NUCLEUS Live In Bremen (Cuneiform) 2cd 26.00
Early '70s jazz rock fusion from this British band, pioneers in the field, who later contributed members to Soft Machine. With an instrumental line-up that included trumpet, piano, oboe, sax, flute, bass, guitar, and drums, this never before released live 1971 radio concert recording demonstrates the funky rhythmic drive of the band, and features some of the wild acid guitar skronk of the legendary Ray Russell in his only recorded (and previously unknown) appearance with Nucleus! With him on board, this is not quite so loose and out-limits pushing as Miles' 70s rock/jazz ensembles, but gettin' there.
MPEG Stream: "Song For The Bearded Lady"

NULL, KK / DISC (Vinyl Communications) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
KK Null of Zeni Geva has his ambient guitarscapes digitally mishandled by those simpletons in DISC (Lesser, Kid 606, Matmos...)

O'ROURKE, JIM & MATS GUSTAFSSON Xylophonen Virtuosen (Incus) cd 19.98
Jim O'Rourke (who is almost as talented as he is ubiquitous) in one corner, with his "guitar & junk". Swedish reedsman Mats Gustafsson in the other, brandishing tenor sax, flute, and "fluteophone". Released on Derek Bailey's free improv Incus label. The track titles bear mentioning: "Paging Cyndi", "Faxing Stina", "Calling Patti", "Telexing Jun", and, best of all, "Smoke Signalling Polly Jean"!

OFFERING A Fiieh (Seventh) cd 17.98
Christian Vander's post-Magma "jazz" project, along the lines of Alice Coltrane's or Pharoah Sanders' 70s stuff mixed with his drumming in Magma. Fantastic. Vander comments: "3rd album of Offering and a decisive new step in my evolution. For the very first time, I apply my theories: don't dream, be aware of reality, don't lose yourself in the maze of intellectual endless sentences; Dig profoundly to learn how to go higher but with your feet still on the ground. It's a key-album, which announces what will be my next albums."

OFFERING Coffret Box-Set (Seventh) 4cd 49.00
Offering is Magma mastermind Christian Vander's '70s style cosmic jazz meets Magma outfit, and this box set collects their four albums and additionally includes a half-hour bonus track. Thumbs up from Allan the Magma maniac.

OFFERING III - IV (Seventh) cd 17.98

OHIO PENITENTIARY 511 JAZZ ENSEMBLE Hard Luck Soul (Jazzman) cd 17.98
We first heard the Ohio Penitentiary 511 Jazz Ensemble on the first volume of the Spiritual Jazz series with their sparkling horn groover, "Psych City". Turns out that the "penitentiary" part of their name was no joke. The 511 Jazz Ensemble was made up entirely of prisoners doing time in the Ohio State Penitentiary and was formed in 1971 to give inmates with musical abilities a means to be productive and creative. One of the ensemble's key founders was Logan Rollins, nephew of Sonny Rollins, who due to his musical conservatory experience was able to form the group to perform for various functions, namely entertaining inmates during the holidays. An inspiring meeting with the Ohio State University band allowed for a record to be made and these 4 tracks of long-form jazz excursions were the result. The music is ecpansive and spiritual, as one might imagine, displaying a sense of serious sonic freedom for its many players. Privately pressed in 1971, this album is a mega-rarity among soul jazz fanatics, with not even the founding members having their own copies or receiving any money for their efforts. The group disbanded after Rollins and other founding members were released. Yet this release still continues to inspire, showcasing the beautiful articulation of freedom that can really only be expressed when one no longer has full access to it.
MPEG Stream: "Psych City"
MPEG Stream: "Counterry Bosa Devan"

OHIO PENITENTIARY 511 JAZZ ENSEMBLE Hard Luck Soul (Jazzman) lp 24.00
We first heard the Ohio Penitentiary 511 Jazz Ensemble on the first volume of the Spiritual Jazz series with their sparkling horn groover, "Psych City". Turns out that the "penitentiary" part of their name was no joke. The 511 Jazz Ensemble was made up entirely of prisoners doing time in the Ohio State Penitentiary and was formed in 1971 to give inmates with musical abilities a means to be productive and creative. One of the ensemble's key founders was Logan Rollins, nephew of Sonny Rollins, who due to his musical conservatory experience was able to form the group to perform for various functions, namely entertaining inmates during the holidays. An inspiring meeting with the Ohio State University band allowed for a record to be made and these 4 tracks of long-form jazz excursions were the result. The music is ecpansive and spiritual, as one might imagine, displaying a sense of serious sonic freedom for its many players. Privately pressed in 1971, this album is a mega-rarity among soul jazz fanatics, with not even the founding members having their own copies or receiving any money for their efforts. The group disbanded after Rollins and other founding members were released. Yet this release still continues to inspire, showcasing the beautiful articulation of freedom that can really only be expressed when one no longer has full access to it.
MPEG Stream: "Psych City"
MPEG Stream: "Counterry Bosa Devan"

