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Roman Kunsman - Heavy Skies (2003)


By the 1960's, American jazzmen on the road in Eastern Europe were coming home with tales of surprise. A Bulgarian pianist, for instance, was said to sound like Thelonious Monk if Monk had been raised as a rhapsodic gypsy. And there were other such reports. But what would you think of a jazzman from Central Russia, reared near the Volga, who has also absorbed Bird, among other fundamental jazz sources, and is at authoritative ease in classical music as well. Not that he "fuses" classical and jazz in any sterile "third stream" way. It's just that classical music is a natural part of his personal voice. Like being Russian. Like being Jewish. Like being Roman Kunsman, a jazz player.

As can be heard on this, his first American album as a leader, Kunsman is, among other things, a compelling melodist; a setter or intense, probing moods; a singularly lyrical alto saxophonist; and an unusually authoritative, penetrating jazz flutist. At base, with all his multiple skills as a player and composer, Kunsman is a romantic. A disciplined romantic.

But first, his odyssey. Born on December 7,1941, he came from a family in which, until then, no one had been musical. By the age of ten, Roman was a singer. Not just tunes, but classical songs, lieder, opera. TWo years later, Kunsman was studying clarinet in an army school where talented children lived in order that they might play in the army band.

A few years later, the eager musician was in Leningrad where he heard a dance band playing Glenn Miller and Count Basie charts. He had already, through Willis Conover's Voice of America jazz programs, been familiarized with such phenomena as Charlie Parker, but somehow he had never heard a big band before and was delighted. The band needed a saxophonist, but Kunsman had never played the horn in his life, and also had no money to buy one. A saxophone was borrowed for him and so, at 18, he learned the alto on the job, night to night.

If you'd walked in on one of his gigs at the time, you would have heard Charlie Parker coming out of the bell of this Russian teenager's saxophone. ("1 listened," Kunsman recalls, "to as much Parker as I could find and transcribed the solos.") Then came John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and others. Jazz albums were so expensive that they cost the equivalent of two weeks' work, but for him they were necessities.

Kunsman meanwhile was also much intrigued by such breakthrough classical composers and Anton Webern, and for two years studied composition at a conservatory. He also wrote jazz pieces. One of them Loneliness, written in the 12-tone system, won a prize at a Leningrad Jazz festival. The organizers did try to persuade him to change the title. Who could be lonely in the people's state? But Kunsman, displaying the stubborn independence endemic to all durable jazzmen, refused.

As he moved into his 20's, Kunsman was working clubs, traveling with big bands, and making some records. The state of jazz in Russia depended on the state of foreign affairs. When relations between the U.S.S.R. and the United States were reasonably sound, jazz was allowed space and time. When they were not, jazz clubs were closed.

The young swinger finally got his first new alto saxophone when an uncle, living in Newark, sent him one. Eventually, Kunsman's family decided to immigrate to Israel. After the usual initial difficulties, they were allowed to leave, and in 1971, Kunsman was exploring the music scene in Tel Aviv. One of the groups he played with was styled somewhat like Weather Report, and in 1975, it was invited to appear at the Newport Jazz Festival. It was Kunsman's first visit to the United States, and at Newport, he became reacquainted with George Avakian, one of the more influential record producers in jazz history. They had first met some years before in Russia, when Avakian brought Charles Lloyd's group there. Here in America, it meant a lot to Kunsman that Avakian sufficiently liked his work to talk about eventually making a record.

Back in Israel, Kunsman decided to find his own voice. For some two years, he practiced six to seven hours a day - by himself. He did not listen to anybody else's recordings. "I had to hear myself," he says, "and work on what 1 heard."

In June 1976, he came to live in the United States, continuing to search inside his own sounds. Mostly these days, Kunsman plays Yiddish weddings, along with some jazz sessions led by Arnie Lawrence. His goal, of course, is to lead his own group. His own jazz group, and this album should begin to make that possible.


Kunsman had made recordings in Russia and Israel, but this one, in addition to being his first in the United Stated, is also his first since those years of unceasing self-probing. "My music now," he points out," is very much my own. It is what I feel, and what I most deeply feel comes out as jazz, although I do sometimes use classical music techniques for jazz purposes." He believes, and I agree, that a good way to begin getting into Kunsman's unique conception is to listen to Body and Soul in this set. It is surely unlike any other Body and Soul you ever heard and the scope of Kunsman's imagination, along with the play of timbre and dynamics, does herald an authentically original voice.

The opening Fata Morgana, with its deep, clear melody over the insistent, hypnotic rhythms, underscores Kunsman's goal in all these performances: "I want to involve the listener as strongly as I can in whatever I feel. I try to be honest with those who hear my music. I do not fake 'happy music.' That's for elevators and supermarkets. I write and play what is in my head and in my heart."

Magic Birds, a double canon, has - in the overdubbing on this particular track - two flutes and two alto flutes. In addition to his depth and beauty of sound on flute, Kunsman plays with remarkable flexibility and musical intelligence. "I never played flute in Russia," he told me, "until I heard Charles Lloyd there. I was so taken with it that I taught myself. Actually, I have had no lessons on any instrument. Just in composition."

Toward Higher Lights, has a compelling rocking rhythm base over which Kunsman plays a forceful, "talking" alto - Bird and others having become absorbed in Kunsman. Elevation, says Kunsman, "starts from one line and then elevates." It further illuminates a quality basic to Kunsman's music - a ceaselessly searching intensity. A continual stretching of expressive possibilities. Listening, I got a sense of what was going on during those years in Israel when Kunsman, alone in a room, kept probing into his musical being.

Combination, on which Kunsman returns to the flute, is described by the composer-performer as having mystical elements, but what this non-mystic hears is a lean, erring lyricism, which keeps drawing the listener into Kunsman's very special microcosm. All these performances, by the way, reward repeated listening, because each time there are new emotive revelations.

Heavy Skies, with its dense, but continually shifting textures, underlines yet another integral element in Kunsman's music - drama. He has a keen, supple sense of dramatic structure that continually vivifies his story-telling.

Kunsman points out, by the way, that all the parts are composed except for his solos on alto saxophone and flute - and one bass solo. Those are improvised. Combination is entirely written. He also wishes to express appreciation for what he terms the "invaluable" aid of George Avakian. And to Gil Evans who, after Kunsman played the tapes of this session for him, advised him on the order of the tracks.

For Roman Kunsman, who began in Russia, started again in Israel, and now hopes to be a vital part of the American jazz scene, this album is a report on how far he has come in his music. "I don't consider what I create Russian music or Jewish Music," he says. "Now it is music. I now know the music I want to play, I know it is my own, and all I want is to get a group together and get enough work so that I can pay my bills."

A modest enough declaration of independence. However long it does take Roman Kunsman to become a sufficiently widely known jazz presence so that he can live on jazz alone, he already has achieved the fundamental requisite - his music can be confused with no one else's. It is Kunsman music. (Nat Hentoff)
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VA - Andergraun Vibrations Vol. 2.: Psychedelic Hard Rock From Spain 1970-1978


...Psychedelic Hard Rock from Spain 1970-1978. "Another killer selection featuring more Spanish heavy psych insanity. 10 tracks taken from super rare 45s by Spanish bands and even some obscure South American singers/groups who recorded in Spain. Highlights are underground hard-rock band Ciclón with their monster rare private pressing 45 which was recorded in 1978 but sounds totally 1970-71, a five minute deconstruction of '(I can't get no) Satisfaction' by prog band/commune Franklin, trashy hard-rock by Albert Band, Luis Queimada and Argentinian band Katunga, tremendous psychedelic hard rock loaded with trippy effects by Cuban born musician Chirino, wild female hippie sounds by Norah, ripping fuzz-wah insanity by unknown band Piñonate, haunting prog rock by Skorpis..." 
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Jon Hassell ‎- Vernal Equinox (1977)


Kompozytor i trębacz Jon Hassell to wizjoner i kreator stylu muzyki, który określa mianem Czwartego Świata, zagadkowego i unikalnego połączenia świata antycznego i cyfrowego, kompozycji i improwizacji, Wschodu i Zachodu.

