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Joy Of Cooking - Back to Your Heart. Previously Unreleased Live And Studio Recordings 1968-1972


Picture this scenario: Two women decide to form a band, recruit some guys, and get signed to a major label.

Not exactly headline news, is it? It was in the late 1960's, when pianist-singer Toni Brown and singer-guitarist Terry Garthwaite put together Joy of Cooking. Back then, female musicians were relegated to the back burner, but here was a duo with a bold new recipe: The women wrote the tunes, played the main instruments, and sang lead vocals. Naming their group after a cookbook gave it an unmistakably female identity.

Although Fanny was the first female-led band to sign a multi-album major label deal, Joy of Cooking (who signed with Capitol Records shortly thereafter) was the second. And they were the first major label group where women led a mixed-gender band. They paved the way for Heart and Fleetwood Mac, and eventually bands like Concrete Blonde and Hole, says Ariel Swartley, Rolling Stone magazine's first female rock writer.

"The band culture then was so male. So to have two women leading a band? I think women will tell you even now it can be hard to establish authority as a bandleader," Swartley says. "Back then a voice was a woman's instrument. We didn't accept (women) wielding an electric guitar."

That lack of acceptance may have been what kept the band from mass popularity. It sure wasn't the music. At the dawn of the 1970's, Joy of Cooking released three albums filled with the kind of folk-tinged country rock that was topping the charts – when it was sung by men, at least. The band's self-titled debut concentrated mostly on ballads and showcased lead singer Garthwaite's soulful wailing. With the second album, Closer to the Ground, the band moved into a more folk-oriented territory. But with its third album, Castles, Joy of Cooking produced an all-out classic, filled with shoulda-been-hits like "Let Love Carry You Along" and "Don't the Moon Look Fat and Lonesome." After Brown departed, a fourth album was recorded but never given a general release.

The band was popular enough to warrant coverage in Time magazine; if they were largely forgotten after their 1973 breakup, it's because Capitol let their moderately-selling albums go out of print. Their only charting single was a cover of bluesman Furry Lewis' "Brownsville" (performed as a medley with the traditional "Mockingbird), which got to #66 in 1971. But the song's bouncy rhythm and intertwining lead vocals probably sounded eccentric to more pop-oriented listeners and got the band pegged as a curio.

They were anything but. The recent reissues of those three albums by Evangeline Records (www.evangeline.co.uk) reveal a treasure trove of catchy roots-oriented tunes. Because the band eschewed trendy effects and gimmicky production, their albums have aged well. Play Joy of Cooking alongside Sheryl Crow, Vanessa Carlton or Indigo Girls and they sound visionary.

Most of the band's oeuvre was penned by Brown, an intelligent, versatile songwriter. "Let Love Carry You Along" works both as a feel-good tune and an admonishment of flower power hypocrisy. The snappy, sassy "Don't the Moon Look Fat and Lonesome" invents the riff the Violent Femmes later used for "Blister in the Sun." "Red Wine at Noon" tells of a desperate housewife's alcoholism.

These days, Brown works as a photographer, while Garthwaite still works in the music business writing spiritually-oriented music. Both live near Berkeley, California, where the band was formed and their proximity made it easier for them to assemble in 2005 a two-CD package, Back to Your Heart, which features early recordings and live demos. Perfect Sound Forever tracked down Brown and Garthwaite to ask them about their unique history and the release of the first "new" music by their band in over three decades.

Toni Brown: I started playing piano when I was six. Then I had a ukulele when I was probably seven or eight. Then my stepfather bought me a guitar – I must have been about 12 or 13. I also took very formal classical piano lessons for nine years. I started writing when I was very little. I started writing songs because I listened to the radio in those days. And I think my first songs was probably written on the ukulele. They were country songs. In the early days Hank Williams was my idol. And Jimmy Rogers… Kitty Wells. Then in the early 1950's, there was certainly Elvis Presley and all the R&B – I listened to nothing but R&B.


Terry Garthwaite: For me the seed was seeing The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show." I had it in my head that I wanted to get into a band because I'd been playing in folk clubs and wanted to play with different musicians. And I went to England for a year. When I came back I met Toni through a mutual friend. She played piano, I played guitar, it clicked. And I think we just decided let's play some more together, let's get some other musicians. I brought in my brother (David Garthwaite) who had been playing the bass, and Tony knew Ron (Wilson), who was the conga drummer. And that was the core for at least six months. And then we decided OK, we need to get a trap drummer to really make a happening sound.

TB: Joy of Cooking happened because both Terry and I were playing clubs in Berkeley. She was doing folk music and I was doing more country-oriented folk music – pure ethnic folk music. I had a band called The Crabgrassers. We did what we called old time music, from 1850-1950. And we were playing a lot of times in the same places, but in different rooms. It was kind of strange. I knew who Terry was – I don't know if she knew who I was then. And there were two clubs in Berkeley. And we both played each of those clubs. I was working at the local university and so was she. Our paths crossed, but we really didn't know each other. I went to Europe for a while and came back with the thought that I really wanted to do music. I just didn't want to work where I worked anymore.

TB: It was sometime in that fall (of 1967) that a mutual friend of ours had us both over and we traded songs. And I thought (Terry) was amazing and she thought my songs were amazing and so we decided to get together and jam. And it was sort of in the time when people were crossing over between folk and rock. So we were folk musicians and we hadn't really plugged our instruments in and I had been playing guitar mostly. And then I started playing piano. I had played piano in other settings.

TG: We must have put out the word we were looking for a drummer and we auditioned a bunch of them. We actually had a couple of other ones before we found Fritz (Kasten). But the sound pretty much revolved around what happened between Toni and I – the piano and guitar – and the songs. And then bringing in the conga drums made such an impression on the whole rhythmic structure. Everybody's playing went into the pot – my brother's bass playing, it's so joyous.

TB: I had come to Berkeley because of the literature. I was a literature major and creative writing major at Bennington College and I had heard about North Beach, I had read all the Beats. I was enamored of that world, I felt like I really wanted to see it. And when I came there in 1960, what I found was music. So then I started hanging out with them and discovered people who were also singing country music, but they were from the Great Valley of California and I had grown up outside Boston and here we were singing those same songs and I just really felt home.

TG: Both of us were listening a lot to blues. Again, because Toni came from the Boston area and I was from the Bay area. There were lots of blues players who came through doing concerts and playing in local clubs. We had great clubs where people like Muddy Waters and The Staple Singers played. I was influenced by Mavis Staples and Pops Staples' guitar playing was influential on my own playing. I don't know when it first came through my household, but I remember early on listening to some Blind Willie Johnson stuff that just knocked me out. Toni probably had some Furry Lewis stuff. There were lots of Folkways recordings, and I think on one of those recordings was "Brownsville" (the band's first single). We snagged it, added some different words, put our own spin on it.

TB: I wrote a book of poetry for my thesis at Bennington. So songwriting was just sort of a natural vehicle for the poems. The lyrics were always really important to me when I wrote a song. I was certainly influenced by Bob Dylan, because he was doing that. Before he plugged in he was a poet. And I was a poet musician, there was no question the lyrics were just as important to me as the music and the melody was. So it came out of the poetry.

Joy of Cooking became the "house band" at the Berkeley club Mandrake's, performing Wednesday evenings. It was there they acquired a rabid local following and attracted the attention of record company executives. Rock critic Ed Ward recalls the scene.

Ed Ward: When I went to see them, people got up and danced. That may not seem like such a huge thing, but I was coming off of life around Rolling Stone, where you'd go to the Fillmore and people would sit on the floor in comatose lumps, smoking dope and looking at a band. The musicians could have been on television, almost, for all the interaction there was. And then I discovered that there was a club scene in Berkeley, that a lot of the music there was funkier, and that people got up and shook their butts. The Joy was the band that got people up the most. Plus, the audience was different: Fillmore audiences tended to be guys, with the girls dragged along as an afterthought. The Joy attracted a more varied crowd, maybe a tad bit older, who seemed a bit smarter.

TG: There were a lot of label representatives that came to the club Mandrake's where we played in Berkeley to check us out. So somebody from Capitol came and said, ‘sign these guys,' and his name I can't remember. The first album is probably my favorite. It was the most exciting. We'd been playing for a couple of years and this was an opportunity finally to put down the things that we had honed. The whole experience was thrilling for us. One thing that stood out in my mind was overdubbing the parts for (the closing track) "Children's House." There was a chorus in the background, which was I think three of us, we overdubbed it like five times and they didn't play the whole thing back for us until the end. We were just awed by the big sound of it. We'd been in studios just recording stuff live, not adding stuff to it. This was the first opportunity we had to overdub anything. Back in those days it was quite amazing. Also, on that album we hardly overdubbed anything. We did overdub that and we overdubbed the guitar solo and clarinet on "Only Time Will Tell Me."

TB: "Down My Dream" on the first album was definitely influenced by (jazz). I always loved the way Terry sang that because she sounded, so, she's such a great singer, she could do anything. She sounded like Dionne Warwick singing that. And yet the lyrics of that song are pretty sophisticated. They're not like your ordinary jazz or pop tune, so that was the kind of stuff that I really liked – the sort of juxtaposition of things and a combination of things that you wouldn't expect.