OHNO, MATSUO I Saw The Outer Limits (EM Records ) lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another amazing cosmic sonic artifact from Japanese reissue label EM, this one a legendary album of galactic analog synth wizardry, originally released in 1978, created by composer / sound designer Matsuo Ohno. He's most famous for his sound design on the animated television show Astro Boy, on which he was assisted by none other than Takehisa Kosugi from seventies fluxus dronelords Taj Mahal Travellers. With the help of Kosugi, Ohno recorded this his first non soundtrack release, a sprawling collection of super abstract cosmic drift, often classified as new age, but really so much darker and mysterious. Separated into 8 parts, beginning with zero and ending with infinity, the record unfurls slowly, almost as if it were in fact the sounds of the universe, as pictured on the record's cover, with some strange all seeing eye hovering amidst the stars. The sounds rumble and whir, smeared into long stretches of deep thrum, and spaced out shimmer, there's plenty of gurgling buzz and dense rumbles, crumbling distortion, and strange little squiggles of sci-fi effects, if anything the sounds here are way more academic, and sonically seem to hew closer to experimental tape music. The swoosh and whoosh of most analog synthscapery is relegated to the background here, with Ohno coaxing all manner of strange sounds from his synths. His experience in sound design is evident throughout, as much of this plays out like some lost soundtrack, the score to some strange experimental film, or how we imagine some seventies planetarium light show would sound on LSD, streaks of melody, shards of chordal thrum, lots of reverb and echo, the vibe is definitely futuristic, but not kitschy, instead, it's ominous and haunting and fantastically otherworldly. Essential listening for analog synth obsessives, but the sort of thing that should appeal to fans of dronemusic and spaced out abstract psychedelia as well.
Gorgeous packaging as always, a full color gatefold sleeve, with reproductions of the original artwork, a big booklet too with liner notes in Japanese and English.
MPEG Stream: "Part 0"
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 2"
MPEG Stream: "Part 3"

ONJT+ (OTOMO YOSHIHIDE'S NEW JAZZ TRIO +) Bells (Doubtmusic) cd 24.00
Japan's Otomo Yoshihide is a noisy, sampling-mad composer and performer, yes, perhaps best known for turntablist chaos in his notorious Naked City-ish outfit Ground Zero, and also for his "onkyo" experiments in groups like ISO and Filament, where he's been known to "play" the turntable without records. But, he's also a jazz guitarist. Of course, noisy and experimental in that mode too, a lot of the time. But with a definite love of the standards. Some years ago, Otomo's New Jazz Orchestra did a whole disc dedicated to Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch album. And there was Ground Zero's Plays Standards, before that. And Otomo has also covered Mingus, Ellington, Coleman, and others. Now with the stripped down ONJT+ unit, he's got two new discs tackling two more of his favorite jazz touchstones: "Lonely Woman" (from Ornette Coleman's 1959's The Shape Of Jazz To Come) and "Bells" by Albert Ayler (originally released as a single-sided 12" by ESP-Disk in 1965).
Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Trio consists of the man himself on guitar, with Mizutani Hiroaki on bass, and Yoshigaki Yasuhiro on drums and percussion. The "plus" part of the name is due to the presence of two special guests as well: Sachiko M with her sine waves, and Jim O'Rourke on EMS synth!
The Lonely Woman disc consists of 6 individually tracked interpretations of that composition, the two lengthiest tracks that bookend the disc featuring the full quintet, two more with just the core trio, and two that are solos from Otomo alone, one for electric guitar, the other one for "broken acoustic guitar". So it's sort of a "Lonely Woman" suite, varied throughout, but also like one extended rendition of the tune, a worshipful (but adventurous) "Lonely Woman" tour de force, achingly gorgeous and moody and often noisy too, both outright and subtly, with much electronic crackle, hiss, and whine especially when Sachiko M and O'Rourke are involved.
It's clear from Otomo's personal, quite interesting liner notes in the cd booklet, that this disc is really more of a tribute to his free jazz guitar hero, the late, legendary Masayuki Takayanagi, than to Ornette. After all, Takayanagi did his own Lonely Woman album. And exerted a huge influence on his would be "apprentice" Otomo. So this is definitely recommended as much to fans of Takayanagi as to those of Coleman or Otomo...
On the other disc, there's two takes of "Bells", one by the quintet, one by the trio. Albert Ayler has always been a horn player beloved by avant-guitarists (Marc Ribot especially, but also Keiji Haino and Sonny Sharrock come to mind) and "Bells" makes a good launchpad for Otomo and Co. to get LOUD and go way out. Particularly since Aylers' wonderful folky melodies have already been proven to withstand (and compliment) any such abuse, by the composer himself. This disc is an intense freakout all right, but with a high degree of listenability due to its loveliness at heart. That Otomo wrote liner notes for this about a served head (Mishima's) he saw a picture of in a newspaper as a kid, and makes some kind of a connection to Ayler, is also interesting...
Both discs, quite recommended, come in beautiful digipacks, with similar art, abstract pink jellyfish / balloon / breast images.
MPEG Stream: "Bells track 1 (Quintet) "
MPEG Stream: "Bells track 2 (Trio) "

