Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Worlds Within Live (2021); Jason Blake feat. RWB – Candles Burn (2024)

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Good afternoon, y’all. Last time, we talked about the most recent release by Canadian neofolk trio Musk Ox and the news that their music was being featured in the CBS medical/mystery drama Watson. (In case you missed it, episode 2, which broadcast about two weeks ago, set their song “Weightless” against a montage wrapping up the various storylines near the end of the show.)

Anyway, at that time I had promised more music from Musk Ox members would be forthcoming, and so here we are. The group’s cellist (and co-writer/arranger) Raphael Weinroth-Browne put out his first solo record back in 2020, which at the time was met with plenty of acclaim on this website. But the following year, he released a brand new version of the whole thing re-recorded live, which we’ll take a look at here. And to cap things off, we’ll also check out an EP the cellist created in collaboration with Chicago-based Warr guitarist Jason Blake, just about eleven months ago.

 

Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Worlds Within Live (self-released, 02 July 2021)

 

Jason Blake featuring Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Candles Burn (7d Media, 05 April 2024)

 

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Musk Ox – Inheritance (2021); Nathanael Larochette – Old Growth (2023)

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Good afternoon! If you’ve been a longtime visitor around these parts, you’ll remember Musk Ox, from all the times we’ve previously discussed that Canadian folk trio as well as some of its members’ numerous other musical pursuits.

Well, yesterday I received an interesting bit of news from the group:

 

Hi Everyone!

We hope you are all well, safe, thriving and taking time to nurture whatever endeavours bring you fulfillment.

We just wanted to share some exciting news. After years of people telling us that our music would be great for tv/film we are thrilled to announce that several of our songs will appear in the new medical/mystery series Watson on CBS! The second episode airs tonight (Sun Feb 16th) at 9pm EST and features our song “Weightless.” We’re honoured to have been asked to provide songs for this series and are grateful for the opportunity to reach new audiences with our music. If you happen to catch the episode tonight, take a video while our song plays and tag us @muskoxofficial.

 

Musk Ox – Inheritance (self-released, 09 July 2021)

 

Nathanael Larochette – Old Growth (self-released, 21 July 2023)

 

For the uninitiated, Watson is a brand-new show (the pilot episode premiered on CBS and Paramount+ last month, with regular weekly episodes scheduled to begin as of last night) which stars Morris Chestnut as the titular doctor. In this modernized adaptation, Watson is moving on from the canonical death of his former partner in crime-solving, Sherlock Holmes, whereupon he has started a medical facility — a fictional foundation set right here in Pittsburgh, PA — that appears (based on the one episode that has aired thus far) to specialize in rare and unusual ailments, thus calling upon the doctor’s famed investigative skills.

While I don’t usually find myself drawn toward medical dramas, I’ve always been a connoisseur of all things Holmes-related, so I decided to investigate that pilot when it aired and have been looking forward to the continuation of the story for these past couple weeks. The series can be found streaming here, where I was already planning to check out the second episode tonight, but now I’ll also have my ears attuned to catch the inclusion of the Musk Ox material mentioned above.

As I’ll be stuck at work for another few hours still, in the meantime it seemed like a perfect time to revisit the 2021 album on which the song in question was originally released. And while we’re at it, it never hurts to pop in to see what else these musicians have been up to lately, so I’ll toss in one member’s solo album as a bonus in this article, and then spend some time with another member’s output shortly thereafter.

 

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Riffs for Palestine (2024 Compilation)

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Good morning and HAPPY MONDAY, everyone!

I did promise recently that my Top 24 of 2024 list was nearing its completion, and I’m pleased to announce that it has finally been published.

We’re going to dive head-first into writing about some of those top releases from last year and from years past, as well as trying to catch up on some of the hits of today, as I am determined to put an end to the lengthy semi-hiatus I’ve been stuck in for roughly the past two years (and intermittently over the past dozen or so years?)…

The world is such a fucked-up place these days, and it seems it’s only getting worse, and like most of you I have no idea what the hell to do about it. But at the very least we can try to cope, and if listening to music helps in any way, then I will try to do my small part in getting the word out there.

One quick housekeeping note, and while we’re on the subject of how fucked-up the world is: as I was finally putting 2024 to rest I came across one more charity benefit compilation from last year that I had forgotten to share here at the time…

 

Various Artists – Riffs for Palestine (Beaver Mosh x Fiadh Productions, 29 July 2024)

 

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Syrup Moose Records: V (2024 Compilation)

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ICYMI: at some point in the latter half of 2024, Syrup Moose Records officially announced that they were taking a well-deserved break during 2025. After averaging at least one release (digital and/or cassette, sometimes CD and/or vinyl too) for their first 2-1/4 years in existence, they have hit the pause button on anything new over the course of this whole year.

