Webster Lewis In Norway - The Club7 Live Tapes

Thank you, IG. During a long drift of scrolling last night, I came upon a post for a copy of this record, saw the cover and recognized an image I'd remembered for about 10 years without accompanying context, just the beauty of a man in mid-performance reverie, black and white.

Now I know what it is! And it sounds beautiful!

Webster Lewis was born in Baltimore, my sort-of hometown, to improve on a good thing. I'm only 3 cuts in, but this thing grooves, breathes and RAGES. From the contemplative to walls-of-sound, this is a killer recording. 

Seems pretty rare, so...

enjoy

2018: Change is Good

C'est ça the mantra of IRS (the chilling acronym of this here blog) in the new year. Big things happening over at HQ: most importantly, I've started a tape label! You can check things out over at kman925.bandcamp.com or on IG @kman925tapes. Or, email us at kman925tapes@gmail.com with demos, event proposals, etc.

That will be the main focus for me musically in the coming months, as well as getting a monthly concert series off the ground (wish me luck/plz help!!!) and playing shows/recording as a solo act, but I'll still be posting here. The emphasis will be a little different, though - less album grabs and more reviews of local/independent artists with links to listen on bandcamp/buy physical copies. See below for a sense of things, the review of Julia Bloop/Sunset Diver's recent tape.

Of course, this is all anticipatory/to come/etc., and I'm always open to new ideas from longtime/new readers! LMK in comments.

<3 R

Review: Sunset Diver, "SD" (Patient Sounds, 2017)

A friend recently asked me to characterize my taste in music. I didn't have to think too long: "Repetitive, but not boring." As I type this now, it still rings true, on an aesthetic and on a political level; I could listen to Steve Reich or William Basinski records all day long, but I had vague, nonetheless violent fantasies at a certain point this mandatory "grow the economy" season after the 10th or so take on "Santa Baby." To stress a belabored point, guns DO kill people, and so do, slowly, bad sounds ad nauseum.

Good sounds are a different breed, however. Julia Bloop, a.k.a. (or is it f.k.a.?) Sunset Diver, knows about these, and about repetition. Sunset Diver's 2017 "SD", out on Patient Sounds (ohboy whatta label!), reinforces this. "Sailing" opens things with a two-chord guitar loop, vaguely punched through with two loping single note lines and something like the creaking of a boat or a smatter of waves. Of course, the name of the song and project could be suggestive; throughout, evocative yet ambiguous crunches and clusters give texture to things. 'Cabiria' is a slow fog of whispered amorous correspondence from the bottom of the ocean. On side B, 'Pavlava' gives us a strikingly poignant piano melody held aloft by wind chimes and jovial but ominous laughter.

These songs emerge fully formed, all the more strong for their distance, for the most part, from anything resembling a con-ventional drum part, bass line, etc. The force of Sunset Diver's choices and their curation together is all that's needed.

Resplendent in Divergence: My Year in Vinyl, 2017

Another mix. Got a 2nd turntable for a steal and decided to close out the year with an all-vinyl mix, limiting myself to what I've picked up over the last 6 months or so. Enjoy! Thanks for checking in and listening this year and all years. 2018 will be a good one for the blog. See you then!

Tracklist:

1. Linda Cohen - In Just Spring (Lake of Light)

2. Tonto's Expanding Head Band - Aurora (Zero Time)

3. John Fahey - Stage Banter / The Return of the Tasmanian Tiger / 

Funeral Song for Mississippi John Hurt (Live in Tasmania)

4. Dudu Pukwana - Madodana (The Young Ones) (Diamond Express)

5. Le Mystère des voix bulgares - Mir Stanke Le (S/T)

6. The Camberwell Now - Know How (Greenfingers EP)

7. Scritti Politti - Jacques Derrida (Songs to Remember)

8. The Flying Lizards - Her Story (S/T)

9. Bitchin Bajas - Marimba (Transporteur)

10. Chuck Johhnson - Calamus (Balsams)

11. Robert Fripp - Under Heavy Manners (Network)

12. Barry Cleveland - Abrasax (Mythos)

13. Malcolm Dalglish - New Waltz (Jogging the Memory)

14. Ryan Power - Transition Possible (I Don't Want to Die)

15. Arthur Russell - Being It (World of Echo)

16. Steve Kuhn Trio - Mr. Calypso Kuhn (Life's Magic) 

email me if you want me to send you a link!

