Sunday 28 February 2021

Friendship Next Of Kin – "Facets Of The Univers" (Goody – GY 30006) 1971


Hey everyone, this is that jazz immortal Selwyn Lissack's biggest album of 1971,even though it was recorded in London in 1969.....that's right, Selwyn Lissack!?.....the South African drumming legend?....oh forget it! I've never heard of him either,but that's nothing new in these 'ere parts guv'nor.
I spotted a rare appearance of Kenneth Terroade on Sax'n'Flute,and it's released by Goody Goody records of France to stick to the controversial theme of how France saved Jazz.
One must say its an excellently furious piece of free Jazz,and it's got some of those crazed semi-narrated vocals on "Facets Of The Univers".Dat man Kenneth Terroade sure can make that saxophone growl when he wants to.It's a wonder why our Ken didn't feature much anywhere else except for Sunny Murray and Alan Silva's BYG output,after around 1971.He either got a music lecturer's job,aka a cushy number, or got Drafted.
Were these guys on Drugs? If so, I want what they had.....if I took drugs that is,which I don't;that's for Hippies,but I'll allow any Free Psychedelic Jazz musician to do whatever he wanted.Now that's real Freedom innit?


Tracklist:

A Facets Of The Universe
B Friendship Next Of Kin


Saturday 27 February 2021

Kenneth Terroade – "Love Rejoice" (BYG Records – 529.322) 1969


Kenneth's crew featuring David Koresh on the Contra bass?

Well, we may as well go on a BYG Actuel tour,to further laud plaudits on France for helping save Jazz,even if they do insist on explaining away their imperialist past by insisting that anyone in the french empire was 'French' so how could they have been Racially prejudiced?Hmmmm.
This very Free Jazz outing by the groovily named Kenneth.......they have such hip given names these Jazzers, Clifford,Archibald, Albert....Terroade.The tradition continues,with Kenneth,avec some wild free improvisation on his Tenor Axe.
Included in the personnel is the shape-shifting Bernard Guérin again on Bass..... this time he resembles a couple of everyone's favourite mass murders, the late David Koresh,and/or, the late Dennis Nilson? He's got that fashionable murderer look going on here.
However,This album sure is a Killer of equal intensity as Béb Guérin's look-a-likey's Dave and Den,isn't that right Ken?....Ken???


Tracklist:

A Blessing 17:25
B Love Rejoice 17:55

DOWNLOAD and rejoice with the great kenneth HERE!

Friday 26 February 2021

Clifford Thornton – "Ketchaoua" (BYG Records – 529.323) 1969


Cliff Thorton and friends featuring Gregory Peck on Bass.

"Music has no colour",said the French Jazzer...I'm certain Archie Shepp would disagree,as he plays Soprano for his buddy Cliff Thornton on this afro-centric polyptych of free jazz. Both he and Thornton were trying their level best to remove as much whiteness as possible from this french released miesterwerk. Africans may not have invented the wheel, as some enlightened bigot pointed out alongside our advocate of 'colourless music'in the comments section, but they certainly gave us honkies virtually all our modern musical forms.For which they are rarely acknowledged,but after-all it belongs to all of us innit.....sorry Archie?
Shepp's presence gives this platter a distinctive Archie Shepp flavour with his instantly recognisable style,augmented by Thronton's very capable horn blowing.
Would you believe it?...there's Béb Guérin once again on the Bass, and this time the photo of him reveals the distinctive look of Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab in "Moby Dick", as the White Whale In the Room.

Tracklist:

A1 Ketchaoua 12:35
A2 Pan African Festival 7:50
B1 Brotherhood 10:40
B2 Speak With Your Echo (And Call This Dialogue) 9:15


Thursday 25 February 2021

Clifford Thornton's New Art Ensemble – "Freedom & Unity" (Goody – GY 30001) 1969


This one was actually recorded in New York 1967 rather than France,which I guess Cliff didn't relocate to until his Draft number came up for Vietnam in '69. He wasn't rich enough to pay a doctor to help him dodge the draft, like Donald Trump was,so,logically,he avoided the madness by being an American Free Jazzer in France...why not, everyone else was over there at the time.
This outing seems more dated than his output post 1969,a tad more jazzier than Cliff's 1970's stuff,but jolly fine nonetheless.

