Released November 28, 2025 through Fire.File under: rock/folk

In 1977, against a background of the staunchly conservative and authoritarian Queensland government of Joh Bjelke-Peterson, The Saints launched one of the first true punk albums with the immortal I’m Stranded. Emerging from the pub rock scene, and then comprising of Ed Keuper (guitar), Ivor Hay (drums) and Chris Bailey (vocals) they had developed their own unique sound, employing loud and fast guitar and drum rhythms, angry and vicious vocals, typically punk in both appearance and attitude.

Fast forward to 2018, where a new version of The Saints, comprising of long-time Saints drummer Pete Wilkinson and You Am I guitarist Davey Lane, as well as a slew of the best contemporary talent they could fins in Sydney at the time, gathered to record the final album in their catalogue, posthumously on what would have been Bailey’s 69th birthday weekend, November 28th 2025. The resulting album is much more restrained than The Saints’ earlier jaunts into punk, but following on from Bailey’s solo career, countrified, folky, and sombre, complete with pianos and horns.

Lyrically, the album reflects the yearning and introspection of a life full of regrets. From track 7, A Vision of Grace:

“Cinematic dreams aren’t what they seemA distorted realityActors on a stage, a parodyPantomime illusionAnd when the night comes downI know where I will go, with whom I’ll be

They’re not real the way you are to me”

THere’s something very Australian about Long March Through the Jazz Age; the album encapsulates the Australian mythology of open space, dusty countryside, vast outdoors and immensely long drives across the featureless outback, the dinky pub front-room corner crowded in with a local pub act, complete with sticky beer-drenched carpets, pool tables and rickety chairs. Alongside this is the post-punk angst that formed Bailey’s launch into music over 50 years ago.

Long March Through the Jazz Age, to me, plays like a testament to all Bailey and his many band members, past and present, achieved for so many years across his career, and a eulogy to his musical prowess.

Listen to “Long March Through the Jazz Age” on:Apple Music }|{ Spotify }|{ Tidal

Released November 21, 2025 through Leaving Records All Genre.File under: classical guitar/jazz

Brazillian born American guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento drops his 10th full length album since 2020, and his 13th album all-up, with a stunning international collaborative album Cavejaz. An album in 2 parts, the first collaborating with Paolo Santos (of Ukati), and the second with veteran Japanese musician U-zhaan, giving us a truly global feast.

The album dances and waltzes through track after track of do Nascimento’s telltale 7 string classical guitar, accompanied by traditional Japanese and South American instrumentation, the combined result giving rise to a fusion of not only sounds, genres and styles, but of collective thought, at times exceeding the sum of its parts. Commonly called “jazz”, this album is so much more, verging on traditional, folk, classical, ambient and electronica, not so much in the tools used to make it, but in the way it is made.

A Pitchfork mini-review of the album says “The inspiration for the title of Fabiano do Nascimento’s Cavejaz was simple: The album ‘kind of sounds like music coming from a cave with water and organic elements,’ the Brazilian American guitarist and composer said in press materials, thanking his sometime collaborator Sam Gendel for the suggestion. The image bears out in a series of limpid compositions that sequester knotty bundles of guitar, tabla, and percussion in cavernous productions.”

If you are a fan of Fabiano do Nascimento, or of his collaborators, Sam Gendel, Paolo Santos, U-zhaan, Shin Sasakubo, or Iteberê Zwarg, be sure to check this one out.

Listen to “Steep Stims” on:Apple Music }|{ Spotify }|{ Tidal