TG: The album sold somewhere around 50,000 copies. At that time, it was enough for Capitol to be excited and want to do more recording. Even though by today's numbers that would be a paltry sum.

TB: It was a rarity to have women actually play electric instruments. It wasn't a rarity in the folk world to have female folk singers, my gosh, they were right up there on the top of the heap. But to plug your instrument in and have drums and all of that was new. And I think the media certainly took it and ran with it. Unfortunately in those days you could think that this was something special and this was gonna break all kinds of barriers, but if you look at music today, it's still as macho as ever.

TG: I feel it was the media that picked up the feeling that (women leading a band) was unusual. I grew up in Berkeley and Toni was from the Cambridge-Boston area where lots of women had been playing folk music. It was just a natural progression for us to move into playing electric instruments. So for us it was no big deal, for our audiences it was no surprise – especially in the Bay Area – maybe once you moved outside of there. The only time I can remember somebody indicating to me it was weird was not that I was playing but "Gee, how come there are so many women in your audience?"

TB: Castles was the last Joy of Cooking record that I was on. I left the band in 1972. Capitol offered us six figures if we would go out on the road for, I don't know, it probably would have turned out to be four or five months out of the year. I had met my husband-to-be and I just said no, I could not do that road thing anymore. Subsequently Terry and the rest of the band found another keyboard player and a couple of background singers and they did an album for Capitol ("Same Old Song and Dance") which Capitol released but in a very, very limited quantity. They released it in Canada because they owed us an album, so they picked up the option. Then I left the band and so they had to honor that. But it didn't get any play, for whatever reason – Terry has her theories on that and I don't know what the politics were at the time because I was no longer involved.

TG: There was a vinyl shortage at the time and there were contractual problems, so the album never came out except on airplanes. You know how they'll release an album to an airplane? –At least they used to; I don't know if they do it anymore. So that's the only play it got – thousands of feet up in the air.

Although Same Old Song and Dance is next to impossible to find, a few tracks leaked out on subsequent compilations. In 1990, Capitol Records released a cassette tape called The Best of Joy of Cooking as part of a "Retro Rock" series. It featured Joy of Cooking's rendition of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Walking Blues." An out-of-print 1992 compilation CD called American Originals featured more rarely heard tracks from the fourth LP, including "Such Days Are Made for Walkin'," "Ain't Nobody Got the Blues Like Me," and "You Gotta Reap Just What You Sow." The story doesn't end there, though. Around the time Castles was recorded, Brown and Garthwaite took a cross country trip to Nashville, Tennessee where they recorded a country-flavored LP called, not surprisingly, Cross Country. The Wayne Moss-produced album doesn't feature any other Joy member, but instead showcases excellent instrumentation by such country pros as Vassar Clements and Charlie McCoy. It's every bit as good as the three Joy of Cooking albums, and Capitol Records must have thought so too, since they include two songs ("As I Watch the Wind" and "Midnight Blues") on the aforementioned American Masters CD. Though long out of print and never issued on CD, Cross Country is worth tracking down.

TB: Artie Mogul at Capitol really loved us. He was the A&R guy there. He offered us a duo album if we would go to Nashville. And I'd always wanted to do that. I had a bunch of songs that I knew needed to be done in a Nashville context. And so they let us go because that meant that they had one more album from Terry and I. That came out after Castles. We had some of the best players that were around in those days. It was really a blast. "Midnight Blues" was the first song that I ever sang for Terry way back in 1967. And there it was finally in a Nashville studio.

The story still isn't over. After releasing one solo LP each, Brown and Garthwaite reunited in 1977 for another duo LP, this time under the abridged moniker The Joy. Although it's more jazz-oriented and is burdened with a slick late 1970's sound (courtesy of producer Michael Stewart), this out-of-print LP is also worth investigating if you can track down the vinyl (on Fantasy Records). Garthwaite turns in one of her best vocals on Ian Jack's funky "On the Natch," while Brown checks in with what might be her most exquisite melody, the aching "You Don't Owe Me Spring."

TB: I had wanted to take jazz piano lessons when I was younger, but never did. I got off into the country and sort of eclectic country folk or whatever you want to call it. And I never really got to study with anybody. But my ear was always going there. It was going to ninths and 13ths and all kinds of chords, and the chromatic harmonies. And I didn't know how they worked. So I took this class and everything sort of came together. So that's when I started putting stuff together.

The new CD, Back to Your Heart, came about after Brown and Garthwaite realized they were sitting on lots of high-quality unreleased material.

TB: Terry and I decided a year ago to sit down and go through a lot of material that we had sitting around, mostly on old seven-and-a-quarter inch tapes and cassettes. We wanted to see if there was a CD in there of stuff that we could put out that had never been released. So we culled through a lot of stuff. And then we have a fan who lives in Michigan and he's taken our tapes and remixed a lot of the material for free, which is just wonderful because we didn't know exactly what to do with this stuff. We have one live show which we both agreed was listenable. A lot of the live stuff is really horrible because the sound is usually terrible. But this one came out pretty well. We also have a bunch of stuff from when Terry and I first started playing together in her house in Berkeley. We did a version of (Joan Baez's) "Love is a Four-Letter Word," and Terry put a whole bunch of different harmonies to it. We just kind of had fun with it and then we went into the studio and did it. So we started off with that and then kind of went from 1968 all the way through to this live thing which was 1972 – stuff that was never released. When we started listening to some of the music we thought "Oh my gosh, why didn't we put that on one of our albums?" Because there's some really nice music there.

Tony Sclafani

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Octavian Nemescu - Gradeatia / Natural (1983)


Octavian Nemescu - ur. w 1940 r. w Paşcani (Rumunia). Ukończył studia kompozytorskie w klasie Mihaila Jory na Uniwersytecie Muzycznym w Bukareszcie. Obecnie jest profesorem kompozycji w tej uczelni. Będąc zwolennikiem łączenia różnorodnych zjawisk muzyczno-estetycznych, wykorzystuje w swojej twórczości elementy formy otwartej, sztuki konceptualnej, elevator music, muzyki spektralnej, wprowadza także różnego rodzaju archaizmy. Głównym przedmiotem jego zainteresowań jest przywracanie pierwotnych modeli znaczeniowych. Pod wpływem nawarstwianych meta muzycznych poziomów znaczeniowych, które przedstawiają różne stopnie świadomości i opisują symbolikę wyobrażenia muzycznego, z dzieł Nemescu emanuje rytualny nastrój skupienia. Siła i witalność muzycznego dyskursu jest wynikiem wyboru komunikacji muzycznej, dążącej nie do immanencji, lecz transcendencji, komunikacji odwołującej się do magicznych funkcji, które muzyka niegdyś posiadała. Nemescu opublikował książkę Semantyczne możliwości muzyki (1983). (warszawska-jesien)



Octavian Nemescu (b. March 29, 1940, Paşcani, Romania). Esteemed Romanian composer of orchestral, chamber, choral, electroacoustic, multimedia, metamusic, and imaginary works that have been heard throughout Europe and elsewhere.

Prof. Nemescu studied composition with Mihail Jora, harmony with Paul Constantinescu and orchestration with Alexandru Pascanu and Anatol Vieru at the National University of Music in Bucharest from 1956-63. Much later, he earned his DMus in musicology at the G. Dima Conservatory in Cluj-Napoca in 1978.

His honors include the Aaron Copland Prize (USA, 1970), six prizes from the Romanian Composers Union (1970, 1981, 1984, 1987, 1992, 1995) and two prizes from the Concours International de Musique Électroacoustique de Bourges (1980, 1982). He has also earned the Prize of the Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences (1981) and the Prize of the International Confederation for Electroacoustic Music (ICEM) (1985).

His music has been performed throughout Romania, as well as in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Moldova, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland, and has been broadcast throughout the world.

Prof. Nemescu initially taught at the University of Brasov, where he was an assistant from 1971-74 and a lecturer on analysis and counterpoint from 1974-78. From 1978-90, he was a professor of counterpoint, harmony and music history at the George Enescu Art High School in Bucharest and since 1990, has been Professor of Composition and doctoral advisor at the National University of Music in Bucharest.

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VA - Eskimo Songs from Alaska (1966)


Recorded on St Lawrence Island by Miriam C. Stryker in 1966 this album features songs from the "Yupik" Eskimos that have long occupied the Island and who live in two separate villages Savoonga and Gambell. Eskimo legend tells of the Island’s formation: "The Sea Goddess, picking up a handful of ooze from the bottom of the sea, squeezed it between her fingers, forming mountains that are part of its interesting terrain." This rugged terrain means a hard life for a people who live off the land. The songs relate through subjects such as hunting, fishing, boats, animals and the like. The lyrics are often very sparse and sometimes the song consists solely of chanted syllables. Liner notes include history of the Yupik Eskimos and song information. (folkways)


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Ariel Kalma - Le Temps des Moissons (1975)


Born and raised in Paris, France, Ariel started playing the recorder at age 9 and saxophone at 15. During his successive studies of Electronics, Computer Science, Music and Art in Paris, Ariel performed with several bands, then toured the world and visited Europe, Japan, India, Eastern Canada, and parts of the USA. Apart from rhythm & blues, pop and jazz, he acquired assorted experiences in middle-age French, electro-acoustic, and modal music. All the travels broadened Ariel's musical horizons tremendously; listening to and playing with different styles, people, and instruments, intricate scales, techniques, timing and rhythms.

