Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/30/06

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EFTERKLANG: Under Giant Trees CD (Leaf) - The marriage of electronics with real orchestral instrumentation (strings, brass, and so on) applied by Efterklang to create these pieces of precise, minimal, almost cinematic sounding electronica was conceptually solid, but a somewhat less than scintillating listening experience. Better luck next time.

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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/28/06 - 4/29/06

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PLANTS: Photosynthesis CD (Strange Attractors Audio House) - Plants are a new and appropriately named project from Portland Oregon. Centered around the husband-wife team of Joshua and Molly Blanchard and supported by a variety of guest musicians, Plants use a wide array of instruments (cello, saw, banjo, organ, bells, recordings of “found sounds” and, of course, both acoustic and electric guitars) to create these eight tracks of rich drones and fragile acid folk. Although there’s certainly nothing groundbreaking about material on “Photosynthesis”, there’s no denying its charms as a soundtrack for mindlessly gazing at the smoke as it floats away through the filtered light of the trees on a breezy, but hot, summer day.


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/26/06 - 4/27/06 ...and a brief book recommendation, too!

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TRAINER, PHIL: S/T CD (Underground Masters) - This CD reissues the debut album by singer-songwriter, Phil Trainer. Although this was recorded and released in the UK in 1972, Trainer was an American and the material on this release certainly reflects the well-produced, mainstream leaning pop emanating from the studios of SoCal during that era. In a fashion somewhat similar to that of the Travel Agency (whose 1969 LP on Viva I recently reviewed), the 10 tracks on this CD almost constitute a sampler of the various styles of contemporary pop and rock from the period. So, among the disc’s highlights you have “No No No “ a pop rocker with tasty fuzz-wah leads, the easy West Coast pop psych of “She’s Gone West”, the more uptempo, yet primarily acoustic-based “In The City” (which sounded reminiscent of Stephen Stills’ early solo work), the folkish showcase for dulcimer “Leave Me Alone”, and the rocking braggadocio of “Stud”. Honestly, several of the tracks on this album pander disgustingly to the goal of mainstream pop success, but the remaining tracks, which, admittedly, still rate as “guilty pleasures”, are pleasurable, nonetheless, and, in no small part, that is due to the stellar instrumental support Trainer receives from members of the legendary UK underground group, Trees. All that being stated, this was still barely a “keeper” for me and probably not worth the fare for anyone who is not a pretty dedicated student of obscure 60’s sounds.


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Might I also take a moment to make a positive recommendation for the new book by Christopher Hitchens, “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything". Although Hitchens’ verbose and academic writing style prevents this from being an “easy read”, it is, nevertheless, an excellent book. The arguments it contains provide unbelievers with more ammunition regarding the nonexistence of god with which to confront believers. More importantly, it details well the dangers and damages which result from allowing the organized bodies (i.e., the many churches of the various religions, especially those dangerous, control freak “fundamentalists” of all stripes, not just Muslim!) of these disparate believers in what are, at best, “fairy tales” and, at worst, outright lies purposefully created in order to control and subjugate the masses, to completely dominate all aspects of our personal lives and collective culture(s).

It is this issue, not its major subsidiary industry of distraction and coercion, the “Global War On Terror” (as the organized religions of the warring world, by and large, have historically supported, even if indirectly at times, many similar actions on all sides!), that is really the great issue that needs to be confronted, the battle that needs to be won in our time!

In The Clubs!

Last night I had the honor to witness one of the all-time geniuses of the guitar, Nels Cline, in action at Yoshi’s in Oakland, CA. Performing in a trio setting with Devin Hoff (whose interplay on bass with Cline on several pieces was nothing short of amazing!) and Scott Amendola (percussion and some very tasteful electronic treatments) as the “Nels Cline Singers” (of course, there were no vocals), Cline was masterful throughout two mind-blowing sets. A wide range of material was covered: straightforward, yet modern, Jazz guitar interpretations of compositions by the late, great Andrew Hill; somewhat minimal, yet spacious, free jazz experimentations; precise and beautiful post-rock stylings; and incendiary outre rock extravaganzas, often punctuated by blasts of extreme experimental electronics. In summary - two great sets which displayed three amazing improvisors using all of their collective powers to create an assortment of challenging and genre-blurring sounds. A sonic Tour de Force!

Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/25/07

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ALEX DELIVERY: Star Destroyer LP (Jagjaguwar) - All the advance hype, which made references to Krautrock icons such as Can and Faust, caused me to check out this debut LP from Alex Delivery. Unfortunately, this heavily electronics-based set of tunes bore, in my humble opinion, little resemblance to the seminal sounds produced by those legends. Rather, the majority of the material on this release just sounded like sub-par electronica, lacking both the flow and charm which characterizes the best pop-oriented electronica and certainly not pushing any boundaries of hard core electronic experimentation, either. Ultimately, this didn't even interest me enough to "burn and return", it's just getting returned. Can?!? Don't believe the hype!


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/23/07 - 4/24/07

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SILVESTER ANFANG: Echte Vlaamse Geiten LP (Eclipse) - After many limited releases on CDR and cassette, this is the second proper full-length release from the prolific Belgian free psych collective Silvester Anfang. Armed with an arsenal of acoustic and electric instruments, the group (who describe their music as “funeral folk”) create a dark, druggy mess of improvised pieces, ranging from the lumbering, lo-fi, heavy psych of “Satanische Slang Vernietig De Aarde” to the excellent droning basement psych raga “Mag Ik Eens Met Uw Viool Spelen”. As is often the case with recordings made by such collectives, there are certainly some segments where things break down and the result is less than captivating. Overall, however, this is a relatively interesting and worthy addition to the collective body of work produced by the burgeoning international scene of free psych jam bands.


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/21/07 - 4/22/07

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WILLIAM PARKER AND HAMID DRAKE: Volume 2: Summer Snow CD (Aum Fidelity) - I was very impressed with Parker and Drake’s first duo release, 2001’s “Piercing The Veil”, so it was with much anticipation that I greeted their long awaited second volume of studio recordings “Summer Snow”. Once again, Parker and Drake use an interesting assortment of instruments (doson'ngoni, shakuhachi, dumbek, water bowl, talking drum, frame drum, gongs, and tablas, in addition to their normal tools in the Jazz trade, the bass and drum kit) to create these intriguing, hypnotic, and beautiful tracks which incorporate Jazz improvisation with pan-global ethnic musical traditions. Although they apply a similar basic approach and instrumentation, this material on this set is decidely more focused on quieter, more meditative pieces and, as a result, I found this to be, overall, somewhat less impressive than “Piercing The Veil”. Still, with excellent ethno-groovers like “Sky”, “Pahos”, and “Faces”, there’s plenty of material to satisfy those who crave unique, genre-blurring sounds.


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/18/07 - 4/20/07

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VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA: Wisdom Thunderbolt CD (VHF) - The prolific Vibracathedral Orchestra returns with another pleasing blast of their patented take on "Free Music", highlighted by stoney drones, bleating synths, noisy guitars, skronking horns, and improvised percussion racket. In fact, this release may be one of their more "accessible" titles (if such a term can properly be applied to any Vibracathedral Orchestra recordings!), with "A Natural Fact" and "Order Of The Broad Eraser" displaying moves that could be described as being vaguely "rock" in nature.


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VALET: Blood Is Clean CD (Kranky) - Murky, minimal drones and experimental tones provide the back drop for the hazy vocal meditations of underground veteran (JOMF, etc.) Honey Owens. While I’ll readily admit that the best tracks (the title track, which is highlighted by some excellent distorto guitar and “My Volcano’) are pretty intriguing, this release simply does not contain enough memorable moments to save it from a fate of “burn and return”!


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/17/07

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HUSH ARBORS: Since We Have Fallen LP (Harvest Recordings) - Hush Arbors is the mostly solo project of Keith Wood, who has performed with many groups, most notably Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Six Organs Of Admittance, and Wooden Wand And The Vanishing Voice. This deluxe LP package reissues early Hush Arbors material that was originally released as a limited edition CDR on Foxglove. The A-Side contains four tracks, ranging from the sublime blend of lush drones and experimental tones of the opening track "As The Spring Breaks", to the title tracks’s wasted acid folk, and the atmospheric acoustic guitar mantra “Blanca Peak”. A side long piece "Spell Against Demons" closes out the album. It begins with another tasty segment of improvised acid folk which continues to build until the percussion kicks in to propel layers of alien synth sounds. With “Since We Have Fallen” Wood has created a work which truly equals the best output of his many well known peers.


