John Coltrane – One Down, One Up  Live at the Half Note

This most recent of the John Coltrane archives is a document that is almost too amazing. One moment in particular catches the intensity of these performances as they’re stuffed inside boxes, at the end of the first disc, as the band literally torches the place to the ground, the DJ comes on to wrap up the show. As he wraps up his credits, the band in the background is so inspired that it’s almost blasphemous to be saying anything. But that’s the Coltrane quartet in 1965, possible one of the greatest groups in any genre to walk the planet, all of them at their respective peaks and somehow it almost comes off too easy, making me feel almost sympathetic to Coltrane’s desire to mix up the band soon after. Because at this point, it doesn’t sound like there was such a thing as good or bad performances, every night out was something special. After a few listens, I’m not sure whether to give this a 12 or a 15 (or anywhere in between) as there’s something about the nature of the recording that removes a bit of the punch and the DJ talking tends to get older with every listen. But wow, it’s just hard to imagine any other band being on the same level as this, it feels … posthuman.

Ornette Coleman – Panel Discussion 4/21/64

While this panel discussion hails from the 60s, the subject could have fit right into the Wynton Marsalis era of jazz, as Coleman, Cecil Taylor and the like discuss the outer fringes of jazz, the differences between the old guard and new guard and a lot of other things that bore me half to death. The avant-ers always make the old guard of any genre uncomfotable, and the old guard reacts by getting protective and definitive about what the genre actually is. Here there is also a voice or two I don’t recognize that ask a lot of awkward and stupid questions, although the political climate of the time made it possible to talk about things that seem somewhat taboo now. Personally I’d rather listen to any of these guys play jazz or not-jazz or whatever rather than talk about it.

Gong – Watchfield People’s Free Festival, Watchfield, UK 8/23/75

A rather average to slightly less than average Gong show from the Steve Hillage-fronted era, maybe a little too early for the Shamal material to start showing up. This band generally covered the You material and music from Fish Rising, however at the end of this show there’s some sort of jam or song I don’t recognize that came as something of a nice surprise. I tend to like this era of the band quite a bit as it goes off the map in terms of lining them up next to the studio albums and presents a transition one doesn’t tend to see. Maybe not the best of the era in terms of a show, but quite interesting nonetheless.

Herbie Hancock – Man-Child

Man does this album get short shrift, especially if you think of how many albums before it are critically acclaimed classics, whether it’s his Blue Note, Mwandishi, Sextant or Headhunters periods. This release was his first studio album after Thrust and I’m not sure which was first, the amazing Japanese live album Flood or this one, but surprisingly for a musician who more or less parted ways with his previous band, this sounds not all that far from Thrust, except perhaps even funkier. All of these tracks ooze with grooves and atmosphere and I was taken aback by one track later in the album (Bubbles?) that sounded almost like it could have been a Gong track with the spacey groove and sax playing. It’s really too bad this still exists only as one of those early 90s red-bordered remasters, as I would have loved to see this come out remastered a la Sextant, Head Hunters, and Thrust. Fantastic stuff.

Agamon – Open Up Your Eyes

Like a weird combination of Faith No More, Stevie Wonder, Mike Kenneally and Frank Zappa, this strange precursor to the Mats/Morgan band is a truly unusual release, certainly more akin to M/M’s early period, except that this is Magnus Andersson’s baby, the lead singer and one of the dual keys players with Mats. It reminds me a little of the Swedish band Ritual, while not being some commercially insipid and sentimental, this comes off more like an art rock album at times, quirky and strange. It’s not really my sort of thing overall stylistically, but from a musical level there’s nothing not to like here, with Mats and Morgan on board you’ve got at least two of the better musicians flirting with this style of music today. Maybe one could compare it to the work of Kevin Gilbert at times, as well, although it’s only as LA as Zappa ever was.

