic adventure, on which they perused their instruments as machetes to cut through the dense yet familiar territories marked jazz, rock or electronic to find new pastures to roam. The free-flowing compositions can a clear a room pretty much instantly, without only the diehards remaining seated, while trying to nod appreciatingly to the challenges put up by a backbeat that refuses to stay put. It's music that is very much alive, without showing patience or compassion for people questioning its meaning. It just is.".

» keneally.com
» marceloradulovich.com

HCTF review of Monday.

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: "Lower Deck" video

Marcelo Radulovich used quite a bit of AI to create a video for Lower Deck. It is a track from Monday, an album he recorded with fellow multi-instrumentalist Mike Keneally: "a sonic adventure, on which they perused their instruments as machetes to cut through the dense yet familiar territories marked jazz, rock or electronic to find new pastures to roam. The free-flowing compositions can a clear a room pretty much instantly, without only the diehards remaining seated, while trying to nod appreciatingly to the challenges put up by a backbeat that refuses to stay put. It's music that is very much alive, without showing patience or compassion for people questioning its meaning. It just is."

» keneally.com
» marceloradulovich.com

HCTF review of Monday

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: "Always Make It So" video

Marcelo Radulovich used a lot of puppets and a bit of AI to create a video for Always Make It So. It is a track from Bask, an album he recorded with fellow multi-instrumentalist Mike Keneally: "a maze, a musical kaleidoscope that can induce dizziness but in a good way. It is a trip without any of the nasty side-effects, but once you're in, there is no way out. To be enjoyed in one sitting for maximum effect and enjoyment".

» keneally.com
» marceloradulovich.com

HCTF review of Bask.

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: Bask

Lightning never strikes twice, they say, but it does happen. Bask is the second collaborative album by multi-instrumentalists Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich and it does not sound much like their first Monday. There is quite a lot of demented funk on it, thanks to bringing in drummer Bill Ray, and some decidedly weird vocals can be heard in each track, with guest Donna Ray being in full-on freak mode a la Captain Beefheart on two of them.

Bask is a maze, a musical kaleidoscope that can induce dizziness but in a good way. It is a trip without any of the nasty side-effects, but once you're in, there is no way out. To be enjoyed in one sitting for maximum effect and enjoyment.

Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: Monday

Multi-instrumentalists Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich are a classic example of a meeting of like-minded musicians, who both have written "out-of-the-box" as the description for their art. The improvisations on Monday are left of left-field as they egged each other to keep the creative juices flowing (and boiling sometimes).

The album is a sonic adventure, on which they perused their instruments as machetes to cut through the dense yet familiar territories marked jazz, rock or electronic to find new pastures to roam. The free-flowing compositions can a clear a room pretty much instantly, without only the diehards remaining seated, while trying to nod appreciatingly to the challenges put up by a backbeat that refuses to stay put. It's music that is very much alive, without showing patience or compassion for people questioning its meaning. It just is.

Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins: no Woodstock show

Guitarist and keyboardist Mike Keneally won't be playing at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock on April 4th with his Beer For Dolphins sidemen (Bryan Beller on bass and Joe Travers on drums).

Live dates:

• 03/31 Kennett Flash - Kennett Square, PA
• 04/01 New Jersey Proghouse @ Roxy & Dukes - Dunellen, NJ
• 04/02 The Iridium - NYC, NY
• 04/03 The Iridium - NYC, NY
• 04/05 The Falcon - Marlboro, NY
• 04/07 The Guitar Sanctuary - McKinney, TX

» keneally.com

HCTF review of Scambot 2 + Inkling

Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins: tour dates

Guitarist and keyboardist Mike Keneally takes his Beer For Dolphins on the road for a short East Coast tour. Bryan Beller is on bass and Joe Travers is on drums.

Live dates:

• 03/31 Kennett Flash - Kennett Square, PA
• 04/01 New Jersey Proghouse @ Roxy & Dukes - Dunellen, NJ
• 04/02 The Iridium - NYC, NY
• 04/03 The Iridium - NYC, NY
• 04/04 Bearsville Theater - Woodstock, NY
• 04/05 The Falcon - Marlboro, NY
• 04/07 The Guitar Sanctuary - McKinney, TX

HCTF's best of 2016 (10-6)

Where's ...
David Bowie, Radiohead, Nick Cave? Or that album that you liked so much?

Simple. HCTF picked the 20 best albums that were actually reviewed on this blog.

HCTF lists the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come.

2016 was a memorable year for music lovers.

• Vinyl is back.
• The majors are still running around in circles, trying to keep their cashflow alive.
• streaming is now big business (for the artist not so much).
• "Self-released" has become a regular tag. Even big time acts go for crowdfunding to cover the costs of making an album, sometimes aided by a small network of indie labels to carry the load of distribution.
• Software is catching up with the studio as a means of home recording - untrained ears will have a hard time to hear the difference.

One thing will never change: independent music is where it's at when you are on the look out for something interesting to listen to.

Sadly some of the greats are no longer with us - David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen as well two of the finest sidemen - Scotty Moore and Bernie Worrell. As 2016 drew too a close underrated Stus Quo rhythm guitarist Rick Parfitt and singer George Michael also checked out.

Today: countdown from number 10 to 6.

Go here for 5-1 | 15-11 | 20-16.