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/16/07

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APOTHECARY HYMNS: Trowel And Era LP (Locust) - I'm just now catching up on this 2005 debut full length from former Court & Spark member Alex Stimmel's solo project, Apothecary Hymns. On this release Stimmel takes elements of indie rock, "American primitive", 60's British psych and folk, and 70's major label rock (which, I know, sounds potentially bad, but is incorporated tastefully by Stimmel) to create a diverse range of excellent pop and rock tracks. Over the course of the album's 9 tracks there are solid takes on contemporary indie rock ("Abandoned Factories"), acid folk ("The Father"), retro-sounding popsike ("Watching The Bay"), late 60's/early 70's English "group folk" ("The Marigold" and "A Sailor Song"), and, even, some over the top fuzz boogie ("All True Love Is Happiness"). In summary, "Trowel And Era" is a well-crafted and stylistically diverse set that's not to be overlooked and I look forward with great anticipation to future releases from Stimmel's Apothecary Hymns.


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/15/07

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DAVID S. WARE QUARTET: Renunciation CD (Aum Fidelity) - This CD captures the David S. Ware Quartet performing mostly new material live at NYC’s always stellar Vision Festival in 2006. The opening track “Ganesh Sound” is an excellent celestial Jazz slow burner on which Ware is the only soloist. Unfortunately, I was significantly less impressed with the second piece (which, ironically, I would assume was intended to be the set’s centerpiece), the 18+ minute “Renunciation Suite I”, which I found to be a rather disjointed composition. The quartet quickly regains their fine form on the next track “Renunciation Suite II”, an incendiary freedom chase highlighted by some amazing interplay between Shipp and Ware. The next piece “Renunciation Suite III” also features Shipp, this time in an incredible duo with Parker who masterfully applies the bow to his bass and together they create music of transcendent beauty. “Mikuro’s Blues” is another dose of classic Ware on tenor - soulful, powerful, and very lyrical. After a reprise of “Ganesh Sound”, the album closes with “Saturnian”, a composition that was somewhat similar in structure to “Renunciation Suite I” and, as a result, also failed to satisfy. While not an unqualified winner from start to finish (a little editing might have been desirable, too!), “Renunciation” is still a solid live document from one of the Jazz world’s best quartets.


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/14/07

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BRANCA, GLENN: Symphony Nos. 8 & 10 (The Mysteries) CD (Atavistic) - Atavistic’s recent repress of several titles from the catalog of avant-garde composer Glenn Branca caught my attention and renewed my interest in investigating more of his work. In addition to his more rock oriented work (The Ascension album and material from his groups Theoretical Girls and The Static), I already had a couple recordings of his symphonies, specifically numbers 3 and 6, so I decided to purchase the Symphony Nos. 8 & 10 (The Mysteries) CD. I’m certainly glad I did, too, as the four tracks on this release (two symphonies, each with two movements) contain some of his best work.

For this recording Branca assembled an orchestra consisting of a drummer, a bassist/keyboardist, and 8 guitarists. Together they create the trademark dense, yet still dynamic, wall of evolving riffs, drones, feedback, and tones (all propelled forward in many segments by simple, but relentless, percussion) on which Branca has built his reputation. It seems as though each movement gets more harsh and jarring as the album progresses and, personally, my favorite track was the sublime Second Movement of Symphony Number 8, which strikes the best balance between droning, shimmering walls of beautiful sound and raw power.

If you’re not yet aware of Branca, this CD might very well be a good place to begin your explorations, as these seminal recordings are also among his most “accessible” (if such a term can really be accurately applied to any of Branca’s compositions) work and, for better or worse, clearly influenced the development the “post-rock” movement made so popular in recent years by bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor and Mono.