Po studiach kompozycji i dyplomach na uniwersytetach w USA przeniósł się do Europy, by tam studiować muzykę elektroniczną z Stockhausenem. Parę lat później przeniósł się z powrotem do NY, gdzie nagrywał swoje pierwsze płyty z mistrzami minimal music La Monte Youngiem i Terrym Rileyem. Współpracował ponadto z Peterem Gabrielem i Brianem Eno. (lastfm)



Trumpeter Jon Hassell was the originator and unrivaled master of the musical aesthetic he dubbed Fourth World -- in his own words, "a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques." Born March 22, 1937, in Memphis, TN, he attended Rochester, NY's Eastman School of Music and Washington, D.C.'s Catholic University before studying in Europe under the legendary Karlheinz Stockhausen. After subsequent collaborations with minimalist pioneers La Monte Young and Terry Riley, Hassell mounted a number of solo pieces known collectively as the Landmusic Series; the most famous of these so-called "sound monuments" was 1969's Solid State, an electronic project that evoked the gradual erosion of sand dune formations via a tuned mass of vibrations.

Beginning in 1972, Hassell studied classical Indian music under the tutelage of Pandit Pran Nath, modifying Nath's vocal techniques to the trumpet to develop the Fourth World concept, which he introduced with 1978's Vernal Equinox. The jazz-inspired Earthquake Island appeared a year later, and in 1980 Hassell issued Possible Musics/Fourth World Vol. 1, a collaboration with Brian Eno. (A sequel, Dream Theory in Malaya/Fourth World Vol. 2, was quick in forthcoming.) Through Eno, he also began working with a series of experimental pop acts, appearing on records by Talking Heads, David Sylvian, and Peter Gabriel; in 1982, Hassell additionally scored Magazzini Criminali's Venice production of Sulla Strada, earning an Ubu Award for Best Music for a Theatrical Work. 

Following 1983's Aka-Dabari-Java/Magic Realism (co-produced by Daniel Lanois), Hassell did not resurface on record until 1986's Power Spot; in the interim, he composed "Pano de Costa," a string quartet piece recorded by the Kronos Quartet for their White Man Sleeps LP. The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead Things by the Power of Sound followed in 1987, and that same year Hassell collaborated with the Burkina Faso percussion ensemble Farafina, a union that spawned 1989's Flash of the Spirit. The hip-hop-inspired City: Works of Fiction appeared in 1990, and four years later he launched Dressing for Pleasure; subsequent projects have included Lurch, an experimental dance piece choreographed by Gideon Obarzanek, and 1999's Fascinoma, on which Hassell collaborated with Ry Cooder and Jacky Terrasson. Hollow Bamboo was issued a year later. Hassell returned in 2005 with the release of Maarifa Street: Magic Realism, Vol. 2, which featured live recordings reworked and mixed with studio sessions. In 2009, Hassell released the much lauded ECM effort Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street, which once again featured material woven together from a variety of studio sessions. (amg)

Recorded in 1976 at the York University Electronic Media Studios in Toronto, Ontario, Vernal Equinox is Jon Hassell's first recording as a solo artist and sets the stage for his then-emerging career as a trumpeter, composer and musical visionary. "Toucan Ocean" opens the album with two gently swaying chords and delicate layers of percussion that provide a cushion upon which Hassell unfurls long, winding melodic shapes. His trumpet is sent through echo and an envelope filter, producing a stereo auto-wah-wah effect. "Viva Shona" features accompaniment by mbira, subtle polyrhythmic layers of percussion, and the distant calling of birds. Again filtered through echo, Hassell's gliding trumpet lines sound remarkably vocal. "Hex" features a bubbling, filtered electric bass part with a denser web of percussion. From his horn, Hassell elicits moans and sighs that are at first unaffected and later filtered. "Blues Nile" is a long, blue moan. Hassell's breathy, multi-tracked trumpet lines call and respond to one another, weaving a web of deep calm over an ever-present drone. This track clearly points the way to his later work with Brian Eno, in particular, their "Charm Over Burundi Sky." On the title track, Hassell's "kirana" trumpet style is in full bloom as he dialogs with the percussion. Hassell's most elegant melodicism blossoms forth here, and his unaffected horn often sounds disarmingly flute-like. The influences of his study of raga with Pandit Pran Nath are clearly discernible in the curvaceous melodic lines and overall sense of meditative calm within harmonic stasis. Throughout the album, percussionists Naná Vasconcelos and David Rosenboom add subtle, supple grooves and colors. "Caracas Night September 11, 1975" is a beautiful field recording featuring Hassell's plaintive trumpet commentary, subtle percussion interjections, and the sound of caracas humming and buzzing in the background. The first several tracks of Vernal Equinox bear the imprint of '70s-period Miles Davis, in particular the quiet ambience of "He Loved Him Madly" and parallel passages from Agharta. The envelope filter on Hassell's horn similarly draws a reference to Davis' use of the wah-wah pedal from that time. Nonetheless, in 1976, Vernal Equinox was remarkably unique and ahead of its time, and sowed the seeds of Hassell's influential Fourth World aesthetic, which he would continue to develop and refine. Decades after its release, Vernal Equinox still provides an enchanting and entirely contemporary listening experience. (Mark Kirschenmann)
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Mikołaj Trzaska Ircha Clarinet Quartet - Watching Edvard (2011)


Mikołaj Trzaska Ircha Clarinet Quartet to instrumentalny zespół, składający się z czterech osobowości, znakomitych muzyków oraz improwizatorów, władających różnymi rodzajami klarnetów, poczynając od klasycznego klarnetu Bb, przez rzadziej spotykany klarnet basowy, na altowym kończąc.

Projekt powołał do życia Mikołaj Trzaska, trójmiejski, saksofonista i klarnecista, jedna z centralnych postaci yassowej sceny - współzałożyciel formacji Miłość i Łoskot. Dziś liderem międzynarodowego tria Volumen, członkiem m.in. Bassisters Orchestra czy Shofar - wykonującego muzykę żydowską. Grał z gwiazdami światwego free jazzu - m.in. z Peterem Brötzmannem, Kenem Vandermakiem, Peterem Friisem Nielsenem.

W zespole Ircha towarzyszą mu:

Wacław Zimpel, jeden z największych objawień polskiej sceny jazzowej ostatnich lat, jego polsko-amerykańsko-ukraińska płyta "Four Walls" wg. opiniotwórczego Diapazon.pl uznana została za najważniejszą polską płytę jazzową 2008 roku. Zimpel jest współtwórcą formacji Emergency, The Light.

Paweł Szamburski - lider znakomitej grupy Meritum i autor cyklu imprez "Djazzpora".

Michał Górczyński, który współtworzy zespół Kwartludium specjalizujący się w wykonywaniu muzyki współczesnej. Dwaj ostatni współtworzą kwartet Cukunft.

Główną ideą grupy jest przedstawienie współczesnego spojrzenia na muzykę żydowską w Polsce, która to od kilku lat jest twórczą inspiracją każdego z muzyków. Celem jest także odnalezienie wspólnego mianownika w tradycyjnej muzyce chasydzkiej i współczesnym jazzie. Repertuar to magiczne utwory, nieznanych kompozytorów, pochodzących z terenów dzisiejszej Ukrainy i Polski, uzupełnione o utwory własne oraz bogato rozbudowane improwizacje. (serpent)

***
The clarinet quartet is Mikołaj Trzaska on bass clarinet and Bb metal clarinets, Michał Górczyński on Bb and bass clarinets, Paweł Szamburski on Bb and bass clarinets, and Wacław Zimpel on alt, Bb, bass clarinets and tarogato. 

The album consists of sixteen improvised pieces, mostly short with a few exceptions. Trzaska has this unique capacity to create situational music, as the miniature soundtrack for a movie scene, much in the same way that you can listen to the music of Evan Lurie. Each piece has a precise character, sometimes fun, sometimes stressful, sometimes sad, sometimes fast and nervous, clearly defined with the first notes, kick-starting the four men to meet on an imaginary stage and start their dialogue. 

Like in a good movie scene or theater play, it is all about the interaction of people, communicating, disagreeing, agreeing, chosing sides, building tension, releasing tension. Only a few tracks are long enough for real expansion and the development of a plot, with the title piece a clear winner, beautiful, slow and sad, with one clarinet taking the lead against a background of a warm-toned sonic tapestry. The two other long tracks "Upper Trias Caspian Fugue" and "Dream Analyzer" have the same emotional quality. "Tender Dictator" combines both approaches. 

The playing is absolutely superb and the moods shift between the very humane and down-to-earth situational with more compelling sensitive developments. 

