The intriguing title of Microkingdom’s latest album, Three Compositions Of No Jazz, made me wonder if the Baltimore trio were making some kind of statement, serious or tongue-in-cheek, about their genre affiliations or how composed or improvised their music is. As it turns out, the title is a nod to both Anthony Braxton’s Three Compositions Of New Jazz and the ’70s post-punk “no wave” movement, and those reference points in and of themselves make a potent statement about where Microkingdom is coming from.

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Last month Mobtown and The Windup Space produced a week-long festival that highlighted (mostly) Baltimore instrumental bands. The festival was called NOVO (ie. No Vocals).

Russell (Windup’s owner and a generally swell guy who also makes a mean Jim and Coke) curated the shows (with a little help from us) and I recorded and mixed every night with Alex, with the plan to release the tracks on Aural States as an extension of the festival.

Some of the bands included Nathan Bell (Human Bell, Lungfish) featuring Ami Dang, Microkingdom, Jason Urick (WZT Hearts), Expanding Man, Yeveto, Insect Factory, Notendo, We Used To Be Family, JDay, Dustin Wong (Ponytail), The Water and members of the Out Of Your Head collective.

We had an awesome turnout and we’re already in the planning stages for 2011. Props to David at TeamAdelle for all the hard work on the visuals and design and Tedd Henn from HennPict for the wonderful photography. Here are some audio samples of my favorite performances. You can stream and download the entire festival over at Aural States.

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I recently mastered a Baltimore compilation for SpliceToday.com. When Zach came to me asking if this is something I’d be in to, I didn’t even hesitate. We love Baltimore bands and the community they enrich, but Baltimore bands covering Baltimore bands! That’s just too good to be true.

Crossing genre lines, this mix tape reflects the beautiful diversity and vitality of the Baltimore scene. Caleb Stine covers Small Sur. Small Sur covers Wheatie Mattiasich. Mickey Free covers Wye Oak. And Wye oak covers Rod Lee. It’s like one big musical do-si-do. We love it! And you can download it for free. Look out for a Volume 2 coming soon!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Little Dreamer f/ Victoria Legrand by Jones (Future Islands)

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Dance My Pain Away by Wye Oak (Rod Lee)

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Two Mantras by Caleb Stine (Small Sur)

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Love those pretty Beach Boys harmonies at the end of Two Mantras! You can just drink it.