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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/10/07 - 4/13/06

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BROWN, ROB (QUARTET): The Big Picture CD (Marge) - While I was out on the road, I scored a copy of this rare (as if Rob Brown leads a lot of sessions and any of them are issued in large editions?!?) CD from the Rob Brown Quartet on France’s Marge label. This release contains six excellent and stylistically diverse compositions by Brown, who is supported on this recording by top notch trumpeter Roy Campbell and the all-world rhythm section of Hamid Drake and William Parker. While I’ve always enjoyed Brown’s unique tone and distinctive style as a player (and he is excellent in all settings on both alto sax and flute on this date), I’ve been somewhat less impressed with the majority of his recordings as a leader which featured his overly (in my humble opinion) academic free bop compositions. On “The Big Picture”, however, Brown’s compositions (and the resultant music created by the ensemble) strike an excellent balance between explorations of improvisational freedom and graceful themes. Personal favorites include the two tracks which best exemplify Brown’s increasing powers of compositional skill “Dawning” and “Wyoming Song”, the alto spotlight "Trio Unsprung", and Brown’s showcase for flute (a blues theme being an unusual, but, in this case, successful vehicle for flute) “Blues Thicket”. This is certainly my favorite release by Brown as a leader since “Breath Rhyme” (which was released almost 20 years ago!) and I‘ll look forward with great anticipation to see if future releases will continue to expand upon the promising sonic developments of “The Big Picture”.


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/9/07

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4 CORNERS: S/T CD (Clean Feed) - Portugal’s consistently interesting Clean Feed label returns with the debut release from 4 Corners, another project featuring the prolific Ken Vandermark; who performs on clarinet, bass clarinet, and is especially impressive on this outing with his aggressive tenor sound. This CD contains seven tracks, recorded very live (during a couple of quiet parts you can actually hear people talking, glasses clinking, and so on - where’s Mingus with his admonitions to be quiet when you need them?), in 2006 at the Jazz Ao Centro festival in Coimbra, Portugal.

Coming hot on the heels of “Oslo/Chicago: Breaks” by Vandermark’s Powerhouse Sound project (and even featuring the dynamic percussionist from the group’s Oslo set, Paal Nilssen-Love), 4 Corners covers similar sonic territory. Joining forces with accomplished bassist/composer/leader Adam Lane (who wrote 4 of the album’s 7 compositions and is masterful in all settings on the bass) as co-leader on this date, the majority of the material on this album (the soulful ballad “Lucia” being the one notable exception) once again incorporates elements of tough rhythm and blues, slamming funk, and rock to create a unique and hard hitting new Jazz sound. In fact, the main difference between the two releases that I can discern is that the 4 Corners recordings do not contain any segments that display the influence of dub or experimental electronic music that were integrated into much of the Powerhouse Sound material. Undoubtedly, this is simply due to the fact that, unlike Powerhouse Sound, this project does not feature any musicians such as guitarist Jeff Parker nor electronics whiz Lasse Marhaug to add such treatments. Instead, the additional textures in the 4 Corners sound are provided by the trumpet (as supplied by Magnus Broo, who is excellent throughout), which yields a somewhat straighter Jazz oriented final result. While not quite the pinnacle of genre blurring artistic achievement that the Powerhouse Sound set was, this is, nevertheless, an outstanding release from an exciting new project who deliver challenging and powerful new Jazz sounds for the 21st Century. Highly recommended!

P.S. - A very special fuck you to Manny Lunch and his non-customer service oriented store in NYC, Downtown Music Gallery, who didn't seem to be up to the heavy task of handling a simple two CD mail order request and who, when rightfully called on it, responded like a little child by banning me from ever patronizing his store again (as if!) in the (futile) attempt to prevent me from getting (again, as if!) this CD! Well, Manny, as you can see, I now own and am enjoying this fine release, so you really showed me, huh? Did you prevent me from getting this CD? No! Did you make any money off me? No! So exactly how did I suffer? I didn't! How have you won? Ya haven't! And how did I lose? I didn't! You and your pathetic store were the losers, as you got nothing and I now have exactly the items I was trying unsuccessfully to purchase from you! Whatcha gonna do next? Go on your knees to your buddy John Zorn to see if he can personally prevent me from ever buying any future Tzadik titles? Again, yeah right, as if...ya pompous ass!


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/8/07

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NVH/CHASNEY: Plays The Book Of Revelations LP (Yik Yak) - Friends Noel Von Harmonson (Comets On Fire) and Ben Chasney (Six Organs Of Admittance) join forces to deliver four tracks of super distorto noise that completely failed to satisfy. This LP is apparently super limited and does come in a deluxe fold out jacket, so, despite its utter lack of merit, it's bound to become a collectable. If for any reason you think that you'd appreciated this rarity more than I did, then, by all means, please contact me and I'm sure we can arrange to get you hooked up with a copy - and for far less than the collector scum prices on eBay, too!