If you don't know... Nerftoss

No album for grabs, just repping John Jones from the... er, 21218? Anyway, Baltimore, where he's been cranking out mixes, records and tapes as Nerftoss for the past few years (before that he made music as Eachothers, whose back catalog I highly suggest you peruse, maybe on slsk 'cause I can't find it on discogs, pure guitar bliss).

Nerftoss runs the gamut from exotica repurposing to field recordings to kosmische ambulation and everywhere in between. He's consistently been putting out high-quality sounds that put your head and body in a good place. I'm currently driffting off with Prospect Endless, his 2016 cassette on O&E, so I'll put that below for you to sample and also link you to his discogs page. 

Please support this artist and snag some of his rad tapes!

Bob Moses - When Elephants Dream of Music (1983)

A tour-de-force of big band compositions. This goes from pretty swinging horn charts to modal ruminations to world music touches, threaded together by impassioned playing and the mind of Bob Moses. Too many jammers to count in this cast - I quickly browsed and saw Bill Frisell, Jim Pepper, Nana Vasconcelos, Sheila Jordan (with an amazing vocal on "Happy to Be Here Today")... This is a soul record, as in, good for the soul. Share widely and protect the dreaming elephants.

enjoy!

Mix for Fall

New mix for you. I've been listening to the recently departed John Ashbery read his work. Some losses hit harder than others. I suppose there's some comfort in the fact that he seemed more equipped, intellectually and emotionally, for death than most other people (I'd include myself in this group). I hope that in the poems that bookend this mix, I've selected works that are representative of his singular mind and to the experience of this point of the year, a moment of profoundly felt transition. 

john ashbery - collective dawns / roscoe mitchell quartet - naima

george shearing - a tune for humming

glenn copeland - ghost house

don voegeli - remembering

mark barrott - driving to cap negret

gene pitney - autumn leaves

miroslav vitous - when face gets pale

yves tumor - ciervo / phill niblock - A Y U (live) / john cage - three dances for two amplified prepared pianos, part. 1

giovanni venosta - woman in late

faust - jennifer

gastr del sol - blues subtitled no sense of wonder

marion brown - november cotton flower

cleaners from venus - a fool like you

steven brown and benjamin lew - moments

nico - no one is there

david sylvian - where the railroad meets the sea

yumiko morioka - moon ring

john ashbery - just walking around

lmk if you want a d/l link in comments! 

Terje Rypdal - Works (1985)

Y'all probably know Terje better than me. For me, he's always been the ethereal dude my creative writing teacher played for us during a stream-of-consciousness writing sesh in high school, the guy whose music I snidely brushed off at the time but always secretly (thought? felt?) was cool. 

A good place to start for the uninitiated, or, like me, re-initiated. Rypdal seems to be getting his due, with a reissue of his debut album and a Rune Grammophon-backed tribute album (gotta check that one out). But you know what you're getting here - the cover says it all. Nothing but ECM-soaked mood, with the piercing cries of TR's axe to guide you through the misty night.

Here's a live version of 'Waves':

Descendre

Colin Newman - Provisionally Entitled The Singing Fish (1981)

Love this on a Sunday. I've been listening to a lot of This Heat side projects lately (Camberwell Now, Gareth Williams/Mary  Currie), this is hitting me in that sweet spot, guess I need to go down the Wire rabbit hole now (any recs?). Not too many ideas at once, perfectly arranged, smart electronic pop songs. "Fish Seven" is my favorite at the moment, sounds like he's jamming with first-album-era Harmonia. Dig that provisional fish!

Gone fishin'

Brian Eno - Textures (1989)

Don't think I've ever posted Eno here before - huge oversight, I guess I assume most of his work is readily available. Heard about this one on the defunct-for-years Puzz1e blog. Wonder how Eno ended up releasing work for a music library label? Guess it makes a lot of sense... Anyway, seeing the asking price on discogs, I don't feel too guilty about sharing this.

This one is all over the shop: right now, I'm listening to "Evil Thoughts", a slow-burn funk number that wouldn't sound out of place on a Ned Doheny record. Some songs have caught my ear with their use of field recordings of animals/wind instruments (or simulacra of these), so buckle up, fourth worlders. Something for everyone! Maybe I've just been listening to a lot of that RVNG K. Leimer comp, but I'm hearing that in terms of the eclecticism on show.

