Aug 24, 2007

the keith tippet group (rare earth XVII)

Keith Tippet Group - Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening (1971)

"I'm a jazz musician", he states flatly and categorically, without qualification. But whant kind of jazz musician, for heaven's sake, plays with musicians from albeit experiemtnal rock bands like King Crimson, Soft Machine and the late Blossom Toes? The answer: a new breed, and all the men you'll hear on this album come into that category. (...)

The six cuts were recorded in two glorious days at Philip's studios, near Marble Arch, and Keith says: "It was fantastic - everybody was leaping around, very happy. Not drunken... just merry. You can tell what it was like from the fade-outs; the tracks weren't faded for musical reasons, but because we never wanted stop playing". The album opens with Nick's 'This Is What Happens', with horn fanfares over the fiery, striding rhythm. Mark has some nice half-valve effects in his solo, and Keith is very funky and exciting before the enjoyable chaotic coda. The link between this and Keiht's 'Thoughts To Geoff' uses a speeded-up trombone, eacuse "Nick thinks that he sounds like Freddie Hubbard when you speed up te tape, so we gave him a chance prove it". 'Thoughts To Geoff' has just about the most exciting Rhythmic feel of any British music I've heard. All seven muscians are marching to the same drummer, and words can scarcely do justice to the splendour of the way Babbington and Spring mesh to inspire the others.
Keith jagged runs, Elton's duet with Gary Boyle, and Nick's bluff yet sinuous trombone are the highlights. 'Green and Orange Night Park' starts with the feeling of a Coltrane coda, all majestic and thrashing, before moving into the theme, will make your hair stand on end. It's Elton's feature, with a written riff behind him which Nick gradually mutates into a related improvised phrase. It dissolves in beautiful frenzy. Nick tells me that "gridal" means "raucous" and Elton's compositions has an orgamisc possessed by-devils spirit which makes it an awesome experiencie. It doesn't really matter, but electric alto is overdubbed in some places. If you thought that was pretty weird though, 'Five After Dawn' will come as a slight shock. Written after an all-night party to depict musically people and things awakening and starting to move at dawn, it makes use of plunk and flutters, including bowed cymbals, plucked paino strings, and the spooky overdubbed voices of Keith and Robert. The link here is ' Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Liestining' a line by the Soft Machine's Hugh Hopper, played by Mark and Elton. The Final track, Nick's 'Black Horse', is a staple of the band's, which Nick rearranged for the session. It's the kind of cut that you're still dancing to an hour after it's over, with the horns coming down hard on the strong rhythm, and all through the band is one entity, one metabolism, breathing together. For days after these sessions, people were calling me up to say how incredible it had been. Now we can all see what they were on about: this music sticks to your ribs, keeps you satisfied makes you breathe in perfect harmony.

Estas son casi en su totalidad las notas de Richard Williams en el Melody Maker incluidas en la edición del álbum por arkama en 2002. Es curioso como en los ya más de dos años de aldea f. no he dedicado apenas palabras a la música que más me maravilla y a unos pocos músicos que crearon un universo muy especial, variado y distintivo, el canterbury. En realidad, puede que esta vez tampoco lo haga, aunque echando un ojo a los participantes parezca difícil pensar lo contrario: Keith Tippett (piano/hohner electric piano) , Elton Dean (alto/saxello), Mark Charing (cornet), Nick Evans (trombone) , Robert Wyatt (drums), Bryan Spring (drums), Phil Howard (drums), Tony Uta (conga drums/cow bell), Roy Babbington (bass/bass guitar), Neville Whitehead (bass) y Gary Boyle (guitar) el plantel resulta increíble, bien es cierto que varias colaboraciones son muy puntuales. La composiciones se reparten entre el propio Keith, Elton y Nick (suyas son las 2 piezas que actúan como introducción y cierre). Bajo la batuta de Keith Tippett el componente de jazz es total. Tras acabar el explosivo inicio de 'This is What Happen', la sensación es que nos ha abordado un jazz deconstruido, elocuente y libre, algo que no nos abandonará hasta el final.

Habría mucho que contar de cada uno, así, destacar a Nick, Mark y Elton en sus dinámicos solos y lo interesante de comprobar tantos a éstos como al resto en sus trabajos previos y posteriores con otras bandas. Keith junto a Julie Discroll y con varios de los presentes, firmaría algunos de los discos más imperdibles que se han hecho.

Apuntar un detalle, el título del disco, es un pequeño interludio de medio minuto que Hugh Hopper compuso junto a Mark y Nick, cuando Wyatt formó Matching Mole le "compondría" a su amigo un 'Dedicated to Hugh, But You Weren't Listening'. Antes de los 3 clicks decir que con este nombre, también publicaron previamente 'You Are Here...I Am There' en 1969 que ya contaba con el trío de los Softs a los vientos.

Aug 14, 2007

soft circle

soft circle - full bloom (eastern developments, 2007)

Full Bloom is an ecstatic percussion and voice exercise. Perhaps exorcism is a better word. Over seven tracks we delve into the depths of his one man band aesthetic. In the live experience, Hisham sits behind a drum kit, along with some samplers and triggers, a guitar sitting in his lap and a microphone headset strapped around his head. This image should give you a sense of the dynamics enclosed in the Soft Circle album, as most tracks were recorded in one live take, with few overdubs. From opening title "Ascend," to tracks like "Sundazed," "Stones and Trees," "Shimmer," "Whirl" and "Earthed"...you get the picture. Yes, this is a dose of new freak-folk, but more in the Panda Bear style of emotional release, or even that of Bharoocha's former band, Black Dice. Full Bloom is filled with ethno-acoustic/electronic vibes culled from hand percussion, drone vocals, yelps and howls, sitars, bird calls, electronic washes and slight dance rhythms. References could be made to Eno/Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and the Wild Orchid soundtrack at one moment, and in the next, like Steve Reich meeting Pandit Pran Nath in a drum circle. A surprise outing from the NY underground.

Hisham Baroocha, se despega de la cartasis de noise de Lighting Bolt y se sumerge en un atmosférico amalgama, voy a llamarlo trance-world-folk. En fin, uno de los discos más inspiradores de lo que va de año, los dos clicks de abajo eso dicen.

Aug 8, 2007

tom carter & christian kiefer

tom carter & cristian kiefer - a rather solemn promise (the great pop suplemente, 2007)

Charalambides' Tom Carter teams up with fellow string alchemist Christian Kiefer for some Loren Mazzacane Connors-influenced spectral blues. Once you've got over the gorgeous hand-screened sleeves (courtesy of Badgerlore's Rob Fisk) you're in for the kind of freeform guitar duets that made similarly-minded outings (such as last year's excellent Tetuzi Akiyama & Donald McPherson head-to-head) such captivating listening. The tone varies between the rollicking Takoma-isms of 'Glass Palace' and the slide guitar weirdness of 'Song the Land Sings', via the ghostly banjo bust-ups of 'Snake River', with each piece delivered with a stereo dynamics setup whereby one musician takes the left, the other the right, giving a real sense of being in and amongst the performance. Tom Carter's guitar in Charalambides has always been enriched with a kind of starkly atmospheric resonance, and in Kiefer he's clearly found a likeminded artist. Consequently, it's a great pleasure to hear the two meandering through these psyched-up American Primitive discourses with such a gnarled authenticity.

Edition of 500 copies in screened fold-out card sleeves with art by Rob Fisk (Badgerlore).
Para paseos en solitario al amanecer, para aventureros retirados y para que entre tanto sol haya un poco de niebla.