Art Zoyd – Marathonnerre I & II

I’m probably not alone in not having previously explored Art Zoyd music after the Mariage album, after hearing reports that the band moved from a very acoustic-based sound to one that incorporates electronics and such. This set of two related and simultaneously released CDs more or less confirms almost everything I would have expected from these descriptions. The band still creates some of the most wonderfully, creepy and dark atmospheres ever (and in some ways look way back to their Atem labelmate Pandemonium) except that now, periodically, some sort of electronic beat comes jumping out and occasionally some of these are so banal and techno-derived that I found myself checking the disc. So this is definitely not the same band as the original, even with a couple of the original members still hanging around, and it’s a much more drastic stylistic change than, say, Univers Zero, even if you could see the roots of this style as far back as Phase IV. My opinion might have also been modified by the decision to play both CDs through, which possibly wasn’t the best idea, over time it felt like some moves and ideas were being repeated. I might not be the audience for this overall, as I was wishing that the electronic beats were totally absent.

Marc Ribot – Shoe-String Symphonettes

Ribot’s sense of eclecticism is something I’m appreciating more and more, from John Zorn to Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, and given that he’s got a somewhat rough guitar style, it always seems he brings a sense of adventure to everything he’s involved with. Shoe String Symphonettes was released on Zorn’s Tzadik label as part of a “series” of film-inspired soundtrack-ish music and it’s something of a departure for him. The music is generally steely and industrial while still managing to have quite a sense of warmth to it. There’s quite a bit of Ribot’s eclecticism even working within this field and the pieces, while generally shorter, kind of move all over the map and occasionally move away from pieces obviously guitar dominated. Definitely one I’ll be absorbing and enjoying over time.

Exmagma – 3

This third Exmagma record was unreleased during their existence in the 70s, yet unlike many unfinished records, I actually think this could be the band’s best work. Exmagma might have been better named Exsoftmachine with their organ heavy, somewhat Canterbury inspired rock music. Perhaps the most notable element of the band is the presence of Fred Braceful on drums, a player more notable for his jazz participation. While I haven’t listened to this enough to really work out the directions on display, my listening frequently drew me back into the music even while multitasking. There’s something kind of twisty and turny about their compositions and while I often wish there were some soloists at work more frequently, there’s a uniqueness on display here that shows the band finally starting to reach past their influences only for the musicians to go their separate ways.

The Tony Williams Lifetime – The City Hall, Newcastle, 11/6/70

I’ve long maintained that it’s the live work of almost any relevant artist that completes the story that in many cases is not reflected in the studio work of the artist. In fact while I knew that Jack Bruce had done some recording with the Lifetime band I was oblivious to the fact that he’d actually toured with them, as this show attests. You mean McLaughlin, Larry Young, Williams AND Jack Bruce? Is it possible for a line up to satisfy more, at least in theory?

First of all, we’re dealing with borderline hazy audience sound quality. For the time it’s quite good but very noticeable is how drowned out McLaughlin is in the mix and anyone who has played with a guitarist knows this is no easy feat. You can hear Bruce on bass and just enough to know it’s him on vocals but everyone is sublimated to the astonishing performance of Larry Young.

Musically this isn’t so much the first album augmented with Bruce or a pointer to Turn It Over, it seems to exist in between somewhere. Stylistically it’s total chaos. Huge, echoing organ chords float in and out, everyone riffs like crazy and the band goes bananas trying to mix blues rock songs with the free avant garde. It’s almost dizzying to listen to, particularly as Young catches fire early on in the set and proceeds to annihilate the rest of the band. One moment he’s kozmigrooving with all the reverb and echoing you could imagine, the next he’s running double unison lines up and down the keyboard like his own demented version of Tarkus. I’m not sure any of his albums could prepare one for this sort of virtuosity. I seem to even remember a couple of moments where Bruce or McLaughlin would start to get some space only for Young to come blaring in again like a man possessed.

Probably of most interest to listeners will be the fact this is probably the tour some of those soon to be famous Mahavishnu riffs came from (there’s at least three, all of them part of medleys). They’re not particularly advanced in any way but they bear the pang of the familiar. I’d asked myself in the past where the connections were between McLaughlin’s early solo albums, his stints with Miles Davis and the beginning of Mahavishnu. This appears to indeed be a missing link in that evolution.