Unexpect – In A Flesh Aquarium

One of the latest of The End’s strange roster of artists, Unexpect are something like a cabaret avant-metal band, combining an almost Arcturus-like sense of the demented with a death metal group’s love for insane technicality. Listening to this a first time gave me musical whiplash as the band leaped and pirouetted all over the place. However, while in every way the band is interesting musically from the crazy time changes to the style crunching, the vocal approach of having clean female with growly male tones is something I don’t feel is surprising or even works all that well, particulary as neither vocalist stands out from the masses of predecessors. It’s almost like listening to Suffocation or Decapitated with After Forever’s vocals. Anything quite as schizophrenic musically as this isn’t likely to be absorbed in a listen, so I’ll stop while I’m ahead as there’s certainly a lot to like about this kind of approach. Whether it coheres or not as a whole is a question for the future.

The Enid - In The Region of Summer Stars
The Enid – Six Pieces

There’s really noone quite like the Enid, their mixture of kitschy classical moves and dramatic symphonic progressive rock has remained fairly unreplicated elsewhere. They can range anywhere from blistering rock to what sounds like a soundtrack to an animated Disney movie and I suppose you could call the resulting blend charming or cheesy, depending on your inclination. On their debut, Summer Stars, they hadn’t quite approached this sound yet and were more or less a heavily Genesis-inspired symphonic progressive, and quite capable from a musician’s standpoint, with long, elaborate, instrumental tracks about the tarot that followed up on Steve Hackett’s Voyage of the Acolyte in both style and substance. It’s entertaining in its own way, but the Enid they weren’t quite yet.

Six Pieces, their fourth from a few years later could be the perfect introduction to the band in at least the opening track “Punch and Judy Man” is an extremely powerful number, one I can remember first hearing many years ago. The rest of the album never came quite up to that same sort of speed, but then again the rest conforms more to the Enid blend as is most commonly known, huge orchestral swathes, occasional snatches of humor and a sense of the epic and bombastic that’s often the bane of the genre. However, The Enid tend to be less a typical symphonic rock group and more a combo of that and a pure symphonic group and the keyboard-led classical pastiches move them far away from the lion’s share of the genre.

Dragon s/t

It’s hard to imagine now, with Musea records going on 300 something releases that they used to be a tiny little operation whose releases used to be met with great acclaim in the early years, even if some of them don’t stand up as well years later. Part of it was they were one of the few labels releasing symphonic rock releases, part of it was, at the time, they were the most expensive releases on the market barring those from Japan. Each new release was met with joy given the beautiful booklets and presentation, all of which continued to improve over the years. The eponymous album by Belgian’s Dragon, followed later by a posthumous release on mellow, was one of those early Musea reissues, one that got some fuss at the time, but seems fairly pathetic in retrospective. For one thing, they’re a posterchild for badly accented English vocals, something exacerbated with the song about Lucifer early in the line up. While Dragon have a pretty classic early 70s sound, they remind me more of a later throwback like Men of Lake, who were barely audacious enough to do more than lay down big simple chords and croon badly thereover. Years on, I just can’t see the need to hang onto something like this, overall Dragon were fairly unimaginative and inferior to so much of what was going on around them.

Guru Guru – Tango Fango

I figured after watching the Rockpalast gig for this record, that I’d be able to cut this loose with no problem at all, and my expectations were met. Such an overhaul of the band’s sound was even more drastic than the difference between Kan Guru and the s/t release, the s/t and Don’t Call Us, Don’t Call us and Dance of the Flames etc. At least with most of those records there were progressive and experimental tendencies if not entirely, in part, on Tango Fango they’ve just gone straight mainstream rock, leavened a little by some sax work or Allmans-ish twin guitar work. It all sounds a bit campy to my ears and I mention that because I’m not entirely adverse to solid classic rock, it’s just that so much of the charm of Guru Guru is the humor and this has to be their most humorless release. A 7′s probably a fair grade for it given its professionality and quality sound, but I can’t imagine this is the Guru Guru people scour record stores for.

Grateful Dead – Dick’s Picks Salt Palace, Salt Lake City UT 2/28/73; Pershing Municipal Auditorium, Lincoln, NE 28

Seems like I’ve given the Dead a bit of a break in my listening patterns which was probably a good idea, as I’d been on fire for the band ever since they finally clicked for me a few years ago. I tend to regularly rotate various shows and I think in terms of the unreleased stuff, I was glomming onto more average and weaker shows of the era. Then I gave a file listen to Dicks Picks 10, which struck me as a 10ish sort of show, definitely good but I can be much more inspired to talk about many other 77 gigs, most a few months earlier.

