Outer Music Diary

Satoko Fujii Quartet - Zephyros

Zephyros is the Greek personification of the west wind. I’ve done a fair bit of research on the subject for reasons probably best explained over at prattle, but one thing seems pretty clear, it’s a wind with two personalities, the gentle wind the zephyr is normally associated with and something far more turbulent and energetic. Perhaps this is why Fujii chose the title for this album, a jazz release that shows the Coltrane aesthetic is still evolving and fusing with European and other ideas. Like the Zephyr, Fujii’s band simmers and steams in just about equal proportion, creating a fairly entertaining album. I’m not as fond as the stop and start stuff, but when the music is close to Trane, it’s pretty close to bullseye.

Trajedesaliva - Mima Blanca
Scarlet Thread - Psykedeelisia Joutsenlauluja

I spun these half the day Monday and most of the day Tuesday. For two disparately located bands, these are two surprisingly similar albums. Like many new bands, the equipment and production levels are a little distracting, the guitar tones on both albums have a washed out sound that doesn’t ever really get their grip in me. Song after song languishes heavily without any motivation or inspiration and after a while I was thinking it was less that I hadn’t heard these albums, but that there didn’t really seem to be a lot to hear.

Maudlin of the Well - Bath

Kind of a low volume listen while watching the Kings game last night and I was reminded of the album’s major flaw, the production. You have to turn it up just so that you hear more than the drums.

Gypsy s/t

The Stone the Crows album I played the other day conflates a little bit with this album in my memory as they’re both early hard rock releases and are pretty gritty. Some of the moments on this CD are pretty outstanding, but i get the impression that over time the patchier elements will influence the grade.

Beatles - Revolver

An album like is just sheer bliss to my ears lately. In some ways it’s the first Beatles album to really go cosmic with the eastern motifs coming in and blending in incredibly original ways with some of the best songwritings in the history of music. I’ve also mentioned that “She Said” has been something of an earworm for me of late, but this is probably no surprise being that the Beatles have had the earworm market cornered ever since they wanted to hold your hand. Anyway I’m watching my subjective opinion approach the consensus one at this point, and while I can do without songs like “Taxman” the higlights overwhelm.

Grateful Dead - Dick’s Picks 19 (Fairgrounds Arena, Oklahoma City, OK 10/19/73)

This is my reigning favorite Dicks Picks and it’s been a while since I revisited it. Part of it is trying to find that perfect “Looks Like Rain” (not here), and part of it was knowing that this has a cosmic dip in it in the second set that rivals any of their other gigs. Anyone wanting to hear this band on jazz fire needs to pick this up.

Grateful Dead - Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, CA 1/17/78

I work about two blocks from this building, it’s truly one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, gorgeous brickwork. Inside, it’s a different story and a notorious acoustic nightmare, particularly before it was renovated. You really don’t get the idea that anyone likes playing there, as it’s pretty boomy. Anyway with all that considered, this is not a bad gig, although it’s a bit shorter than usual. The highlight is the near 20 minute “He’s Gone.” Like many a 78 gig, it has that mellow dreamy sort of quality, although here it doesn’t seem to work against them so much.

Yolk - Oksinivis (EP)

Like many an EP this one blew by me almost too fast to notice. They’re one of the more unusual bands tied in to the progressive rock thing, it’s as if they use a different vocabularly to create it.

BF - Levist Varjas

Definitely in the more traditional symphrock direction with a heavy emphasis on the keyboard parts. This type of stuff strikes me as being dead in spirit in some ways. While I gravitate quite a bit to the accessible melodic development in the music, like many of the modern bands they forget how to write a song, something memorable.

Plastic People of the Universe - Egon Bondy’s Hearts Club Banned

A fairly famous sort of experimental pop/rock album, at least in collector’s circles, it’s not an album I could remotely describe more than this short blurb. I expected it to be a little challenging and said expectation was fulfilled. I’m definitely thinking Residents sort of area although this is an entirely new world.

Area - Arbeit Macht Frei

This is a 15 I can probably not wait a month before revisiting. There are many examples here of what I call “fire,” those moments when music is transmitted directly by the creative force unimpeded by ego. Some of these are when the band is vamping and improvising and Stratos comes right back in, singing entirely from the feeling. I think I’ve heard these songs 100 times or more and they never fail to give me goosebumps. And I think this is probably one of the most grooving albums ever made that didn’t have an American jazz, soul or funk connection. One of the great progressive rock albums and let’s not forget to thank Nucleus for the bump.