Ariel Kalma playing guitarAfter learning circular breathing from a snake charmer in India, Ariel practiced it on soprano sax - for many sleepless nights - in the basement of a cathedral in New York (when he was not playing upstairs on the large harmonium). Returning to France in late '76, Ariel could include those endless notes into his own long-delay-effect system with which he toured, playing solo concerts. Ariel contributed to the birth of (then) new music genres: minimalist, space, ambient, new age, electronic etc.

With his passion for recording and sound, Ariel always had a home studio and was also technical assistant to some of the composers at Paris' GRM - Musical Research Group part of the INA (Audiovisual National Institute), where he recorded some of his compositions.

Over 3 decades, Ariel Kalma published several vinyl LP's, cassettes, and CD's, many older ones out of print. His compositions have been used for modern dance-theatre, films, musical poetry, guided meditations, transformational groups. Ariel Kalma has also played on many albums in France - even throughout Europe, the US and recently Australia, where he lives. (ariel-kalma)



This has been the first solo recording LP from Ariel Kalma, recorded in 1975. After a long journey to India where he learnt the basics of modal music and singing, Ariel was inspired by the fusion of ancient and modern ways of playing music in the 70s with saxophone, ethnic instruments, effects, electric instruments and electronic filters. As making a record was expensive at that time, when the first thousand records were pressed Ariel run out of money so he bought blank sleeves and one by one, he drew the shape of his hand and numbered each LP. This first pressing is now rare and sought after!

Another detail made this LP memorable because it had not been done before: Ariel convinced the pressing engineer to loop the groove at the end of side 2 - thus creating an endless loop - and although it was casually mentioned on the cover, it caused surprises sometimes by sending listeners into trance. or on some occasions burning the motor of their turntable after endless hours! On this CD, Ariel included a loop of several minutes only, because the LP loop had an audio advantage: as time passed the sound of the loop changed because the diamond eroded the groove.

To the 3 compositions originally on the LP have been added 2 other ones from that period of time. Note from Ariel : Saxophone is powerful. It has raw sounds that are often filtered, polished for easier listening. I like to let my saxophone sing and when I play, I hear high-pitched, teasing sounds that I like so much. they titillate my senses. If it is too sharp for your ears, adjust your EQ till you are comfortable.
This has been the first solo recording LP from Ariel Kalma, recorded in 1975. After a long journey to India where he learnt the basics of modal music and singing, Ariel was inspired by the fusion of ancient and modern ways of playing music in the 70s with saxophone, ethnic instruments, effects, electric instruments and electronic filters. As making a record was expensive at that time, when the first thousand records were pressed Ariel run out of money so he bought blank sleeves and one by one, he drew the shape of his hand and numbered each LP. This first pressing is now rare and sought after!

Another detail made this LP memorable because it had not been done before: Ariel convinced the pressing engineer to loop the groove at the end of side 2 - thus creating an endless loop - and although it was casually mentioned on the cover, it caused surprises sometimes by sending listeners into trance. or on some occasions burning the motor of their turntable after endless hours! On this CD, Ariel included a loop of several minutes only, because the LP loop had an audio advantage: as time passed the sound of the loop changed because the diamond eroded the groove.

To the 3 compositions originally on the LP have been added 2 other ones from that period of time. Note from Ariel : Saxophone is powerful. It has raw sounds that are often filtered, polished for easier listening. I like to let my saxophone sing and when I play, I hear high-pitched, teasing sounds that I like so much. they titillate my senses. If it is too sharp for your ears, adjust your EQ till you are comfortable.
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Quicksilver Messenger Service - At the Kabuki Theatre (1970)


Released legally 36 years after the fact, the double-disc set At the Kabuki Theatre presents a recording of Quicksilver Messenger Service's 1970 New Year's Eve performance in San Francisco; the sound quality is surprisingly good, because the show was broadcast live that night by local radio station KMPX, resulting in a relatively clear recording. The concert came at a late point in Quicksilver's history. Exactly one year earlier, on New Year's Eve 1969, the existing band consisting of guitarist John Cipollina, bassist David Freiberg, drummer Greg Elmore, and pianist Nicky Hopkins had been rejoined by guitarist Gary Duncan, who had left the group after its second album, Happy Trails, and singer/songwriter Dino Valente, who had been intended to be a member of Quicksilver at their formation in 1965, but was forced to serve a jail sentence for drugs instead. By now, with 1970 coming to a close, the band had made two albums full of Valente's songs, Just for Love and the newly released What About Me, and Hopkins had departed, leaving the group a quintet. Not surprisingly, the set was dominated by the recent material, and even looked forward to the next two Quicksilver albums. The opener, "Fresh Air" (which had climbed halfway up the Billboard Hot 100, Quicksilver's biggest hit single), Cipollina's instrumental "Cobra," and the closer, "Freeway Flyer," were from Just for Love; What About Me contributed five songs, "Baby, Baby," "Subway," "Call on Me," "Local Color," and the title track; "The Truth" and "Song for Frisco" would appear on Quicksilver 11 months hence; and "Mojo" would be held for 1972's Comin' Thru. The pre-Valente era was accounted for only by "Pride of Man" from 1968's Quicksilver Messenger Service, "Mona" from Happy Trails, and "Too Far" from Shady Grove. As such, this is very much a performance by the Valente version of the band, making it more of a singer-with-backup-band show than the kind of jamming effort Quicksilver were known for from 1965 to 1969. Old-time fans might disdain it almost as much as they did the Valente-led albums, even though there is some excellent guitar playing by both Cipollina and Duncan, and, of course, Valente's songs are well written and sung. Any doubt about who was in charge is erased by the inclusion of excerpts from a Quicksilver rehearsal that fill out the second disc; here, Valente is running the show, directing the players in no uncertain terms. (It turned out that, whatever the original intentions, there wasn't enough room in the band for all these players; in the year after the Kabuki Theatre show, both Cipollina and Freiberg left Quicksilver.) --- William Ruhlmann



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Howling Black Soul (2014)


Howling Black Soul are a power house trio like they used to do. Free meets Black Sabbath with a 1972 valve amp thrown in for good measure. Turn this up loud" Mark Elliot EMP studios. 

Check their soundcloud.




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Various Artists - The Psychedelic Scene (1998)


The 25 tracks on this single-CD title have been derived from the mid-'60s archives of U.K.-based Decca Records and associated subsidiaries, such as their progressive and psych-intensive offshoot, Deram. The Psychedelic Scene (1998) is a key entry in the label's critically respected and listener-lauded "scene"-related releases. This installment thematically links harder-to-find cuts from a variety of groups, many of whom issued only a handful (if that many) of 45s. In some cases, the artists left more in the vaults than ever made it to store racks. In fact, all but the most scholarly enthusiast probably won't be familiar with the vast majority of the featured names. However, what is lacking in instant recognition is more than compensated for by the consistently clever and sonically stimulating sides. Producers likewise chose to highlight exceedingly obscure songs from the "name" acts as well. The Moody Blues' trippy pop fare "Love & Beauty" dates prior to the band's virtual re-invention on Days of Future Passed (1967). "Turn Into Earth" is one of singer/songwriter Al Stewart's earliest efforts, although it would be a decade before he garnered success stateside with "Year of the Cat." While the mournful waltz was not really a precursor to his more lucrative direction, Stewart's ethereal voice is unmistakable. "That Man" is a "lost classic" in the sense that while the Small Faces may not have been fundamental contributors to the British psych movement, the strength of material such as this demonstrates the combo's uncanny versatility. "14 Hour Technicolour Dream" is from the short-lived Syn, whose personnel at one time or another included future Yes men Peter Banks (guitar) and Chris Squire (bass). Among the other appealing platters are the Accent's proto-punk-ish "Red Sky at Night," the Poets' "In Your Tower," Virgin Sleep's soulful and catchy "Secret," and the Societie's (sp) "Bird Has Flown." Interestingly, the latter band was discovered by the Hollies' Allan Clarke. Although some may find the 12-page liner booklet a bit sparse on discographical and biographical information, there are plenty of photos and vintage graphics amid the text. The Psychedelic Scene is recommended for inclined parties and is likewise a copious and worthwhile primer.  --- Lindsay Planer
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Michael Chapman - The Resurrection and Revenge of the Clayton Peacock (2011)


