Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 7/31/07



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ZELIENOPLE: Stone Academy LP (Root Strata) - I recently scored this very limited (only 300 copies) vinyl version of this 2006 release from Chicago’s Zelienople on the Tarentel curated Root Strata imprint while I was in San Diego. The majority of the 9 tracks on this LP feature Zelienople‘s unique and pleasing blend of slow, drifting, acid folk and thick, hazy, ambient drones, of which “Fuck Everything”, “More Mess”, and (the somewhat more focused and polished sounding) “When You Were 9” were my personal favorites. The band takes their music to a higher plane, however, on “Bird’s Face”, delivering a dense drone rock epic which is clearly the highlight of the album. There are also a couple of dronescapes and less successful, dark, experimental improvisations to round out this set. While the Zelienople crew certainly isn’t breaking any new ground, I’ll readily admit that I found the lush, psychedelic beauty of “Stone Academy” to be quite seductive and, therefore, worthy of repeated spins.


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Monday, July 30, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 7/10/07 - 7/30/07



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V/A: Tokyo Flashback, Volume 6 CD (PSF) - Back in 1991, the initial volume of PSF’s “Tokyo Flashback” blew the minds and opened the ears of many uninitiated afficianados of various forms of underground culture (including yours truly - thank you PSF!) to the glories of the modern Japanese underground music scene. This now legendary series of “psychedelic samplers” continues to be among the scene-defining documents of the Japanese underground and, 16 years later, has now reached its sixth volume.

Although those halycon days of the early 90’s when all the insane sounds of these mysterious and now, in some cases, almost mythical groups can never be completely recaptured, “Tokyo Flashback, Volume 6” is, perhaps, the closest throwback to the original “Tokyo Flashback” in the sense that almost all the groups presented on this set are completely new. In fact, only three of these groups even contain members whose names I recognize from previous bands - Ogikubo Connection (which features Fukuoka Rinji of the Overhang Party), S. A. R. O. D. (Mondo Bohachi from Aural Fit), and Kawaguchi Masami’s New Rock Syndicate (Kawaguchi has long been a major player in the scene as leader of the Broomdusters, LSD March, and Miminokoto).

As always, a wide variety of musical styles are represented, from acid folk and arty no-wave to acid punk and beyond! Highlights include: the awesome blast of heavy psych from Kawaguchi Masami’s New Rock Syndicate “Oblivion”; the sweeping, lysergic pop grandeur of “The World Of Mirror” by Hananoyouni; the noisy, experimental rock of S. A. R. O. D.’s “Bobby-Dick”; a couple of rough hewn, acoustic guitar based folk pieces, Onna’s “Prophet” and the Ogikubo Connection’s cover of the late Kaneko Jutok’s “Staring At Blood”; the 60’s acid-flash influenced psych rocker “Mugen” by Yakouchu; and the fragile acid folk of "A Moonlight Night" by Genshi.

“Tokyo Flashback, Volume 6” is certainly the best release in this series in many years and has renewed my interest in a scene that had, in my humble opinion, grown somewhat stale (with a few limited exceptions, most notably, Boris) and had suffered a bit, as well, from over exposure (helloooo - Acid Mother’s Temple?!? and, yes, I’ll reluctantly admit, the aforementioned, Boris, too!). I look forward with great anticipation to hearing more from these exciting new artists. Until then, however, I strongly encourage anybody who is even remotely interested in the Japanese underground music scene to pick up “Tokyo Flashback, Volume 6” for a satisfying aural fix!


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Monday, July 09, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 7/9/07


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SUNRAY (Featuring Sonic Boom): Ocean 12” EP (Earworm) - Sunray is the long-running project of Jon Chambers. Since 1993 Chambers has collaborated with an ever changing cast of supporting players and the material they’ve created has sporadically been released on a variety of compilations, 7”s, 12”s, and even a couple of full-length LPs/CDs. This 12” EP was released on the UK imprint Earworm in 2006 and contains three tracks.

