Outer Music Diary

Genesis – Wind and Wuthering. 11=11. Paraphrasing what I wrote in response to a query on PE a few weeks back: Recently I embarked on a business trip which required a lot of driving between cities. So I took this one along for a detailed listen. Even though I’ve owned the album for well over 25 years, it’s not one I was deeply knowledgeable about. So I played it through about 7 or 8 times, the type of listening I did more as an early teen, when the record collection had less than 50 albums.  Pretty much the end of the line for the “progressive” Genesis. The track ‘Your Own Special Way’ points to the new commercial direction the band was heading. A cloying piece of nausea. Also, ‘One For the Vine’ isn’t really that much better, except the length allows for some progressive interludes. All is forgiven, however, as “Unquiet Slumbers…” is near the very top of anything that Genesis ever did (and that’s a very high bar). What a powerful piece of music. They drove off the cliff after this. Too bad they didn’t at least have a Gnosis 9 or 10 level album to soften the blow.

Jimmy Read Smith – Heartdance. No grade. A real oddity in my collection. Found this in a Durham, North Carolina record store back in 1992. On the Song of the Wood label, and features a stunning fantasy gatefold cover. I figured it might be an obscure symphonic rock album or something. It was only a couple of bucks. Up until today, I just presumed the group was Heartdance. I hadn’t even thought about this record for 10 years when it turned up for a random listen by the computer. Turns out Jimmy Read Smith is a legend in the hammered dulcimer field and he makes them by hand for sale. Oh, and the music is instrumental Celtic jig music. Not bad – my Dad had a full collection of this kind of stuff. I’ll keep for the cover and because who’ll buy it anyway? If curious – you can easily get the CD (slightly different cover BTW, and inferior) – and here’s more info: http://www.songofthewood.com/Jerry’s%20Recordings.htm
The Allman Brothers Band – At Fillmore East. 12-11. The tendency, I think, is to rate this one a bit higher than normal – at least from a progressive rock perspective. It’s a novelty to find a Southern fried blooz band put out lengthy European jazz influenced rock numbers like “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and the instrumental sections of “Whipping Post”. The rest is good, but not really my strike zone. Still, the aforementioned 2 tracks are amazing and they make up over 30 minutes of the original 2 LP set.
Acid Mothers Temple – Univers Zen ou de Zero a Zero. 7=7. Another try at this and another miss. I need to sit with someone who actually likes the first song, and I want to see them pay attention all along. Not run their gums, or the vacuum cleaner, or with a massive doobie in their hands – but actually SIT THERE and listen to it sober as a lawn chair. And then tell me, with a straight face, that it’s great. Then maybe I can get some insight into what’s good about AMT. After the original torture, the music lightens up, and takes an acoustic flair, not that far from what Ghost might do – though the band is so desperate for an editor, it’s not funny. Guess when you put an album out every month, what can you expect?
Beast – Higher and Higher. 9=9. 1970 Faceless psych from Denver, who recorded in Clovis, New Mexico. First half of the disc is on track as they primarily address their jazz school background. But, like many bands of the era, they put in all sorts of other styles to see if something would stick. You get Dixieland, ragtime, hard rock and, the worst, country AND western music – which I suspect is what the bar patrons wanted to hear.

 

One Shot - Ewaz Vader

One Shot is about half of Magma taking a vacation. As a secondary band, you get the impression they’re never going for broke on their albums, and I remember even thinking their second album, from 2001, was a step down from the first. Not sure if I would have even gone for this had it not been hyped extensively, but I’m glad I did. For one thing, constantly playing and touring with Magma is starting to mature the players. Bassist Bussonnet’s opening piece kind of sets the stage, you get a strong De Futura influence in a much more improvisational environment, but the track blows out of the gate and leaves one impressed, perhaps too impressed, for what is to come. I hear Miles Davis quoted a lot with One Shot, and I don’t really hear it so much, in fact this has the strongest Magma vibe of the three releases from the title on down. As with any first listen where the tracks/jams are long, it was a bit difficult to keep attention all the way, but there’s much more coherence here than there has been in the past, better structure for the jamming and quite a bit more confidence from the players.