Tracklist:

1 Free Huey 13:09
2 15th Floor 8:51
3 Miss Oula 4:48
4 Kevin (The Theme) 0:22
5 Exosphere 10:07
6 Uhuru 8:31
7 O.C.T. 4:38
8 The Wake 14:18

Wednesday 24 February 2021

Clifford Thornton – "The Panther And The Lash" (America Records – 30 AM 6113) 1971


The eye-catching collage on the front cover of this crazy cornet wielding Kat's second solo album, is like something i'd have knocked up for an album without artwork for this blog....yes,it's that good. It screams "Buy Me",but you don't have to do that shit no more,'cus you can download this work of near genius at the bottom of this page.
Also thanks is again due to the French.....choke,spit,......some of whom had the wherewithal to release this platter on the ironically named 'America Records'.....the place Clifford,who is only ever pictured in profile, struggled to find an audience. 
French people will turn out in numbers for anything exotic enough to assuage their post-colonial guilt, even for a moment; "Raciste????...Moi!?....Non! J'adore le Reggae et Le Jazz!?".
They,along with The Brits managed to fuck up the third world,possibly for good;but to say sorry, they are keen to look interested in Jazz and World musics of all creeds and colours,and buy that awful 'ethnic' art to pose with in their Salon's. Although this can backfire,especially when a Frenchman tries to play Reggae,or,please lord help us...dance!
There's even a Frenchman on this recording,one Beb Guérin,who was rather accomplished on the contra bass until his untimely death at a youthful 39.As far as i can see photograph-wise,he had the dashing good looks of a pre-mustachioed  Freddie Mercury from one angle, and the fresh-faced intensity of Billy MacKenzie from another.....both also dead.....is anyone left alive out there to greet me when I surface from my Bunker?
Awwwww he's sad.......Billy MacKenzie circa Party Fears Two

Freddie Mercury working on Bohemion Rhapsody 2...Free Jazz version.

As for Cliff,at the time of writing,is no longer alive too,and has worked with all the Jazz greats from Sun Ra to Sanders to Shepp.And he sure can handle a Trumpet....even beyond the grave thanks to his recordings.

Tracklist:

1.Huey Is Free 12:25
2.El Fath 13:35
3.Tout Le Pouvoir Au Peuple 4:15
4.Paysage Désolé 4:00
5.Right On ! 3:30
6.Shango / Aba L'Ogun 11:15
7.Mahiya Illa Zalab 4:30


Tuesday 23 February 2021

Norman Howard – "Signals" (Homeboy Music – Homeboy Music 1) 1989


More unreleased jazz joy from the same sessions in Cleveland in November 1968, come the rest of the "Burn Baby Burn" sessions that spawned the aborted "Burn Baby Burn" album on ESP disk. Again thanks to obscure UK cassette label "Homeboy Music"from back in the days when all homeboys were out crate-digging,looking for those impossible to find Jazz albums for breaks to sample for their Hip-Hop tunes and other dance music atrocities.
Norman's a pretty mean horn player it has to be said...I assume that's him pictured on the insert in a car with some weird shit attached to it.....either that or he was a Cab Driver.....not much money in Free Jazz back then I guess?


Tracklist:

1 Soul Brother Genius
2 Burn, Baby, Burn
3 Haunted
4 Bug Out
5 Deep Black Mystery
6 Soul Resurrection


Norman Howard – "Burn, Baby, Burn" (Homeboy Music – Homeboy Music 2) 1968/1993


Luckily for you Americans out there, The UK, appreciates your music culture more than you do,or don't as is the case,and this session recorded in November 1968 by former Ayler associates Norman Howard and Joe Phillips,was originally Intended to be released on ESP Disk , in 1969, but was typically shelved and forgotten, until some obscure limey cassette label decided to release a cassette of the full session for English hipsters to swap their hard earned Pounds for. Without Japan,and the northern European market,and especially France, all that Free Jazz that makes us seem passably intelligent would have been thrown away in some dumpster in Kentucky decades ago,or reconstituted as Grits and Twinkies for a Los Angeles Food Bank financed by the Republican party.
This tape is from the more laid back dope smoking end of the Free Jazz drug spectrometer. Made for your next Fondue Soirée with your college professor friends and cool twenty-first century designer label Beatniks.
PS...there's another tape to follow,to complete your valuable Norman Howard collection....click here!