This is great stuff, by great musicians, but the overall coherence of the approach and musical vision is possibly the album's most discerning quality. (freejazzblog)
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Fur Trader - Rays of Gold (2013)


Darkened, droning, atmospheric Indiana folk.

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Luboš Fišer - Morgiana 1972 (2013)


Galvanising our ongoing commitment to the lost music of the Czech New Wave cinema movement from the late 1960s and 1970s, Finders Keepers Records follow up our series of previously unreleased music to Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, Daisies, Saxana and The Little Mermaid with a short series of soundtracks for films by the country’s master of the macabre and the nation’s first point of call for freakish fairytales and hallucinogenic horror, Mr. Juraj Herz.

Regarded as the final ever film of the Czech New Wave, Juraj Herz’s Morgiana (alongside Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders) was made after the Prague Spring during Czech cinema’s most scrutinised censorship era, deep in the throws of communism. Spearheading a micro-cosmic sub-genre of horror fantasy or scary/fairytales alongside Karel Kachyňa’s Malá Mořská Víla (The Little Mermaid), these directors built a handful of subversive, flamboyant and experimental new films based around classical communist approved surrealist literature; sidestepping creative compromise and uniting some of the leading lights of the FAMU founded film movement for the last time. Both musical scores courtesy of Luboš Fišer unite Valerie and Morgiana; sharing doppelgänger production and compositional ideas presented by Finders Keepers Records for the first time ever outside of the original context of the film.


It is easy to hear why the music for both films could easily be confused as part of the same score, or as very close twin sisters, having been recorded just 18 months apart in 1970 and 1972. Revealing tiny shards of identical melodic phrasing, the Morgiana score visits darker hallucinogenic corners for this tale of two sisters seen through the perspective of giallo-esque “cat’s eye” camera work (filmed by Jaroslav Kučera) revealing poison induced hysteria fuelled by sibling rivalry and desperately twisted jealousy. Adopting his mysteriously macabre musical persona, the versatile Fišer interweaves chimes, harps and harpsichord with echoing flutes, lutes and piano, applying his signature orchestral tension and experimental percussion traits in the form of treated pianos, vibra-slaps, tape samples of striking matches and spring reverbs to this oblique heady selection.

Revered in similar esteem to that of Czech film legend Zdeněk Liška, Fišer’s unreleased filmography of forward-thinking Czech scores is slowly reaching a wider global audience through his first ever dedicated commercial soundtrack releases which should, in time, win him the same votes of confidence that we now award the likes of Komeda, Korzyński, Roubaix and Nicolai, amongst other European soundtrack luminaries. (finderskeepersrecords)
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Mutazione: Italian Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980-1988


Really good comprehensive, scene-focused reissue compilations can have the effect of making you nostalgic for a very specific time and place that you were never a part of-- for instance, Nuggets’ mythopoeic postwar suburban ur-garage, or New York Noise’s rawkus downtown disco-punk-hip-hop soundclash. Strut’s new Mutazione: Italian Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980-1988 offers a unique location in space, time, and aesthetics to daydream about, namely a too-good-to-be-true music scene in 1980s Italy where Suicide and Throbbing Gristle made the same impact that the Ramones and Sex Pistols had elsewhere, and Foucault and Sartre were considered rock stars on the same level as David Bowie and Iggy Pop.

As appealing as Mutazione makes this particular place seem, it was actually fairly grim at the time. The 1968 student uprising that rocked society and politics across Europe reverberated in Italy longer than in other countries, and the nation was “on a war footing,” according to an essay in the compilation’s liner notes by Italian music journalist Alberto Campo: “on one side there is the extreme right wing and secret security’s degenreated fringes; on the other, the extreme left movements that had chosen the armed struggle.” In 1978 the leader of the country’s Christian Democratic party was kidnapped and assassinated by members of the Marxist-Leninist terrorist group Red Brigade; two years later the bombing of a rail station in Bologna that killed 85 people and wounded over 200 was attributed to the neo-fascist Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari. In Italy this period was known as the Years of Lead.


According to recent interviews by journalist Andrea Pomini (who records electronic music under the name Repeater) with the members of the groups-- collected in an illuminating essay in the liner notes-- their music was a direct reaction to the hostile political atmosphere it was made in. The words “New Wave” and “electronic” might imply a certain brightly colored escapism, possibly with the Moroder-isms and discomania that defined most synth-based music being made in Europe at the time, but the material collected here is relentlessly dark, paranoid, and for the most part well out of bounds of even the most generously broad definitions of pop at the time.

The compilation begins the blurry, overdriven drum machine that introduces Die Form’s “Are You Before", which is quickly joined by reggae-esque guitar and bass lines, a squealing free jazz saxophone, and vocalist F. White sinisterly stage-whispering second-person lyrics-- "You are strange [...] you dislike everything"-- that implicate the listener in some sort of vague aesthetic thoughtcrime in between stridently barking the titular question. Listening to it on headphones feels like being in the center of a brainwashing session from a 70s political paranoia thriller.

Not every track on the collection is as harrowing of a listen. Neon, Carmody, and Pale TV are among the acts who contribute relatively upbeat cuts that you can actually dance to. But even the poppiest songs here are still deeply strange. Some of the musicians who played on the material collected here went on to mainstream pop success, but the most common musical references cited in Pomini’s interviews are such uncompromisingly harsh experimentalists as Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, the Residents, and Wire, and artists like Andy Warhol who are considered equally influential. It says a lot about how darkly intellectual the whole scene was that one of the members of Carmody, whose affably bleeping “Vulcani” is one of the most accessibly pop tracks on the compilation, says that the group as a whole was, “fascinated by the sensation of falling down deep into an abyss, a bottomless pit, an endless fall.”


The material collected on Mutazione was never meant for mass consumption. Not only was that built into the most basic elements of the music itself, which was as antagonistic towards mainstream tastes as the British crust punk of the time, much of it was originally released on cassette, a throwaway medium even during its heyday, and many of the members collaborated via tapes sent through the mail on projects that were never even intended for release. On top of that there was a whole multimedia facet to what many of these bands were up to-- visual art, performance art, video art-- that even the niche audience who digs up Mutazione isn’t going to get.

But even though the stuff on Mutazione never spread far out of its original territory, its creators offer a sometimes haunting prescience for musical ideas that popped up independently in other communities around the world, and which still have resonance today. They devised weird signal chains running through gear that was never meant for that kind of thing. They took personal computers meant for geeky hobbyist programmers and used them to make music. They used cheap, disposable media to transmit subversive ideas encased in something that closely resembled pop.

This isolated community of radical freaks in the 1980s predicted everything from power electronics to Tumblr’s avant garde fringe. Grappling with new technology by figuring out interesting ways to break it? A pervasive feeling that some kind of terrible new totalitarianism is lurking just offstage? Blood in the air and on our broadcast media? Mutazione might be the most right-now sounding record out there. (source)
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Ouba ‎- Freak Out Total (1968)


More than anything psychedelic (or North American, for that matter) from the era, Ouba sounds like something off the German Krautrock scene, perhaps Can without the structural discipline or the wealth of ideas. The lack of discipline is, more than anything, a matter of the recording's genesis. A1 Freak Out Total, as the title alone implies, was an off-the-cuff, in-studio, freak-out jam, a vamp on certain riffs and (especially) rhythms to which the music frequently returns like organizational motifs, rather than anything remotely resembling songs. On top of that, the four culprits -- all friends and outstanding instrumentalists but all members of different combos on the Quebec, Montreal rock scene -- were admittedly stoned on various illicit substances when the music was set down. The resulting clamor was recorded straight-through, live, and with no editing, overdubs, or extraneous mixing. Although there are two tracks on the record, it is really just two halves of a single freeform studio experiment, not really even meant for outside ears. But although there are quite a number of meandering, nonsensical, or plain painful-to-hear moments throughout said jam, there are also a good many amazing, isolated sections, especially when superb drummer Andy Shorter and guitarist Michael Pagliaro hit upon a funky groove like something off Tago Mago or Ege Bamyasi. Electronic artists could have a field day extracting excellent samples from this music (especially on the rhythmic end). As a pure listening experience, however, it's somewhat less a holy grail. Still, with only a couple extant copies floating around, the original LP is one of the most ridiculously rare Canadian psych pressings. And although it is certainly not worth mortgaging the house over, fans of rare or obscure acid rock should find the Gear Fab reissue a blessing. More fussy or fastidious listeners, on the other hand, can sleep easily without feeling the need to splurge for even the CD. (Stanton Swihart)

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Yuri Morozov - The Land Of The Gnomes (1972–1976)


“Rock music caught me on the head when I was sixteen and it never let go.”

