Sunday, September 27, 2009

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - Fossil Record 1980-1987

The Fossil Record is all unreleased material by the original lineup (featuring Roger Miller) & an excellent overview. ''Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic has found a common ground amoung garage band rock, classical, minimalism, UK progressive rock, and it's own favorite noises.''-The New York Times. ''...fantastically innovative music.''-Exposé. ''...a fresh & almost indescribable fusion of rock, jazz, modern classical, sampled sound & noise.''
Recommended for the highly adventurous (let's face it, a band that lists "chain on metal, a Mercury Cougar hubcap and a paint can" among their instruments should be a fair warning as to their 'unorthodox behaviour'. No pun intended here, except to say that BRAND X sound like pussy cats compared to these guys). Fans of ZAPPA, KING CRIMSON, AFTER CRYING and particularly UNIVERS ZERO will love this.

Studio Album, released in 1993

Songs / Tracks Listing 1. Sound Valentine (3:16)
2. Pulse Piece (3:07)
3. The Transformation Of Oz (2:21)
4. Tyronglaea (2:44)
5. Chen/The Arousing (1:56)
6. Sombre Reptiles (3:08)
7. Laramide Revolution (5:33)
8. Out Of Limits (2:34)
9. Biff The Brontosaurus (4:11)
10. Carbon 14 (4:40)
11. Modern Warfare (3:45)
12. March (2:22)
13. Lqabblil Insanya (4:36)
14. Slo-Boy (3:48)
15. To A Random (23:19)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

A taste of what Djam Karet sounds like as a 5 piece in 2009

A taste of what DK sounds like as a 5 piece in 2009.

The Music:
1. Dedicated To KC (Excerpt)
2. Room 40 (Excerpt)
3. The Red Thread (Excerpt)
4. Sexy Beast (Excerpt)
5. Grooming The Psychosis (Excerpt)

Djam Karet 2009
Gayle Ellett: The Keyboards (Access Virus Snow, Moog LP, Nord Electro, Manikin Memotron)
Mike Henderson: Electric Guitars
Aaron Kenyon: Electric Bass
Mike Murray: Electric Guitars
Chuck Oken, Jr: Acoustic & Electronic Drums

Djam Karet - The Devouring (1997)

Djam Karet play very original and innovative music. "The Devouring" is more than 70 minutes of serious Progressive Rock with a lot of improvisational structures, though you won't find here elements of Jazz Fusion at all. The music is invigorating, the themes are fronted mostly by powerful electric guitars and synthesizers, though sometimes Djam Karet tend to be more spacey, especially on Lost, But Not Forgotten (3rd track) and Myth Of A White Jesus (5th track). As a whole, the music here can be described as original, often very powerful, instrumental Rock with quirky guitar solos and complex musical interplays from three (including bass) electric guitars, synthesizers and drums

Rip Rig & Panic



Rip Rig & Panic was a post-punk band, founded in 1981 and who broke up in 1983. It was named after a 1965 jazz album by Roland Kirk. It was fronted by Andrea Oliver and its members included singer Neneh Cherry, Sean Oliver, Mark Springer, and Gareth Sager and Bruce Smith, the latter two formerly of The Pop Group.

The group strayed from more conventional post-punk, mixing avantgarde elements with jazz and led by Cherry's innovative pop/soul singing style. They also recorded with Don Cherry and Nico (on a BBC radio session).

The band notably made a guest appearance in an episode of the British sitcom The Young Ones performing their 1982 single "You're My Kind of Climate". Rip Rig & Panic became Float Up CP in 1985 and produced the album Kill Me in the Morning. The band dissolved shortly thereafter.

Mark Springer has continued to record as a solo artist and has a number of CDs available

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Sun Ra - The Singles


SUN RA
the singles (2 cd's)
This treasured collection, The Singles, took three years to produce, collecting virtually every 45 released by Sun Ra from 1954 through 1982. It is considered the holy grail for Sun Ra collectors. It was pieced together from the contributions of private collectors around the world, and sonically cleaned up far beyond the audio capabilities of the original vinyl they were pressed on. It also features a 36 page booklet, with liner notes written by four respected Ra experts, and contains historically significant photos.