Dave Pike Set – Infra Red

Now that the good Consul Bodo is steering the MPS ship, it will be difficult to look on associated Japanese releases as being a particularly good thing, after all few of them would measure up to that type of care. When I think of a list of the albums I’d most like to see on MPS, Infra Red would easily be in the top 10, so given that this isn’t likely to see a worldwide version, at least for a couple of years or so, I ended up shelling for the Japanese version. (Ironically in an era where the American economy is in the tank, I’m often finding Japanese CDs to actually be cheaper than what’s coming over from Europe.) While I’d probably put Pike somewhere after Bobby Hutcherson or Milt Jackson in terms of vibraphone importance, it was only he who really fused his sound with European sensibilities, which in MPS’s case usually refers to the effects on the instruments. But Pike isn’t even often the star of his own show with guitarist Volker Kriegel involved, in fact it’s generally the interplay between them and their fuzz pedals that makes this such a unique item. On the surface, it’s vibes jazz, but a few listens puts this more into the freakjazz camp. I love it the more I hear it and am certainly hoping that Promising Music gets the keys to The Dave Pike Album, Salamao and others.

McCoy Tyner – Sahara

Not a review or even a blurb so much, but I just wanted to mention, while it’s still available that the Mobile Fidelity hybrid SACD version of this classic (and arguably Tyner’s best) album sounds utterly gorgeous. Way worth the upgrade.

Grateful Dead – Woodstock Music & Arts Fair, Max Yasgur’s Farm, Bethel, NY 8/16/69

Duuuude. The Woodstock shows from all the bands have almost developed legends of their own. The Grateful Dead, just like they did at Monterrey, felt like they underperformed at this show and they’re probably one of the few who wouldn’t blame it on the acid, after all some of their best gigs were apparently under that formative influence. Hendrix gets a ton of attention for his Star Spangled Banner, but the movie, of course, leaves out the evidence of a rather boring stint for his group. The Dead were left out almost entirely. As legends go, the evidence is somewhat contradictory, that is the show itself isn’t the trainwreck you’d expect but naturally it wasn’t exactly one of the band’s finest moments. Like many gigs from the era where the Dead had a high profile, it’s generally the Pigpen led songs that get the lion’s share of the stage time and here it’s an almost 36 minute Lovelight that dominates the proceeding. While they could occasionally really make that song go, it didn’t happen here, especially after a lame opening Saint Stephen, an inappropriate midset Dark Star and the High Time it comes sandwiched in. Who knows, maybe I’m being too forgiving here as I generally love 69 Dead?

Association P. C. - Rock Around the Cock

Gave this another spin in the hope that it makes the MPS reissue list sooner than later, as despite the tacky title and album cover, this is one of the central APC releases. Prior to getting Jeremey Steig involved, the band more or less stuck to a playoff between Toto Blanke on guitar and Joachim Kuhn on totally fuzzed out piano and it’s this experimentation with electric tones that makes it such a fun release, with ring modulators and fuzz pedals making everything go haywire. It’s a pretty jammy sort of release and does indeed rock at times, with fewer dynamic lulls than its successor. In fact, only Erna Morena surpasses this one in quality.

Krisiun – AssassiNation

Another spin of this relatively new album by the Brazilian death metal trio, it still baffles the mind how they get such a big sound. They’re a really difficult band to talk about in that they don’t particularly vary from the overall formula of the style, although it probably can be said that Krisiun don’t tend to work on the grindcore edge of the genre and in some ways still bear the same heart of many of the original bands. The problem with Krisiun to my ears is always the same, in 15 minute chunks I’m usually left breathless, but in 40 minute chunks I tend to find the whole approach very samey and lacking in the sort of dynamics that really makes the heavier bits just that more impacting. Perhaps this is part of the trio format in that they’re missing the potential for harmonic development by having another guitar player on board. And then just perhaps I haven’t absorbed them quite enough yet. To my ears it’s still the band’s second to fourth albums that really stand out.