Pienza Ethnorkester - Indiens d’Europe

Remove the guitarist and keys player from One Shot and replace with a hurdy gurdy player (at least that’s how I think the instrument whose name I can’t spell without the disc in front of me “translates” over here) and you’ve got the trio, err, Ethnorkester. Anyway the instrument has a pretty huge sound and I adore it from lots of various musical recordings, mostly folk and apparently it won out over my trepidation that this was a trio recording. It’s an awful lot to take in over a single listen, everyone using more or less the same tones all the way through. At first one is attracted by some of the tricky rhythmic changes and pell-mell pace, but I started to kind of nod out by the end. Thinking they should have dragged along the keys and guitar as well.

Pure Reason Revolution - The Dark Third

This is the sort of mainstream friendly type of progressive rock sound that tends to be populist. From the opening notes of the CD and the quasi-David Gilmour lead guitar you’re reminded of Dark Side and later Pink Floyd. The twist is in the vocals, which oddly enough remind me of the Blue Oyster Cult harmonies you might find on “Golden Age of Leather” from Spectres. They’re very low key and at times Beach Boy-ish, but are generally very pleasant. They remind me a lot of some Porcupine Tree as well, perhaps not in the most flattering way in that while you find it all pretty nice, there aren’t any sharp edges. I’m holding out mostly for the songcraft, which may indeed grab me after a few listens. It’s all pretty nice, if rather generic and derivative.

Missus Beastly - Missus Beastly

Second album, hell second s/t album, by this German band that, from what the liner notes, actually spawned an impostor band whose music was actually bonus tracks on the old Germanofon boot of the disc. Well Garden of Delights is fixing the problem, starting with the album itself, making it sound so much better and shinier than I remember. Missus Beastly are one of the rare German rock-jazz groups and I reverse the familiar term to separate the Schneeball/Munju-ish bands from the MPS and Dauner stables. I really enjoy remasters of albums like this, to hear something seemingly old in a fresh context and I’d forgotten this is quite the gem and bumped it to an 11. Hopefully more revisits will give this the push.

High Tide - Sea Shanties

Admittedly, I listened to this on a small portable I use at work, not a place I tend to try out new remasters, but I was a bit disappointed with this. For the most part, it wasn’t a well-produced album in the first place, probably due to all the instrumental distortion and heaviness. So I didn’t notice much of a difference between it and the previous Repertoire version in the sound, although at times I thought it might be remixed with the difference in vocals and instruments making me strain to listen. However, Eclectic have sweetened the deal with a bunch of bonus tracks, including a very long piece never released at the time (and a secondary version of this is on the s/t remaster). Anyway I love the album, it’s an early goodie, but I’m more looking forward to the second album, one of my all-timers.

Circulus - The Lick on the Tip of an Envelope Yet to be Sent

It’s been a long time since I heard an album that could eventually end up as a 13 or higher, but this, apparently debut, release by this young English outfit definitely qualifies. Starting with the acid folk sound as found on albums like Emtidi’s Saat or any Trees or Spirogyra albums, Circulus are one of the most authentic sounding 70s bands I’ve heard in some time. But they don’t stick to the folk sound. Liberally applied through the album are sections of keyboard-led psych or progressive rock, adding the necessary contrast to ensure that all of the cauldron’s ingredients can still be tasted when the brew was finished. Everything is here, multiple vocals both male and female, guitar, saz, cittern, harmonium, scads of keyboards and synths, bongos, flutes and more. The aesthetic coloring of the overall result is very rich, and all the elements seem judiciously balanced. Been a while since I was excited over a new band, but this group of mushroom trippers had gone and resurrected the spirit of the original progressive rock movement by fusing together many of its threads. The gorgeous artwork and commune-style photographs really wrap this up nicely. Why it took a metal label to put this out is anyone’s guess.

Heard a single on the radio last night from the upcoming Mars Volta album. I never thought I’d see the day where a modern rock song, indistinguishable from progressive rock, with Spanish lyrics would be the upcoming single on an album and marketed to death on the radio, but this was extraordinary, sounding quite a bit like Deus ex Machina in the Gladium Caeli days. Very impressive. I have no idea how they guys can be so lousy live, yet continue to put out impressive studio music.