This astonishing collection features the oddest 45 rpms
ever. What the hell was Ra thinking when these singles
were originally issued ? Did he honestly think they would reach the national US charts with deranged tracks such as "Muck Muck", which even The Cramps would baulk at ? Whatever the reasons, they make thrilling listening especially "State Street" which captures Sun Ra and his Arkestra with a swing that Cannonball Adderley would have envied. The fact Ra did not bother to pursue this option when he obviously could, have makes this set all the more enigmatic. Fascinating music from a true original.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Sun Ra New York, Electric Circus 03-68


Eclectic, outrageous, sometimes mystifying but always imbued with a powerful jazz consciousness, the music of Sun Ra has withstood its skeptics and detractors for nearly three generations. And well it should, since Sun Ra has been both apart of and ahead of the jazz tradition during that time. Like Duke Ellington and swing-era pioneer Fletcher Henderson, Sun Ra learned early on to write music in an arranged form that showcased the specific talents of his individual Arkestra members, and he has retained the services of some of these musicians to this day: John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, and Julian Priester for example since they first joined in the 1950's. On the other hand, Sun Ra was the first jazz musician to perform on electronic keyboards (56), the first to pursue full-scale collective improvisation in a big band setting, and his preoccupation with space travel as a compositional subject predated bands like Weather Report by about 15 years.All this from someone who refuses to even cite the earth as his home planet and prefers to have arrived from Saturn. As Sun Ra once explained it, "I never wanted to be a part of planet Earth, but I am compelled to be here, so anything I do for this planet is because the Master-Creator of the Universe is making me do it. I am of another dimension. I am on this planet because people need me".

Sun Ra New York, Electric Circus 03-68:

01 - Lights On A Satellite
02 - Unidentified
03 - Friendly Galaxy-Untitled Improvisation
04 - Satellites Are Spinning (Part 1)
05 - Satellites Are Spinning (Part 2)-Untitled Improvisation
06 - Calling Planet Earth
07 - Somebody Else's Idea
08 - Spontaneous Simplicity
09 - Space Aura

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

John Cage meets Sun Ra

Strange, zany, and still at points incredible and amazing, John Cage and Sun Ra performed this concert in 1986. Sun Ra steals the show, improvising amazingly on his Yamaha synthesizer and simply mesmerizing anyone who hears the music.
These facts about these two men are essential to understanding this live performance. Without this information, the 45 minute performance seems terribly odd and zany. Sun Ra’s spastic, heavy synthesizer matched with Cage’s minimalist, sparse vocal noises seem all too much for a stable, sane human mind. On this recording, there are literally minutes of absolutely no music going on at the time. Cage showcases his “chance music” theory on this live recording, and the crowd apparently knows his ideas well. However, the recording quality diminishes from the chance music theory. Either the crowd kept incredibly silent or the recording did not pick up the sounds coming from the crowd. Overall, the recording quality of the performance is quite poor, often sounding like an old 50s movie.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The History Of Moondog


Moondog was the nom de plume of Louis T. Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999).
Born in Marysville, Kansas he started playing a set of drums made by himself with a cardboard box at the age of 5.
Hardin was blinded in a farm accident at the age of 16. After learning the principles of music in several schools
for blind young men across central America he started teaching himself the skills of ear training and composition,
becoming then a self taught man and artist. From the late 1940s until 1974, Moondog lived as a street musician
and poet in New York City, busking mostly on 54th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. In addition to his music
and poetry, he was also known for the distinctive Viking garb that he wore, which included a horned helmet.
He partially supported himself by selling copies of his poetry and his musical philosophy.
Because of his street post's proximity to the 52nd Street club strip, he was well-known to many jazz musicians and fans.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Painkiller (2005) 50th Birthday Celebration Vol.12


1. Your Inviolable Freedoms
2. Dpm
3. Prohethood Of Chaos

Live Recording

Painkiller:
Mike Patton (vocals)
John Zorn (saxophone)
Bill Laswell (bass guitar)
Hamid Drake (drums)

MASSACRE (Fred FRITH, Bill LASWELL & Charles HAYWARD) - in Paris 2008


Live in Créteil (Paris suburb) 22 February 2008
Fred Frith - guitar
Bill Laswell - bass
Charles Hayward - drums, melodica


This was their second appearance at the Sons d'Hiver festival (their first was in 2003) and once again, they delivered a wonderful set.

It is an audience recording, with excellent sound.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Buckethead - Colma (1998)


Colma is Buckethead's fourth studio album, released March 24, 1998, by CyberOctave records.