Russia has a huge ‘bardic’ tradition, with a sub-strand of singers who fearlessly speak against authority on behalf of the people.

Ideally they should be careless of material success; difficult to the point of eccentricity; widely known but paradoxically impoverished, and forced to work underground, using guile to get their message across: a message that is universally understood and yet tolerated by the authorities that it criticises.

Pushkin (and, after him, Musorgsky) put one at the centre of Boris Godunov: the yurodivy, the ‘holy fool’ who refuses the Tsar grace and accuses him of murdering his way to the top, but who nevertheless enjoys his protection.

In later times rock musicians began to take on some aspects of the role, one of the most famous (in Russia) being Yuri Morozov (1948-2006) a composer/multi-instrumentalist/producer/sound-engineer.

Pop and rock, like jazz, were strange beasts in the USSR. While they were so popular they demanded some official recognition, their Western influence had to be curbed. Hence they became charged with a meaning even beyond that in the West. Imagine Elvis being put in a mental asylum on the basis that his music is …. well …. anybody who’s sane can hear that it’s just wrong, can't they?

Rock Monologue, Vladimir Kozlov’s portrait of Morozov, attempts to tell something of his life, concentrating on his struggle. Unfortunately Morozov died during filming, so his interviews are framed by friends’ posthumous thoughts, supplemented by Gennadi Zaitsev’s archive film.


But it starts with the regulation counterpoint of official Soviet events (Red Square parades et al) with Morozov’s darker songs about dreams (a recurring theme in his work), dissatisfaction, and how everyday smells and noises block out everything of value. In Zaitsev’s home movies Morozov and his friends horse around, as they occasionally fled the city to the dacha, trying out different personae, dressing up in costumes (or wearing nothing at all) and prancing around the forest, filming and photographing each other.

Back home, he filled his flat with a Heath-Robinson recording set-up or used downtime in the studio to record his music, often multi-tracking himself. Since using state equipment for personal profit was illegal, he embarked on a cat-and-mouse game with the authorities, duping them by duping his songs: repeatedly cross-recording them, so the KGB wouldn’t believe that such poor quality could come from professional equipment. Alvin Lucier’s greatest hit, I Am Sitting in a Room, uses the same technique to brilliant, if very different, effect.

As for the actual music, Morozov drew on heavy metal, prog rock, psychedelia, jazz, musique concrète, '80s synth-pop, Russian folk music and anything else that came to hand, pushing it through tape effects and weird concoctions of string-and-sellotape synthesisers. A couple of album covers give some sense of the range: the Genesis-surrealist Jimi Hendrix's Cherry Garden (1973), and the near Ultravox-ish The Exposed Feeling of Absence (2005! - obviously being fashionable was not high on Morozov's list of priorities).

Oddly, for all this experimentalism and official disdain, Morozov was immensely popular. Given the number of his albums in circulation he should have been a multimillionaire, as they were widely (if secretly) circulated: apparently most of the Soviet submarine fleet had copies.

Outside Russia Morozov’s music is still pretty difficult to track down – though the web, a sort of latter-day magnitizdat (the audio equivalent of samizdat) has come to his aid. I’ve found a few mp3s to link to (there are others), though with around sixty albums to his name, plus production credits for a host of other bands including DDT, Akvarium and Chizh and Co, it’s hard to feel that anything but a substantial chunk would only be a snapshot (...)

It’s quite obvious that Morozov needs some serious advocacy in the West. Kozlov’s documentary is a start and it would be good to see more screenings following on from the one at the recent Russian Film Festival. But unfortunately it concentrates on Morozov’s more conservative output. That’s odd given that it also stresses his ‘outsider’ status, admitting that he was difficult to work with: more than once he denied the existence of his wife and his increasing religiosity may have caused some problems. But he inspired adoration from some of those who worked with him. He himself excoriates the compromises of Dylan (his honorary PhD), and McCartney for his knighthood (“that’s got nothing to do with music.”) Lennon was his hero, though there’s a feeling that it’s as much for his political statements as anything on his late-60s avant-garde albums. But for a Soviet artist the two sometimes became intertwined. (source)
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Quadrat:sch - Stubenmusic (2011)


Alpine chamber music! Across the boundaries of time and space. Feat. Zeena Parkins

Stubenmusic. The »Stube« is the parlor or best room in a farmhouse, usually paneled in wood, a place where people go to have a rest, to celebrate, to mourn, and to make music. Alexandra Dienz, Christof Dienz, Barbara Romen and Gunter Schneider guide us into a friendly and sophisticated version of this multi-purpose meeting place.


On the first encounter the players, equipped with traditional folk music instruments, present us with enchantingly agree- able, startlingly beautiful tunes, before moving on, by applying some gentle twists and turns, to creating entirely new formations of sound. This return to the traditional and its careful extension into the present is approached dif- ferently on each of the two CDs. The first CD comprises song-like pieces in various interpretations, while on the second CD the focus is skillfully shifted from structures to sounds. 

The musicians delve deep into the nature of their instruments, exploring their potential as sound-generating bodies, leading us from seemingly familiar models to free musical moods. Deep-reaching roots are carefully unearthed, grafted, and propagated, with great intelligence and devotion: the result is pure delight. (dienz)
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Bruce Langhorne - Idaho Transfer (1973)


Bruce Langhorne (born c. 1938) is an American folk musician. He was active in the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s, primarily as a session guitarist for folk albums and performances. He lost the fifth and fourth fingers on his right hand in an accident when seven years old, contributing to his distinctive finger picking style.

Langhorne worked with many of the major performers in the Folk Revival of the 1950s and 1960s, including The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Carolyn Hester, Peter LaFarge, Gordon Lightfoot, Hugh Masekela, Odetta, Babatunde Olatunji, Peter, Paul and Mary, Richard and Mimi Farina, Tom Rush, and Buffy Sainte-Marie.

The title character of Bob Dylan's song "Mr. Tambourine Man" is inspired by Langhorne, who used to play a large Turkish frame drum in performances and recordings. The drum, which Langhorne had purchased in a music store in Greenwich Village, had small bells attached around its interior, giving it a jingling sound much like a tambourine. Langhorne used the instrument most prominently with Richard and Mimi Farina. The drum is now in the collection of Seattle's Experience Music Project.

In addition to inspiring the title character of "Mr. Tambourine Man", Langhorne played the electric guitar countermelody on the song. His guitar is also prominent on several other songs on Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home album, particularly "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" and "She Belongs to Me", but also "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Outlaw Blues", "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" and "Maggie's Farm", on which he played the lead guitar part. He also played the guitar with Dylan for Dylan's television performances of "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue on The Les Crane Show in February 1965, a month after the Bringing It All Back Home sessions. Two years earlier, Langhorne had performed on Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan on "Corrina, Corrina" as well as the outtake "Mixed-Up Confusion" that was eventually released on Biograph. Years later, Langhorne also played on tracks for Dylan's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.

Langhorne composed the highly distinctive music for the cult Peter Fonda western film The Hired Hand (1971), which combined sitar, fiddle, and banjo to great effect. He also provided the film score for Fonda's 1973 science fiction film Idaho Transfer.

In 1992 Langhorne founded a hot sauce company known as Brother Bru-Bru's African Hot Sauce. The hot sauce is unique for containing "African Spices."

Bruce attended the Horace Mann School for a year in 1954-5.


A snake crawling through the desert is caught by a longhaired hippie with a radio. A young woman in yellow pants walks through Craters of the Moon, Idaho, descending into a vented metal chamber buried in the rock. Inside, she removes her boots and yellow pants and places them along with a clipboard into a metal box beneath a machine with glowing colored buttons, teleporting herself into a large, clinical room where she puts her yellow pants back on, throws her boots in the corner and exits to have a muted water-cooler conversation about the poor quality of chocolate milk with Keith Carradine.