NeBeLNeST - ZePTo

ZePTo is the third NeBeLNeST album and the third album is often the point on the path where you’ve got a hang of a band, and it’s fairly apparent at this point that the musicians’ chops are what they are and there really isn’t all that much development as far as new ideas go. I saw them live several years ago where a lot of song intervals were created with a lot of synths and noise, and it seems like a direction they’ve taken up here too. It’s certainly not as consonant as the previous album, maybe a little more challenging, but I doubt fans will have much of a problem. It’ll be interesting to see how it grows as a listen.

Hero - Hero

Hero was a mid-70s Italian group creating progressive rock with a much more Germanic flavor than their contemporaries, in fact the closest they get to home is a little Campo di Marte or Il Balletto di Bronzo with the intensity. Obviously this remaster is much better sounding than previous Poor House boots, and it’s likely the sonic difference might make a major difference in one’s opinion now that everything is clear. It reminds me a little of the RRR album as well in that the compositions are the sort that will click more after multiple listens. I’ve had an 11 on this, but I can see it making a 12 with some immersion.

Also spinning the Miles Cellar Door Sessions 1970 set now that I’ve got a real box and not the copy that was leaked several years ago. I like the sort of leathery feel of the box, very 1970.

Captain Beefheart - Chorus TV 1980 (DVD)
Captain Beefheart - The Artist Formerly Known as…/The Late Show Beefheart (DVD)

The music of Don Van Vliet and co is probably some of the most difficult out there, but music that rewards the effort put into untangling the puzzle. These two DVDs went a long way into opening up the albums a bit, and I do feel a revisit jag coming on, a short concert from French TV in the band’s later, revived years and a documentary from British TV.

I watched the concert first and was extremely impressed. It’s often hard to get past the Captain’s intense delivery to hear what is some of the most complex blues-based music I’ve ever heard, but it’s easier to see what’s happening live. No doubt about it, this band rocks. It helps not only to hear the band but also to hear Van Vliet’s astonishing lyrics clearly.

The world may have gained a painter, but it lost a conssumate lyricist when Van Vliet hung the band up in the 80s. This story, told by musicians and others, is related on the documentary, which is really well put together. Extremely funny are the segments with Ry Cooder, who seems so traumatized by his experience with the early band that you can see it in his eyes almost 30 years since he quit. And then there’s Simpsons creator Matt Groening, who seems to be there mostly as a “famous fan.” Other than not getting Van Vliet’s side of the story, it seems a pretty balanced undertaking, covering all facets of the man’s musical career and featuring some pretty nice video clips. When Van Vliet decides he’s going to stick to painting, there’s a palpable loss.

There’s also a second video on the DVD but it seems to be something of an alternate version of the bio and after about 25 minutes, I decided to take it off.

Don Cabellero - Chicago aud (DVD)

Audience videos aren’t too bad when there’s a trio and you can get them in one frame, and despite the camera doing some ocassional meandering, this isn’t bad, it’s a small room and the crowd is digging it. In short bursts, Don C. are pretty fun to listen to, but nobody alters their tones for the entire gig, so after about 10 or 20 minutes the music starts to sound samey. It doesn’t help that the compositions seem more an exercise in mathematics than songs, but the talent tends to make them an interesting listen at times, particularly the guitarist who often sounds like two at times.

Grant Green - Live at Mozambique
Grant Green - Ain’t That Funky Now
Grant Green - Grantstand

Live at Mozambique is the neat new archive of Green’s sould band years, a concert from 1971. Given a familiarity with the Lighthouse and Live albums, one knows what to expect here, a melange of chopping and grooving that makes the booty march to its own drummer. I look forward to more listens to this baby, it’s a smoker.

Ain’t That Funky Now is the first of three recent complilations of the same period. I usually hate comps, but given the somewhat inconsistent tracking from the era, having most of the man’s best material as comps is more a godsend, particularly with the ramp up in sound quality. I know about half of this from the aforementioned live albums, but having great tracks from some of the ones I don’t is really nice. It’s a great comp, well worth having, even if you’ve got everything here.

Grantstand is much earlier and in hard bop mode but it’s a record that grabs the ears with the great soloing and sound. I’m telling ya, this is one musician I’m having a hard time not digging.