So it’s a relative joy to return to one of the most recent Dicks Picks and I happen to be one who thinks David Lemieux was the perfect successor to Dick Latvala, although the recent dearth of Dicks Picks releases would have me concerned if there wasn’t already so much to catch up with. It’s interesting, because while the Dead were famous for their Fillmore/East/West, Winterland, Matrix shows etc, it has to be said that they really could be inspired in the midwest, in fact my fave DP to date is #19 from Oklahoma City. I don’t think this is the full two shows, but it does appear that the first two discs are from the first and the latter two from the second of the two dates. 

There are some really beautiful suites and jams on this set, although like many Dead sets, disc 1 is fairly redundant and perhaps only the Playing in the Band stands out. But the next three discs are basically classic, more than making up for it. From the 26th, the Dark Star>Eyes>Half Step and Not Fade Away>Goin’ Down the Road Feelin Bad>Not Fade Away jams are quite inspired and from the 28th Sugaree, He’s Gone, and the colossal Truckin’>The Other One>Eyes of the World>Morning Dew seal the deal. 1973 was really an astonishing year for the group as this set so readily demonstrates. The group mind gestalt is really in force at times during some of the jams and the way they kind of sweep into different patterns effortlessly, tangenting off the song material is the kind of music that mesmerizes me. There’s just nobody else that does this kind of thing in rock music, where it really does get difficult to talk about them in individual terms. Anyway the 12′s a perfect grade, really, as the individual discs might go 9, 14, 12, and 13.

Robert Carty/Brannan Lane – Climatic Infusion

Looking back at some of my Robert Carty ratings after listening to this over many nights, I was sort of surprised to see they were in the 10-11 range as this inevitable collaboration between two do-it-yourselfers doesn’t seem to do wonders for either musician. You do have to give to to Carty, whether it’s just a lack of equipment or a unique take, his tones do sound pretty different from the usual hold and droners which gives his work a bit of freshness. But for the most part, this strikes me as fairly average work, very little captivated me over multiple listens and I had to go with the 8. Which may indicate more that I’ve just heard so much of this kind of thing.

My next vanguard nighttime ambient album turns out to be David Parsons’ latest. More on that later, but I’m still impressed how he tends to work parallel to most ambient/electronic music. While I can find news on these sorts of artists from sites like Hypnos and Projekt, it always seems I found out via Amazon that a new Parsons is out almost a year late. Which reminds me, I oughta check if there’s another one….

Chicago – Best of Dick Clark Specials 1973-74 (DVD)
Chicago – VI

The presence of the name of Dick Clark in this “title” is something of a warning alone, but I figured, hey 1973-74, this couldn’t be too heinous. First of all, I’m wondering if the “Best of” in the title means the specials here are edited, because if this is the best, I’d be hard pressed to imagine the worst [edit: I later checked the textfile and indeed, what sound like a lot of really cheesy segments were edited out]. What you get here is two Chicagos, one that’s sort of on the last leg of their original period and the other that’s the beginning of their much longer commercial/pop phase. You knew something was up when the latter band’s special starts first and just when Terry Kath goes into his 25 or 6 to 4 solos, they start flashing to him riding a motorcycle up a hill. And that’s about all that’s even given to Kath, for the most part you hardly know he’s there given the camera concentration on Cetera, the horn trio and the new Santana-esuque percussionist. In fact as this monstrosity unfolds, you realize it almost could have been some sort of late 60s Monkees special even beyond Cetera’s physical similarities to Jones. Flashes of the band roasting marshmallows with their wives/girlfriends and children why Cetera lipsynchs one of their ballads on acoustic guitar is pretty much the very definition of cheese. It’s only when “Free” closes the set that some hint of the old Chicago flashes its head. For the most part this is utter cack. “Chicago in the Rockies” the previous year’s special sees them around the V album, although, unsusprisingly, we’re still concentrating on all the hits. Far and away a much different (or edited) band than the previous year’s Carnegie Hall masters. There’s a bit of interview footage in there and some shots that seem like they’re working on music, and there’s a joy coming off the musicians that’s kind of fun to see. But overall, both specials seem highly edited for the pop fan and much of what makes this era of Chicago and earlier so great is entirely missing. Chicago with a sidelined Terry Kath isn’t much of a Chicago at all.