Honestly, I think this is a brilliant idea and more people should follow suit. It might give me a slight fighting chance to eventually one day dig myself out of the pile of stuff on my to-do list I have been compiling over the past dozen or so years, stuff I’ve heard and enjoyed enough to write something about to share with the folks who come here to read these words, but which I’ve failed to find the time and energy to do so (yet).

Anyway, because they’ve never half-assed anything, Syrup Moose closed out last year with one hell of a bang: their latest and greatest compilation V — the fifth in a series (not including their first anniversary Year of the Moose) — which tips the scales at a whopping 108 tracks (yes, you read that right, one hundred eight), totaling roughly EIGHT HOURS of material as varied as the label’s first two years of releases have been.

 

Various Artists – V (Syrup Moose Records, 27 December 2024)

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Welcome to the Spectrum (2024 Compilation)

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Dear gentlepersons of the internet: once more I bid you hello and good day. Things have been pretty quiet around here for a bit, which has been (as per usual) the result of extensive craziness happening BTS IRL. So much, in fact, that I’ve missed the year-end deadline for compiling my year-end list by a couple of weeks now. I’ve got it narrowed down to a manageable collection of contenders, just need to revisit them to cut that number in half and then put them in order — which I’ll hopefully accomplish in the near future, now that I’ve finally emptied my inbox of everything from 2024.

Speaking of which, over the past two months we’ve been dormant here, Food Desert Recordings put out another of their esteemed fundraising compilations, which I’ll take a rare minute of downtime to bring to your attention. Welcome to the Spectrum benefits The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a very worthy cause, since unlike some other well-known organizations, it does not view Autism as a disease to be cured or eradicated…

 

Various Artists – Welcome to the Spectrum: A Compilation to Support the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (Food Desert Recordings, 27 September 2024)

 

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Love Songs (2024 Compilation)

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Good afternoon // happy Friday, everyone!

It’s been an eventful month here at Valley of Steel HQ. After a full year of inactivity on the bird site, earlier this week I finally pulled the plug and deactivated my dozen-year-old Twitter account, which was pretty much the last remnant of my “social media” presence outside of lurking around a handful of Discords.

And on the subject of housekeeping-type news, the renewal for this website’s domain (valleyofsteel.net) is coming up later this month — and with the limited amount of activity I’ve had here in the past few years, I’ve been seriously considering discontinuing that registration. The website would remain, but it would revert back to its original address of https://valleyofsteel.wordpress.com. So you might want to update those bookmarks, just in case. I guess if anyone felt very strongly about the dot-net address sticking around, you could always go buy some shit through this Amazon affiliate link. I just don’t know if my heart is still in it enough, to keep dumping money just to keep a personalized domain name anymore.

But two things I can say for sure my heart IS still in — sharing good music with you folks who come here to read these words, and especially sharing things that are supposed to help other people. In a two birds / one stone situation, here’s a benefit compilation that came out last month, but which I just discovered yesterday (and which I just had to buy before I had even gotten halfway through listening)…

 

Mother Anxiety / Various Artists – Love Songs (26 July 2024)

 

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Syrup Moose Summer Sale

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Syrup Moose Records Summer Sale

 

Hey folks. We’ve talked about our “woke, broke” Canadian friends at Syrup Moose Records a few times over the past couple of years, and if real-life bullshit wasn’t such overwhelmingly real-life bullshit every day, and if I had more time to spend writing about music and sharing it with all you nice people, I can guarantee we’d be talking about our favorite sticky cervids far more often.

But I wanted to let you all know that this week only, they’re running a special summer sale on nearly all the physical releases currently available in their store, also including pre-orders. Better hurry, though – the sale only lasts through this weekend!

 

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All Birds Return (2024 Compilation)

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It is Bandcamp Friday. It’ll be the last one until after summer vacation, so make it count!

One item I’d like to share with you was just released today by Dutch label Rope or Guillotine: a cassette compilation of exclusive tracks to benefit people of Gaza.

 

Various Artists – All Birds Return: a benefit compilation for Gaza (Rope or Guillotine, 03 May 2024)

 

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Know Justice, Know Peace (2024 Compilation)

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It feels like we just did this — but the goodly folks at Food Desert Recordings are at it yet again.

Released TODAY, Know Justice, Know Peace is a brand new compilation benefitting National Bail Out.

 

Various Artists – Know Justice, Know Peace: A Compilation in Support of National Bail Out (Food Desert Recordings, 26 April 2024)

 

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Sky Within Us (2024 Compilation)

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Good afternoon, Dear Reader.

I’d like to share another fundraising musical compilation with you today, one that supports a cause very near and dear to me as an avid birder. (FWIW, earlier today I hit a fun milestone, since the beautiful song of a Warbling Vireo drew me outside to spot my 100th different species of 2024!) …

Canadian label Polar Seas dropped this collection of gorgeous ambient works earlier this month, with any proceeds collected benefiting the BirdSafe.ca / FLAP Canada.

 

Various Artists – Sky Within Us (Polar Seas, 05 April 2024)

 

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