Info for those who care:

Norman Howard: trumpet
Joe Phillips (a.k.a. Yusef Mumin): alto saxophone
Walter Cliff: bass
Corney Millsap: drums

recorded cleveland, nov. 1968

Tracklist:

1 NxJx(Divine Tiding)
2 Sound From There
3 Satan's Village
4 Sadness Holiday
5 Time And Units
6 Burn, Baby, Burn

Monday 22 February 2021

Ornette Coleman – "Of Human Feelings" (Antilles – AN-2001) 1982


We honkies ain't got the Funk, which when translated literally from the language of 'Jive',means honky don't get the smell of sex brother...just ask Old Gregg.Neither have they got Game, but sport is for persons unnamed who were too muscular for banking, but not stupid enough for the army. Lack of sporting prowess for that pale limbed youth cannot be remedied without a stiff course of illegal Steroids,which will lead to a horrifying case of round shoulders and early death,either that or a damn good bumming from the coach. 
Lack of "Funk" however can be helped somewhat by Ornette Coleman's foray into the world of Funk and Disco called "....Of Human Feelings". Gimmie some of that black creamy milk mother fuckers and move to the groove. On first listen one is struck by its bizarre Elevator music qualities,but that just lures in the casual listener,then infiltrates their reptilian brains with something strictly un-4/4. This is Disco music with a decidedly meandering purpose.A Vaccination against The Bee Gees. Now you can play Disco music without being embarrassed when your trendy chums ask "What the fuck is that you're playing???".....you can reply smugly..."It's Ornette Coleman man"......and still dance to some semblance of a marching beat which is necessary for da white man to express faux-joy of an evening.All after taking the knee of course to express unity with your black brothers.
I know there will be a bunch of Jazzers who think this is the worst Ornette album ever, but they ain't got the Funk have they,you dig?

Tracklist:

A1 Sleep Talk 3:31
A2 Jump Street 4:19
A3 Him And Her 4:15
A4 Air Ship 6:01
B1 What Is The Name Of That Song? 3:56
B2 Job Mob 4:51
B3 Love Words 2:50
B4 Times Square 6:00


Saturday 20 February 2021

Ornette Coleman – "Science Fiction" (Columbia – KC 31061) 1971



Just as 'Star Wars' isn't Science Fiction, it's Science Fantasy.Thee Ornetted Coleman album "Science Fiction",unlike like Star Wars, is a great work of  art,and that's an indisputable Jazz Science fact.
There are many things that should rest in the Fiction section alongside The Bible, the Koran,Harry Potter and...maybe....Dr. Seuss? Although I could swear I saw the Green Pants running through a wooded area near my home one sober evening.
One body of work that could never be erroneously filed on the Fiction Shelf would be the ground evaporating canon of Ornette and his various axes....like...er...WOW! This kat can play!
The Science part does apply, however as this masterwork is a cunning combination of control and freedom,or controlled freedom to put it more succinctly.

Tracklist:

1.What Reason Could I Give 3:01
2.Civilization Day 6:02
3.Street Woman 5:45
4.Science Fiction 5:05
5.Rock The Clock 4:52
6.All My Life 4:00
7.Law Years 5:29
8.The Jungle Is A Skyscraper 5:25


Ornette Coleman – "Dancing In Your Head" (Horizon – SP-722) 1977


Most dance music feels like having a herd of migrating Wildebeest dancing ON your head.The stuff inside is conveniently forgotten.
If you liked "Body Meta" then you'll like this one too,and so will your brain. A classic slice of free no-wave Ornette magic.

Tracklist:

A Theme From A Symphony (Variation One) 15:38
B1 Theme From A Symphony (Variation Two) 11:05
B2 Midnight Sunrise 4:28