ONJT+ (OTOMO YOSHIHIDE'S NEW JAZZ TRIO +) Lonely Woman (Doubtmusic) cd 24.00
Japan's Otomo Yoshihide is a noisy, sampling-mad composer and performer, yes, perhaps best known for turntablist chaos in his notorious Naked City-ish outfit Ground Zero, and also for his "onkyo" experiments in groups like ISO and Filament, where he's been known to "play" the turntable without records. But, he's also a jazz guitarist. Of course, noisy and experimental in that mode too, a lot of the time. But with a definite love of the standards. Some years ago, Otomo's New Jazz Orchestra did a whole disc dedicated to Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch album. And there was Ground Zero's Plays Standards, before that. And Otomo has also covered Mingus, Ellington, Coleman, and others. Now with the stripped down ONJT+ unit, he's got two new discs tackling two more of his favorite jazz touchstones: "Lonely Woman" (from Ornette Coleman's 1959's The Shape Of Jazz To Come) and "Bells" by Albert Ayler (originally released as a single-sided 12" by ESP-Disk in 1965).
Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Trio consists of the man himself on guitar, with Mizutani Hiroaki on bass, and Yoshigaki Yasuhiro on drums and percussion. The "plus" part of the name is due to the presence of two special guests as well: Sachiko M with her sine waves, and Jim O'Rourke on EMS synth!
The Lonely Woman disc consists of 6 individually tracked interpretations of that composition, the two lengthiest tracks that bookend the disc featuring the full quintet, two more with just the core trio, and two that are solos from Otomo alone, one for electric guitar, the other one for "broken acoustic guitar". So it's sort of a "Lonely Woman" suite, varied throughout, but also like one extended rendition of the tune, a worshipful (but adventurous) "Lonely Woman" tour de force, achingly gorgeous and moody and often noisy too, both outright and subtly, with much electronic crackle, hiss, and whine especially when Sachiko M and O'Rourke are involved.
It's clear from Otomo's personal, quite interesting liner notes in the cd booklet, that this disc is really more of a tribute to his free jazz guitar hero, the late, legendary Masayuki Takayanagi, than to Ornette. After all, Takayanagi did his own Lonely Woman album. And exerted a huge influence on his would be "apprentice" Otomo. So this is definitely recommended as much to fans of Takayanagi as to those of Coleman or Otomo...
On the other disc, there's two takes of "Bells", one by the quintet, one by the trio. Albert Ayler has always been a horn player beloved by avant-guitarists (Marc Ribot especially, but also Keiji Haino and Sonny Sharrock come to mind) and "Bells" makes a good launchpad for Otomo and Co. to get LOUD and go way out. Particularly since Aylers' wonderful folky melodies have already been proven to withstand (and compliment) any such abuse, by the composer himself. This disc is an intense freakout all right, but with a high degree of listenability due to its loveliness at heart. That Otomo wrote liner notes for this about a served head (Mishima's) he saw a picture of in a newspaper as a kid, and makes some kind of a connection to Ayler, is also interesting...
Both discs, quite recommended, come in beautiful digipacks, with similar art, abstract pink jellyfish / balloon / breast images.
MPEG Stream: "Lonely Woman track 1 (Quintet)"
MPEG Stream: "Lonely Woman track 3 (Trio)"

