VARIOUS False Object Sensor (Vermiform)
In both his label (Vermiform) and band (Men's Recovery Project), Sam
McPheeters has carved an aesthetic with no aesthetic. Post hardcore? I
guess if the term is something that can be defined, this camp plops
itself firmly between the Residents and Lightning Bolt, and on the label's
10th anniversary, we are treated with this collection that's as
across-the-board as it gets. Both old and new roster members are featured
here with previously-unreleased tracks (and often hilarious liner
notes): Men's Recovery Project collab with LeTigre, Melvins offshoot the
Thrones, new blood Rah Bras, a fantastic Chinese dulcimer-laden
contribution from Auto Da Fe (with an Amps For Christ member) and others
join in on the glory and confusion that is/was Vermiform.
SUN RA & HIS INTERGALACTIC ORCHESTRA It is Forbidden (Total
Energy)
The latest installment in John Sinclair's archives of Ra & the Arkestra's
various appearance at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz festivals in the early
1970's is totally incredible (even moreso than the other volumes Total
Energy has been putting out the last few years, and they were pretty
rocking themselves.) Sun Ra's cosmic demeanor, hocus pocus stage antics
and theatricality were generally the elements that got him dismissed by
the jazzbo world at large (hello Ken Burns), even John Gilmore (who wound
up being Ra's mainstay tenorman through they years) came off a stint with
Coltrane being admittedly puzzled by the sci-fan antics. Then, he quickly
realized that Ra's music charts were heavier and more complex than
anyone's, and got on the spaceship and never came off. This 1974 set is
completely molten, spiralling into frenzied, almost Merzbow-like attacks
on moog and electronics between Dale Williams fuzz-wah guitar spasms and
of course spirited singing proclamations from June Tyson. Truly out of
this universe.
MARK GROWDEN'S ELECTRIC PINATA Inside Beneath Behind (Wiggle
Biscuit)
California composer/singer/musician Mark Growden's "Downstairs
Karaoke" was one of the more pleasant surprises last year. His dark,
melodic and twisted music drags one ears to some backwoods cabaret
inhabited by what sounds like Tom Waits, Joel Phelps, the Tiger Lillies
and a slew of Vaccination label-type post-Residents musicians in some kind
of bizarre musical carnival. Growden utilizes all the best
instrumentation: whistles, glass bottles, distrorted accordian, saxophone,
guitar and anything else under the sun. "9 Mouths" starts off like a
damaged version of the Master Musicians of Jajouka over banjo and
trickling water, before his dark waltz kicks in.
SPRING HEEL JACK The Blue Series Continuum: Masses (Thirsty
Ear)
The British electronica duo of John Coxon and Ashley Wales have taken a
very unusual approach to remixing this time around; enhancing the music of
free jazz stalwarts like Roy Campbell, Matthew Shipp, Evan Parker, William
Parker, and others with electronic stylings. Before jazz purists start to
get ruffled, one should keep in mind that this isn't some kind of cheezoid
cross-pollinatization, but rather a carefully constructed, and quite
complementary approach. Coxon and Wales actually dissect and re-assemble
various improv passages as well as lay electronic soundscapes alongside
them, without intruding really on the general spirit of said
passages. It's something I haven't really heard before, and quite amazed
at what is done here in a forum that could easily have a terrible outcome.
ORANGE TWIN FIELD WORKS Volume 1 (Orange Twin)
Fans of the great Ho! Roady Music From Vietnam collection and the Sun City
Girls are shoo-ins to love this long collage of Bulgarian sounds recorded
by Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Magnum on his trip over there. Like Ho!, the
focus of drifting elements of the streets of a foreign land get brought to
life stunningly, and like the Sun City Girls, the spotlight on
the relative strangeness (as seen through the eyes of someone from another
land) is cast to almost psychedelic effect. Magnum's juxtapositions of his
recorded sounds are amazing: female choirs over disconnected conversation,
clapping, instrumentation flow through a most pleasing river of pure
sound.
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