A few days later Chicago VI came up in the rotation, which placed pretty firmly that a lot of the music from the 1974 special came from that very album. For me the switch from V to VI is astonishing in a bad way, from what could be their best studio album ever, to what looks like it was something of a template for them, sticking Cetera in front singing sappy, sentimental ballads. I’ll probably give it another listen, but I highly doubt I’ll hang onto it, it makes by teeth grit to hear stuff like “I   luv youuuuu. You   know ah dooooo.” I’m glad I wasn’t old enough to follow them from the beginning cuz this one would have crushed me.

Cardiacs – Rare Videos II (6/23/93 gig)
Cardiacs – Ace Club, Brixton, London 3/18/83

Still on a heavy buzz from the watching of the first rare video collection by this group, which was nothing short of a revelation, in fact I even went back and gave a once through listen to Sing to God, Guns and Heaven, and while all marginally improved for me, I still felt like I was missing “that” Cardiacs. Anyway, I finally got ahold of the number two volume, and needing something to wash the taste of the Chicago Dick Clark Authority out of mouth, it seemed like a good try. This covers the mid 90s bands. I read somewhere that by then they were using back up tapes for the keyboards and I spent much of the first show checking for a player and didn’t see one. A decade on from the last one I watched, this June 23, 1993 gig was also excellent if a bit less energetic and more streamlined than the previous band. In fact in some way, it feels like they never quite got back to that 80′s band’s energy, but to back up this opinion I probably need a little more listening experience. Anyway, a lot of the same songs are shared between these two gigs, although they seem to be arranged a little less elaborately in the 90s. The 95 gig on this I’ll probably save to later as I had another engagement and didn’t finish it, but what I saw looked great.

The audio show in question, however, brought me closer to that RVI gig, everything more young and intense. I remember reading recently that Marillion actually offered the Cardiacs a tour slot, where the Cardiacs were mercilessly treated by the Marillion fanbase much to the band’s embarassment. But it’s interesting a comparison, because it would have been neat to see the Cardiacs as the Great Neo-Prog Template rather than Marillion. Maybe I’d have been saved some horrible experiences. Because the Cardiacs were just an utterly delight in the 80s, psychedelic, punky, bizarre and both complicated and accessible in equal measure.

Wishbone Ash – Argus/Live from Memphis (EP)

I’ve been a bit funny about Wishbone Ash over the years and I’m not quite sure why. For the most part, Argus has often been quoted as their best moment, but I’d always preferred the first two. My memories of Argus were, well they’re so different from the reality of it they barely bear repeating. Quite frankly this album, backed up by the astonishing Live at Memphis EP, kicked my butt and then some. Perhaps it’s been a diet of the Dead and Man that helped jump this up a bit, but I had to take this up to an 11 (as well as the EP) with a great possibility for growth. 

Chico Magnetic Band s/t

Tom and I have been discussing this album in private as he was the one who pointed me to this 1969 French treasure. It’s basically an early band who was enthralled with Jimi Hendrix and Cream in equal measure. As someone who is a huge fan of both and who has spent a nice chunk of the last few years giving their relative ouevres some serious listening, such comparisons to me were painfully obvious and I’d suggest anyone as familiar with Hendrix and Cream as I am are likely to agree and from that angle it might be easy to write of the group as a clone and leave it at that. But as Tom mentioned in private (and I mutate and paraphrase here), and this is something I agree with, there’s something about the naivete, experimentalism and sheer passion of this period of music that actually can make an album like the Chico Magnetic Band work. Sure if I had not known the predecessors, I might be thinking this is a heck of a psych album, at the very least its got the guitar tones and somewhat bluesy heaviness of the era, and there are some experimental touches that liven things up in the right moments. But in a lot of ways it also identifies an issue with the progressive/psychedelic collecting gestalt, that the desire and love for obscurity and rare finds often completely overwhelms the obvious influential lineage of the groups that influence the rarer ones. I might be talking about Hendrix and Cream here, but for something proggier it could be just as easily the Moodies or Procol Harum. Is the question that sometimes we actually prefer something a bit sloppier and doe-eyed over the more critically acclaimed? Or is it just that we forget that some of the best musical items of our times can still be found at Best Buy chains?