ORCHESTRA OF THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE s/t (Discus) 2cd 22.00
As soon as we heard this the massive and mesmeric sounds found here on the debut from the Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere, we knew it was Record Of The Week material! And while it's the record of our week (and many weeks to come, we imagine), it was three years in the making, a grandiose accomplishment involving the efforts of around 40 musicians and singers.
The British new music ensemble responsible for this sprawling double cd has an appropriately evocative name, they are in the business of generating clouds of sound from on high, and they are indeed a sort of Orchestra, certainly a lot of musicians on a lot of intruments making a BIG sound, the actual core group of the UOA itself comprising only five folks, but they're augmented by a string quartet (the La Garotte String Quartet), a woodwinds ensemble (The Divine Winds), and a 25 person avant-garde choral group (Juxtavoices).
Together, the UOA and friends create a hybrid akin to 20th century classical chamber music meets propulsive krautrock meets '70s cosmic jazz (some parts, like the ten minute track "Coherent Backscattering" that closes the first disc, remind us of the wonderful Alice Coltrane With Strings album World Galaxy, complete with what sounds like varispeed tape manipulation)É But it's probably most heavily influenced by the work of modern minimalist master Terry Riley in particular - imagine portions of the Riley/Cale album Church Of Anthrax heavied up by a psychedelic stage band, with tons of synth and electronics amidst the strings and horns and percussive skitter. Other comparisons we could cite include the Swedish sixties psych groups Parson Sound/International Harvester (also big Riley fans), some large prog jazz rock ensembles of the '70s, like Keith Tippett's Canterbury based Centipede, and krautrockers Out Of Focus (circa Four Letter Monday Afternoon), as well as various underground free drone ensembles of more recent vintage.
The two part, twenty-plus-minute "Seen From Above" early in the first disc is really worth the price of admission alone, a tour de force that sums up the glories of the OUA without revealing quite all the secrets that you'll encounter elsewhere on these two densely-packed discs (77+ minutes disc 1, 76+ minutes disc 2, no wasted space in other words, you get your money's worth!). The piece is full of droning deep rumbles that resolve into strong bass pulsations, graced with gorgeous organ tones, and dramatic drum rolls and cymbal crashes.
But the next track, the 10 minute plus "The Opposition Effect" is equally impressive, getting even heavier with the krautROCK elements, and brings the Juxtavoices to bear as well, with some intense vocal chant that reminds us of the aforementioned International Harvester.
And so it goes, and goes, the UOA at times bombastic and heavy, at others more hauntingly subtle and murmuring, with squeaks and mumbles, like an orchestra tuning up, in a murky sonic miasma. Much of this is stirring & cinematic, with parts that remind us of Godspeed! You Black Emperor and experimental Norwegian "death-jazzers" Supersilent too. The latter especially on disc two, which opens in an even, ah, moodier mood, the sound ever more abstract and ambient on "An Open Vista Is Revealed", followed by "He Died Before I Could Get My Revenge", which begins with shimmering jittering electronics and stumbling drums. Towards the end of that track, the Juxtavoices ensemble is employed to provide a bed of buried, layered and effected vocal snippets on the subject of the track's disturbing title (giving both a "hearing creepy voices in your head" and "overheard noisy cocktail party conversation" vibe at once). On both discs, the Juxtavoices talents are used judiciously in ways that really put this over the top in the sheer weirdness dep't., really letting it all out in feral, primal form amidst the murk of disc two's closer "Their Dark Presence Stretches Through The Void".
Oh, and eventually of course the krauty drum propulsion kicks in on this disc as well.
Essentially, the UOA take krautrock derived, pounding rhythmic hypnosis a la Circle, and combines it with the symphonic majesty of something like another recent aQ Record Of The Week, the reissue of William Sheller's glorious Lux Aeterna, if you can imagine that, or (if you've ever heard it) Richard Youngs' pseudo prog-rock Ilk project taken to Magma-like orchestral extremes.
At the core of the UOA, is English composer/improviser Martin Archer, also a member of The Divine Winds, and organizer of Juxtavoices. He's a quite prolific musician, who runs the Discus label that put this out, and we should really review more of his releases in future. Previously, Archer's name HAS appeared on the aQ list as a key member of crushing industrial doom/free jazz prog outfit Combat Astronomy, much loved by us; he's also the fellow responsible for the Saint Agnes Fountain album from about ten years ago, a clever hoax that purported to be an early '70s recording from a fictional female Japanese minimalist composer named Masayo Asahara (and if you liked that Martin Archer alter-ego as much as we did, you'll totally dig the UOA, they seem to share a lot of the same sonic inspirations). We're less familiar with the other key member of the UOA, multi-instrumentalist Chris Bywater, responsible for a good deal of the compositions and arrangements as well.
Martin and Chris, we're impressed! And this couldn't be more up our alley, as you can perhaps judge by the artists we've attempted to compare this to. In a word, wow.
MPEG Stream: "Seen From Above Part 2 (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Seen From Above Part 2 (excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "The Opposition Effect"
MPEG Stream: "Coherent Backscattering"
MPEG Stream: "He Died Before I Could Get My Revenge"
MPEG Stream: "The Umbral Length Of Shadows"

ORTON SOCKET 99 Explosions (Moikai) cd 14.98

OTOMO YOSHIHIDE'S NEW JAZZ ENSEMBLE Dreams (Tzadik) cd 16.98
Avantgarde Japanese pop vocalists Jun Togawa and Phew join our favorite turntable experimentalist's jazz unit for their second release on John Zorn's Tzadik label. It's very different from the previous New Jazz Ensemble disc, and is really not readily identifiable as an Otomo Yoshihide album. Most of the tracks heavily feature singing, and it's only at the very end of the disc that the Ensemble breaks into any sort of "free jazz" cacophony. More of a Japanese vocal album then, than a jazz/electronic thing, so Otomo fans who aren't as eclectically adventurous as the man himself might want to pass on this one.
RealAudio clip: "Preach"
RealAudio clip: "Eureka"