The title of the album makes reference to the small town of Colma near San Francisco, California, where "the dead population outnumber the living by thousands to one".

Berklee College of Music alumni Teri Untalan guested on two tracks of the album. In a 2009 interview she recalled Buckethead as being "an odd one, an elusive character".

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Buckethead.

1. "Whitewash" 4:44
2. "For Mom" 5:10
3. "Ghost" 5:29
4. "Hills of Eternity" 5:07
5. "Big Sur Moon" 1:13
6. "Machete" 6:18
7. "Wishing Well" 4:03
8. "Lone Sal Bug" 5:32
9. "Sanctum" 3:42
10. "Wondering" 2:16
11. "Watching the Boats with My Dad" 5:07
12. "Ghost Part 2" 2:31
13. "Colma" 3:15
54:28

Notes

* The song "Colma" is identical to the Pieces song "General Butterfly", but excludes the spoken dialogue given (presumably by Buckethead) throughout the song.
* The song "Hills of Eternity" is named after the cemetery "Hills of Eternity" where Wyatt Earp is buried.
* The song "Wishing Well" is identical to the Pieces song "Danyel", but excludes Buckethead's singing.

Personnel

Performers

* Buckethead — guitars and bass.
* Brain — drums and loops.
* DJ Disk — scratches on "Machete," "Hills of Eternity," and "Lone Sal Bug."
* Bill Laswell — bass on "Machete".
* Terry Untalan — cello and viola on "Wondering" and "Lone Sal Bug."

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Praxis - Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis)


Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) is the first album by Bill Laswell's everchanging "supergroup" Praxis. This first album features Buckethead on guitar, Bootsy Collins on bass and vocals, Brain on drums, Bernie Worrell on keyboards and DJ AF Next Man Flip on turntables and mixer.

Transmutation features a wide range of musical styles, all mixed together to make a very diverse and unique album. Styles such as heavy metal, funk, hip hop, ambient, jazz and blues are blended together to form a strange style of avant-garde, with extended guitar and keyboard solos, and highly improvised passages.

1. "Blast/War Machine Dub" 3:51
2. "Interface/Stimulation Loop" 2:17
3. "Crash Victim/Black Science Navigator" 3:42
4. "Animal Behavior" 7:09
5. "Dead Man Walking" 5:14
6. "Seven Laws of Woo" 5:05
7. "The Interworld and the New Innocence" 6:29
8. "Giant Robot/Machines in the Modern City/Godzilla" 6:38
9. "After Shock (Chaos Never Died)" 16:20

Note: Track 8 starts out with the Giant Robot theme, that is also featured on Buckethead's Bucketheadland album.

* Praxis:
o Bootsy Collins - space bass, vocals.
o Buckethead - guitar, toys.
o Brain - drums.
o Bernie Worrell - synthesizer, clavinet & vital organ.
o AF Next Man Flip (Lord of the Paradox) - turntable, mixer.
+ also known as Afrika Baby Bam of the Jungle Brothers

Monday, August 24, 2009

The Golden Palominos -1983 (Celluloid)


The Golden Palominos were an American musical group headed by drummer and composer Anton Fier, first formed in 1981. Aside from Fier, the Palominos membership was wildly elastic, with only bassist Bill Laswell and guitarist Nicky Skopelitis appearing on every album.

While the Palominos' records usually featured a core set of musicians and a certain emotional continuity throughout the bulk of an album, various guest appearances would result in stylistic changes from track to track.

The group first featured Fier, singer-guitarist Arto Lindsay, saxophonist John Zorn, bass guitarist Bill Laswell and violinist/guitarist Fred Frith. Their self-titled debut album was released on New York's Celluloid Records in 1983, and featured guest appearances by bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, percussionist David Moss, guitarist/singer Bob Kidney, turntablist M.E. Miller and others. The album is notable for having some of the first recorded turntable scratching outside of rap music, courtesy of Laswell and M.E. Miller. M.E.Miller also used vocal splitting technique to create harmony on the song he sings.

They were heavily influenced by so-called no wave music (Arto Lindsay had played in the seminal no-wave band DNA), but their music also contained elements of funk and of the improvisational jazz stylings that would become Zorn's trademark. This line-up lasted only for the first record, although all of the core members apart from Zorn would guest on subsequent Palominos recordings.

Material - Memory Serves


Memory Serves is a 1981 album by the New York based No Wave music group Material.

