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.

What Was Twitter, Anyway? | The New York Times

Happy 100th Birthday, 16-Millimeter Film | The New York Times

[T]oday, as high-definition media saturate our lives, some directors choose 16 millimeter precisely for its rougher look. It reminds us that what we’re watching is not the world as is, but filtered and transformed, with great creativity, through a chemical process.

In Retrospective New Album, Angel Bat Dawid Cries Out for a Jazz to Come | I Care if You Listen

The Doleful Minimalism of Max Richter | The New Yorker

Richter’s pieces exude a gentle fatalism, a numbed acquiescence. Don’t worry, be pensive. As we sleepwalk toward global disaster, these algorithmic elegies promise that we will dissolve into mist before the abyss opens.

And Now Let’s Review…: A.O. Scott conducts his own exit interview as he moves to a new post after more than two decades of reviewing films. | The New York Times

Fan culture is rooted in conformity, obedience, group identity and mob behavior, and its rise mirrors and models the spread of intolerant, authoritarian, aggressive tendencies in our politics and our communal life.

Inventories of Light | The New York Review

Changes in color are registered cumulatively, as if each plane were taking an inventory of the light hitting it. How [Miyoko] Ito was able to consistently produce this surface effect is one of the most dazzling and confounding aspects of her work.

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Mary Lou Williams | The New York Times