Irreversible Entanglements, ‘Nuclear War’ | NPR

“If they push that button,” declares Moor Mother, with a grounding menace, “Your ass gotta go.” There’s little trace of the festive absurdity that Sun Ra brought to that line, which suggested a party at the edge of apocalypse. But just as the threat of nuclear deployment has screamed back to relevance, Irreversible Entanglements gives “Nuclear War” a heavy-gauge upgrade — shape-shifting in and out of a groove, but always rooted in the terrifying hypothetical at hand. Bringing Sun Ra’s tune back into our orbit, the band creates a mutually assured apprehension.

Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Tiny Desk Concert

Orcutt brought along a who’s who of forward-thinking guitarists to perform these rowdy, giddy and shreddy pieces: Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza and Shane Parish, who transcribed the original recordings. From a frenzied hoedown (“Or from behind”) and feedback-humming drone-pop (“In the rain”) to something resembling Henry Cow playing Norwegian black metal (“In profile”) and paradoxically Brutalist complexity (“Or head on”), each song is a short burst of finger-flicked frenzy

With a new classical-only app, Apple frees the music from its metadata | Michael Brodeur for The Washington Post

Users can search by title, opus number, composer, conductor, orchestra, ensemble, instrument, period and soloist, among other parameters. Like a GPS for classical music, the app allows for highly detailed, deliberate searches, but its 50 million data points also facilitate easy discovery and a delightful sense of serendipity. A themed playlist from Khatia Buniatishvili will lead you in one direction; a “Track by Track” walk-through by pianist Víkingur Ólafsson through his album “Mozart & Contemporaries” will lead you in another.