"One of the finest acoustic guitar innovators borne of the late '70s UK folk scene, was in Philadelphia early 2010, paying tribute to his good friend, the late Jack Rose, a mighty six-string alchemist in his own right, and a youngster wholly inspired by Chapman's critical recordings. While sharing in the good light of friendship backstage, we asked Michael if he'd ever recorded an LP of purely improvised guitar music. It seemed feasible, as the current state of acoustic guitar exploration was in equal measures inspired by both composition and improvisation. Chapman, along with Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, John Fahey et al, was a significant and historical informant for this young set. But he claimed to have never even entertained the notion of an LP of exclusively improvised playing. Anyone who has had the good fortune to hear Michael just take off in the middle of his songs and simply shred into zones of in-and-out-of-the-chakras stratosphere knows that such an idea could only be wildly welcomed. As it were, Michael got in touch within a week or so and said he was game, and here it is, The Resurrection And Revenge Of The Clayton Peacock, two sides of unbroken, idiosyncratic guitar improvisation that moves from neck-tapping harmonics into effects pedal kosmische into distinctly strange tone huzz. An odd and lovely, momentous session." (source)
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Hubert Zemler - Gostak & Doshes (2014)


Hubert Zemler (ur. w 1980 w Warszawie) perkusista. Aktywny uczestnik warszawskiej sceny muzyki niezależnej. Ceniony sideman. Naukę muzyki rozpoczął w 1987 roku w Państwowej Szkole Muzycznej im. Karola Szymanowskiego w Warszawie. Pierwszym jego instrumentem był fortepian, lecz po trzech latach nauki zmienił przedmiot główny na perkusję. Początkowo zgłębiał tajniki muzyki klasycznej, by pod koniec lat dziewięćdziesiątych zainteresować się jazzem. W roku 1999 rozpoczął studia w klasie perkusji w Akademii Muzycznej im. Fryderyka Chopina w Warszawie. W tym okresie jego zainteresowania muzyczne obejmowały jazz, muzykę współczesną i improwizację. Z tego okresu pochodzą nagrania zespołu TRIA, do którego należeli również saksofonista Bronisław Szałanski i perkusista Roman Slefarski, i który nawiązywał do amerykańskiej awangardy jazzowej lat sześćdziesiątych. W latach 2002-2003 Zemler wraz z bratem – gitarzysta? Konradem Zemlerem, saksofonista? Radosławem Nowickim i kontrabasista? Wojciechem Pulcynem odbył trasę koncertową po krajach Bliskiego Wschodu (Syria, Jordania, Egipt, Liban) promującą muzykę. Krzysztofa Komedy. Przez następne lata współpracował z muzykami pochodzącymi z bardzo wielu, czasem odległych, muzycznych światów. Od orkiestr symfonicznych (Sinfonia Varsovia, Opera Narodowa) przez jazz (Zbigniew Namysłowski, Wojciech Staroniewicz), world music (Rei Ceballo & Calle Sol, Ritmodelia), rock i blues (Incarnations, Neurasja), ambitny pop w zespole Natu, po muzykę współczesną (Tadeusz Wielecki, Zdzisław Piernik, Arturas Bumsteinas) i improwizowaną (Horny Trees, Kapacitron). Zdobycie brązowego medalu na międzynarodowych igrzyskach delfickich w Korei Południowej w 2009 roku, natchnęło go do grania solowych koncertów improwizowanych na perkusji. Koncert Huberta Zemlera z warszawskiego klubu „Chłodna 25” został zarejestrowany i w grudniu 2011 roku wydany nakładem oficyny wydawniczej Lado ABC jako album „Moped”. (thecontexts)

To drugi solowy album Huberta Zemlera, który w przeciwieństwie do w pełni improwizowanego, koncertowego albumu „Moped”, wypełniony jest utworami w znacznie większym stopniu skomponowanymi. Na płycie znajdziemy również dwa utwory zainspirowane muzyką elektroniczną, a konkretnie twórczością ansamblu Suaves Figures ( Piotr Kurek i Sylvia Monnier).

W tych utworach, Hubert Zemler dokonał transkrypcji brzmień generowanych elektronicznie na instrumenty akustyczne, a w warstwie wykonawczej wsparł go tu na wibrafonie wspaniały perkusista Miłosz Pękala (Kwadrofonik, Mitch & Mitch, Hob Beats Percussion Group).

Materiał został zarejestrowany podczas nocnych sesji nagraniowych, w dysponujących niesamowitymi warunkami akustycznymi podziemiach kościoła pokamedulskiego na warszawskich Bielanach. W rolę inżyniera dźwięku wcielił się Sebastian Witkowski. (boltrecords)


Hubert Zemler (b. 1980 in Warsaw) musician, percussionist. Percussionist, bronze medalist at the Delphic Games in South Korea in 2009. Member of several independent bands originated in Warsaw. Over the years he has experimented with different music genres: improvisational music (Horny Trees, SzaZaZe, Kapacitron, Piętnastka), contemporary music (Arturas Bumsteinas, Zdzisław Piernik, Tadeusz Wielecki), world music (Ritmodelia, Calle Sol) and ambitious pop (The Saint Box, Incarnations, Frozen Bird, Babadag, Neurasja, Natu). Determined to pursue his own way, he created his own, original sound backed by unique sensitivity, ingenuity and exceptional technique. 

His solo project consists in synthesis of musical search. The publishing house Lado ABC released the album “Moped” with one of his concerts. 

It’s Hubert Zemler’s second solo album. In opposition to the fully improvised concert album Moped, this one is filled with pieces which are pre-composed to a much greater extent. The album also contains two compositions inspired by electronic music, particularly by works of the ensemble Suaves Figures (Piotr Kurek and Sylvia Monnier).

In these pieces, Hubert Zemler transcribed the electronically generated sounds to acoustic instruments, supported by an excellent percussionist Miłosz Pękała (Kwadrofonik, Mitch & Mitch, Hob Beats Percussion Group) playing the vibraphone.

The material was registered during night recording sessions in the basement of the Camaldolese church in the Bielany district of Warsaw – the place of amazing acoustics – with Sebastian Witkowski as a sound engineer. (boltrecords)
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Morton Feldman ‎- Rothko Chapel / Why Patterns? (1991)


Morton Feldman (1926-1987) - Kompozytor, jedna z najważniejszych postaci nowojorskiej awangardy muzycznej. W wieku 12 lat uczył się gry na fortepianie u Very Mauriny Press, uczennicy Busoniego. Jego pierwszym nauczycielem kompozycji byli Wallingford Riegger, zwolennik Arnolda Schönberga oraz Stefan Wolpe, który sam pobierał lekcje u Franza Schrekera i Antona Weberna. W roku 1949 poznał Johna Cage’a, który zachęcał Feldmana do rozwijania jego intuicyjnego podejścia do kompozycji. W kręgu jego nowojorskich znajomych znaleźli się także Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, Virgil Thomson, Henry Cowell, George Antheil, malarze – Mark Rothko i Jackson Pollock oraz pianista David Tudor. Kontakty z malarzami zaowocowały m.in. próbami tworzenia graficznej notacji utworów, w której wiele decyzji zależy od konkretnego wykonawcy. W 1973 roku Feldman otrzymuje posadę na University of New York w Buffalo i piastuje ją do końca życia. Jego utwory cechują się bardzo powolnym przebiegiem, wyciszoną dynamiką, swobodną rytmiką, rozchwianiem wysokości, a często, zwłaszcza pod koniec lat 70. także bardzo długimi rozmiarami.


Morton Feldman was a unique and influential American composer. His experimentation with non-traditional notation, improvisation, and timbre led to a characteristic style that emphasized isolated and usually quiet points or moments of sound. His work with John Cage and his association with the avant-garde of American painters, including Pollock, Rauschenberg, and Rothko helped him to discard traditional music aesthetics for a less ordered and more intuitive, "moment form" approach to structure. His earlier work of the 1950s utilized graphic notation in which only approximate indications were given to the performers. This eventually proved unsatisfactory to Feldman because it allowed for non-idiomatic, uncontrolled improvisation. Throughout the decade, he experimented with different versions of notation that gave varying amounts of freedom to the performers. The first experiment was to abolish rhythmic notation altogether. The pitches were specified exactly with open note heads, but all other elements were left entirely up to the performers. The second experiment involved giving an identical written part to several players with the intention of producing "a series of reverberations from an identical sound source." A work that is indicative of this reverberation technique is the Piece for 4 Pianos (1957). Feldman's third innovation of this period was a variation on the first one. Once again, note durations were left up to the performers, but in this case, all other elements were notated precisely. In his Prince of Denmark (1964), for solo percussion, the graphic notation is a key that assists the performer in making their own version of the piece.

By 1970, using conventional notation, his distinctive doctrine of quietness, stillness and lack of dramatic rhetoric was fully in place. Feldman's best-known chamber works of this period include The Viola in My Life (1970-1971), Rothko Chapel (1971), and Why Patterns (1978). In his last compositions, Feldman became interested in the use of time and proportion. The resulting pieces became greatly expanded in scale, at least nine lasting more than ninety minutes. His composition For Philip Guston lasts four hours, and his String Quartet II can take up to six hours to perform. Yet even in his last works, Feldman's method is apparently intuitive, as he never admitted to, nor has any theorist been able to uncover, any systematic means of pitch selection.