Liner notes: 

...crisp surfaces with mysterious lumps...

Steve Kuhn - Steve Kuhn (1971)

For the first time in a while, as evidenced by some recent posts, I've been vibing with the '70's. This one's got it for miles - smooth post-bop runs on the electric piano, soulful vocals from SK reminiscent on occasion of bossa nova, a killer rhythm section (Ron Carter, Billy Cobham AND Airto!?!), some of-the-time spazz outs... get you some!

enjoy

Sigi Schwab, Chris Hinze, Jasper Van't Hof - Total Musik (1982)

File somewhere between electronic, jazz, classical and folk, with a little mbira on top. Sometime I'll get around to posting Schwab's album "Meditation", which is up there with some of Ashra's longform guitar workouts of the 70's. And Jasper Van't Hof's explorations of African music and collaborations with Archie Shepp, Markus Stockhausen, etc. will get their due soon too. Guitar, flute, woodwinds, thumb piano, acoustic piano, synths... give your ears a highbrow sound bath. 

enjoy

Bennie Maupin - The Jewel in the Lotus (1974)

Had the pleasure of seeing Bennie and his band recently at a music festival in Watts. They played some crowd-pleasers ("Butterfly", "Watermelon Man"), it was great stuff. This one's a bit beyond all that, free, alternating between the serene theme of opener "Ensenada" and the chilling incantations and drone of "Excursion". Herbie is in fine form here. I'd feel remiss if I didn't note that the title track is one loping, moody stream of a song. Gorgeous...

enjoy

Susumu Yokota - Grinning Cat (2001)

Impressed at how contemporary this sounds, apart from the odd trip-hop/boom-bap beat every now and then... 

Piano sounds, jazz guitar, voices coming out of left field, everything you'd want from this departed master of the space between house and ambient. I'm hearing the groundwork of Ahnnu (World Music) and Nerftoss in this.

See also:

Music by Susumu at opium hum, Listen to This!, and 20jfg.

enjoy

Jaki & Czukay Mix

Tracklist:

kraftwerk - ruckzuck (edit - s/t)

ecstatic sunshine - faceplant (yesterday's work)

pram - loredo venus (The stars are so big...)

can - dizzy dizzy (soon over babaluma)

nerftoss - chase/boomerang (mood index)

marc barreca - oleo strut (twilight)

broadcast - message from home (work and non work)

jan jelinek - im diskodickicht (kosmischer pitch)

harald grosskopf - oceanheart (oceanheart)

harmonia - gollum (deluxe)

holger czukay - boat-woman-song (edit, from ohm: the early gurus of electronic music)

phantom band - rolling (s/t)

jacober/farina/hamilton - ? (rinse)

ashra - mistral (belle alliance)

this mix is for jaki liebezeit and holger czukay, not even putting a dent in the debt i owe you for your works on this earth. music you made, music by friends and fellow travelers, music inspired by yours, music i hope you would have liked. rest in power.

d/l here

Fred Neil - Bleecker and MacDougal (1965)

I love this man's baritone, and the tremelo'd-out, wistful sound of a song like "The Water is Wide." Enjoy this and keep cool out there, folks.

... and I cannot cross over...

The Roches - Nurds (1980)

Or, in other words:

I love these women and their music. If you're into "Rise Above"/"Bitte Orca"-era Dirty Projectors, you'll thank history for that time in the late 70's when NYC punk and the Kitchen crowd cross-pollinated with Americana in the form of these sisters and their songs.

I'm so glad I am one

imaginary radio mix 8.1

Sounds for the thick of summer...

horace andy - something on my mind

seu jorge & almaz - everybody loves the sunshine

roland bocquet - l'abeille

helado negro - lengua larga

dustin wong and takako minekawa - elastic astral peel

the pyramid - summer evening

bjorn torke & prins thomas - arthur

duster - gold dust

world standard - mirage

x.y.r. - dolphin smile

music from "lines horizontal" (Norman McLaren 1962)

khotin - something is happening to me

dj sports - stellar clusters

bobbi humphrey - mestizo eyes

steve hiett - standing there

Bobbi Humphrey - Fancy Dancer (1975)

Saturday two-fer! More fusion for fun in the sun. "Uno Esta" and "Mestizo Eyes" are big highlights.

Please Set Yourself at Ease

Gary Bartz - Music Is My Sanctuary (1977)

Ready to feel good?

Enjoy