So begins Idaho Transfer (1973), Peter Fonda's second directorial effort, a science-fiction story about a group of twentysomething scientists who travel to the future to repopulate the earth after a catastrophe kills all human life, but find themselves overcome by mounting entropy from all corners. The cast are almost all non-actors and their muted, minimalist performances make even the naturalistic acting in the films of Larry Clark and later Gus Van Sant seem extravagant. Despite the beautiful Southwestern scenery, the tone is so bleak and hopeless and the ending so black it trumps even L.Q. Jones' A Boy And His Dog (1975).

Fonda seems to have taken to heart his character's cryptic summation at the end of Easy Rider (1969) -- “We blew it." Idaho Transfer approaches existential doom not with Hollywood-style heroism but with a (however understated) mess of desperation, confusion and madness, a point of view that Fonda seems to maintain to this day, given his recent comments to the press. It's not for nothing the UK edition of the film (presented in the link above) was retitled Deranged. (source)

Idaho Transfer is a 1973 science fiction film directed by Peter Fonda. It stars Kelley Bohanon, Kevin Hearst, Dale Hopkins, and Keith Carradine. 

Teenager Karen Braden (Kelley Bohanon) is a troubled mental hospital outpatient who is taken by her father George and sister Isa to a government facility near the Craters of the Moon lava fields in Idaho. The project there was commissioned to develop matter transference, but made a different discovery: time travel. They also discovered that a mysterious ecological catastrophe will soon wipe out civilization.

The time travel process has negative health effects, though. Adults "not much older than 20" are unable to survive for long, as their kidneys hemorrhage shortly after the experience. So the scientists decide to only send young people 56 years into the future so they can build a new civilization.

After the government takes over the project, the transfer machines are turned off, trapping a large number of project members in the future. Now trapped, they begin exploring the future world.
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Jorma Tapio & Terje Isungset - Aihki (2006)


Some particularly impressive shamanistic improv from the Norwegian/Finnish duo of Terje Isungset and Jorma Tapio. The boundless multi-instrumentalism of the two performers is something to behold, with Isungset’s percussion extending far beyond the realms of conventional drumming (apparently he fashions his own instruments from natural elements like arctic birch, granite, slate and ice), and similarly, Tapio’s woodwind playing seems to transcend the conventional language of the that family of instruments, especially on the appropriately titled ‘Nocturnal Wind From The Lake’, which mimics the natural sounds suggested by the title. The closest Aihki comes to conventional jazz improvisation is on the extended jam, ‘Salainen Tuli/Secret Fire’, which as the album’s centrepiece sees the duo running through their expansive repertoire. Beginning as a caterwauling free music workout, the piece eventually dissolves into the more esoteric, spiritual sounds that characterise this set of recordings, and make them so unique. (source)


While the name Jorma Tapio may not be familiar to you, the name Terje Isungset sure as heck should. He's the man responsible for the Igloo record, a past record of the week, recorded entirely on instruments made from ice. We've been selling that like CRAZY, when all of a sudden we got an email from Jussi (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, etc.) letting us know that his label Ektro was releasing a brand new record by Isungset, teamed up with some guy names Tapio. We were of course intrigued, but had no idea what to expect. And had we actually expected something, we probably never would have guessed how weird and wonderful this record would be. No ice instruments sad to say, but armed with flutes, bells, voices, kantele, percussion, Jew's harp and lots and lots of drums, these two whip up a super wild and wooly, ultra dense blast of what we can only describe as tribal forest folk free jazz. Or something like that.

Free jazz is probably the closest comparison, the first few tracks are dense psychedelic percussive freak outs, lots of splattery spastic free jazz drumming all over the place, deep bowed bass, steel string zings, and super creepy strangled and howled vocalizations. Everything sounds very primal and tribal, thick swaths of rhythmic throb underpinned by shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle and warbly mumbled melodies. Isungset proves to be a pretty bad ass drummer, whipping up some seriously wild squalls of spastic skitter, and octopoidal crash and bang. The vocals grunt and chant, sort of yodel, and hoot and holler, very festive and just a little nuts sounding. When the drums recede a bit, the band sort of wonders through some ancient forest, fluttering flutes, simple subtle percussion, distant drones. A bit reminiscent of Avarus or Anaksimandros for sure. The 20+ minute centerpiece, the track "Selainin Tuli / Sacred Fire" lets the duo spread way out, and lay out an expansive tribal soundscape, like the earlier 'free jazz' tracks but stripped way down. Hints of No Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand definitely surface now and then, the track eventually building to a howling shrieking psych drone freakout before settling back to almost complete silence. then a gentle lilting smudge of soft flutes and abstract clatter. That smeared clatter sort of drifts into the next two songs, disembodied scrapes and creaks, random bits of percussion, thick washes of low end thrum, quite dark an lovely.


The final track is a flittering flutescape, a spare landscape of woodwinds and distant shimmer, which is soon joined by a buzzing Jew's harp, and the harp and flutes get all tangled up into a strangely propulsive groove, some sort of skeletal prog laced with primal psych rock primitivism and festive Renn Faire revelry, like stumbling into some clearing in the woods and finding some strange open air market, with a very strange duo performing before a crowd of rapt onlookers. Weird, but pretty darn cool as well.

Finnish music obsessives need this no matter what. Lovers of that modern free folk new weird America thing might just find that this pushes all their buttons, and REALLY REALLY open minded jazz heads might also want to give this a try. Highly recommended! (Aquarius Records) (source)
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Razen / Sheldon Siegel - Split (2010)




Split-lp of Belgium’s greatest free jazz combo and flamo-ethnic weirdos.

Sheldon Siegel - There are young, arrogant artists who think they will conquer the world from their studios in Belgium with their neo-realistic paintings and their hipster indie rock bands and matching uniforms. There are also other kinds of artists who translate the contemporary nihilistic climate to sharp pastiche and absurdist drawings. In that scene old patron saints are violated shamelessly by means of free improv. Gino Coomans (cello, music box), Erik Heestermans (drums, percussion) and Gerard Herman (sax, vocals, tapes) got together in the suburbs of Antwerp. With a shared love for free jazz and an aversion for taboos the trio explores the possibilities of combined action. They avoid the easy trap of maximum instrument volumes, and instead they reticently seek for a universe in which each musician can take their part at any point, or leave it to another. It is because of that particular attitude that Sheldon Siegel comes to amazingly honest instant compositions. Probably one of the most adventurous Belgian improv groups of the new decennium.

Razen - For a couple of years now Brecht Ameel (santoor, bouzouki, keys) and Bart Reekmans (percussion, brass) have been working on a repertoire in which etnic music and improvisation are the central concepts. Tired of the traditional guitar-bass-drums combination they decided to both choose an instrument they couldn’t play at all. They ended up with a heavily detuned santoor and some metal plates that served as a drum kit. In a deserted basement Razen make unusual instruments confront until they derail and make for a filmic sound trip in which Bohren & Der Club of Gore and Moondog meet. In Brussels the Balkans, the Scottish highlands and the Ethiopian savannah are only a stones throw away from each other. For this debut the duo asked Kim Delcour (bagpipe, chalumeau, sopranino, bass recorder) and Wouter Haest (duduk, shenai) to join in. The result is a Lynchian ecstasy in four episodes in which the spiritual sixties tradition, contemporary psychedelic fusion and historical ‘source music’ are the different approaches that subsequently merge into a ritualistic dream story. (kraak)
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Everything Is Everything feat. Chris Hills (1969)


Everything is Everything was Chris Hills guitar (vocal on Oooh Baby), Jim Pepper sax and flute (vocal on Witchi Tai To), Lee Reinoehl organist, Chip Baker rhythm guitar, John Waller & Jim Zitro drums. Produced by Danny Weiss and released on Vanguard Apostolic Records.

The late 1960s and early 1970s had a lot of music released that is hard to categorize. The hippies and the back-to-the-land movements are influenced by other movements such as environmentalists, American Indian rights groups, La Raza and the Brown Berets for Chicano rights, the various Black Power movements; they were wild and crazy times, folks!!!!

Everything is Everything had one minor hit entitled “Witchi Tai To” reminiscent of an Indian tribal chant the record attracted the hippy types who typically played it for mellow background music.