Thursday 18 February 2021

Ornette Coleman – "Body Meta" (Artists House – AH 1) 1978


 As we were briefly on the subject of Ornette Coleman in the last post,I may as well cheer myself up,and seem intelligent at the same time by posting my favourite Ornette albums,and they were all done in the 1970's,like most of Miles's were. Before at least 1969 it was too bloody jazzy for me.
By 1977/8 Coleman had realized that free jazz was far more effective if one had a semblance of  what appeared to be an accessible time signature,and a rhythm section that hung around something  us normal humans can grasp hold of and go along for the ride.
This could have been a No-Wave group from lower Manhattan,but no, its Ornette Coleman and buddies showing that they had invented No-wave years earlier but decided to do something better.
The guitarist on here, Bern Nix, appears on many James Chance records,and with many others in that trendy Manhattan clique.
But...Having been in a slump,nay, a Beirut Slump.....note clever No-Wave  reference there...as in, Emotional Slump, of late,I have indulged in the time-honored practice of listening to miserable music,Nick Drake, Sandy Denny etc...you know where i'm coming from?..All this to the point of an unhealthy obsession....by the way always veer towards the Demo versions from these artists,but definitely dangerous to your health.
To get myself out of this slump, I put this album on at huge volume,and one detected sheer unadulterated 'JOY',from both myself and the musicians. Even better when i glanced at the sleeve notes,and noticed that this stuff wasn't just totally improvised....they had charts ffs!This stuff was composed!? Which can only enhance the connection for me. Although I did notice that Ornette is dead, like Drake and Sandy,who died in the year this was released....whoops I'm slipping back into my existential crisis again.....the answer....MORE Coleman, less Guinness!?

Tracklist:

A1 Voice Poetry 8:00
A2 Home Grown 7:36
B1 Macho Woman 7:35
B2 Fou Amour 8:31
B3 European Echoes 7:40


Wednesday 17 February 2021

Otomo Yoshihide – "Guitar Solo Live 1" (Amoebic – AMO-CDR.1) 1999


 Ay Up, Ornette Coleman gets name-dropped!? This must be too intelligent for us?
Sampler toting Ground Zero free jazzer and turntablist Otomo Yoshide, shows us what he can and can't do on the ol' six string.
As for the 'Cover Version',he could have been covering anything as far as i can hear? Did I hear a hint of Aqua's smash-hit about Barbie partying......well possibly,but maybe it's more Klaus Barbie partying rather than the top selling gender stereotyping tool for square moms and pops everywhere.
Otomo suitably makes his guitar,"recorded in 'F'" it says here, scream for help as he strangles its slender neck with various devices rattling its vertebrae like a ligature garroting the neck of proper music;Derek Bailey in a bad mood style. So maybe i'll seem like a clever sod too, record my vacuum cleaner and call it a cover of Albert Ayler's 'Bells'.
This was limited to 50 copies it reckons,of which this isn't one.It's impossible to have limited editions these days Otomo,didn't you know that?
Now to get back to my current Dark Folk obsession and weep myself to sleep during my ongoing existential crisis like the snowflake i wanna be. In fact i may do an Otomo Yoshihide version of Sandy Denny's "Late November" later on before I open the first can of strong continental lager and kill myself.


Tracklist:

1 Document 1 7:30
2 Document 2 29:15
3 Document 3 - Lonely Woman
Written-By – Ornette Coleman 16:00
4 Document 4 12:20




Sunday 14 February 2021

Zchivago's Disco Dystopia - "Japanese Special" (05/02/2021)


Mechagodzilla says,you better listen to this or shit's gonna happen ....Rikai suru???? (that's japanese for Capishe? Which is probably Italian for 'understand'?....just do as he/it tells you basically.

Disco Dystopia Febuary 2021

“Japanese Special”


1. OTOMO YOSHIHIDE'S NRW JAZZ QUINTET – playgirl BGM
2. MABUKI JUNKO - Mr Lonely
3. MAMUSHI – Old River
4. DAISUCK AND PROSTITUTE – The Witch hunt Of The Jug Rat
5. GROUND ZERO – Live Mao '99
6. MASAMI KAWAHARA'S EXOTIC SOUNDS - Taboo
7. SELF-DECONSTRUCTION - Disaster
8. FLAGITIOUS IDIOSYNCRASY IN THE DILAPIDATION – Studeny Klih
9. INCAPACITANTS - Leprosy
10. MASAMI KAWAHARA'S EXOTIC SOUNDS- Manha de Carnaval
11. FUSHITSUSHA - Marianne
12. LES RAILLEZES DENUDES- People can choose
13. HIGH RISE – T.F.B.

WITH A SPECIAL APPEARENCE BY GODZILLA

or

Wednesday 10 February 2021

Various Artists – "Tokyo Flashback 4" (P.S.F. Records – PSFD-69) 1995


This washed out cover is Tokyo Flashback 4.It's 1995 and Boredoms' records were beginning to work their way onto the coffee table,and name-dropped at low level meetings in the bank boardroom.....the Boardoms?...It helped that they had a pronounceable name I guess?
Alan Cummings' notes should suffice as I ain't got nuffink left to say on the matter, except that its the same as the other 7 or so Flashbacks, with a lot of the same people on it....not surprisingly including Keiji Haino......again.Oh yeah, there is an avant garde String Quintet stuck on at the end for those of you with wider taste rainbows.

