John Coltrane - Live in Japan
I think I might have revisited every 60s Coltrane album twice or more since the last time I heard this set, which is turning out to be possibly one of the more rare and expensive Coltrane items. I had a harder time warming to his post-Love Supreme period, but eventually did, so listening to this strikes me as somewhat revelatory, as its very very good, certainly way better than my youthful brain remembers it. Coltrane during this period definitely got a chance to indulge his longwindedness, possibly a bad thing in any other case, but the sheer exploratory prowess of the man on both spiritual and musical levels always makes you feel that he’s in the service of the art. Sometimes this takes him pretty far away from his increasingly sparse backup band into unconscious levels, but these are like roller coasters and quite the rush. At times everything comes to a gentle quiet, almost like a drone. Really happy to have this one back in rotation, it feels like I’ve discovered it anew.
Popol Vuh - Bruder des Schattens - Sohne des Lichts
Had a listen to the newer SPV version of this album, which is one I had considered a relatively minor, but “good period” Popol Vuh album, one I had a 9 on. I think the version brings out more of the album’s subtleties. I still wouldn’t mention it on a top five PV list, but it’s perfectly indicative of the meditative direction the artists took in the late 70s and certainly worth a bump up in the grade. The quality definitely seemed to be better than what I remember from the Spalax CD.
Electric Sandwich s/t
Wow, this is actually very good, a lot better than I remembered. Almost choked when I saw I had given it a 7. This bluesy, jammy, psychedelic krautrock stuff really does it for me, although there’s a good percentage I don’t like because the musicianship is a bit sloppy. Maybe that’s the category I had thrown this in earlier, but I didn’t get that at all this listen. I always get pretty psyched when I end up loving something I used to think was mediocre or worse. Also back in rotation now. And it should probably be mentioned that my old opinions were based on an old Germanofon copy, which might have been part of the problem originally. It now gets a quantum jump, somewhere between a 10 and 11.