If you like odd and strange stuff this LP may be for you. Or, if you want to give your groovy pad some old-time ambiance then this record playing in the background while the incense floats through the air may take you back to those long-gone days. (obbop RYM)


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Mad Curry (1970)


Founded in Belgium in 1970 with a remarkable line- up for a rock band: sax, organ, bass, drums and vocals - no guitar!, Mad Curry caught the attention of manager & enterpreneur Louis de Vries (the man who had arranged the very first Pink Floyd gig in Belgium) and soon debuted with the "Song for Cathreen" / "Antwerp" 45. "Antwerp" has become a club favourite ever since due to its danceable freakbeat psych rhythm.

)

Shortly after, the Mad Curry album was released on the Pirate label, characterized by repeated time signatures that give a progressive feeling. Sax and organ bring a specific jazzy element in the performance and the unique high bluesy voice of Viona Westra is very recognizable. All this supported by a solid rhythm team which adds a psychedelic rock base to the mix. The album was housed in a beautiful, very original fold- out cover made by Jef Winnepenninckx. If you are into the sounds of UK bands like Affinity or Ghost do not miss this splendid classic of the Belgian underground scene. (guerssen)
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The Melting Ashes - Green Fuzz 1987 (1991)


The Melting Ashes were formed in 1986 and did a limited number of gigs enlivened by slide shows and audience participation before splitting up in the spring of 1988. Their only vinyl appearance had been on a rather low-fi sampler called "12 Raw Greek Groups". They had recorded a few demos in the last months of their existence, however, and Wipe Out decided to do a posthumous album in order to please the band's hard-core fans. "Green Fuzz 1987" was released in early 1991 and is well worth getting, even if it represents the hard side of the group rather than the psychedelic notes their music was shot through with. (psychedelic-music)

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Jon Gibson - Two Solo Pieces (1996)


Jon Gibson achieved some degree of renown as a regular member of Philip Glass' original ensemble, but his own career as a composer has been somewhat overshadowed. These two compositions from the mid-'70s show that he was right at the vanguard of the minimalist movement with his better-known colleagues. "Cycles," for pipe organ, is a steady-state piece with a basic seven-note chord and alterations thereof; it creates a cloud-like atmosphere, slowly shifting certain characteristics but maintaining a singular sound throughout. "Cycles" is related to Steve Reich's earlier organ works ("Four Organs" and "Phase Patterns," the latter on which Gibson performed) but with the rhythmic element removed, leaving a mysterious stasis. "Untitled" is a lengthy melody for alto flute, where the performer is only required to perform the notes in sequence but may improvise as to repetitions, phrasing, rhythm, etc. Gibson's flute has a lovely sound, coming a little bit into shakuhachi territory, and the melody is captivating and haunting. The overall sense of serenity combined with the constantly shuffled elements makes this piece a luxurious joy. Originally issued by Chatham Square on LP in 1976 and long out of print, this was reissued on disc with three additional pieces by the Italian Robi Droli label. (amg)

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Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different (1974)


Jeden z czytelników, w swoim komentarzu, wspomniał o Betty Davis i ją zarekomendował, więc postanowiłem nadrobić zaległości muzyczne. Byłem bardzo zaskoczony w sensie pozytywnym - w rzeczy samej kawał dobrej muzyki. Wstyd po prostu, że wcześniej nie znałem. Nadrabiamy ...

Betty Davis (born Betty Mabry, July 26, 1945) is an American funk singer. She was Miles Davis's second wife.

Born in 1945, Betty Mabry grew up in Durham, North Carolina, and just outside of Pittsburgh. On her grandmother’s farm in Reidsville, North Carolina, she listened to B.B. King, Jimmy Reed, and Elmore James and other blues musicians. One of the first songs she wrote, at the age of twelve, was called "I’m Going to Bake That Cake of Love."

Aged 16, she left Pittsburgh for New York City, enrolling at the Fashion Institute of Technology while living with her aunt. She soaked up the Greenwich Village culture and folk music of the early 1960s. She associated herself with frequenters of the Cellar, a hip uptown club where young and stylish people congregated. It was a multiracial, artsy crowd of models, design students, actors, and singers. At the Cellar she played records and chatted people up. She also worked as a model, appearing in photo spreads in Seventeen, Ebony and Glamour.

In her time in New York, she met several musicians including Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. The seeds of her musical career were planted through her friendship with soul singer Lou Courtney, who produced her first single, “The Cellar” with simple, catchy lyrics like, “Where you going fellas, so fly? / I’m going to the Cellar, my oh my / What you going to do there / We’re going to boogaloo there.”


The single was a local jam for the Cellar. Yet her first professional gig was not until she wrote "Uptown (to Harlem)" for the Chambers Brothers. Their 1967 album was a major success, but Betty Mabry was focusing on her modeling career. She was successful as a model but felt bored by the work. According to Oliver Wang’s They Say I’m Different liner notes, she said, “I didn’t like modeling because you didn’t need brains to do it. It’s only going to last as long as you look good.”

She met Miles Davis in 1967 and married him in September 1968. In just one year of marriage she influenced him greatly. She introduced him to the fashions and the new popular music trends of the era. In his autobiography, Miles credited Betty with helping to plant the seeds of his future musical explorations by introducing the trumpeter to psychedelic rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix and funk innovator Sly Stone. The Miles Davis album Filles de Kilimanjaro includes a song named after her and her photo on the front cover.

Miles believed that Hendrix and Betty had an affair which supposedly hastened the end of their marriage, but Betty denies this. Hendrix and Miles stayed close after the divorce, planning to record until Hendrix's death. The influence of Hendrix and especially Sly Stone on Miles Davis was obvious on the album Bitches Brew, which ushered in the era of jazz fusion. The origin of the album's title is unknown, but some believe Miles was subtly paying tribute to Betty and her girlfriends. In fact, it is said that he originally wanted to call the album Witches Brew — it was Betty who convinced him to change it.

After the end of her marriage with Davis, Betty moved to London, probably around 1971, to pursue her modeling career. She wrote music while in the UK and returned to the US around 1972 with the intention of recording songs with Santana. Instead, she recorded her own songs with a group of West Coast funk musicians. Her first record, Betty Davis, was released in 1973. She had two minor hits on the Billboard R&B chart - "If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up", which reached no. 66 in 1973, and "Shut Off The Lights", which reached no. 97 in 1975. Davis released two more studio albums, They Say I'm Different (1974) and her major label debut on Island Records Nasty Gal (1975). None of the three albums was a commercial success.

Davis remained a cult figure as a singer, due in part to her open sexual attitude, which was controversial for the time. Some of her shows were boycotted and her songs were not played on the radio due to pressure by religious groups and the NAACP. Her image as "the patron saint of badass women" led entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso onto her target customer base and inspired her to name "Nasty Gal" the online retailer venture which sells fashion clothing, shoes, and accessories to young women.

Both Betty Davis and They Say I'm Different were re-released by Seattle's Light in the Attic Records on May 1, 2007. In September 2009, Light in the Attic Records reissued Nasty Gal and her unreleased fourth studio album recorded in 1976, re-titled as Is It Love or Desire? (the original title was Crashin' From Passion). Both reissues contained extensive liner notes and shed some light on the mystery of why her fourth album, considered possibly to be her best work by many members of her band (Herbie Hancock, Chuck Rainey, Alphonse Mouzon), was shelved by the record label and remained unreleased for 33 years. After a final recording session in 1979, Davis eventually stopped making music and returned to Pennsylvania.
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Band Of Endless Noise - The Blue Nun (Psychedelic Soap Opera) (2011)


To trzecia płyta zespołu The Band Of Endless Noise (z podtytułem „Psychedelic Soap Opera”). 8 listopada 2011 r. zespół supportował legendarną grupę Faust na festiwalu Ars Cameralis – tam też odbyła się premiera koncertowa albumu (premiera handlowa zapowiadana jest na styczeń 2012).