Feldman's first teachers were Wallingford Riegger and Stefan Wolpe, but it was his meeting with John Cage in 1950 that set his entire future direction and musical aesthetic. Cage's circle of composers, which also included Christian Wolff and Earle Brown, combined with the influence of the visual artists that Feldman befriended, allowed him to develop his personal and instinctual method of composing. Feldman lived and worked in New York throughout most of his earlier creative career. In 1973, he was offered the Edgar Varèse Chair in composition at the University of New York at Buffalo, which he held until his death in 1987. (Steven Coburn)

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Omon Ra - The Spirit Of Jerry Garcia Playing The Rolling Stones (2009)


The past two years have easily been the best years of my life. I've made lots of very close friends, traveled lots of ground, and made large leaps artistically. The biggest part of my life for the past two years has easily been my musical project Omon Ra, formed with who would become my closest and best friend, Daniel Miller. I think that our friendship transcends into the recordings and the music and art we created is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. We moved through many styles from quiet psych-folk, to psych-punk blowouts, to free improvisations and drone worship; we both grew tremendously as people and as musicians.

But alas, for some reason I have moved to a different city. I needed to grow, I was feeling claustrophobic and frustrated within Halifax, the sleepy little coastal town, and I needed to leave. I miss it a lot, I think about going back, but I can't not now, maybe never, who knows. Me and Dan had hopes of keeping the band going, traveling to France in the new year. But due to financial circumstances, aka the difficulty of finding proper employment in Montreal, and the fact that our growing ideas needed to leave the abstract, we began playing and recording with different groups, all with mutual friends however. Dan teamed up with the members of the Ether and Friendly Dimension, to form his new group "OmmaCobba and The East Side Marijuana Band." And I teamed up with fellow east coast ex-pats Matthew Wilson and Chris D'eon, as well as my good friend Emily Robb, to form what I have called (in tribute to Krautrock band Amon Düül II), Omon Ra II. These new formations have yielded new musical directions and the old Omon Ra is no longer. For the mean time we will focus on our respective groups until sometime in the future, when perhaps, hopefully, me and Dan will collaborate again, and who knows how that project will take shape.

We would like to thank all the people that supported that group and hope you will continue to support our new endeavors, as they are both sonic continuations of the creative-embryo that was Omon Ra.

In celebration I have uploaded one of the two, last Omon Ra records we hoped to release, The Spirit of Jerry Garcia Playing the Rolling Stones. This record was recorded over fall to spring last year, it was our longest time spent recording an album. We acquired some new technology when recording and is easily our best sounding most ambitious record. Most of the songs are Daniel's and I would try to do my best to add some tasty licks, keyboard tricks, and harmonies to the wonderful pieces. My only contributions other than the collaborative tracks, were "Children of the Alien Avatar" and "Eurydice". There are many good moments to this record and we arranged it to really fit the flow the music; to help the listener get in the world of the record. This album gives a good idea of where Dan is taking his music with his new group. The art was kindly done by our friend Andrew McCgregor. One of our last shows was a freely improvised collaborative set with Gown, Andrew's project.

Speaking of his new group, Dan kindly sent me a song from their upcoming album, Faster Acid Sun, Burn Burn. There are a lot of bands doing the whole Spacemen 3, krautrock, homage thing right now, but this is easily one of the best I have heard. I have posted the epic title track, clocking in over 12 minutes, which features bass, drums, guitars, chants, clarinets, and saxes. The piece moves through Warlock-esq rock n' roll with Contortions approved horn squeaks and skonks over top, to spacey Cluster-like ambiance, to Boredoms friendly drum jams. This is some very promising music. I understand the record will be available soon with artwork from Ether front-man Luke Corrigan. They are also playing a couple of shows in Halifax back to back in early December, the first on 11th at the Khyber Club with Rich Aucoin, and the 13th at Reflections with the Friendly Dimension. Check out ! (source)
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Suzanne Ciani - Lexiviation 1968-1985 [2012]


W programie Davida Lettermana z sierpnia 1980 roku zrelaksowana i roześmiana Suzanne Ciani zademonstrowała działanie najnowszych cudów techniki. Zajmujący niemało miejsca zestaw syntezatora zintegrowanego z efektami oraz komputerem posłużył jej do stworzenia niewiarygodnych efektów. Modulacje głosu prezentera oraz inne futurystyczne dźwięki rozbawiły do łez zgromadzoną w studio publikę – podobną reakcję wywołał wcześniejszy o 20 lat, słynny dzięki YouTube telewizyjny występ Johna Cage’a.

Choć nazwę firmy Ciani Musica Inc może nie kojarzyć zbyt wielu, prace tam powstałe są powszechnie znane w USA, gdyż stanowią kawałek amerykańskiej popkulturowej historii. Dźwięk bąbelków napoju w reklamie Coca Coli, zajawki programów PBS, efekty do gry typu pinball i reklamy komputera Atari – to tylko wycinek komercyjnych prac Suzanne Ciani realizowanych przez lata 70. i 80. Kilka podobnych miniatur oraz dłuższych kompozycji zebrano na „Lixiviation”, kompilacji nagrań z lat 1969-1985, wydanej nakładem Finders Keepers.

Kariera amerykańskiej kompozytorki to przykład na łączenie przeciwstawnych strategii, bycia równocześnie w awangardzie oraz mainstreamie. Muzyczna edukacja Cianni przypadała na czas rozwoju nowych instrumentów i elektronicznych urządzeń.

Artystka zaś miała szczęście spotkać odpowiednie osoby na swojej drodze – najważniejszą postacią był bez wątpienia Don Buchla, konstruktor syntezatora modularnego. Ciani stała się wkrótce najbardziej cenioną specjalistką posługującą się nowym instrumentem, potrafiącą odnaleźć w gąszczu okablowania odpowiednie dźwięki. Pionierski okres poznawania maszyny wiązał się z nieustannym odkrywanie nowych barw – brzmiących jak nigdy dotąd. Otwarty na nowinki technologiczne przemysł szybko zauważył utalentowaną Ciani, ta zaś zamiast nagrywać dla elitarnego grona wtajemniczonych podjęła się realizacji komercyjnych zleceń. W tym samym czasie, finansując studio z zarobionych pieniędzy, pracowała nad własnymi, niezależnymi projektami. Kompozycje nagrane „do szuflady” dopiero dzisiaj doczekały się publikacji.

Choć retro-futurystycznych dżingli i soundtracków do gier słucha się po latach z zaciekawieniem, to właśnie dłuższe utwory najbardziej przykuwają uwagę. „Paris 1971” to podróż do gwiazd wyczarowana przy pomocy syntezatora Buchli – nakładane warstwy dźwięków miarowo falują i rozbłyskują jak perseidy. Tytułowe „Lixiviation” zaczyna się efektem oddechu przechodzącym w powiew wiatru, chwilę później pojawiają się syntetyczne dzwonki a zaraz po nich wprowadzony zostaje modulowany motyw w stylu minimal music. Zamykający kompilację „Second Breath” zbudowany został z powolnie rozwijającego się dronu i przypomina nagranie z sesji „ANS” grupy Coil. Utwór „Eight Wave” z prostą melodią, o pastelowych barwach, sygnalizuje rozdział New Age w twórczości Ciani – nagrania w tej stylistyce cieszyły się dużym zainteresowaniem słuchaczy, co potwierdzają kilkukrotne nominacje do nagrody Grammy.

Andy Votel, szef Finders Keepers, odświeżając w XXI wieku muzykę Suzanne Ciani, wskazuje rodowód popularnej w tym momencie sceny syntezatorowej – zafascynowanej dżinglami reklamowymi (Oneohtrix Point Never, James Ferraro) oraz specyficznym brzmieniem instrumentów klawiszowych z epoki (Laurel Halo, Stellar OM Source). Pouczająca lekcja historii. (Michał Fudowicz)


The music of electronic composer Suzanne Ciani has quietly crept into many people's lives at some point. Her work effortlessly bridges the realms of the commercial and the avant garde, barely recognizing the distinction between the two. Ciani is a classically trained composer who studied with computer music trailblazer Max Mathews and worked with Don Buchla, the latter being the inventor of a frequently used tool in her musical armory, the Buchla 200 synthesizer. In the early 1970s she formed Ciani Musica, Inc. in New York, through which she produced soundtrack work for commercials by Merrill-Lynch, Clairol, Skittles, and GE among others (go here for some examples). Ciani's sound-effects work on Meco's platinum-selling disco version of the Star Wars soundtrack brought her unannounced to a wider audience, while her own career has positioned her as a proto-synth guru, a doyen of the new age musical movement, and, in more recent times, a noted classical musician.