An amazing 13-minute cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Ocean” which features the talents of Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom takes up the entirety of the A-Side. The track starts out in a manner that’s fairly faithful to the original, with Sonic’s trademark vocals being accompanied by some pleasant, distorted guitar riffage, before heading to the heart of 3AM with a segment of beautifully layered guitar feedback, droning organs, and psychedelic synth treatments. Although Sonic Boom is no longer involved in the proceedings, the homage to Spacemen 3 continues on the first track of the B-Side with the languid, acoustic guitar based, lysergic pop strum of "I Wish You Were Mine", which sounds very much like it could have been composed by Jason “Spaceman” Pierce. "One Note Jam (Reprise)" is a rather dodgy recording (for example, there’s lots of crowd noise interrupting the music; recreating, unfortunately, the all too often real experience of seeing bands in clubs!) of some fairly standard live psych jamming that closes out the set. Frankly, it is hard for me to view it as being anything more than something to fill out the remaining space on this EP. This final flawed track, however, is of little consequence to the overall merits of this brief set, as the return of Sonic Boom, coming as close to recapturing the glories of the classic, late-80’s Spacemen 3 sound as he (or anybody else, for that matter!) has in years, makes Sunray’s “Ocean” EP an essential addition to any collection of contemporary psych sounds.


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Sunday, July 08, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 7/3/07 - 7/8/07



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SILVESTER ANFANG: Kosmies Slachtafval CD (Aurora Borealis) - Only a couple of months after “Echte Vlaamse Geiten” was released by Eclipse, prolific Belgian free psych collective Silvester Anfang returns with another dose of their trademark “funeral folk”. “Kosmies Slachtafval” contains two lengthy improvised jams. The disc is kicked off with the appropriately confrontational "Mijn vader was een wolf en mijn moeder was een hoer"; a title I don’t believe you necessarily need to be from Belgium to read and understand! The track opens with an outstanding segment of heavy distorto-psych jamming which gives way after a few minutes to a more “free music” oriented style which is highlighted by droning keyboards and driving, improvised, percussive racket. The second and final track “Konfituur voor de Satanjeugd” begins with a lengthy segment that features an almost trance-inducing combination of late night organ drones, percussion, and somewhat minimal, meandering guitar work. Around the fifteen minute mark, a biting electric lead guitar enters the mix and soon conjures up a prominent, steady drum beat, which transforms the track into an awesome, droning, basement psych raga that continues until the close of the album. Dark and druggy, “Kosmies Slachtafval” is good 'til the last glow of the coal in the bowl!


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Monday, July 02, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 7/2/07


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MICHAEL GARRICK TRIO: Moonscape CD (Trunk) - This CD reissues an early (1964) and rare (only an edition of 99 copies!) 10” release from British Jazz pianist Michael Garrick. On these recordings Garrick works in a traditional piano trio setting, ably backed by Dave Green on bass and Colin Barnes on drums. This album has long been hyped by hard core Jazz enthusiasts as being an early example of British Free Jazz, but, personally, I’d say that’s a bit of an overstatement, as the material is split evenly between compositions of fairly straightforward, yet pleasing, piano-based Jazz and somewhat more abstract improvisations, which never really go too far “out”. Garrick is solid, though never overwhelming, throughout, with a very clean playing style and sound that is marked by an excellent sense of space and that classic, rich, grand piano timbre. Highlights include two bright, fairly uptempo tracks “Music For Shattering Supermarkets” and “Man Have You Ever Heard”, the slightly subdued, but beautiful theme “Sketches Of Israel”, and the best of the album’s more free-leaning tracks “ A Face In The Crowd”, which features some particularly transcendent interplay between Garrick and Barnes. While there are certainly no mind blowing revelations to be found on these recordings, the short length (22+ minutes) of this disc allows the somewhat limited charms of this set to be fully displayed without wearing out its welcome.


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Sunday, July 01, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 7/1/07



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MARC RIBOT: Asmodeus: Book of Angels, Volume 7 CD (Tzadik) - “Asmodeus” is the seventh release of material from John Zorn’s expansive second “book” (AKA The Book Of Angels) of compositions written for his various Masada projects. For this recording, Zorn assembled a trio of outstanding musicians to perform “rock” interpretations of ten pieces.

Led by guitarist extraordinaire and long-time Masada veteran Marc Ribot, who is given, no pun intended, rock solid support from the outstanding rhythm section of Trevor Dunn (Electric Masada, Fantômas, etc.) on bass and G. Calvin Weston (Ornette Coleman, James Blood Ulmer, etc.) on drums, this trio rips through an absolutely smokin’ set of material ranging from slammin’, but still tuneful rock (best exemplified by "Yezriel", "Mufgar", "Zakun", and "Dagiel") to metallic outre-jazz (personal favorites include the pummeling opening track “Kalmiya” and the scorching “Sensenya”, which closes out the album) of a high order. Throughout this disc, Ribot displays an impressive combination of technique, passion, and power, making this truly one of highlight’s of his extensive career and also one the most mind blowing releases in the Masada discography to date. A sonic tour de force, “Asmodeus” is not to be missed!


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Running Count For The Year

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