Mediterraneo – Estrechas Calles De Santa Cruz (1978 Spain). It’s been years since I had heard this album. I had the LP in the early 90s, but didn’t enjoy it much then, and promptly sold it (and it’s always been a rare piece). Then totally forgot about it until recently. I was surprised to learn that Mediterraneo’s debut still hasn’t been reissued on CD. Musically, it’s a bit of a disappointment if you’re looking for Spanish regional influences. In fact, some of this reminds me of the slow moving German symphonic music of the day that we’e talked about often here (Shaa Khan, Albatros, Indigo, etc…). There’s also an impossibly long drum solo that ruins the flow. There are some nice guitar leads in the Camel vein, though, that makes it worth a listen or two. Starting with their second album “Tabarca”, the band moved into a more specific pop direction, and released 5 more albums. The group appears to still be together.

Fragua – s/t (1979 Spain). There was an exciting movement from the mid to late 70s in Spain that mixed both rock and flamenco music. Especially popular in the southern reaches of the country, the style became known as Rock Andalucia. Some of the bands mixed in more progressive elements such as Mezquita and the early works of Triana and Medina Azahara. Fragua were more typical of the pop style of the movement. So flamenco mixed with Spanish pop music is what you’ll find here, with a couple of more challenging cuts dispersed throughout. No CD exists.

Tricantropus – Recuerdos del Futuro (2007 Spain). One of the more interesting bands from the late 70s Spanish scene was a drummerless group called Azahar. They had an almost chamber like approach to flamenco music, with a rock element propelling it along. So I was quite curious when it was announced that the Chilean label Mylodon had signed a new group called Tricantropus, which featured at least one of the members of Azahar (I’m not sure which members, as none of the names matched their debut “Elixir”, but label Mylodon claims it, so I believe them). I was expecting something similar, but it becomes quickly apparent that Tricantropus play in a modern instrumental rock style. When I say modern, think more late 1980s and early 1990s than 2008. They are a guitar based instrumental trio, and like many newer bands, the style recalls Andy Latimer of Camel. Probably more to the point, Tricantropus sounds like Edhels at the time of “Still Dream”. Nothing wrong with that of course, as to be successful at this style, one has to have a keen sense of melody and atmosphere, and Tricantropus deliver on both. I probably would’ve preferred more Spanish heritage being applied, rather than a generic western European sound, but that’s not what Tricantropus are about. Overall, a soild effort by a promising new band.

Sway – s/t (1973 Italy). Excellent album heavily influenced by early 70s Miles Davis, even without the presence of trumpet. Throughout, the album features wah wah guitar rhythms and tribal drumming. The first side is a bit looser, with some shrieky sax, drum solos and some piano noise bits. But Side 2 is absolutely sublime. The sax is traded in for flute, there’s an actual melody line carried throughout, and the guitar fuzzes out some wonderful solos. Overall, a certain tier 1 album. One that could definitely benefit from a CD reissue.

Blue Morning – s/t (1973 Italy). Barely in scope for what I’d normally listen to, but generally marketed to fans of progressive music, Blue Morning are really an “out” jazz band with a few rock moments. Closer in style to the more traditional free jazz groups working on the German MPS label, for example. Third track has a nice melody and is carried by a sweet flute line, and easily represents the best composition of the set. Some of the jazz is way too improvisational for me at least. Blue Morning’s sole album is ridiculously rare and, as of today, still not on CD.

Melodiya Jazz Ensemble – Labyrinth (1974 Russia). Sort of the house band for the Soviet state label Melodia. For most of the album, it’s a pretty groovin’ jazz album, with some funky and rockier bits. But the opening track is an eye opener. I haven’t heard this much solo fuzz bass since the debut from SBB (which was also from 1974). I’m wondering if they felt emboldened to display such subversive sounds after hearing it come from one of the satellite states? Like many Russian albums, the Cyrillic can be translated a number of ways and you’ll see this album listed as the Melodia Ensemble, Melodiya Ensemble, and many other combinations. As far as I know, this one didn’t get a reissue like most of the 1980s Melodia albums did (Gorizont, In Spe, Gunesh Ensemble, Kaseke, etc..). Nice to see the Soviets were able to groove in the 70s like everyone else – at least a little bit anyway.