OTOMO YOSHIHIDE'S NEW JAZZ ORCHESTRA (ONJO) LIVE Vol. 1 series circuit (Doubtmusic) 2cd 33.00
Ooooh. Here we have the first of two volumes (both of 'em double discs) of live material being released this summer by Japan's Doubtmusic from ONJO. That's the unusual "jazz orchestra" led by turntablist/guitarist Otomo Yoshihide (who could be considered the Japanese John Zorn, his old band Ground Zero being the analog to Zorn's Naked City, though that doesn't do either of them justice, really). In jazz speak, ONJO's music wanders both inside and outside, it's avantgarde yet lush and listenable, full of melody and melancholy. Electronic textures intrude upon jazz standards, whispy vocals drift amidst gentle drones, and aggressive bouts of noisy improv burst forth to keep them far out of cocktail lounge territory.
Recorded on several dates in Berlin, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya, the ten tracks here were performed by five varied ONJO lineups, featuring a large number of talented musicians, familiar among them vocalist Kahimi Karie and sinewavist (?) Sachiko M, and a host of Japanese jazz cats and "onkyo" experimenters. The Berlin dates see the ONJO joined by Europeans like reed player Alfred Harth and trumpeter Axel Dorner. It's mostly all Otomo's own compositions, with a couple by cult Japanese '60s/'70s TV soundtrack composer Yamashita Takeo, as well as required readings of Eric Dolphy's "Out To Lunch", "Straight Up And Down", and "Hat And Beard".
These discs are packaged in the typical deluxe Doubtmusic style, with thick cardboard gatefold sleeves, and include lengthy, very personal liner notes from Otomo himself, going in depth about the ideas behind this music, the evolution of his "jazz" composition post-Ground Zero, as his feelings about the legacy of his former teacher, the late Japanese jazz giant Masayuki Takayangi evolved. He discusses his simultaneous immersion in both the quiet electronic improv scene called "onkyo" and also the resurgence of his interest in traditional jazz sounds, seemingly contradictory musical directions that he meshes brilliantly -- as can be heard here. Essential for all Otomo fans (especially those who love his ONJO album Plays Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch!!).
MPEG Stream: "Lost In The Rain"
MPEG Stream: "Climbers High Opening"
MPEG Stream: "Double Command 1"

OTOMO YOSHIHIDE'S NEW JAZZ ORCHESTRA (ONJO) LIVE Vol. 2 parallel circuit (Doubtmusic) 2cd 33.00
And now the second volume of live ONJO avant-jazz action is here: "parallel circuit", two more cds to follow the double disc of volume one "series circuit" that we highlighted earlier this summer. It's again a wild hybrid of all the music that bandleader, turntablist and guitarist Otomo Yoshihide loves: the intense out-jazz "mass projections" of his former teacher the late Masayuki Takayanagi, groovy cult '60s Japanese film and TV soundtracks, traditional jazz standards, the genius of Eric Dolphy, and the minimal improv of electronics and silences known as onkyo music... among other things! And again Doubtmusic has put these discs in a thick gatefold miniature LP style jacket, which includes sincere liner notes from Otomo himself. The Orchestra (up to THIRTY-SEVEN musicians strong in one of the several lineups documented here!) was recorded live at venues in Japan and Germany in 2005 and 2006, performing compositions by Otomo as well as Eric Dolphy, Jim O'Rourke, Yamashita Takeo, and Charlie Haden. Any fan of ONJO's prior output will want this, it's got your daily recommended (by us) dose, and then some, of such divergent and delicious audio elements as lush big band melodicism, abstract electric drones, lovely female vocals (courtesy Kahimi Karie and others) and frantic noisy freakouts, as only the ONJO could deliver in one swank package!
MPEG Stream: "Super Jetter"
MPEG Stream: "ANODEONJO"
MPEG Stream: "Shichinin no Keiji"