Anyone looking for an entry point into Ciani's elastic career will be well served by Lixiviation, a compilation spanning 1968-85 from the always intriguing B-Music label. Here, the vaults of Ciani Musica have been plundered, with her peppy compositions for companies including PBS, Atari, and Coca-Cola documented, alongside ahead-of-their-time electronic pieces that hint at her later drift into new age. It's a perfect introduction to the far-reaching nature of her talents, but it's also useful for illustrating how music notionally thought to be "underground" often happily floats into family homes every evening. Through her commercial work, Ciani was prying open a door that led to unlikely collaborations further down the line, including Aphex Twin's work with Pirelli and music lent to a jeans ad by Sunn O))). In the sleeve notes, she indicates how her commercial work helped fund her creative pursuits-- another harbinger of how the music industry would ultimately evolve.

What binds Ciani's eclectic pieces on this album is the lucidity of her vision, which is emphasized further in those comprehensive sleeve notes. She talks of never using the word synthesizer ("it had strange and inappropriate connotations"), of spending "weeks just living with the machine, always on," when using her Buchla. It's not hard to romanticize her existence back then, buried under a deluge of wires and circuitry. This is a whole world she created, where brightly blinking synth noise flowed into fracturing swells of bass ("Lixiviation"), where a piece created as a choreography ("Princess with Orange Feet") sounded like great bursts of light collapsing into one another. The closing "Second Breath", recorded during Ciani's time at UC Berkeley circa 1968-70, is a precursor to the harsher, ever-repeating drones krautrock legends Cluster would appropriate as their central stylistic thrust a few years later.

It's easy to hear the hallmarks of that darker sound in some of Ciani's commercial work-- the "Clean Room" ITT TV spot has the same kind of density as John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 score, with sturdy prods of bass synth and a sparse, ricocheting beat providing the grounding for her to layer sunnier parts over the top. But Ciani was also enamored with the playful side of the instruments at her disposal. On the dainty clicks and whirrs of "Sound of a Dream Kissing", there are traces of the frivolous zing of Pierre Henry's classic "Psyché Rock". Her work for Atari and Coca-Cola are similarly buoyant, with the four seconds of bubbles, pop, and fizz she created for Coke forming a delightful piece of fluffy, synthesized mimicry.

It's telling that Ciani's music was deemed suitable for commercials and TV spots all over the world just as the public was getting to grips with a possible forthcoming computer age. Not just because of the obvious sci-fi components, but also because it bears a perfect blend of urgency, anxiety, and technological utopianism, straddling contrasting feelings of slack-jawed optimism about the future and all the Cold War-era jitters prevalent at the time. Her work for the PBS show "Inside Story" sounds like a dramatic precursor to receiving an impossibly bleak news update on our impending armageddon, while her corporate tag for Atari rushes assuredly into the future, embracing all the innovation around it. That ability to flit back and forth between styles and feelings no doubt made Ciani an attractive client to her corporate employers. But Lixiviation also goes some way to forming links between her disparate worlds, showing off more reflective work through what she describes as her "very feminine" synthesized waveforms, and demonstrating how such material bled through to the mainstream in unexpected ways. --- Nick Neyland


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Jerry Solomon - Past the 20th Century (1971)


I’m pretty sure, despite encouragement to include such people as Wild Man Fischer, that I’ve ever featured people who were clearly mentally ill in this blog before: deluded, certainly, but not fit to be institutionalised.

Until now.

Before last week I had never heard of Jerry Solomon. Now he’s becoming something of an obsession. According to his own short autobiography, Jerry was ‘born in San Diego, California and lived in Boyle Heights from age 1-4. Later we moved to West L.A. where I went to grade school and attended Hamilton High. After high school I had a job delivering fur coats. Then I got into show business, singing, dancing, and doing comedy routines.

‘In my 30's I was maliciously given a dangerous drug as a "joke" and suffered brain and heart dysfunction. Over a ten-year recovery period, in the last few years, I've regained to some extent, my former function and am writing a book about my experience.’ That book – A Drug Free Life and a Glass of PCP – is available now.

Jerry somehow managed to record several albums, including Past the 20th Century (Fountain, 1971), Live at the Show Biz (Fountain), and Through the Woods (1973, label unknown) (UPDATE: according to record collector and private press archivist Mike Ascherman, Jerry's recorded output consists of 3 LPs and 13 45s and EPs). They are all completely insane; Jerry rambles, croons, hoots and shrieks through his material like a crazed psychotic. It’s no surprise that Andy Kaufman was reputedly a fan. 

Very few copies of these albums exist: so sought after are they that when they do come up for sale it’s usually for stupid money. Most come without sleeves: when they do have covers they are usually handcrafted by Jerry himself and often have photocopied inserts or doctored photos taped to them.

Outsider music which defines the genre, according to Swanfungus.com (where the image, above, comes from) Jerry is a ‘real person extraordinaire…with his highly chromatic melodies and overdubbed harmonies, Jerry sounds like a late ’50s vocals group from the Twilight Zone. His self-accompaniment consists of a repetitive one-chord (maybe two) guitar strum that predates Jandek and a toy piano that is ‘strummed’ and sounds like a lysergic zither from the Third Man soundtrack. The songs range from nostalgia for the earlier years of his life to total despair.’ (UPDATE: this quote, from Mike Ascherman, originally appeared in the book Acid Archives)

What’s really frightening about these records is that they were recorded BEFORE Jerry’s mind wet AWOL: he states (in his short story Living in an Altered State) that his overdose happened in 1977. Hell, if he was recording this kind of acid casualty stuff before he fried his synapses what on earth would have been the results of a recording session during his lost decade?

Now aged 70, pretty much fully recovered from his journey into the unknown and calling himself a ‘performance artist’, Jerry is still desperately trying to carve a showbiz career for himself. He recently auditioned (unsuccessfully), for America’s Got Talent, singing a self-composed song about Viagra to the tune of O Sole Mio. In the past he had his own cable show – a couple of uncomfortable-to-watch clips are on YouTube. (source)

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Hamster Theatre - The Public Execution of Mr Personality (2006)


The Public Execution of Mister Personality / Quasi Day Room: Live at the Moore Theatre is a 2006 double album by Boulder, Colorado-based avant-rock, experimental and folk jazz music group Hamster Theatre, led by Dave Willey. It was released in the United States by Cuneiform Records, and consists of a studio CD (The Public Execution of Mister Personality) and a live CD (Quasi Day Room: Live at the Moore Theatre), the latter recorded at the 2002 Progman Cometh Festival in Seattle, Washington.

The studio disc contains new material, while the live disc includes music from Hamster Theatre's earlier albums, Carnival Detournement and Siege on Hamburger City, and Willey's solo album, Songs from the Hamster Theatre. Both CDs were mixed and mastered by Bob Drake.

John Kelman wrote at All About Jazz that on this album, Hamster Theatre does more than "dissolv[e] artificial boundaries between musical styles", they "just plain nuke them". He said they make liberal use of counterpoint, and their music "is a complex intertwining of themes and influences", including Swedish accordionist Lars Hollmer, Erik Satie, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and RIO groups Henry Cow and Univers Zero. Kelman described the album as "a challenging but evocative and completely enthralling listen".

In a review at AllMusic, Dave Lynch called the album "a landmark two-disc studio/live set proving that the European RIO-based sounds of the '70s and '80s have taken root and can sprout up almost anywhere, even in the post-millennial Rocky Mountain State". He said the music has "the complexity and technical skill of prog rock and includes occasional startling intrusions of abrasive textures and experimental noise", but added that Willey's accordion introduces "an appealing European folk melodicism mixed with a classicist's sense of composition".

A reviewer at Musique Machine described the album as "thoroughly entertaining", and added that the tracks on the studio disc "reveal an imaginative mind" with "a strong theatrical aspect", while the live disc is "energetic" and "shed[s] a different light" on the studio set. (wiki)
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Jubilee (1978) OST


Jubileusz (tytuł oryg. Jubilee) – brytyjski dramat muzyczny z roku 1977 w reżyserii Dereka Jarmana, dziś okryty statusem filmu kultowego; przez wielu uznawany za anarchistyczny. W filmie, przy boku Jenny Runacre i Iana Charlesona, występują gwiazdy punk rocka, m.in. Toyah Willcox i Siouxsie Sioux.