Tracklist

1 Keiji Haino– Rudra Vina 4:37
2 Broom Dusters– 文学少女 7:56
3 Musica Transonic– Weird 4:14
4 Puka-puka Braians– コドクなギター 今スグ帰る 7:19
5 Onna Kodomo – ふらここ 6:56
6 Shizuka – 世に残す歌 7:18
7 Akiyama-Sugimoto– Hound Dog Blues 6:38
8 High-Rise – Ikon 5:35
9 Kakashi – 裸で踊ろう 5:30
10 Construction – Fade Out 5:45
11 Psychedelic Crazy Horse– あんたがたどこさ~No Wave 7:06
12 Hikyo String Quintet - String Quintet No.1 6:05

Sunday 7 February 2021

Various Artists – "Tokyo Flashback" (P.S.F. Records – PSFD-12) 1991


 
The original Tokyo Psychedelic noise sampler,or volume 1, which features several bands who would appear on most of the follow up Tokyo Flashback volumes to come. The usual suspects are there again, and, as always, Keiji Haino appears twice,solo and as part of Fushitsusha. Which doesn't help the westerners' misconception that there weren't many Japanese bands in Japan.The flood started here in a vane attempt to save us all from Grunge.

Tracklist:

1 Marble Sheep & The Run-Down Sun's Children– 22 February.1991 8:21
2 High-Rise – Mainliner 10:24
3 Ghost – Tama Yura 10:13
4 Fushitsusha–  Omae kotchi 10:17
5 White Heaven– Blind Promise (Alternate Take) 4:53
6 Verzerk– Heavy 7:12
7 Kousokuya – The End Of The Dawn 7:38
8 Keiji Haino – Just Now 8:37

Saturday 6 February 2021

Various Artists– "Tokyo Flashback 2" ( P.S.F. Records – PSFD-24) 1992



I like how it says 'Incredible,...11 Groups from Tokyo!!!??.....they had that many?
I'm sure the inhabitants of Tokyo already knew they had far more than 11 groups,but as westerners,especially comedy western Rock musicians, famously, can't count beyond 11,its displayed on the cover....in English.
In the early 90's,I, for one, had no idea Japan had any pop groups at all, never mind this brand of raw noisy psychedelic fuzz.This is where compilations come into their own,as this series of Jap comps virtually discovered this scene by proxy.Then us western types could claim to be weird by playing their mates some wild Japanese group that they'd never heard of,and go away envious of how on the cusp you were. The aural politics of Envy,or musical socialism in action.....no groups are created equal;unless they're on a compilation.

Friday 5 February 2021

Various Artists – "Tokyo Flashback 3" (P.S.F. Records – PSFD-34) 1993




 Yeah I dig,I dig,Alan!
This Alan Cumming geezer gets it right in his sleeve notes. As Japan was cut off from the outside world in centuries gone by,they were again in the post war era,as far as the west was concerned, albeit only musically.
Before 1993,all I knew of Japanese pop music was the bloody awful Yellow Magic Orchestra, and The rather amusing Frank Chickens,who i saw as a novelty act more than a musical turn.
The afore mentioned eclecticism that is so evidently rife in all Japanese music,tended to produce an identifiable form of extreme music that specifically came only from Japan and nowhere else.Their Free Jazz is more extreme, Their Rock is noisier,their Noise is Noisier, their Pop unfathomable, fueled by,as Cummings puts it, an Interzone of possibilities trapped behind one way glass,observing outwards at a wonderland through the looking glass.
Western ears were not attuned to this ,even if they did have the same record collections, their Branes needed to be trained,and the membrane penetrated.
Enter the Tokyo Flashback compilations......ahhh now i understand, I think?
There's plenty of noisy stoner rock, free improvisation,skewed versions of classic anglo-saxon pop,and other unidentifiable stuff.White Heaven,for example, features a rather bizarre singer who sounds for want of a better word, Drunk;but i suspect its a Japanese accent of some form?
As Krautrock was populated by bands who couldn't really play their instruments like those Anglo-Saxon Progressive Rock stars,so had to play within their abilities to create something accidently 'Neu'. Japrock was full of equally unschooled musicians who tried and failed to play the Psychedelia of that tired western template,but instead of playing within their abilities ,they focused on the noise and the freedom and went further.Embrace your inabilities and magnify them There was nothing like Fushitsusha anywhere else,not even in West Germany, 1970......and don't forget Fushitsusha were going even before then!?

