Outer Music Diary

First Installment

I got the time to finish this set up over New Year’s weekend and realized I hadn’t actually reported beyond the first two discs, so felt I better do so before moving on to the last two. The link above leads to the first report. This report may be a little sparser, given the time in between observing and writing.

DVD - 3

1975
Amon Düül II - Surrounded By The Stars

Most of the ADII clips on these DVDs really show the band to be almost unbearably sloppy even if they’d gotten it together a lot more by 1975. You’ll find no bigger supporter of the early albums than me, but I’m inclined to think they had to work sorcery to have this mess of a band create such masterpieces. Live they’re a train wreck.

Tritonus - Far In The Sky

I’m afraid my viewing of the second Tritonus clip has replaced my memory of this first one, so I’ll wait for the comments in the next post. Suffice it to say Tritonus are something of a Triumvirat clone, making them second generation midway through the 70s. 

Kraan - Hallo, ja, ja, I Don’t Know

All the Kraan clips are fantastic, no matter the era, but again I don’t remember the specifics here.

1976
Hölderlin - I Like My Dog
Udo Lindenberg & Panikorchester - Rudi Ratlos
Randy Pie - Through The Motions
Elster Silberflug - Es wollt’ ein Schneider wandern
Epsilon - Sadness

1976 wasn’t a very good year or at least you’d think so based on this lot. The Holderlin clips are particularly disappointing given that they had recorded much better material than this, what happened to some of those long, spacey 10 minute pieces? The rest of this stuff is generally bad rock ‘n roll, awkward imitations of far better British and American groups. Epsilon’s country rock style is particularly baffling, it’s almost as if they could never decide what style they wanted to play. 

1977
Eloy - Midnight Fight
Can - Dizzy Dizzy
Novalis - Wer Schmetterlinge lachen hört
Kraan - Vollgas Ahoi
Jane - Expectation

It’s interesting that both of the two different nights these marathon video sessions were aired were actually fairly similar in parts and again I’m faced with my memories of the second night. I can imagine my comments for Eloy and Novalis would be virtually identical, but I should probably mention how bizarre mid-70s Can is. I don’t care much for any of the Can albums from the time including “Soon Over Babaluma” but watching them live is interesting given their improvisational variation.

1978
Kraftwerk - Die Roboter

Interesting to see this, mostly in light of the earlier Kraftwerk tracks being shown. I probably prefer the earlier band, although in reflection it seems awfully limited in scope, usually a vamp on a chord or two for far too long. This is the Kraftwerk most people would recognize, the one that reminds me of the old SNL “Touch my monkey” skit. 80s even before the decade began.

Scorpions - He’s A Woman, She’s A Man

Can’t remember this one too well but I think this was actually live, rather than lip-synched like some of the other Scorps tracks. I’m happy with just about all of the Uli era, even if they were starting to take their dive into AOR respectability.

1979 - 2005
Tangerine Dream - Mädchen auf der Treppe 1982
Bröselmaschine - Bei uns zu Haus 1988
Michael Rother - C-Moll / Live in Lyon 2005
Dieter Moebius - Born Neo 2005

Thankfully they kept most of the modern stuff off these discs, although it is stil of interest to see TD during this era and Broselmaschine were interesting if not compelling. The techno/beat nature of the Rother and Moebius stuff took it beyond my interest. Read the rest of this entry »

James Brown - Boston Gardens 1968 (DVD)

Coincidentally, when James Brown passed away on Christmas day, this was at the top of the stack of DVDs I needed to watch. It’s a pretty long set and given the whole showmanship nature of the show, you don’t see Brown’s band at all, just JB in front with a break for his alternate vocalist. Lot of famous pieces here, although I don’t get as much of the spirit as I have with other Brown experiences, but I think that’s to blame on the low quality of the recording. Some great speeches by Brown, including inviting a number of fans up on stage, which disturbs the security people. Unfortunately this is about as close as I’ll ever get. RIP JB.

Pataphonie s/t

The second Pataphonie has long since been reissued through Musea and is definitely a worthy avant jazz/rock release. Like Vortex or Pantincruel, the band had a rather forgettable debut, Pataphonie’s work seems mostly improvised, at times reminding me of Limbus 4 or other unusual groups that build up sonics rather than jam. At times the music is so quiet, I kept getting confused whether or not the vinyl crackle and pop was part of the music itself. I’m reminded a little of Confluence’s occasional forays into improvisation. I don’t care too much for albums I have to struggle to hear though and turning this up means occasionally having to deal with a cacophonous upswelling.

Miles Davis - Folkets Hus, Stockholm 11/5/69

This is a very fine part of the Lost Quintet series of live shows, many of which are quite under par when it comes to quality, in fact I think this is an upgrade of one of those shows. It’s phenomenal quality and when you consider even a legitimate release like the Juan de Pins show sounds worse than this, it’s almost startling to hear it. One reason I really like this era of Miles is because you actually get some of Wayne Shorter’s most intense playing, before it got really toned down in Weather Report, in each of these sets you’re almost guaranteed at least one barnburning Wayne solo. Corea is his thorny, knotty 1969 self and is always one of my favorite aspects of these early line ups, melody through dissonance. Fabulous stuff, overall, comparable in ways to the Roma gig.