1. "Memory Serves" (Bill Laswell, Michael Beinhorn) – 5:08
2. "Disappearing" (Olu Dara, Sonny Sharrock, Laswell, Beinhorn, Fred Maher) – 7:11
3. "Upriver" (Billy Bang, Laswell, Beinhorn, Maher) – 5:25
4. "Metal Test" (Fred Frith, Laswell, Beinhorn, Maher) – 4:30
5. "Conform To The Rhythm" (Laswell, Beinhorn, Frith) – 4:30
6. "Unauthorized" (Sharrock, Laswell, Maher) – 3:50
7. "Square Dance" (Frith, Laswell, Maher) – 4:29
8. "Silent Land" (George Lewis, Laswell, Beinhorn) – 3:48

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Ed Palermo Big Band ‘Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance’

Ed Palermo is a alto sax player and arranger; he has had a big band for twenty-five years, which is an impressive feat in itself, and has had his band performing the music of Frank Zappa for over a decade. Years and years of playing these pieces in front of enthusiastic crowds at a number of venues in New York City and beyond have honed the band’s skills with this difficult material to where they can glide through these charts as if they were butter. There are a number of ensembles performing the music of this great 20th century American composer, but no one does it with this ease, skill and originality; Ed is not afraid to turn a piece into a salsa number (the title track) or to take what was a one minute miniature and to develop it out into a six minute work. The band is a 15 piece ensemble of 6 woodwind players, two trumpeters, three trombonists, two keyboardists, bass and drums, plus a few guests. All of these musicians are NYC professionals, and they have been playing this music for years with Ed, because, like Ed, they recognize and appreciate the genius inherent in the huge body of Zappa's work, and they want to keep this great music alive and in front of the public.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Abigail Sin Plays Frank Zappa


Abigail Sin (born 1992) is a Singaporean pianist. She was hailed by TIME Magazine as one of Asia's small wonders and a bona fide prodigy when she was ten years old. By the age of eleven, she attained her Licentiate of the Royal School of Music (LRSM) in Piano Performance.
In January 2005, Sin won first prize at the Virginia Waring International Junior Piano Competition in Palm Desert, California. Later in the year, she won another prize at the 17th Ibiza International Piano Competition in Spain in the Young Pianist category for contestants 16 years old and under. In 2006, she recorded Abigail Sin Plays Frank Zappa and was accepted into the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore). Sin is the youngest student there.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

GIRO DI VALZER PER DOMANI - ARTI & MESTIERI

One of the bands from the Cramps label, Arti & Mestieri from Turin were formed around 1974 by ex-Trip drummer Furio Chirico (he had previously played with I Ragazzi del Sole and Martò e i Judas) with other musicians from various musical experiences. Venegoni, Vigliar and Vitale had previously played with Il Sogno di Archimede, a jazzy-prog group.
Often playing with Area, they shared with them the same interest in fusing jazz-rock with prog elements, and their first album, Tilt, is a very good result, even if the limited vocal parts were their weakest point. The album includes only two vocal tracks, and the rest is mainly instrumental.

The group had a good live activity, supporting the likes of PFM and even Gentle Giant, as demonstrated by the good and now deleted Live CD released in 1990 (another live CD with a different 1974 recording has been released in 2002, see below for details).
On the second album, 1975's Giro di valzer per domani, a singer was added, Gianfranco Gaza from Procession, and the album has a much better sound and production than the previous one, in a similar style as the previous one but with stronger jazz rock influences. Two of the album's best cuts, the instrumental Valzer per domani and the vocal Saper sentire were also released as a single.

In 1979 another Arti & Mestieri album was released, Quinto stato, always led by Chirico but with a different line-up and more in a mainstream jazz-rock vein, while subsequent releases strongly veered towards fusion.
Fourth album, Acquario, is not a live album as declared on the front cover, just a live-in-studio recording. Like its follower, Children's blues, it was released on a small label with local distribution only.

Guitarist Venegoni also released two solo albums on Cramps as Venegoni & Co., always in the same jazz-rock style as later Arti & Mestieri.
Drummer Furio Chirico has continued playing and teaching his instrument, also releasing solo albums and some drum playing tutorials. He's the first Italian drummer ever playing at the Modern Drummer Festival in USA (2002 edition).
Keyboardist Crovella has played and taken production role on new prog bands' albums such as Romantic Warriors, Tower, Mosaic.