Tracklist

1 Overhang Party– Fever 7:49
2 White Heaven– Midsummer Stroll 5:36
3 Fushitsusha – Began To Notice 11:28
4 Cobalt – Woodcutter Mountain People -3:01
5 Komo Ta Hae– Bottom Of The Night 8:47
6 Sweet & Honey– Ritual Of The Sun 4:44
7 Ghost – Suspect Tells Of Dog Under The Sun 6:19
8 Daiichi Hakkensha – All Die Anyway 4:22
9 Uchu Engine– Certificate 6:11
10 Maher Shalal Hash Baz– Tapes (Tuning-Casey Don't You Know How It Makes Me So Damn Crazy-うつ病のくすり~The Night Of Notins) 9:48
11 Schizuka – Mother Of A Child that Has been Unwound 7:44

Thursday 4 February 2021

Ground Zero – "Plays Standards" (Nani Records – NCD-201) 1997

There was something about the Nineties that were distasteful in the upmost. Digital recording and the CD's themselves were primarily culpable. The silence of the silences were disconcerting,as was the fact that if you scratched a CD it was fucked instead of just making a click like vinyl did. Also because of the longer running time, the advent of the 80 minute track infiltrated the avant-garde, with albums that never seemed to fucking end. Then we had 'Sampling'......oh gawwd.....from bedroom dwellers with impeccable record collections,and even worse, impeccable taste!
Tony Wilson once said that the kids in Manchester had the best record collections....wrong.....The Japanese did,and its all here on Ground Zero's "Plays Standards CD", which at least keeps the duration down to a manageable 70 minutes.
I hated all this pop music culture in a perfectly recorded raspberry smoothie thang at the time, where the DJ became the centre of attention simply because he had a bunch of jazz records under his arm, and a fucking AKAI sampler in his bedroom.....as we all did in 1997.
Admittedly, the art of scratching or Turntablism can be quite impressive,and in the hands of the correct person, a creative tool. Otomo Yoshihidi could be said to be one of them? Mostly DJ's wanted to thought of as musicians(they aren't!),but here's one very accomplished musician who seemed to want to be a DJ!? 
No-one's ever happy at doing what they're good at are they? 
Although very guilty of the 80 minute long album track when 40 minutes is the limit of an average human attention span, Otomo was the world champ at eclecticism. Everything including several Kitchen sinks were thrown into his digital collages, and all done, with, obviously, thee most impeccable, "taste?";.......like an avant-garde Kenny Everett as the Cupid Stunt of post club art gallery aural aestheticism .
But, alas, as I'm now now also an aging Stunt, i kinda like this stuff in a nostalgic kinda way.....there are, however,some splendid moments of Free improvisation on this rather entertaining album.....and it is, ALL, done in the best possible taste.....YUK!
Those definitely weren't the days, but no-ones doing it nowadays,so it don't give one an 'eadache no more.
The sad thing is I ripped and sold all my vinyl in 2001/2 (see cupid stunt again?) to finance a house purchase.The funniest bit is that now i'm buying it all back with my new trendy turntables....yep plural.
So,I'd better buy my AKAI sampler back too i suppose?
 
Tracklist:

1.El Derecho De Vivir En Paz + Shinoshin 3/4
2.Ultra Q
3.Those Were The Days
4.Folhas Secas
5.Washington Post March + Japan Dissolution
6.Akashai No Ame Ga Yamu Toki
7.Bones
8.Where Is The Police? + The Bath Of Surprise
9.Miagetegoran, Yoru No Hoshi Wo
10.Yume No Hansyu
11.Die Pappel Vom Karlplatz
12.A Better Tomorrow + I Say A Little Prayer (Roland Kirk Version)


Wednesday 3 February 2021

Masayuki Takayanagi (高柳昌行) New Direction – "Live Independence" (P.S.F. Records – PSFD-57) 1970/1995


The Sister album of  "Call In Question" from the same performance/same recording dates.
Track one is New Direction in mellow mode,with hints of Spanish flamenco guitar as played by an epileptic during and after a fit......on drugs.
Track two, "Mass Projection", is something akin to having your teeth removed by a stone cutter.
Masayuki Takayanagi is in fine form and It's rather great.....or should I say Grate?

