Outer Music Diary

Koenji Hyakkei - Angherr Shisspa

It takes me a few listens to figure out what I’m going to think about the latest Koenji Hyakkei, they all sound quite a bit alike at first and you generally know what to expect with their take on the Magma sound. So there’s really no news here except that it felt like being in familiar territory here. Bombastic, intense, driven, aggressive, and maybe one or two-dimensional.

Sonny Stitt & Don Patterson - Brothers-4

Grant Green’s presence on this is strong enough that I make the mistake of thinking of this as one of his albums. He was just about launching his more commercial career around this point, so it’s fun to hear him play music in his earlier style here. Great stuff, naturally, although I’ve played so much of this kind of thing over the last week or two that it’s all starting to blur together.

Niagara - S.U.B.
To Be s/t

A couple obscure jazz rock items that I originally grabbed the Germanofon releases of years ago when I wasn’t into the style as much, so I had originally found these to be tedious. My opinion has improved, although not a lot. I believe this was the second of the three Niagaras and I’d definitely be curious to hear the other two as I’m not used to hearing Popol Vuh/Amon Duul II member Daniel Fischelscher in this sort of context. Niagara actually remind me of another German jazz rock album due to the prevelance of percussion, Ibliss’s Supernova, although that’s the better record between the two, very little of this seems particularly surprising or compelling.

In many ways the difference between Niagara and To Be is like the difference between jazz rock and fusion, To Be have a much slicker, Return to Forever-influenced sound, although they’re much more inside and less obviously virtuoso. Given the era, it’s a pretty mediocre release, less edgy or groundbreaking than Volker Kriegel, Toto Blanke and the like. Anyway I raised S.U.B. to a 9 and this one to an 8, both reflections of a more fusion-friendly listener than I was the last time I heard these in the 90s.

Colour Haze – Ewige Blumenkraft. 2001. I put a couple of Colour Haze reviews up on Gnosis recently. One was their latest “Tempel” and the other was the album that preceded this, “CO2”. “Ewige…” is the album that seemed to gain Colour Haze some notoriety with the stoner rock crowd, and was the first time they’d come up on my radar screen. They hadn’t hit their psychedelic stride yet here and have more in common with the brute fuzz force that the genre is known for. It’s generally just sonic overload with yelled vocals, though the guitarist is finally starting to let loose on the longer tracks. They’d continue to improve.

Quarteto 1111 - Onde, Quando, Como, Porquê Cantamos Pessoas Vivas. 1975. I knew this was Jose Cid’s band before going solo, but I always thought they were a pop group with some progressive leanings. And maybe that’s true for their 1970 effort. But this opus would fit smack dab in the middle of the 1973 Italian prog movement. Mellotron galore, with dramatic vocals that would make a band like Delirium or QVL proud. And the melodies are sublime, a rare “certain sound” that is hard to write about, but no one creates music like this anymore. I first heard of this album from an article in an old Marquee from Japan, and someone translated it for me. All these years of searching for it, and it’s still impossible to get ahold of, despite being on a major label. I was fortunate to have a friend burn this one for me. This one would do well for a CD reissue. Maybe one of the Japanese mini LP companies can complete what Korea’s M2U started before calling it a day?

Petrus Castrus - Asencao e Queda. 1977. A long, long time ago, someone had dubbed this to cassette for me and I didn’t care for it one bit. How times have changed. The same friend who made me a copy of the above, also dubbed this puppy and glad he did. I can see why I didn’t care for it at first. It’s not jaw dropping, hyper complex prog music, but rather a more subdued effort, where focus is on melody and album conception. In fact, “Asencao e Queda” does start out a bit too safe, but by the end, it’s firing on all cylinders, with great piano work, female backing vocals, brazen guitar, the whole works. There is a little bit of that “Glee Club” feel in the vocals, similar to Alusa Fallax in that way. This one did get a release on M2U. Better secure my copy before it goes extinct again.