The Band of Endless Noise to jeden z bardziej znanych przedstawicieli alternatywnego rocka w Polsce. Popularność zdobył również za granicą. Poprzednie płyty dystrybuowane były w Stanach Zjednoczonych i krajach Europy Zachodniej, a jego nagrania emitował w BBC legendarny prezenter radiowy John Peel. Płyty miały znakomite recenzje, zespół koncertował w Polsce i Europie, w tym na wielu ważnych festiwalach, m.in. Off Festival. Nagrywał i koncertował wspólnie z zespołem Magic Carpathians. Od 2001 roku swoim konsekwentnym bitem realizuje drogę środka cenionej polskiej muzyki awangardowej. (serpent)


Andrzej Widota - electr., keyboards, voc.
Adam Sanocki - guitar
Tomasz Brzozowski - bass
Arek Lerch - percussion
Adam Busuleanu - keyboards

The long awaited third album by The Band Of Endless Noise, one of Poland’s most original alternative rock acts, was released early this January and became an instant sensation. The Blue Nun is required listening, but don’t let it obscure the band’s earlier achievements, which include Polish and international tours, studio recordings and live performances alongside Karpaty Magiczne (including an appearance at the OFF Festival), and a showcase on John Peel’s legendary radio show.
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Blues Trio Wojciecha Skowrońskiego (1970) [EP]


WOJCIECH SKOWROŃSKI ur.11.07.1941 w Warszawie, zmarł 17.01.2002 o godz. 20.25 w Poznaniu
(podawana data śmierci artysty 18.01.2002 jest nieprawidłowa), pochowany został na Cmentarzu Junikowo w Poznaniu.

Pianista, wokalista, aranżer, klarnecista, kompozytor. Ukończył ŚSM w klasie klarnetu, studiował na AM w Poznaniu. W 1962 roku został pianistą dixielandowego STORYVILLE JAZZ BAND. Rok później znalazł się w finale II Ogólnopolskiego Festiwalu Młodych Talentów w Szczecinie. Przez kilka miesięcy współpracował z zespołem CZERWONO CZARNI. W latach 1963-67 występował z poznańskim zespołem BARDOWIE. Zdobył z nim I miejsce w Ogólnopolskim Przeglądzie Zespołów Instrumentalnych, Wokalistów i Piosenkarzy. Wystąpił też w imprezach towarzyszących KFPP OPOLE '67 oraz w koncercie Nowe Twarze w Polskim Jazzie na MFMJ Jazz Jamboree '67 w Warszawie. Od stycznia do maja 1968 z Hubertem Szymczyńskim - bg i Jerzym Skowronkiem - dr utworzył trio HUBERTUSY, z którym 8-10 marca wziął udział w V festiwalu „Jazz nad Odrą” we Wrocławiu, gdzie zdobył nagrodę publiczności oraz I nagrodę w kategorii wokalistów ex aequo z Marianną Wróblewską. Współpracował z zespołami DRUMLERSI (1968, udział w VI KFPP w Opolu w koncercie "Pieśń i piosenka jazzowa), NOWI POLANIE (jesień 1968, Dana Lerska - voc; Wojciech Skowroński - p, voc; Andrzej Nebeski - dr; Włodzimierz Wander - sax; Andrzej Mikołajczak - org; Zbigniew Karwacki - sax;) oraz GRUPA ABC ANDRZEJA NEBESKIEGO (1969, Wojciech Skowroński; Andrzej Nebeski; Hubert Szymczyński; Andrzej Mikołajczak; Zbigniew Karwacki i Aleksander Michalski - sax). Po odejściu z ABC w maju 1969 roku prowadził własne zespoły: Od 11 sierpnia 1969 TRIO BLUESOWE zwane też BLUES TRIO. (źródło)


Wojciech Skowroński (piano, vocals)
Kazimierz Plewiński (bass guitar, harmonica)
Andrzej Nackowski (drums)

Wojciech Skowroński (1941-2002) was one of greatest polish blues pianist. He most of all composed boogie woogie song, but his music was something around blues, boogie, soul, pop, and jazz. Skowroński also stand out his characteristic, charismatic vocal.

Blues Trio (1969-1971) & Blues and Rock (1972-1978): About the departure of a group of ABC in May 1969, Wojciech Skowronski (1941-2002) led their own bands: from 11 August 1969 Blues Trio also called Blues Trio: W. Skowroński - p, voc; Casimir Plewiński - bg, hca; and Andrew Nackoski - dr; which in 1970 and was replaced by Pieter Janton and Matthew Winiewicz, as elektroakustyk. Blues Trio performed, among others, during the "Beat Session in Warsaw and Lublin Jazz Vocalists ' Meeting" (3-5.04.1970) as well as the plebiscite of the "Golden Anchor Sopot summer" in 1970. In the second half of 1971, there had been a change in the composition of the team, among the musicians were Andrew Spark (1946-1991; bass guitar) and Przemysław Lisiecki (drums) and Maciej Winiewicz who plays sporadically on harmonica and percussion. The greater the success gained during the "Carnival Games" (1971); (II) the "Lublin Jazz Vocalists Meetings (4-6.06.1971)-Skowroński received there 3rd place award and journalists; (II) "Wielkopolska rhythms of young" in jarocin, where the band appeared as the star of the Festival. At the beginning of 1972 to the Group joined Matthew Dobrzyński, who served as manager, artistic director, and occasionally played percussion. (source: Adam Paluch)
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Psychedelic Bollywood (2013)


To most Westerners, the term “psychedelic Bollywood” must seem redundant. The melodrama, over-the-top musical numbers, elaborate costumes, and off-kilter dialogue looping often seem hallucinogenic by their very nature.

But Bollywood – the massive Hindi film industry in India—has always looked to Hollywood for many of its cues. Thus, when the turn on, tune in, drop out wave hit the American West Coast, its washed into Bollywood, too. The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Bollywood aims to provide a musical overview of that era in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. If the original Rough Guide to Bollywood, released in 2002, was essential, The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Bollywood is an indulgence.

“Hey man, you dig this sort of music, eh? You like it?” beckons a female voice at the start of “Pyar Zindagi Hai”, the collection’s first song. What’s simultaneously intriguing and frustrating is the composers do not quite seem to have figured out just what “this sort” of psychedelic music really is. The fifteen tracks flash hints, pieces, even chunks of a variety of styles. But rarely do they mesh with much cohesion or sense of purpose. Maybe it’s the lack of the songs’ original celluloid context, but you get the sense the composers’ idea of “psychedelic” was “throw everything in the pot, add lots of effects, and swirl”.

In particular, “everything” consists of the wah-wah guitars and frantic hi-hats of classic Blaxploitation soundtracks, organ vamping, spy jazz, and heavy breathing. And that’s just the remainder of “Pyar Zindagi Hai”.

There are some real “wig out” tracks such as “Freak Out Music”, “Soul of Bobby”, and “Cabaret Dance Music”, which throws in a scream, an electronic cat call, and disembodied laughter. There is surf guitar, as on “Main Hoon Pyar Tera” and “Jaan Pehechaan Ho”. There is relentless, pounding tabla percussion, on “Moments of Passion”. Cheesy would-be exotica and syrupy strings on “Title Music”. A sitar run through a wah-wah pedal on “Yeh Mera Dil Yaar Ka Diwana”. And more heavy breathing. And panting.

There are several shorter instrumental pieces, but the majority of the tracks have vocals. Some of the preeminent Bollywood composers playback singers of the day are featured, including Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, and, of course, the ubiquitous and rather lovely Asha Bhosle, all soaked in reverb. It’s a wild ride, but in a way that is so deliberate that the intended effects are never produced. You half expect that female voice to show up again and coo, “Hey, man. This is pretty trippy now, isn’t it?”.

Some of it sticks. “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” is a more grounded folk ballad with a John Lennon ringer. “Aye Naujawan Sab Kuchh Yahan (Apradh)” and “Dance Music” feature smooth breakbeats that sound almost modern, or at least as modern as Manchester indie music in the early 1990s. “Apni To Jaise Taise” is pure, imperial disco.

There is one other issue with The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Bollywood, and it’s a tough one to get past. Bollywood, especially in the ‘60s and ‘70s, was never known for the quality of its sound recording. And, despite whatever remastering has taken place, most everything here is almost unbearably tinny and shrill, with distortion and clipping not at all uncommon. It can’t be helped, but it stops the album in its tracks. Just imagine listening to Sgt.Pepper blared through a bullhorn while stuck in a narrow aluminum cylinder. This factor alone precludes any “everyday listening” you might wish to undertake.

As if aware of the primary compilation’s significant shortcomings, or maybe just in a generous mood, the folks at World Music Network have included as a bonus The Rough Guide to R.D. Burman. It’s a more stable, less dynamic but overall higher quality collection than The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Bollywood. Burman, one of Bollywood’s greatest, most prolific composers (and Bhosle’s eventual husband), scored more than 300 films, and his work in itself covers quite a range. Though it opens with yet more panting, The Rough Guide to R.D. Burman also visits Blaxploitation funk, children’s sing-alongs, 1950s rock’n'roll, and more. There is a preponderance of ballads, but that is a strong suit when the great Sandu is crooning them. With tracks reaching into the 1980s, the sound quality is better, too.