A revived Arti & Mestieri with original members Venegoni, Crovella, Gallesi and Chirico aided by Marco Cimino (from Errata Corrige, he had already joined the band on Quinto Stato, both he and Gallesi were also in Esagono) and violinist Corrado Trabuio released a new CD Murales in 2001 on the small Electromantic label. Mostly instrumental and somehow influenced by jazz and world music, the CD also includes reworkings of a couple of tracks from the early albums, Gravità 9,81 and Nove lune prima.
Fans of the early Arti & Mestieri will be delighted to know of a recent CD release called Articollezione, a compilation of unreleased tracks from their first period, more in a progressive style than later works.

Another very nice recent release is the double Live 1974/2000 CD. As the title suggests it includes a whole 1974 concert (all the tracks from the previous Vinyl Magic Live CD are included here along with some more, but taken from a different concert) while the second CD is dedicated to 1999 and 2000 live recordings.

Summer 2003 has seen the group playing with a new line-up with expanded vocal capabilities, Arti & Mestieri appeared at ProgDay 2003, in North Carolina, at the end of August.
Founder members Furio Chirico and Beppe Crovella are now helped by Corrado Trabuio (violin, vocals), Slep (guitar, vocals) and Roberto Cassetta (bass, vocals), and they have a powerful live show entirely based on their 1974-75 albums... a welcome return!
The 2004 album by Arti & Mestieri, recorded by the new line-up, is Progday special, a 4-track CD collecting old tracks recorded live in studio to promote the band in their new journey abroad. The Electromantic label has also released in 2004 the first solo album by the original bass player Marco Gallesi, entitled Riff.
In 2005 another new studio work, called Estrazioni, and strongly connected with the earlier productions starting with its cover design. The record includes some tracks composed for a never released third album in 1977 along with more recent compositions, and is on a varied level but very promising indeed. The new line-up includes Marco Roagna (guitar) replacing Slep, and Alfredo Ponissi (sax), along with a guest appearance by the original guitarist Gigi Venegoni. The band is augmented in concert by guests Warren Dale on sax and flute and singer Iano Nicolò, frontman of the group Cantina Sociale, from Piedmont.

Also in 2005 the band played in Japan, at Tokyo's Club Città, and a live CD taken from those concerts, entitled First live in Japan, has been released at the end of 2006.

A box set meant to celebrate the first album Tilt and the entire group's career, entitled 33 was finally released in early 2008, a nice package including an LP, a CD, 2 DVD's and various inserts.

In 2009 Arti e Mestieri are working on a concept album entitled Piramidi - Quadri di un'esplorazione, inspired from the life of the explorer Giovanni Belzoni, and an EP, Il grande Belzoni, was taken from the forthcoming album

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Kevin Ayers - Joy of a Toy [UK Bonus Tracks]


Kevin Ayers is one of the finest and most influential musical talents to have emerged in Britain during the mayhem and madness of the late Sixties. Yet like peer and fellow Harvest records pioneer Syd Barrett, he has always been profoundly uneasy with the self-promotion that the pop music world demands. In fact, he abhors it. Ayers is an English eccentric, a supreme raconteur, a maverick innovator who has always remained true to his musical ideals and for these reasons his legacy is being celebrated by a new generation of performers today.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Can - Anthology - 25 Years



Damo Suzuki , Holger Czukay , Irmin Schmidt , Jaki Liebezeit , Malcolm Mooney , Michael Karoli
1-1 Father Cannot Yell (6:57)
1-2 Soup (2:42)
1-3 Mother Sky (6:35)
1-4 She Brings The Rain (4:06)
1-5 Mushroom (4:26)
1-6 One More Night (5:37)
1-7 Outside My Door (4:07)
1-8 Spoon (3:03)
1-9 Halleluwah (5:36)
1-10 Aumgn (7:12)
1-11 Dizzy Dizzy (3:27)
Lyrics By - Duncan Fallowell
1-12 You Doo Right (20:18)
2-1 Uphill (6:25)
2-2 Mother Upduff (4:29)
2-3 Doko E (2:27)
2-4 Musette (2:14)
2-5 Blue Bag (1:15)
2-6 TV Spot (3:06)
2-7 Half Past One (4:39)
Lyrics By - Can , Peter Gilmour
2-8 Moonshake (3:01)
2-9 Future Days (9:29)
2-10 Cascade Waltz (5:40)
Lyrics By - Can , Peter Gilmour
2-11 I Want More (3:30)
Lyrics By - Can , Peter Gilmour
2-12 Animal Waves (8:09)
2-13 Don't Say No (6:34)
Lyrics By - Can , Peter Gilmour
2-14 Aspectacle (3:07)
2-15 Below This Level (2:14)
2-16 Hoolah Hoolah (4:30)
2-17 Last Night Sleep (3:35)