Mythos – Quasar (1980 Germany).
Mythos – Grand Prix (1981 Germany). Mythos’ first 4 albums were reissued by Spalax over 15 years ago (unfortunately a pretty much barebones job on all). But these latter two have never seen the light of day in the digital age. Mythos’ first two releases are classic in the Krautrock/electronic rock genre, but the next two albums were pretty mundane straight ahead hard rockers. Which is why I didn’t think these latter efforts would amount to much (and, truth be told, “Grand Prix” didn’t). “Quasar” is definitely a creative effort, with quirky electronics and fast paced mechanical (and some real) drums. Stefan Kaske still sings in his ridiculous out of tune low voice, but is sporadic and fortunately buried in the mix. Some really great synthesizer work here, plus it’s nice to see Kaske not abandon the flute, and he puts the instrument through many effects to achieve a cool sound. Inventive effort, unlike any other really. Like a New Wave / Berlin School / Krautrock album. Not bad at all. “Grand Prix” picks up where “Quasar” left off and dives completely into the “man machine” early 80s synth pop New Wave racket. ‘Robot Agent’ is downright hysterical, with Kaske’s poor attempt at a British accent. What saves the album from a total disaster, is that Kaske flat out refuses to put away the flute, and its presence here is completely at odds with the rest of the material. Fortunately, that is.

Pythagoras – Journey to the Vast Unknown (1980 Netherlands). Fairly simplistic instrumental keyboards / drums duo, where melody and atmosphere are more important than complexity. Trends towards electronic music (Klaus Schulze, Wolfgang Bock) rather than symphonic progressive (Sixty Nine, Eden, Twogether). Apparently was a relatively big seller in its day, and strictly via word of mouth and late night cult radio. E-Music has always had a strong foothold in The Netherlands, which continues to this day. Pythagoras must be considered pioneers of that scene. Most of the music is laid back, and the keyboards of choice are string synthesizers and Moogs, thus missing some depth with organ or mellotron (which does make an appearance on Side 2, along with some nice sequencer action). Not as rocking as Schulze’s “Moondawn” for example, but pleasant overall. I also have their followup “After the Silence” here, but haven’t heard it yet. No CD exists for either.

Sangiuliano – Take Off (1978 Italy). It’s been ages since I pulled this CD out of the collection. A very unusual “electronic rock” album, especially for Italy, Sangiuliano has an arsenal of keyboards at his disposal to help create his unique musical vision. He relies heavy on the mellotron (especially the “choral” tapes) as well as his ARP 2600 to achieve the brassy sounds he seems to espouse. Real drums add a rock flair, and in this way recall Wolfgang Bock’s “Cycles” or even some of Vangelis’ mid 70s work. There’s more majesty in the compositions than your typical Berlin-School sequencer fests, and some of Rusticelli and Bordini’s instrumental work was brought to mind. An excellent album. My CD is an old barebones 1993 release on Si-Wan, licensed from BMG/RCA. As far as I know, this album has never been reissued in an elaborate fashion.

Mahavishnu – Estival Jazz, Padiglione Arte Casa, Lugano, Switzerland 7/1/86

In conversation, cutting off Orchestra from the Mahavishnu modifier saves time, but on paper it means an entirely different thing, in this case the mid-80s jazzrock group led by John McLaughlin that has very little to do with the original Orchestra, mark 1 or 2. This band practically defined the modern fusion sound as further developed in solo by bassist Jonas Hellborg and it’s a perfect case where my personal aesthetics, which tend to be 70s and analog friendly, clash with the timbres of the era, which moved from the warmth of analog keys to early, limited digital tones. Since McLaughlin is flirting with jazzrock again without naming the band any variation of Mahavishnu, it does make you wonder if there’s an inspired purpose behind the use of the name, but already I digress tediously. From a musical perspective a two disc show like this is going to give the group a bit more leeway than the substandard studio album and with the players involved it’s really hard to just stop and say I dislike the sounds as there is actually quite a bit of musical color here. Unfortunately there are also those occasional modern jazz rock tangents that evoke smooth jazz and other safer moves, that often make me forget whose piloting this ship. But overall the show improved my opinion of this era, when the one that came with the Montreux set really didn’t. Course the band had a good two years of growth in between.