Unlike The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Bollywood, The Rough Guide to R.D. Burman is a trip you might want to take more than just a couple times. Bonus, indeed.--- John Bergstrom
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Psycho - Live (1976)


It's quite difficult to write the history of a band that had only a few songs officially recorded with no releases, especially one that existed some 25 years ago. However, Psycho plays an important role in Estonian prog, and was one of the most aggressive and innovative bands of the day.

During its heyday of 1976-77, the band played an aggressive form of instrumental prog with a lot of improvisation, much like the Wetton-era of King Crimson. Many of the tracks were as ambitious as the aforementioned prog kings, such as the ethnically-influenced odd-time wonder "Raja 21/8" and many others. No other Estonian band matched these guys in their improv prowess; rather, not many bands around Europe during those days managed that feat either. The band has its roots back in 1973, put together by several budding musicians like drummer Paap Kõlar and guitarist Andres Põldroo -- who was an early member of Ruja. Ironically in 1976 Toomas Veenre -- the first guitarist of Ruja -- joined Psycho as its violinist. The quartet of Põldroo, Veenre, Kõlar and Heigo Mirka was in turn Estonia's own King Crimson, playing wild instrumental improvs with a strong violin part. Again, you can see the KC connection there. But the band was also influenced by bands like Mahavishnu Orchestra and even the works of Pekka Pohjola. Some of the band's best pieces, like "Illuminatsioon" and others were fabulous crowd-pleasers during the band's short but strong heyday.

The band fell apart in 1977 as members took up other musical projects, ranging from orchestras to pop-rock bands. They did record a few songs before calling it a day; the session recorded the fabulous instrumental "Nomina sunt odiosa" and the classic "Naera, naera" -- the latter with the vocals of top rock singer Tõnis Mägi. However, some of their most ambitious pieces remain unrecorded and generally unavailable. That is indeed a shame, since Psycho did play a major role in Estonian prog and was itself a fabulous band. (source)

Paap Kõlar - trummid
Andres Põldroo - soolokitarr
Toomas Veenre - viiul
Heigo Mirka - basskitarr
Helmut Aniko - saksofon, flute
Valeri Belinov - soolokitarr


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Classroom Projects. Incredible Music Made By Children in Schools (1959-1981)


A beautiful compilation of rare and brilliant music made by children in schools. The album features some incredible sounds - from charming folk songs to full blown avant-garde experiments. Many of these recordings are exceptionally scarce (some selling for close to £1000 these days) and it's unlikely anyone will have heard any of these since they were first recorded.

Recordings made by British children are hardly ever heard. Over the last few decades some schools went to the trouble of privately pressing their own LPs for plays, concerts or celebration – and with very mixed results. I’ve always collected these scarce UK recordings and decided to compile the better ones I’ve found on this new album. I believe Classroom Projects is the first album to bring together a set of such recordings – all made between 1959 and 1981.

As well as excellent small group versions of traditional songs, there are specially written instrumentals, covers of Scarlatti, even songs about drink driving. Also, we have work encouraged by John Paynter, a free-thinker, educator and true maverick. Part of the University Of York music department, he not only believed that music lessons at school were of the upmost importance, he also introduced pupils to the modern composers of the post-war period (such as Stockhausen). So instead of music lessons with group of pupils all blowing the same basic tune on recorders, he encouraged experimentation with tape machines, haiku and creative thought. As a result some of the recordings on this album sound like conceptual music from Paris in the late 50s, and not from secondary schools in Bedford in 1969.

Overall the compilation brings together some inspired musical moments, some unexpected oddness as well as a warm rush of nostalgia as the small choir from St. Brandon;s School (now closed) sing “Bright Eyes”. (source)

"Incredible music made by children in schools" says is it all really. Jonny Trunk has collected the best moments of that most niche of niche collectors' genres, the school album, spanning music by small primary school choirs singing folk songs to full-blown avant-garde experiments written and performed by children still at secondary or grammar school. As with practically all Trunk releases, it's a nostalgic gas for anyone over a certain age - we reckon anyone younger than 25 may be baffled and beguiled by these - but it should certainly strike a nerve with the vast majority of UK citizens schooled in the UK before the '90s when folk standards were largely rejected in favour of Take That and Oasis sing-a-longs (well, at my school anyway), and provide a valuable insight to anyone from beyond these shores. As Jonny points out, it's no Langley Schools Music Project, but there are some massive highlights, none less than Chelmsford County High School's haunting rendition of 'Portland Town', or 'Don't Drink And Drive' by Bradford's Hutton School Choir with the memorable line, "once you drank all your ale, you'll all have the bobby's on your tail", and especially the desolate bleakness of 'Musique Concrete' by Sounds Of Silence - an ensemble organised by John Paynter, who, along with Peter Aston conducted a handful of tracks here and wrote a number of books on the importance and impact of good musical education. So bravo Jonny Trunk, and well done to all the children, top marks all round! (source)
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Verma ‎- Coltan (2013)



Chicago psychedelic band Verma has been quietly honing their skills in the Windy City for a few years now, releasing a handful of cassettes to eager tapeheads. 2012 treated listeners to the onetwo punch of their self-released LP “Exu” & this album right here, “Coltan” recorded as the soundtrack for VICE Magazine’s ‘Guide To The Congo’ web mini-series & released as a limited edition cassette. After hearing that cassette, we here at TiM just couldn’t allow it NOT to exist on vinyl! ‘Coltan’ (short for Columbite-Tantalite) is a dull, black, metallic ore used in the manufacture of tantalum capacitors, which you’ll nd in just about EVERY electronic device & the mining of which has caused a “resource curse” in The Congo. “Coltan” perfectly captures the intensity & desperation of the situation in the four extended improvisations, which take the listener on a hazy, sun-baked journey from the mellow shadows of opening track ‘Tantalite’ all the way to the synth-drenched buzz of closer ‘Wolframite’. “Coltan” veers slightly from Verma’s previous e fforts, the band’s motorik krautrock drive has been tamed in favour of more atmospheric & abstract soundscapes. (troubleinmindrecs)
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Lights in a Fat City - Somewhere (1988)


Lights in a Fat City are Eddy Sayer, Stephen Kent, and Kenneth Newby. Stephen Kent began jamming with Eddy Sayer, a percussionist he met at a London rehearsal studio, and began playing with him in the Camden Lock Market and other outdoor venues. They made a tape of four-track recordings and some things recorded live in the street and called it Lights In A Fat City after a phrase in Hunter S. Thompson's Great Shark Hunt. When they were billed as LIAFC for their first WOMAD gig, the name stuck." "Stephen Kent, originally from the UK, is now a resident of the USA. A founding member of the group having met Sayer in 1984 at the Diorama Arts Centre in London. Kent spent his formative years growing up in Africa, sharing his parents interest in the ancient culture of the people of Uganda. He is now active with both Lights in a Fat City and Trance Mission." "Eddy Sayer, who continues to live in the UK, has travelled the globe, searching for new ways to paint with sound. His early musical training was in percussion and this opened the way to world rhythms with a drum teacher deeply involved in exploring these sounds. Sayer then became caretaker and owner of many traditional drums, their history giving them a unique voice. Sayer is now performing with the London Balinese Ceremony Group." "Kenneth Newby is a Vancouver/San Francisco based composer-performer. He holds degrees in electroacoustic composition and performance and has spent time in both Bali and Java living and studying the art of gamelon. An accomplished reed player (soprano sax, piri, bassoon), Newby was part of the original New Orchestra Workshop collective and the industrial improv ensemble Hextremities. He is co-founder of the intercultural multimedia performance company Cymbali, and co-founder of the Vancouver gamelon, Kyai Madu Sari. He currently works and records with two ensembles: Lights in a Fat City and Trance Mission." "They draw from the whole universe of sound for their music. The didjeridu with its connotations of ancient ritual - the heartbeat of the Earth we inhabit. Percussion Sounds from traditional, ethnic instruments of the world, western brass instruments such as the tuba, trombone and trumpet, strings, voices, natural and electronically generated atmospheres and recordings and samples of machines and every-day noises. All used in extraordinary and inventive ways. (dreamtime)

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