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Hapshash and the Coloured Coat - Human Host and the Heavy Metal Kids


1967 Reissue. On of the psychedelic 'Freak Out' scenes most sought after releases and one of the oddest 'groups' ever to release a record. Basically the brainchild of producer Guy Stevens, Hapshash also featured graphic designer Michael English and boutique owner Nigel Waymouth and the five LSD influenced tracks on this collector's CD showed the trio taking the 60s 'free spirit' stance to new and uncharted areas.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Simply Saucer - Half Human, Half Live


Simply Saucer had been out of commission for more than a decade when Cyborgs Revisited, a collection of demos and live tracks they recorded in the mid-'70s, was issued on vinyl in 1989 and established the group as a record collector geek's dream band -- a group laboring in utter obscurity who were creating something truly unique, a wacked-out fusion of Can, the Velvet Underground, the Kinks, and Syd Barrett created at a time when even those wildly influential acts were off the radar of most rock fans, especially in the Canadian factory town of Hamilton, Ontario. When Cyborgs Revisited was reissued on CD in 2003 with a stack of bonus tracks, the buzz about Simply Saucer grew a bit louder, but no one was honestly expecting the band to ever re-form (especially given the fact lead guitarist and singer Edgar Breau had given up electric guitar after quitting the band), making the existence of Half Human, Half Live, the first proper Simply Saucer album, something of a surprise. While Breau and bassist Kevin Christoff are the only two members of the original edition of Simply Saucer to appear on these sessions, the sound and feel of this album is consistent with the scraps collected on Cyborgs Revisited, though this material has the advantage of having been recorded under more welcoming circumstances, in a proper studio and with a solid lineup of musicians, and the three way fusion of the trippy, the furious, and the joyous is still potent and effective nearly three decades after the group gave up the ghost. Breau's voice isn't what it once was, but his hearty bellow works just fine on many of these songs, and for a guy who gave up rock for acoustic folk in 1979, he can still conjure up an impressive wall of electric noise, though new members Daniel Wintermans and Stephen Foster certainly help. And if the '60s pop influences of "Almost Ready Betty" and the pastoral acoustic folk-rock of "Dandelion Kingdom" seem a bit outside the boundaries of what one might expect from Simply Saucer, Breau is certainly entitled to a bit of reinvention after so many years of hibernation. Half Human, Half Live features six new compositions recorded in the studio and six Simply Saucer chestnuts played for a small but enthusiastic live audience, and while the studio tracks rock with genuine authority, live the new group sound just a bit tentative, though they build up an impressive head of steam by the end of "Illegal Bodies." If Half Human, Half Live isn't quite the triumph one might have hoped for, it does nothing to tarnish the legacy of this great invisible band, and suggests Breau's musical ambitions are still impressive (and still evolving) in the 21st century, and hopefully this isn't the last we'll hear from this band.







Monday, August 3, 2009

Simply Saucer - Cyborgs Revisited


Simply Saucer were a Canadian group of the wasteland period (post-psych, pre-punk). Like a few of the other kick ass bands of the period, they were almost completely unique. And completely invisible.

I've heard this record compared to Syd's Floyd quite a bit. I can dig it, but only if we're talking about the Syd of Vegetable Man and Scream Thy Last Scream. There's no See Emily Play pop structure going on here at all.

I think a more apt comparison is the very earliest of Pere Ubu. The one with Peter Laughner. This has that same damaged sense of song structure - there are very few verse/chorus things going on here. Even the solo sections have a crazy non-standard structure to them. Also like the Ubu, there is that ubiquitous non-musical electronics that really sells it for me.

But unlike Floyd or Ubu, this is a space *rock* band, meaning that the singer is got that garage punky snarl to him. This is the piece that takes this band from being part of a group to being flat out unique.