Meshuggah – Catch Thirty-Three

Since the first time I posted about the latest Meshuggah I learned that the band decided to go with electronic drums for this album, apparently due to the lack of time they had for recording. Maybe it’s the style of music, with a lot of extreme metal the drumming can be gated, electronic, clicky or whatever and I guess I tend to be more forgiving of it, especially when the extremist of the extremers are creating music beyond the ability of the drummer to play. While that’s not the case here, Meshuggah have always been about polyrhythms, which has always made their music of interest to me through the years, just to see how they stretch the riffing and combine rhythms. Every Meshuggah album strikes me as a little different in tone and the last full-length, Nothing, and Chaosphere, its predecessor both seemed to be getting full into the chilly industrial tones and I’d almost gotten to the point where I was done with the music. Then came the inventive “I” EP and this new album, both more in the warmer direction. I doubt most could tell one Meshuggah from another, in fact I wouldn’t want to be put on the spot to tell what song’s from what, but they do manage to vary their experimentations enough to wonder what they’ll be up to next.

Suffocation s/t

It’s not really a surprise that the band went for the s/t with this utterly tremendous work as it’s easily the best album the band’s made, at least since they reformed, possibly since the beginning. The talent of this quintet is just enormous and death metal seems to be one of those genres that can often benefit from the musical maturity of its members. Everybody from front to back is in top form here and some of these songs are some of the most fist-pumpingest extreme anthems I’ve heard since Immolation’s Unholy Cult. Part of it’s their precision, in moments where they do some tricky riffing and fills, they’re right on the dime, the other part is the layering and complexity of the music, Suffocation may come as close to anyone in metal to actually sounding like classical or symphonic music at times, due to the layering of harmonies. I could have almost made an identical review of this to their last one, but this seems better all around. Amazing to think the band is probably mostly in its 30s now and still delivering this style of music peerlessly. This could be one of the best albums of the last few years, if not the best. It’s beginning to dominate my listening time.

First Band From Outer Space – We’re Only In It For the Spacerock. 2005. I was introduced to FBFOS through their second album and actually managed to pen a more formal review on Gnosis. This album marks their debut. Yet another quality Swedish band on the ever impressive Transubstans label. This one is a little bit more in the stoner bag than the followup, with more heavy chord action and yelled vocals verse psychedelic atmospheres and freaky guitar solos (though there’s plenty of that too). Sort of a cross between old Hawkwind and Colour Haze. They improved on their next album (adding flute helped immensely), but this is still not one to overlook.

Lady Lake – Unearthed. 1980. These were recordings from 1979-1980 that were intended for Lady Lake’s second album after “No Pictures”. I’ve long been a fan of Lady Lake’s debut, finding it to be a perfect mix of instrumental melody, sound and texture. “Unearthed” has some similarities, but is definitely a product of a later time – the songs are much more straightforward, with tinny synthesizers, typical of the New Wave era. And the recording isn’t ready for primetime, so it’s definitely a little rough (something they are very aware of in the liner notes). Normally I avoid these kind of “table scraps” and I probably should’ve here as well. However, I think many fans of the band will highly enjoy this set – especially if you’re drawn to less than perfect live recordings. All the material is original, and the band does possess a great sense of melodic penmanship. Conditionally recommended.

Exsimio – Carbono 14. 2005. Exsimio play in that style of guitar-centered tightly played instrumental work that one can find in bands such Philharmonie, Yang or even some of Djam Karet’s work. Another more obscure reference would be Brazil’s Algaravia from the mid-90s. And, by extension, the Court of King Fripp is what’s really behind this band’s mindset. Elements from “Red” to “Discipline” can be picked up. Interesting to note that the tracks with Spanish narration give it an odd Italian feel, like Latte e Miele or Pholas Dactylus. This is Exsimio’s second album, 6 years on from their debut. I haven’t heard that one, so not sure how much the band has improved, but I’ve been told this is the better album. “Carbono 14” is on Chile’s own Mylodon, another consistent go to label that has many new and exciting acts.