Mike Keneally: Scambot 2 + Inkling

photo: Per Sviggum

BEST OF 2016
6
HCTF

The still unfinished Scambot trilogy by guitarist and keyboardist Mike Keneally is a project that is moving at snail's pace. The first album came out in 2009, after five years of work and now the second part has finally seen the light of day. The first bite and pieces for Scambot 2 were assembled 17 years ago. He played in Frank Zappa's 1988 touring band as the resident stunt guitarist (he could play anything that was composed by FZ). Take into account the influence of his other musical heroes, Todd Rundgren and The Beatles, and you have a recipe for a bewildering bunch of songs, ranging from prog-metal to acoustic musings and everything in between.

Scambot 2 is a story, but there is no need to fully grasp the story line - no one can, but when approached as a study in mood swings it comes close to the musical equivalent of a shouting match between Jackson Pollock and the Pre-Raphaelites. There are wild guitar excursions with prog rock time signatures and skewed, gentle pastoral passages that will keep musical students throwing up their ams in amazement and horror. What the fuck is going on? Keneally is part Svengali and part storytelling uncle, a shapeshifter, a serious composer and a musical prankster.

Joe Satriani: on tour in Mexico and South America in December

Guitar maestro Joe Satriani will wrap up 2016 with a tour in Mexico and South America in December. He will be playing with Marco Minnemann (drums), Bryan Beller (bass) and Mike Keneally (keyboards & guitar).

Live dates:

• 12/01 Mexico City, Mexico @ Teatro Metropolitan
• 12/04 Santiago, Chile @ Teatro Coliseo
• 12/07 Sao Paulo, Brazil @ EDA (Espaco das Americas)
• 12/09 Curitiba, Brazil @ Net Live Curitiba
• 12/11 Porto Alegre, Brazil @ Teatro Araujo Vianna
• 12/13 Montevideo, Uruguay @ Teatro de Verano
• 12/15 Cordoba, Argentina @ Plaza de la Musica
• 12/16 Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Luna Park
• 12/17 Rosario, Argentina @ Teatro El Circulo

» satriani.com

Joe Satriani: pro-shot video @ Hellfest in Clisson, France

Watch Joe Satriani perform @ Hellfest in Clisson, France on June 18th with Marco Minnemann (drums), Bryan Beller (bass) and Mike Keneally (keys & guitar).

Caveat: the first four minutes sound like shit (there is even a guy going "one-two, one-two" from the sound feed from an adjacent stage), but otherwise it's fine.

Setlist:

1. Shockwave Supernova
2. Flying In A Blue Dream
3. Ice 9
4. On Peregrine Wings
5. Crystal Planet
6. Cataclysmic
7. Summer Song
8. Always With Me, Always With You
9. Satch Boogie
10. Surfing With The Alien

Joe Satriani: "On Peregrine Wings", new album "Shockwave Supernova"

Guitar maestro Joe Satriani shares an audio only video for his new track On Peregrine Wings from his new album Shockwave Supernova, recorded with Marco Minnemann (drums), Bryan Beller (bass) and Mike Keneally (keys & guitar).

Shockwave Supernova will be released on July 24th. An extensive European tour kicks off on September 27th in Nantes, France.

Live dates:

• 09/17 Zénith Nantes Métropole, Nantes, France
• 09/18 Espace du Crouzy, Boisseuil, France
• 09/19 Théâtre Fémina, Bordeaux, France
• 09/20 Casino Barriere, Toulouse, France
• 09/21 Silo - Marseille, Marseille, France
• 09/22 Amphithéâtre de la Cité Internationale , Lyon, France
• 09/24 Grand Rex, Paris, France
• 09/25 Théâtre Sébastopol, Lille, France
• 09/26 Limburg Hall, Heerlen, Netherlands
• 09/27 De Roma, Antwerp, Belgium
• 09/28 De Oosterpoort, Groningen, Netherlands
• 10/05 Teatro della Luna, Milan, Italy
• 10/06 Teatro Obihall, Florence, Italy
• 10/07 Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy
• 10/08 Palariviera, San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy
• 10/11 National Palace of Culture, Sofia, Bulgaria
• 10/12 Sala Polivalenta, Bucharest, Romania
• 10/13 Sala Polivalenta, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
• 10/18 Torwar, Warsaw, Poland
• 10/19 Rock Cafe, Tallinn, Estland
• 10/20 Circus, Helsinki, Finland
• 10/22 Debaser Medis, Stockholm, Sweden
• 10/23 Skraaen, Aalborg, Germanynmark
• 10/25 Circus Krone, Munich, Germany
• 10/26 Laeishalle, Hamburg, Germany
• 10/27 Admiralspalast, Berlin, Germany
• 10/28 Theaterhaus, Stuttgart, Germany
• 10/29 Salle Metrole, Lausanne, CH
• 10/30 Ruhrcongress, Bochum, Germany
• 11/01 Manchester 02 Apollo, Manchester, GB
• 11/02 Birmingham Symphony Hall, Birmingham, GB
• 11/03 Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, GB
• 11/04 Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield, GB
• 05 Cardiff St. David's Hall, Cardiff, GB
• 11/07 Southend Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea, GB
• 11/08 Bristol Colston Hall, Bristol, GB
• 11/09 Portsmouth Guild Hall, Hampshire, GB
• 11/10 Eventim Hammersmith Apollo, London, GB

» satriani.com