Various Artists – The Best of Star Trek 30th Anniversary Special!

It’s funny in listening to this that the very first impressions I had of some of those 70s Zao and Yochk’o Seffer albums reminded me of some of the music from the original Star Trek. Lots of chromaticism and unearthly melodies that always accentuated the alienness of the show and were apparently memorable as well. This disc sort of goes over various Star Trek musical highlights from the television show, offshoots and movies and I was inspired to write about it mostly because of how strong most of this music is even outside the context of the visuals. Yeah, skipping the actual theme tunes help (I can think of VERY few shows I don’t do this to – I guess I should be glad the one from Enterpise isn’t here) and there isn’t a great deal of that original, weird music, but there is a smattering of various orchestral pieces that suprised me in their effectiveness. In fact there was some rather great music from the first movie here, which I’m not sure I ever got through in its entirety. So yeah, this was kind of a surprise, not only in that I found myself listening to it in the first place.

Jethro Tull – BBC 2/19/77

I’m not particularly fond of Songs from the Wood era Jethro Tull, despite the fact that it’s often quoted as one of their better albums. I think it’s sort of an observation on those albums between Thick as a Brick and Songs in how so little of it made it to their concert sets, other than when the band was touring on a particular album. But given the fact that Songs doesn’t do it for me, that the video I saw from this year didn’t either and nor did the one or two audio shows I’ve heard from this period, I was really surprised at what a fine set of recordings the BBC had on hand. Much more energy and drive here than I remembered, which makes me wonder if this is either a fluke or me finally growing to this.

Horacee Arnold – Tribe

Tales of the Exonerated Flea may be one of the better examples of early 70s “kosmigroov” fusion, with a legendary line up of many of the great players of the day. Tribe, Arnold’s previous album, had a far lesser, and basically deserved reputation of being a more textural and less flashy sort of record and did not follow Flea to reissue a few years ago. It reminds me in some ways of Pharoah Sander’s work of the time and Terumaso Hino’s Double Rainbow in that, if you look at it a certain way it’s like taking a look at the jazz rock genre from the perspective of Airto Moreira or Dom Um Romao, the percussionists who tended to add a lot of exotic feel to the music. The textures are rich and full of world sounds, but other than that there’s not a lot of excitement to be found here.

King Crimson – Earthbound

In the progressive rock genre and even in rock as a whole, it’s hard to find a more panned album than King Crimson’s trashy sounding first live album. It’s the sort of reputation that takes on a life of its own until you’re left thinking, yeah, Earthbound sucks, when what’s really being said is the sound quality sucks. After all how can one hear the opening version of 21st Century Schizoid Man here and not feel that it’s one of the most powerful versions ever recorded, the energy yanked up so hard it’s as if you can see the needles hit red as you listen to it? Sure Earthbound has 15 1/2 minutes of Groon, which is a bit too much (the band could definitely noodle when they had a mind to), but overall I found this to be pretty consistent across the map. Of course the Crimson collective has gone and released a lot better sounding material from the same time period, so in a way Earthbound is kind of obsolete, but I’d recommend checking it out again if you’d ever, like me, been down on it. To my ears this is solidifying as possibly my favorite era of the band when I wouldn’t have even considered it ten years ago.

Spacious Mind – Club Rothko

My perspective on a lot of space rock is influenced by having done a lot of jamming in the style myself, so the improvisational sojourns of groups like Spacious Mind tend to remind me more of rehearsal sessions than anything else. It usually starts with a bass vamp a la Roger Waters circa 1969, there are usually never any key modulations and the themes often tend to be minor seconds, those short intervals found in a lot of Mediterranean music, but really imply Eastern modals or scales (or at least what sounds like those to Western ears). So I tend to want quite a bit more when it comes to this sort of thing. Within the style, Spacious Mind have been less than monotonous when it comes to working on this style, with some of their output being more song-oriented, but this limited edition live CD sees them working in rather predictable jam territory. The good thing is this band does seem to be getting better at it and if you’re going to do anything to modify the style, it does help to do so texturally and the Spacious Mind do suceed in giving the sounds quite a bit of breadth, even if they don’t reach much farther beyond “Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun” and “Interstellar Overdrive.”