Madrugada – s/t. 1974. One of the last major label (Polydor) Italian acts not on CD, BTF has finally ended that with both albums being released in beautiful mini-LPs (though the mastering on the debut isn’t exemplary). Madrugada’s first album is a mix of light instrumental and singer songwriter material (Side 1), with more expressive and elaborate progressive rock compositions (with some wonderful Moog runs) filling the remainder. Of course, it’s the latter that holds my interest, though to be fair the melodic songs are excellent for what they are. This is a quintessential Italian sounding album, so if you’re a fan, you’ll want it for sure. Otherwise, this obviously isn’t the place to start.

Madrugada – Incastro. 1976. “Incastro” improves on the debut in every way. Gone are the singer songwriter moments, and it’s place is a more expanded instrumental approach, almost towards space rock and jazz fusion in places. Violin, flute, sax, and electric guitar are added here to great effect. Locanda Delle Fate was the last hurrah for major label Italian prog, but this can’t be far behind on that list (remember Italy’s best label of the time, Grog, wasn’t a major). There’s also about 30 minutes of bootleg quality bonus tracks, that shows the band firmly in jazz fusion mode. A definite must pick up.

Le Mani – s/t (EP). 1976. A recent discovery from the good folks at BTF, Le Mani delivers top quality progressive rock of the highest order. They were to release an album on Trident before the label went belly up. You can hear in Le Mani’s sound Metamorfosi (organ work), Delirium (sax/flute, vocals and driving rhythms) or ELP in their “Tarkus” heyday. That’s the good news. The bad news is the album is only 18 minutes long and the last 5 minutes are modern recordings that sound appended. Seems that BTF should’ve paired this with an equally obscure group who may have also had only a few minutes of unreleased work? In any case, it’s been released in a beautiful mini-LP sleeve (the Japanese one on Arcangelo is nicer actually) and is good for collectors.

Banchee – s/t. 1969. Banchee, a major label group on Atlantic, came around about two years too late, as they had the type of sound that would have made them household names had they got in early enough. But just as Michael Dell is a billionaire and the former owner of “Parrot Computers” is in debtors prison, it’s always a matter of timing. Typical jangly “West Coast” psych that’s as much Quicksilver as it is The Byrds. Not to say the album doesn’t have its moments, or forward thinking ideas, such as the trippy ‘As Me Thinks’, the melancholic ‘Follow a Dream’, the heavy fuzz of ‘Evolmia’ and the jazzy prog number ‘Hands of a Clock’. Definitely worth seeking out for a listen. No legit CD, but originals aren’t terribly expensive (their second album below is a different story).

Banchee – Thinkin’. 1971. Two years later, Banchee re-emerged as an aggressive hard rock group on Polydor with plenty of great wah wah guitar. There’s even a little of that feel-good Rare Earth or Grand Funk Railroad jam quality. For the first half of the album, I thought Banchee might be able to avoid the usual blues trappings that tend to drag these albums down a bit. But the second half of the album is almost entirely blues rock and knocks down what could’ve been a monster hard rock album. Even as it is, aficionado’s consider “Thinkin’” one of the major label holy grails. As such, originals are very sought after and expensive. No legit CD exists of this one either.

Butterfingers – s/t. 1970. The first half of this album is a very predictable brand of blues psych, and induces yawns at an alarming rate. Then out of nowhere there’s this crazy instrumental called ‘High Walkin’, that’s part lounge, part jazz rock, part psych. They throw in one more clunker and then things start to get really weird. As if Dieter Dirks slipped into the studio for the final mix. Now we know the real inspiration for the Marcus “From the House of Trax” album! There’s phasing, the vocals are slowed down, the jams get longer – the guitar louder. I settled on a 9, but there are 17 minutes here that are closer to 12 territory. Cesar – this has your name on it man. LP and CD reissues courtesy of Shadoks (and their precursor label Little Indians). Nobody knows anything about this band, but we’re told it’s from the “Midwest”. Now how do they know that?