OTOMO YOSHIHIDE'S NEW JAZZ ORCHESTRA (ONJO) Plays Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch (Doubtmusic) cd 24.00
As any jazz freak will tell you, Dolphy is GOD! Hard to deny. Especially once you've heard his swansong, Out To Lunch. Recorded in 1964, mere months before he passed away at the age of 36. Having done time with Mingus, Coleman and Coltrane, as well as having recorded numerous records as a band leader, Out To Lunch was definitely Dolphy's finest moment. Possibly one of the greatest jazz records ever. An album that was soft and sweet and almost traditional one moment, freaked out and completely abstract the next. A killer collision of traditional and free, combined in a way that somehow managed to please fans of both. Knowing all that, it would take a lot of balls for someone to tackle that epochal record in its entirety, not entirely surprising that it would be Otomo Yoshihide and his New Jazz Orchestra. Most of us are familiar with Yoshihide as an experimental turntablist. But he's also an ace guitarist as well as an accomplished band leader. So Yoshihide has decided to give Out To Lunch a modern makeover, and while we were of course tempted to scream "Sacrilege!!" it didn't take us long to change our tune.
There's really no point in just playing Out To Lunch, no matter what, you couldn't live up to the original, so some sort of reinvention is definitely the way to go. And Yoshihide manages to riffing true to the original while twisting these classic tunes into entirely new shapes. Where as Dolphy's group was a five piece, a pretty standard jazz ensemble augmented by vibraphone, with Dolphy handling sax, clarinet AND flute, Yoshihide has gathered an ensemble 15 players strong. And it's not just the number of players, it's what they're playing. Sure they've got the basics, but there's also slide trumpet, bamboo flute, tubes, sho, sinewaves, contact mic, no-input mixing board, computer and inside piano (!). And the songs themselves, while they retain the main melodic themes, Yoshihide and his ensemble take the songs WAY WAY out.
The opener, "Hat And Beard" is as close as this New Jazz Orchestra come to a straight up version of the original. The free bits are a lot freer, and during the quieter parts you can hear the sinewaves and no-input mixing board doing their thing. "Something Sweet, Something Tender" gets stretched out into long abstract stretches of dense drone. "Gazzelloni" is transformed into a super wild, ultra free psych jazz freakout. "Out To Lunch" is another -almost- traditional version, but the band manages to twist and stretch and all sorts of free weirdness. Finally, the formerly 8 minute "Straight Up And Down" is totally transformed into a near 30 minute experimental improv, any vestiges of jazz are shed in the first half, as the track continues to drift through a minimal sound world of shimmer and click, glitch and hum, the horns taking a back seat to the computers and sinewaves and mixing boards. So totally great. And a strangely poignant tribute to one of the greatest jazz records ever.
Super swank digipak packaging, emulating the original in design and color, instantly recognizable except now the blue tinted photo on the cover is of a Japanese train station. Includes liner notes from Yoshihide, Kahimi Karie and actor Tonoyama Taiji. Plus the disc has a clock printed on the face, and the back cover has a small whole cut out so depending on the placement of the disc, a different number shows through. So cool!
MPEG Stream: "Hat And Beard (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Hat And Beard (excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Out To Lunch"

OTOMO YOSHIHIDE'S NEW JAZZ ORCHESTRA (ONJO) s/t (Doubtmusic) cd 24.00
Last list we reviewed a fantastic disc by Japanese avant-garde turntablist/guitarist Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra, with the self-explanatory title of Plays Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch. It truly was a brilliant, respectful yet fresh versioning of that classic jazz album. So we figured we should also bring in this other, self-titled ONJO release on the same label, from 2005. It's quite good too, just as we expected. Now, to our minds, pretty much anything Otomo does is at least interesting and is often much more than that, from minimal "onkyo" electronics to solo guitar improv to big band mash-ups to noisy droning rock. This we'd put in the "much more than that" category of Otomo output, especially if you appreciate his roots in jazz. Using all the experimental elements of the "empty" turntable glitchery and cut-up compositions that we've heard before in such Otomo ensembles as Ground Zero and I.S.O., ONJO makes some gorgeously moody "actual jazz" music. It's definitely an "easier listen" than much of Otomo's Ground Zero recordings, for instance, but no less amazing. (And if you're a fan of GZ's Plays Standards and/or ONJO's Out To Lunch then you have an idea of what this will be like.) Alongside Otomo's own compositions, this includes covers of jazz standards (and not-so-standards) by the likes of Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, and even Jim O'Rourke. Some of these songs have actually been done before on recordings by Otomo's New Jazz Quintet (ONJQ) so don't get confused. ONJO is similar to ONJQ but, well, bigger. Making this an "Orchestra", there's 18 musicians credited, some non-Japanese names among them, including such well-known European improv folks as Axel Dorner, Mats Gustafsson, and Alfred Harth. And perhaps you've heard of Kahimi Karie, who whisperingly sings on three of these tracks?
The results of all their efforts here are really freaking lovely, from the pops and crackle of vinyl mixed into the quiet bits to massed horn blow-outs to smoky, romantic noirish atmospheres invaded by the sinewaves of Sachiko M and the John Zornish jumpiness of Otomo's arrangements. Nice nice nice... as is the packaging, in the digipack with die cut hole in cover revealing a bit of the cd booklet underneath that's typical of most doubtmusic releases.
MPEG Stream: "Theme From Canary"
MPEG Stream: "Lost In The Rain"