This short but endearing disc features just over a half-hour of music featured in Derek Jarman's Jubilee (1978) -- an ominous and disturbing vision of England's apocalyptic post-punk future. The film -- which was Jarman's first full-length cinematic excursion -- is clearly not intended as a big-budget silver screen blockbuster. The soundtrack -- which was issued on CD in the mid-'90s -- contained some of the most important names in London's subterranean, albeit burgeoning alternative (read: punk) music scene. Likewise, there are several artists who crossed over from music into acting for the project. Primary among these is a then-unknown Adam Ant. He who portrays the character of Kid and contributes the opening fraulein ode "Deutscher Girls." The song bears an uncanny similarity to early Roxy Music in spots, while his "Plastic Surgery" is draped in a foreboding introduction that sneers and leers at the listener before kicking into overdrive nearly halfway through and never letting go until the cold conclusion. The inimitable Wayne County plays the character Lounge Lizard, who is joined by the equally shocking Electric Chairs for the up-tempo and suitably bombastic "Paranoia Paradise." Chelsea's heavily attitude-laden and overtly political "Right to Work" fits in perfectly to the LP and cinematic motifs -- particularly Gene October's unambiguously pointed lyrics. To a similar end is the pent-up frustration in the Adam Ant/Toyah Willcox co-written "Nine to Five" (which should in no way be confused with the Dolly Parton soundtrack hit of the same name). Jordan, another of London's first wave of punk scene makers, plays the unscrupulous, power-hungry Amil Nitrate. Onscreen her modernizations of the anthemic "Rule Britannia" and "Jerusalem" are given sardonic send-ups that faultlessly burst the façade of pomposity inherent in the history of both of the selections. They are each credited to Jordan's other nom de plume, Suzi Pinns. Another major contributor is Brian Eno, whose ambient compositions "Slow Water" and the haunting "Dover Beach" can be found here. However, it is their incorporation into the motion picture that give the scenes an otherworldly quality that so rarely translates outside of the multi-sensual experience of watching the onscreen action accompanied by Eno's involved and practically hypnotic audio accompaniment. Although it was available, Jubilee was once considered one of the most difficult films to locate for home viewing. In 2007 the work was restored, remastered, and reissued on DVD by the cinephiles over at the Criterion Collection whose 25th Anniversary Special Edition includes a hi-def digital transfer of the main attraction, plus an in-depth documentary titled "Jubilee: A Time Less Golden" and stars 2007-era interviews with many primary participants, including Toyah Willcox and Jenny Runacre. --- Lindsay Planer
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Tongue And Groove (1969)


Tongue & Groove were something of an offshoot of the legendary, but little-recorded, early San Francisco hippie group the Charlatans.

Formed toward the end of the 1960s, Tongue and Groove was an interesting blues-rock outfit that was in some respects an offshoot of the Charlatans in that it included Lynne Hughes and that band’s original piano player (and one the first Haight-Ashbury scenesters) Mike Ferguson, who also did the album’s cover artwork. The group was completed by competent guitarist Randy Lewis, and they recorded their eponymous LP with a host of session musicians, apparently including Charlatans bassist Richard Olsen on some tracks.  

Tongue and Groove's self-titled album, released in the late '60s on Fontana, was produced by Abe "Voco" Kesh, who also worked with several other second-tier '60s Bay Area acts, such as Blue Cheer and Harvey Mandel; top session musicians James Burton (on dobro) and Earl Palmer (on drums) also contributed to the recording. (source)

Mike Ferguson - Keyboards, Percussion, Timbales, Vocals
Lynne Hughes - Vocals
Randy Lewis - Guitar

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Homegas (1970)


Liner Notes:

Dear Peter & Rinda,

Last Thursday night 610 caught fire and a good portion, of the building was destroyed. We were sitting around, me & Dave, Robin (Cathy was at work) the Blausteins & another girl, when the lights upstairs went out and I suddenly smelled smoke. By the time I reached the back door to investigate, smoke was pouring out of the basement door. I ran in and called the fire dept. trembling, & in the middle of the call all the lights in the house went out. I stumbled into Cordelia’s room in the dark and found her still sound asleep in bed. Some how, using all of my strength I managed to carry her out the side door where David met me & helped me get her to safety.

We had no sooner flushed everyone out of the building when the kitchen burst into flames while we stood helplessly in the back yard. The fire spread very rapidly, probably only 7-10 minutes elapsed from the time we smelled smoke until the whole back of the house was in flames. We are glad in a way that you aren’t here because you’d be freaked out by the sight of 610 if you were.

The kitchen and back room (your favorite place, where the music of Greasy Green, Stoney Lonesome and Homegas was born) are charred pitch black & everything inside is in shambles. All the windows are broken out and the furniture is tattered and burnt, lying in battered heaps on the floor.

When I walked in the house in the daylight and could actually see the extent of the damage, I started crying (and you know me, I don’t cry easily), And I guess the notes for Homegas are gone.

Love to all,
Bernella

Vocals: Peter Aceves, Dave Satterfield
Fiddle: Richard Blaustein
Guitar: Peter Aceves
Mandolin: Neil Rosenberg
Bass: John Hyslop
Hand Harps: Jim Barden, Dave Brock
Rack Harp: Peter Aceves
Banjo: Neil Rosenberg (”Die for a Dime”)


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Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen - Poetry For The Beat Generation (1959)


Poetry for the Beat Generation marked Jack Kerouac's debut as a recording artist. Strangely enough, it was the by-product of a disastrous first show by Kerouac in an engagement at the Village Vanguard during December of 1957. For the second performance, Kerouac's friend Steve Allen provided the accompaniment at the piano, with results so impressive that it would lead Kerouac to a short but dazzling career as a recording artist. The first result was this album, which came at the suggestion of either Allen or his friend, producer Bob Thiele, who was working for Dot Records at the time. The record was cut in a single session and a single take for each piece. Allen's graceful piano opens the recording and Kerouac comes in, reading "October in the Railroad Earth" for seven minutes, off of a roll of paper in front of him. Kerouac's reading are in a class by themselves, and separate from Allen -- the two performances co-exist and weave together without ever really joining, and the result is a peculiar form of jazz; Kerouac did his thing, Allen did his, and the result was a spellbinding performance, and it was musical, despite Kerouac's seeming monotone reading, which never slowed or otherwise interacted with Allen's piano -- his voice dances to its own beat, with Allen embellishing and working around him; in the process, you get visions of various facets of Kerouac's work and personality, in extended pieces such as "October in the Railroad Earth" and short, piercing brilliant exclamations such as "Deadbelly" and "Charlie Parker." The resulting album, cut in March of 1958, was one of the crowning achievements in recording of the 1950s. But it so appalled Randy Wood, the president of Dot Records, with its meandering narrative and daring language and subject matter, that the release was canceled, with Wood denouncing the recording in the trade papers as tasteless and questionable. Somewhere over 100 promotional copies of the Dot album (catalog number 3154) had gotten out to disc jockeys and reviewers, however, thus making it one of the rarest LPs in the label's entire history. Thiele finally left the company over the dispute and he reclaimed the master tape -- it was on the Hanover label, formed with Allen (who was virtually a pop-culture institution at the time), that Poetry for the Beat Generation finally reached the public in June of 1959. It's still worth a listen now every bit as much as it was in 1959, and perhaps even more so. [Reissued on Rhino's Jack Kerouac Collection, with one bonus track.] --- Bruce Eder
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VA - Musica Sveciae - Folk Music In Sweden: Lockrop & Vallåtar - Ancient Swedish Pastoral Music (1995)


Ancient Swedish Pastoral Music was the name of the LP issued by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation in 1966. It consisted of recordings of herding calls, kulning (singing or calling in a vibrato-free high register), the lur (birch bark horn), "playing pipes", goat horn and willow flute; and was made in the farm pastures in the provinces of Dalarna and Härjedalen between 1949 and 1964. Here are the same recordings presented, but now issued on CD. Those who nowadays perform herding calls and songs and play on the horn are also represented - by Lena Willemark, plus a live recording made at Stångtjärn at ehe 1995 Falun Folk Music Festival where Pelle Jakobsson were among the contributors. 


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Reinhold Friedl - Mutanza (2012)


Album zawiera utwory na fortepian wykorzystany w nietypowy sposób. Jego struny pocierane są nylonowymi strunami i metalowymi przedmiotami oraz pobudzane smyczkami elektronicznymi (..),. Z jednej strony, przedstawione tu dźwięki eksplorują nowe sposoby gry na fortepianie i są w tym sensie "rozszerzonymi technikami gry", jako że opracowano je dla większości instrumentów w drugiej połowie XX wieku. Z drugiej strony, utwory te ograniczają się do wyselekcjonowanego materiału i stawiają następujące pytanie: w jakim stopniu sam materiał jest już kompozycją? Moim zdaniem, odpowiedź na to pytanie, która będzie raczej dwuznaczna, jest mniej interesująca niż konstatacja, że rozwój współczesnej muzyki został w znacznym stopniu zainspirowany muzyką elektroniczną. Wyraził już to Mario Bertoncini, Helmut Lachenmann wprowadził pojęcie "musique concrete instrumentale", zapętlona komponowana muzyka Philla Niblocka zainspirowana była interakcją pomiędzy jego Harleyem a buczącą ciężarówką wspinającą się po serpentynach Gór Skalistych. Niniejszy album to hołd dla muzyki elektronicznej, a wręcz dokument wysiłków zmierzających do opróżnienia zgentryfikowanego mebla i wystrzelenia go do czasów współczesnych. (Reinhold Friedl) (bocianrecords/boltrecords)