If you haven't written songs before, it may be hard to truly appreciate how difficult this type of song construction is (don't you hate it when reviewers say this kind of shit...). Most songs are written as groove A (aka verse), groove B (chorus), and maybe C or D (bridge, coda, intro, etc). Each piece needs to fit somewhat, but as long as they are similar keys, it works OK. Simply Saucer might go A, B, C, D, semi-A, C backwards, E, Q, freak-out, B with each part melting into each other, rather than abrupt transitions. Good stuff.
Manic CBGB's era electro-punk from Canada. Recorded in 1974 by Daniel and Bob Lanois and bolstered by demos, live tracks, and later day singles.

Tracks :
1. Instant Pleasure
2. Electro Rock
3. Nazi Apocalypse
4. Mole Machine
5. Bullet Proof Nothing
6. Here Come The Cyborgs (Part 1)
7. Here Come The Cyborgs (Part 2)
8. Dance The Mutation
9. Illegal Bodies
10. Low Profile (Demo)
11. Little Sally (Demo)
12. Get My Thrills (Demo)
13. I Take It (Demo)
14. Yes I Do (Live)
15. Bullet Proof Nothing (Live)
16. Now's The Time For The Party (Live)
17. I Can Change My Mind (1978 45 rpm Single)
18. She's A Dog (1978 45 rpm Single)

This expanded reissue contains material from a two-song single, a recording session from 1974,
a live set from 1975, and the 1978 single "She's A Dog".

Simply Saucer :
Edgar Breau (vocals, guitar, Theremin)
Ping Romany (keyboards)
Kevin Christoff (bass, background vocals)
Neil DeMerchant, Tony Cutaia (drums)

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Daevid Allen - Opium For The People (1978) + Alien In New-York (1983)

Both 1978 &1983 mini-albums on 1 disc from Soft Machine and Gong founder Daevid Allen. Includes a version of "Stoned Innocent Frankenstein", "Opium For The People" and four others. Classic psych punk New Wave.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

New York Gong


Daevid Allen (vocals, guitar), Bill Laswell (bass), Michael Beinhorn (synthesizer), Fred Maher (drums), Bill Bacon (drums), Cliff Cultreri (guitar) Dennis Weise (synthesizer), Michael Lawrence (guitar), Don E. Davis (saxophone), George Bishop (saxophone), Stu Martin (drums), Mark Kramer (keyboards, trombone), George Cartwright (saxophone), Gary Windo (saxophone)

Friday, July 31, 2009

GONG FAMILY JEWELS (1987-1998)


GONG : FAMILY JEWELS (1987-1998)
Compilation of Gong and related artists including unreleased material
Disk 1 - Thinky Disc
1. Pip PYLE: Seven Year Itch [1998]
2. Pierre MOERLEN'S GONG: Second Wind [live Bremen Aug 1988]
3. Gilli SMYTH: Cyberwhale
4. Daevid ALLEN: So What? [1997]
5. Pierre MOERLEN & ORCHESTRE REGIONAL DE JAZZ D'ALSACE : Little House I Used To Live In* [live Strasbourg 1997]
6. GONG: Radio Gnome Transmission / The Secret Language* [Oxford, Zodiac Club - 17 Oct 1997]
7. GONG: Steffe Sharpstrings' Master Builder Guitar Solo* [Manchester, Nia Centre - 3 Oct 1997]
8. Daevid ALLEN: Flagship Farewell* [1997]
9. Pierre MOERLEN'S GONG: Say No More [1988]
10. GONG: Master Builder Sax solo* [Sheffield, Leadmill - 5 Oct 1997]
11. GONG: Can't Kill Me Jam* [Cambridge, Junction - 21 Oct 1997]
12. GONG: You Are I And I* [Manchester, Nia Centre - 3 Oct 1997]
Disk 2 - Feely Disc
1. Didier MALHERBE: Hadouk [1995]
2. GLO: Let's Glo [1997]
3. GONGMAISON: Blame The Rich [1989]
4. GLO: Back To The Sea [1997]
5. Didier MALHERBE: Zeff Dance [1992]
6. SMYTH, ALLEN & WILLIAMSON: Stroking The Tail Of The Bird [1987]
7. Mike HOWLETT with Ben HOFFNUNG : Mountains of Venus* [1997]
8. GLO: Deia [1997]
9. Didier MALHERBE: Blues del' Horizon [1994]
10. Daevid ALLEN: The Voice of Om [1989