OTOMO, YOSHIHIDE Flutter (Tzadik) cd 16.98
Imagine some gorgeous, high energy free jazz (including compositions by Eric Dolphy and Gerry Mulligan) melded with electronic drones, sine wave tones, and some Merzbow-style noise. That's what our favorite Japanese new music guru (turntablist/experimentalist/jazzbo Otomo Yoshihide) delivers with this new album on John Zorn's Tzadik label. Otomo and four other stellar players from the venerable Japanese free jazz scene are joined by none other than Merbow's Masami Akita and frequent Otomo collaborator Sachiko M (she's the one playing the "empty sampler w/ sine wave"). Fans who're already into his work with Ground Zero, ISO, Filament, and all the rest will have an idea of what this sounds like if we say it's a cross between the amazing Ground Zero "Plays Standards" disc and the minimalist clicks & drones of his more recent ISO project. Also it follows on nicely from his previous Tzadik release "Cathode", mixing the acoustic and electronic elements as on that disc. In other words, Otomo fans, it's essential! For those who have yet to explore the man's work (and who like jazz!) this would be a great starting place.
There's moody parts with record crackle and smokey sax soloing, and then there's full-on intense combustions of improv interplay, total electronics/jazz freakouts. Here's a more detailed rundown: the opening title track is a ten and a half minute exercise in tension: skittering drums, suspenseful noir film bass lines, slowly ascending distorted guitar feedback, topped with badass horn interplay straight outta "The Shape of Jazz to Come", and layered with ear piercing high frequency sine wave tones, courtesy of Sachiko M. "Spin" is a delirious hyperfrenetic bebop jam with subtle blasts of noise and space age guitar jabs that whirlpools into an ending that has to be heard to be believed! The two Dolphy numbers covered are "Les" and "Serene". Then the album concludes with an epic twenty two minute track that begins with the sweet sound of Gerry Mulligan's "Night Lights" and transforms into the beautifully abstract, Otomo-composed "Density". The whole disc is fantastic, beautiful stuff, something we're sure was conceived partly in tribute to a young Otomo's 1970s Japanese free jazz heroes, who no doubt would approve. Brilliant and highly recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Spin"
RealAudio clip: "Night Lights / Density"

OTOMO, YOSHIHIDE Shabondama Elegy (Eyewill) cd 20.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Otomo Yoshihide's new group, the accurately named New Jazz Quintet, debuts on this disc, which includes both the soundtrack to Ian Kerkhof's film "Shadondama Elegy" (sorry, we don't know anything more about the film) and additional material recorded by more or less the same musicians. Japanese turntablist and guitarist Otomo of course is best known for his seminal jazz/sampling group Ground Zero, as well as for his equally exciting recent work in electronic minimalism with ISO. Plus his numerous collaborations and solo performances! Anyway, his new group (featuring members of ISO, Altered States, Ground Zero, Rovo, etc.) certainly live up to the "jazz" part of their name on this disc, playing mostly music composed by Otomo, plus a Victor Jara tune.

OTOMO, YOSHIHIDE'S NEW JAZZ QUINTET Tails Out (DIW) cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Since his youthful days spent hanging out in Japan's unique jazz listening cafes in the '70s, Otomo Yoshihide has been a major jazz fanatic, into all its forms from the most traditional standards to freeform energy blowouts. Although his own music has ranged from noisy turntable sound-collage to minimal 'onkyo' drones, no matter how experimental Otomo has gotten his interest in jazz has always been there. His most famous project, Ground Zero, was evidence of this, especially on their classic Plays Standards album. In recent years Otomo formed ONJQ: Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet, teaming up with some of the most talented 'cats' in the Tokyo scene to play jazz both straight and surprising. Tails Out is the Quintet's new album and like their previous releases for Tzadik and DIW it mixes both originals and original takes on other people's songs, starting off very jazz-like with Charlie Haden's "Song For Che" before Otomo's own "Reducing Agent" introduces acid rock guitar into the proceedings. Other cover versions include songs by James Blood Ulmer, Charles Mingus, and the Beatles -- a real nice instrumental "Strawberry Fields Forever"! Some hints of 'onkyo' electronics crop up in their Mingus tune and continue into the disc's final Otomo-penned thirteen-minute title track. With beauty, grace, power, and excitement, the ONJQ's love of their source material is obvious and inspired.
MPEG Stream: "Reducing Agent"
MPEG Stream: "Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk"

OVERTON BERRY ENSEMBLE, THE s/t (Tobe Productions) cd 16.98

OVO Miastenia (Load) lp 11.98
Italian duo OvO is a band that we think a select crowd of AQ-customers will totally appreciate. But...don't look at that awful cover. Oooh, what were they thinking? Well the (sorta) little-girl voice of OvO's singer Stefania does perhaps explain the little-girl drawing on the cover (which she drew). As does the Load label's often willfully 'ugly' aesthetic. But where that illustration is sort of twee, cringe-inducing cutesiness, Stefania's voice is far from cutesy! It's a rabid, wretched little girl we're talking about. Her yelping shriek has been compared to both a squeaky toy and a wheezing dog dying by folks here at AQ. Basically, if you hate the extended high-pitched babble of Yoko Ono, stay away! Nerve-grating for sure. We don't know how she does it. Must need a lot of lozenges.
Meanwhile, OvO's music ranges from chaotic punk frenzy to plodding, art-rock dirge. In addition to the unusual, extreme vocals, OvO also uses/abuses cello, for extra droning ambience. They're hard to compare to anybody, but we'll throw out these names: the aforementioned Yoko Ono, Load labelmates Noxagt, Double Nelson, Oxbow, and Khanate. Or maybe a twisted, primitive, Japanoise version of Devil Doll ('cause they're Italian and sorta theatrical sounding). Definitely not always (ever?) easy listening, but strangely fascinating. For us, it's the endurance-testing 20 minute title track that makes this a keeper. A torturous trudge with throaty rasping and heavy doomy death-knell drums and guitar. Oppressive. Depressive. Feedback hell gargle. Very much in the vein of Corrupted and Khanate. But with witchy Yoko vox! Like we said, the select few will love it.
MPEG Stream: "Miastenia"
MPEG Stream: "VooDoo"
MPEG Stream: "Anime Morte"