This CD presents compositions for piano using the instrument in an unorthodox way. The strings are bowed with nylon strings, stimulated by E-Bows, rubbed with metal, the keys' sound is examined as a corrugated surface and staccato rhythms are repeated in a narrow register. On the one hand, the pieces introduced here explore new ways of playing the piano. In this sense they are "enlarged playing techniques", as they have been developed for most instruments in the second half of the twentieth century. On the other hand, the works confine themselves to selected material and raise the question to what extent the material already is the composition. To me, it seems less interesting to answer this question, which can hardly be answered unambiguously than to observe that the development of the present music was substantially inspired by electronic music. Mario Bertoncini has expressed this, Helmut Lachenmann has introduced the concept of a "musique concrete instrumentale", Phill Niblocks' loop-like composed music was inspired by the interference between his Harley Davidson and a droning truck ascending the serpentines of the Rocky Mountains. The present CD is a homage to electronic music and moreover, it documents attempts to clear out a gentrified piece of furniture and technically, to catapult the piano into the present. (Reinhold Friedl) (bocianrecords/boltrecords)



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Paweł Szamburski - Ceratitis Capitata (2014)


„Ceratitis Capitata” - to gatunek muchy, która objada się i wyrządza różnego rodzaju szkody owocom flory śródziemnomorskiej. Być może to jej daleka kuzynka wleciała któregoś słonecznego dnia do kościoła w Błoniach pod Tarnowem gdzie Paweł Szamburski nagrywał swój solowy album. Podejmował on wątki liturgiczne wielkich religii basenu Morza Śródziemnego i odżywiał klarnet owocami tamtych sakralnych tradycji muzycznych. W swojej grze oraz pracy z instrumentem wykorzystał odniesienia, motywy melodyczne, a także ekspresję i ornamentykę chórów prawosławnych, muzyki sufckiej, żydowskiej, a także bahaizmu czy chorału gregoriańskiego. Klarnet w swej barwie i plastyczności artykulacyjnej zbliżony do ludzkiego głosu pozwolił na niezwykle ciekawą interpretację melodii oraz śpiewu różnych tradycji i kultur. Artysta mimo oczywistych dyferencji starał się odnaleźć ich rdzenne podobieństwa oraz głęboką muzyczną, duchową spójność. Czy wyrządził szkody? Jedno jest pewne - mucha bzyczała głośno, ale w pewnym momencie zaprzyjaźniła się z dźwiękami i spoczęła w bezruchu. Pozwoliła słuchać i grać. I oto jest - pierwszy album solowy Pawła Szamburskiego - „Ceratitis Capitata”. Zawiera on pięć intymnych wypowiedzi na klarnet i klarnet basowy, dla których podstawą stała się właśnie tradycyjna muzyka sakralna. Nagrania dokonane zostały w kościele w Błoniach pod Tarnowem przez Piotra Czernego, okładka zaprojektowana przez Pawła Ryżko, a całość wydana w limitowanej serii Lado ABC SB. (ladoabc)


Ceratitis Capitata is a species of fruit fly capable of causing extensive damage to a wide range of fruit crops. It is native to the Mediterranean area. Perhaps it was her distant cousin that flew in one sunny day into a church in Błonie, near Tarnów, where Paweł Szamburski was recording his first solo album. In it, he took on liturgical motifs of the great religions of the Mediterranean Basin, and fed his clarinet the fruits of those sacred musical traditions. His playing, and his work with the instrument, employed references, melodies and expressive traits of Orthodox choirs, Sufi and Jewish music, as well as Bahá'í Faith and Gregorian chant. Akin to the human voice in its timbre and articulation range, the clarinet allowed Szamburski to find an arresting interpretation of the melodies and the songs of various traditions and cultures. Aware of their inherent differences, the artist still set out to explore their deeply rooted similarities and the profound musical and spiritual coherence. Did he do damage? One thing is certain: the fly buzzed loudly but eventually came to terms with the sounds and just sat there, motionless. It let others listen and play, and so there it is—Paweł Szamburski’s first album for solo clarinet, Ceratitis Capitata. It contains five intimate musical statements for clarinet and bass clarinet, all stemming from traditional sacral music. The recordings were done by Piotr Czerny in a church in Błonie, near Tarnów. The cover art was designed by Paweł Ryżko and the album was released, in a limited issue, by Lado ABC. (ladoabc)

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Terry Riley - Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band - All Night Flight Vol.1 (1996)


Originally released as part of the Organ of Corti Archive Series, this live recording has finally been made available once again and it's about time too. I can't say I heard this one the first time around, but hearing it now is a revelation, especially knowing that drone music has achieved a new-found acceptance in modern music. Over forty minutes and five tracks, Terry Riley uses Soprano Saxophone, Organ and a Time-Lag Accumulator (delay unit maybe??) to create the most otherworldly waves of drone you're likely to come across. It was recorded live in 1968, and what's most stunning is that it hasn't dated at all - I imagine at the time it was considered totally unique, totally untouched and now indeed people have created works similar at least in sound, but I could have been told that this album had been recorded last year and I wouldn't have been surprised. Riley's use of loops and delay was way ahead of his time, and his textures and forms are still unmatched in the scene. If you harbour a love for affecting waves of organic, instrumental ambience then you owe it to yourself to listen to this album. Artists such as Tim Hecker would likely not exist without Terry Riley's influence on the music scene. it's that simple. Essential. 


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Lotto - Ask the Dust (2014)


Improwizatorski background, rockowa energia i dość zaskakująca tendencja do porządkowania materiału w opowieści. Lotto to trio, któremu zdecydowanie warto się przyglądać. Nie tylko ze względu na nazwiska.

Interesujący jest już sam pomysł i motywacje, które prowadziły muzyków do założenia Lotto. Szpura i Majkowski poznali się dzięki Mikołajowi Trzasce, z którym grali ścieżkę dźwiękową do filmu „Róża”. Premiera tego materiału odbyła się dwa lata temu na OFF Festivalu. W tym wypadku ważniejszy był jednak inny koncert odbywający się w ten weekend. Perkusista i basista zobaczyli w Katowicach koncert Thurstona Moore’a. Gdy tylko się skończył, dogadali się, że fajnie byłoby założyć trio z elektryczną gitarą. Tu pojawia się Rychlicki.

Gitarzysta Kristen grywał już wcześniej ze Szpurą w duecie. Improwizowali w duchu Alberta Aylera. Od czasu przeprowadzki do Warszawy Rychlicki improwizował zresztą coraz częściej. Wciąż miał jednak to rockowe zaplecze, na którym zależało chłopakom. Wspólne granie było tylko kwestią czasu. Zaczęło się od improwizowanych koncertów, których efekt nakłonił jednak muzyków do zinstytucjonalizowania projektu pod jakąś banderą. Tak powstało Lotto.

Choć muzyka na „Ask the Dust” jest w stu procentach improwizowana trio naturalnie ciąży w stronę kompozycyjnych szkiców. Może to miks, instrumentarium lub doświadczenia Rychlickiego w rockowym Kristen, grunt, że Lotto ma ewidentny posmak jakiejś mrocznej, znudzonej americany („Angels of Darkness…” Earth) tudzież wykręconego, minimalistycznego post-rocka (patrz: Grubbs, O’Rourke, Pajo). Lotto miało być również wyrazem znudzenia totalną abstrakcją, co widać po całość „Gremlin-Prone”, które hipnotyzuje powtarzanym motywem wzbogaconym  zresztą o dograne później pianino. Nie jest to jednak materiał nadto uładzony czy oszlifowany. Następne w kolejności „Lense” to opowieść z gatunku patologicznych: perkusyjnej kawalkadzie towarzyszy tu gitara, która może przypominać soniczny radykalizm samego Ribot.

W rezulatcie "Ask the Dust" to materiał zaskakująco zwarty jak na improwizatorów, ale nie spętany jakąś konwencją czy konceptem. Luźny jam albo ostry przelot. Choć, zważywszy na klimat nagrań, nie po bezchmurnym niebie. (jazzarium)


In the Lotto trio Majkowski teams up with the two likewise young Polish musicians Łukasz Rychlicki on guitar and Paweł Szpura on drums. Ask the dust, their first recorded effort as a group, has been just released by the Polish label LADO ABC and it points out a really coherent and mature vision in its linearity and agreeableness. The insistent bass loops set by Majkowski (and this guy seems to be totally mastering the idea that “nothing is always the same even if you repeat it endlessly” as in his latest solo work) as in the opening “Gremlin-prone” evoke a misty and at the same time warm cinematic atmosphere. It builds the perfect trestle for the bluesy western guitar layers (never invasive even when the distortion grows) while the sparse drumming on toms and the many clattering carpets help us to identify the shape of a lonely rider in a cloud of dust emerging from the horizon. The central episodes of the album, “Longing to speak” and “Comet”, are probably the best embodiment of this approach. In some particularly diluted passages of “Divided”, which is made of really little variations given by mesmerizing repetitions (conception is pretty often behind Majkowski’s compositional vision again), but also in the crescendo of the closing “Man of medicine”, it would have been fun to assist the sudden outburst of an acid Sun-Ra-like synth riff. Last but not least, I believe the mastering of the album by Werner Dafeldecker, one of the most interesting “grey eminences” in the “wide jazz area” (see his contributions to the latest Fennesz masterpiece) is worth to be mentioned here. (freejazzblog)

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