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/7/07

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V/A: Halleluwah - Festival Of Enthused Arts LP (Blackbird Presents/Yeti Magazine) - This super limited, vinyl only collection was released to commemorate the excellent multi-media Halleluwah Festival, which was held in September, 2006 at the Disjecta Interdisciplinary Arts Center in Portland, Oregon. A variety of artists who performed at the festival, both well-known and relatively unknown, contributed previously unreleased material (with the exception of Vashti Bunyan’s beautiful classic “Hidden”) that covers a wide range of styles from Stoogian psycho-rock (Nudity) to straight folk (Michael Hurley) and everything in between. Highlights include Romancing's hallucination inducing mix of experimental deep space sounds and ethereal female vocals "Mind Jail", the lo-fi, circa 1989, bedroom indie-pop of the Holy Sons’ “Torture Chamber”, Alela Diane’s modern take on authentic country blues sounds “Tatted Love”, and Sir Richard Bishop's reverb drenched guitar soli raga "Dhumavati". Like most collections of this type, all the tracks on this LP aren’t uniformly great, but, overall, both the variety and quality of the material is quite excellent.


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/3/07 - 4/6/07

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LAS GRECAS: Gipsy Rock CD (Underground Masters) - The reissue of this 1974 album from Las Grecas has been hyped as being like, "the Spanish Erkin Koray". Such a description has to be one of the most inaccurate, hyperbolic, and outright unethical attempts at generating revenue in recent memory. Sure, the material on this CD does contain a few solid exploito-psych and hard rock influenced moves, but make no mistake, this is purely a studio concocted serving of pop and rock ear candy. Not even fantasies about the two little Spanish hotties (who must be grandmothers by now, anyway!) who front this, err, "group" nor the fact that I used to live in Spain (and, therefore, have a heightened openness for/interest in all things Iberian), could salvage this reissue from my trade pile.


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 4/2/07

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V/A: The Thai Record LP (Mississippi) - The mysterious bootleggers from the Mississippi label (who apparently were also responsible for the African folk collection "Love Is Love") return with another interesting dose of western-influenced indigenous folk music (if that's not an oxymoron!), this time from Thailand. With nondescript, paste-on cover art and absolutely no information provided about who, when, or where any of this material was recorded, this LP has simply come to be known as "The Thai Record" or, alternately in some circles, "The Thai Orchestra". Although there's really no way to be certain if this is a compilation of one person/group's work or a collection of tracks from a variety of performers, I've arbitrarily decided to file it, for better or worse, as if it is a collection of material from "Various Artists". Well enough of the fuzzy, at best, attempts at record keeping on my part, on to the music. This album contains six tracks of incredible music which seamlessly blends the song structures and instrumentation (khaen, phin, and lots of indigenous percussion!) of traditional Thai folk music with the instruments and elements of modern western musical forms to create a unique and hypnotic sound. If you’ve enjoyed previous compilations of music from Thailand on labels such as Sublime Frequencies or the Nonesuch label’s much earlier “Explorer” series (in fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that some of the tracks on this LP had already been reissued on some previous compilation, as some of them sounded very familar to me!), then “The Thai Record” is an essential release to add to your collection. Outstanding!


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Music I Liked And Didn't - 3/29/07 - 4/1/07

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SAPAT: Mortise And Tenon LP (Siltbreeze) - Sapat is yet another project to emerge from the loose and expansive collective of Louisville, Kentucky area musicians that have issued albums under such monikers as Kark, the Phantom Family Halo, and so on. While some of their releases have found favor with these ears (Phantom Family Halo) and others haven’t (Valley Of The Ashes), all have contained loose, improvisational jamming of uneven quality. “Mortise And Tenon” the debut LP from Sapat on the revitalized Siltbreeze imprint (!) continues in that, err, “tradition”. The majority of the tracks contain a unique blend of rough, organic “American Primitive” instrumentation, loose basement psych jamming, and Krautrock kosmisch groove, the best of these being the awesome “Maat Fount”. There’s also a couple of more structured, more rock oriented tracks. My personal favorite among these is “Lovely And Free”, a solid dose of lo-fi, angular, art punk that almost sounds as if it could have been created by some band of freakish brethren a couple hundred miles north and 30 years ago. While not uniformly great, “Mortise And Tenon” is probably the strongest signal yet to emenate from the Black Velvet Fuckere universe.


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