Freddie Hubbard – Sky Dive

A CTI era Hubbard title and one that plays, at the very least, a third to his “Straight Life” and “Red Clay” albums. Like many albums of the era, there’s an attempt to merge the ever advancing jazz language with classical string sections and in many CTI instances this can get a little slick at best, totally clashing at worst. At the same time, while these experiments were in force, Hubbard as a player was not only peaking but advancing as well and there are a number of jams (such as in the opening, long “Povo”)  that are quite fairly comparable to his better albums. With CTI stable guys like George Benson and Hubert Laws involved, you know it’s not going to be a slouch and with Billy Cobham, Airto, Ron Carter and Keith Jarrett on board you’re practically approaching an all-star ensemble cast. I’m really wondering how this is going to age for me as despite the conflicts within the style, the pedigree is still really high and compositional work slightly intriguing.

Quicksilver Messenger Service – Winterland, San Francisco, New Year’s Eve 12/31/67-1/1/68

This long show would probably instantly appear in my top 5 Quicksilver shows, quite literally if you want to know why this band has a lot of fuss, yet can’t figure it out from the albums, this is the sort of thing you need to hear. John Cipollina always struck me as a great guitarist who wasn’t really all that flashy or in front a lot of the times, so to hear him really blaze away is a sheer joy. It covers their early material, especially the first two albums, and just like most bay area bands of the time, the album material is virtually transformed on stage. Tis the goods…

Felt s/t

A solid if not particularly stand out American blues rock release. Obviously the highlights are the longer tracks, in particular the 10 minute “The Change” that allows everyone to stretch out and show their chops. But of course, a one off like this isn’t going to transcend its influences which seem to be anything from John Mayall and Eric Clapton to The Allman Brothers Band. Everything seems recorded nicely and the Akarma reissue, even if it may be a vinyl rip is doable. But honestly there’s not a lot here that hasn’t been done elsewhere on a higher level.

Creative Construction Company – Muhal

Absolutely amazing 1970 free jazz work with people like Muhal Richard Abrams and Anthony Braxton in the group, this fits right in with the solo work of both artists, groups like Art Ensemble of Chicago or especially the more cosmic work of the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra or even some of the larger band work of Don Cherry for Blue Note. In particular I really like the violin playing of Leroy Jenkins who along with his other instrumental work really fills out the collective artist sound considerably. In fact with some of the angularity involved this could almost be a European work, some of the strings reminding me a bit of Yochk’o Seffer’s compositional work. The rise and fall of the intuitive playing is a total joy to behold and even though this is a definitive free jazz work it rarely ever descends into a mess of wailing, squonking horns, each climax built to superbly.

Gong – Gong Unconventional Gathering, Melkweg, Amsterdam 11/5/07

And despite the fact I’ve seen the Gong band four times since they started playing again in the late 90s, none of them were with the mighty Steve Hillage, so in many ways, despite the deaths of drummers Pierre Moerlen and Pip Pyle, this was THE Gong show for the history books at least since the original group. I mean no short shrift to the wonderful Steffi Sharpstrings, but to hear Hillage again playing with this band (not to mention Tim Blake) is sheer bliss. The continuity between the Hillage set and this Gong set is even acknowledged here as if the band just augmented the Steve Hillage Band and kept going, opening with the usual “You Can’t Kill Me.” It was strange though, ”A Sprinkling of Clouds” is in its proper place in the songlist (it was usually left out of every post-90s-reunion gig I attended and sometimes replaced with a modern piece that just made its absence all that much worse), so I was surprised that I don’t remember hearing it after listening to this show. Overall the set list will be pretty familiar for the Gong fan, both selection and flow, so despite the band getting some extra energy from the celebration and the unity of the event, after the fact it seems almost like another gig.