Mal Waldron - The Call

Been waiting for this one on CD for a while, and it has finally come out as a Japanese mini LP. It was the first Japo record (an offshoot of ECM) and is something of a sister record to Embyro’s Steig Aus, “The Call” making an appearance there, as well as two members having played in Embryo themselves, Jimmy Jackson and Waldron. The rest of the line up is filled in by Eberhard Weber on bass and Fred Braceful on drums, making for something of a killer line up and a fairly unusual one with Waldron on electric piano and Jackson on organ. I remember this being a crispy sounding album in the first place, but the Japanese CD sounds even crispier, like everything is cranked up and spitting out hiss. In fact its rather poor production may give the album something of a ceiling. Waldron himself seems to be using a pretty poor electric piano sound, something more obvious in his solo moments where his forays into the higher octaves come out sounding a bit twee. Jackson on the other hand is tremendous on organ and helps to fill out the sound. A great one, but not a classic, something that will probably stay at a Gnosis 10 for me.

Electric Company/Van Deferens Organization - More Pelvis Wick for the Baloney Boners

Had a chance to listen to this one in the car lately which changed my opinion of it substantially. VDO generally make music similar in approach to Nurse with Wound or other tape-cutting experimentalists. One thing about this album, it sounds very good, very analog, lots of humming and thick, fat sounds. It reminds me what it might have been like if the first Faust Album would have been created like The Faust Tapes. Like musical brethren Nuse With Wound, sometimes the musicians can be pretty silly with their sonic manipulation, rendering some of the segments irritating, but there’s generally much to like here and I had no problem bumping it up to a 10.

The Trip - Atlantide

You have to wonder why Furio Chirico even joined this band, his level of musicianship seems to be miles ahead of the rest of these guys. So much of what is here is embarassing Tarkus rip offs, with lots of awkward sounding weird time signature breaks, but the guy doesn’t hold a candle to Emerson. I might have been more forgiving had they been aping someone else, but even in Italy the keyboard-based prog rock thing has been done much better (Le Orme or Latte e Miele, for example). I had a 7 on this and think it’s pretty appropriate and now I can happily get rid of it.

Jane - Here We Are

My friends and I were listening to Jane in high school and I get the impression it has given us a more inflated view of their value than we might have had discovering them a year ago. I can get behind the debut Together, but starting with this, their second, they went on to release some of the most dreadul and derivative rock in various styles through 3 and Lady and onto their Pink Floyd period with Fire, Water, Earth & Air. Here We Are is something of a standalone precursor to their later sound (both 3 and Lady are more of a straight hard rock sound) with lots of organ and few-chord songs that are dull and generally lifeless except for the occasional moment. Another 8 that seems comfy there, so it’s time to move this one on.

Simon Goubert - Le Phare des Pierres Noires

In contrast to the Trip album, this is something of a classic Coltrane Quartet clone, very much in the spiritual, pre-kosmigroov jazz vein. Part of the Magma circle, Goubert has been creating music like this on several albums. While Goubert’s musicians will never recreate the fire of Coltrane, Tyner, Jones and co., I found this album to be much better than I remembered, a little on the lacking impact side, but still some very good jazz.

Nekropsi - Mi Kubbesi

A Turkish group with a pronounced 90s King Crimson influence, this debut by Nekropsi is a very cold clinical album that I might have liked quite a bit more had the tones been warmer and more diverse. This presents one song after the other in a very similar style, one that wears you out over the length. There’s really nothing at all that stands out about the music, although there’s some complexity that makes it interesting enough to not go below an 8.