Tracklist:

1 Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain 21:27
2 Mass Projection 21:07


Otomo Yoshihide (大友良英) – "Early Works I '81~'85" (Maboroshi No Sekai – P…0010) 1994



Back in the early eighties,guitarist and musicology student,Otomo Yoshihide, decided to dump his conventional music career after discovering free jazz and free improvisation musicians like Derek Bailey, saxophonist Kaoru Abe and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi (from whom he had lessons).
As great as his influences were,Otomo had rather more strings to his bow than his heroes,using virtually anything he could lay his hands on,notably an early exponent of 'Turntablism",and sampling. In his hands the Turntable and,later, the sampler, would not be as cliched and unimaginative as most of his contemporaries would make them sound.He would go on to make dozens of albums which sounded largely completely different to each other...unlike Abe Kaoru and Takayanagi,his mentor in chief.
Here's a collection of Otomo's early experiments with tapes,electrified springs,turntables,radio's mixed with some obligatory free sax and guitar improvisation.

Tracklist:

A1 Religion-4
B1 Guitar Solo Improvisation
B2 Religion-3
B3 Sax Of A Kind + PB Radio '84
B4 Religion-1
B5 Religion-2
B6 NS-500

Tuesday 2 February 2021

Takayanagi Masayuki's New Direction – "Call In Question" (P.S.F. Records – PSFD-41) 1970/1994


Noisy abstract improviser,Takayanagi Masayuki's New Direction,give us some light relief from the intense sax abuse of Abe Kaoru. Reed duties on this one fall in the capable,but gentler hands of Mototeru Takagi.
The guitar-work is suitably cacophonous, and the drumming adequately busy,which makes for another challenging live improv captured on tape then forgotten about for twenty-five years. Another fine example of N.Senada's 'Theory Of Obscurity' in action.

PS - Recorded 11 & 12 March, 1970 at Station '70, Tokyo.


Tracklist:

1 Extraction 19:04
2 Intermittent 13:15
3 Excavation 21:08


Monday 1 February 2021

Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation ‎– "S/T" (Bizarre Leprous Production ‎– BLP 086) 2008


Yet Another Japanese all-female Grindcore band,that makes two that I know of ,are the ludicrously named 'Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation'.....what does that even mean,or am I just Thick?
Of course they had to get a post on here purely because of their silly name,but they ain't nowhere near as good as Self-Deconstruction',whose version of Grindcore is infinitely more complex and unique.
This lot are far more conventional,and lean rather too far into the 'Metal' category for my tastes,or lack of therein?
But they are all-female,which is one up on Self-Deconstruction,but nowhere near as cute as.
The vocalist,Makiko.... notice that i didn't use the word 'Singer' as her job description.....has an unerring ability to sound like two or three different people,one of them surely male?...but no, she does all the voices. Definitely in need of a gargle after a show i should imagine? If there's ever a musical version of "The Exorcist" she is certainly a shoe-in for the Linda Blair role. A good Grindcore song title  is "Yer Grandmother sucks cocks in hell"......i dunno if that qualifies as eternal punishment for some grandmothers i know, but in Grindcore folklore it's just a bit of harmless cathartic fun to exorcise the demons of Japanese emotional repression.
The songs live dangerously longer than the one minute barrier,which is perilously long for any Grindcore to not outlive its welcome. Remember Napalm Death's one second song "You Suffer", the one that was ruined on their John Peel Session because some smart alek decided to put an immensely looooong Reverb setting on it....so much so that it lasted nearly 30 seconds....which just so happens, Ironically, is the perfect Grindcore song duration.

Tracklist:

1 Visualized 1:16
2 Smudge 1:47
3 Finite Dark Water 2:44
4 Studeny Klih 1:58
5 Dusted Ratina 1:44
6 In The Sludge 2:18
7 In The Gray Room 1:53
8 Tied Up 1:20
9 Unvoiced 3:10
10 Lost 1:14
11 Dizzy Confusion 1:21
12 Elimination 1:54
13 Evacuation 1:21
14 Twine 1:57
15 Euthanasia 0:56
16 Under The Surface 2:45
17 Felaceus Oedipus 1:56