PAINKILLER John Zorn's 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 12 (Tzadik) cd 16.98
JZ's 50th was/is a never-ending party it seems. The cds just keep on coming. We haven't managed to keep up at all with 'em all. But we did have to take a moment to check out this, a new Painkiller document! Painkiller being one of our favorite John Zorn ensembles, wherein he teamed up with grindcore drummer Mick Harris (Napalm Death/Scorn) and ubiquitous bassist Bill Laswell for several extreme explorations of heavy-duty, jazz metal improvcore back in the early '90s. The "Collected Works" four-cd box set on Tzadik remains quite recommended (especially for the band's best work, the dubby death ambient double disc set called Execution Ground), and includes guest appearances from the likes of Eye Yamantaka and Keiji Haino.
So what's the deal with this live, September 2003 birthday Painkiller reunion, then? Well, first off, although Laswell is (of course) on board, Mick Harris isn't. Does he even still play drums? His replacement is Chicago jazz percussionist Hamid Drake. And, the special guest at this show was Mike Patton, always a suitable stand-in for Eye. So this isn't quite the same Painkiller, being rather, um, "funkier" than we remember 'em being. It's also certainly exuberantly noisy. Well, maybe the darkest Painkiller stuff wouldn't really be right for a birthday party, after all! The three tracks here, two of 'em quite lengthy, were all composed and/or improvised by the Zorn/Drake/Laswell/Patton unit. Patton contributes plenty of distorted screams and jib-jabbery glitched out electonics n' vocals, while the Laswell/Drake rhythm section generally grooves along, and Zorn switches back and forth between both camps, blowing like crazy to keep Patton company or playing "jazzier" stuff to swing with Laswell and Drake. Zorn, Patton and yes indeed old Painkiller fans will all find this of interest. It's not quite the Painkiller of the Mick Harris days, but there's still plenty of dubby, mayhemic skronk here that's at least really "Painkillerish".
MPEG Stream: "Your Inviolable Freedoms"
MPEG Stream: "DPM"

PAINKILLER Talisman: Live In Nagoya (Tzadik) cd 15.98
It's been a while since we've heard from this band, the infamous John Zorn / Mick Harris / Bill Laswell sax, drums and bass trio called Painkiller. No, they're not playing again, but they've dug up some old recordings for first-time release on this disc. Hopefully you're familiar with the evil ambience of their masterpiece "Execution Ground" or their earlier death-jazz outings like "Guts Of A Virgin" (all still available as part of their 4 cd "Collected Works" box on Tzadik). Total avant-jazz heavy dub darkness! Like some of the other past projects these guys have been involved with (Naked City, Massacre, Napalm Death, Scorn, Last Exit, to name a few) this is intense and original music, and that's certainly demonstrated on this archival release, a live recording from their 1994 tour of Japan. The monstrous first track, the 35-minute improv "Batrachophrenoboocosmocachina" (good grief!) encapsulates (at length) Painkiller's strengths: the shrieking (and sometimes lyricism) of Zorn's alto sax, the energy of Harris' drumming, and the burbling droning bass backdrop offered by Laswell. All these strong voices urge one another on, downwards into the dense black pit of their collective musical imagination. A welcome, and essential, release for fans, and not a bad place to start if you're not ready to jump in with that four-disc collection!!
RealAudio clip: "Ahamkara"

PARKER, CHARLIE Yardbird Suite (Rhino) 2cd 29.00
Billed as "the ultimate Charlie Parker collection," packaged in a slipcase with a thick booklet.

PARKER, EVAN Live at 'Les Instants Chavires' (Leo Records) cd 16.98
Working with Lawrence Casserly (who collaborated with Parker for the amazing Solar Winds album for Touch), Noel Akchote, and Joel Ryan, Parker has managed to construct live soundscapes resembling musique concrete's erratic starts and stops in and out of silence. Lots of discordant blips make for an another great album...

PARKER, EVAN The Topography Of The Lungs (Psi Records) cd 21.00
Solo sax skree from the circular-breathing master. A classic.

PARKER, EVAN Time Lapse (Tzadik) cd 16.98
The British avant-garde saxophone titan's latest release for John Zorn's Tzadik label is something that we think will appeal to more than just the regular "jazz peeps" out there. It's one for those into Steve Reich style 20th century minimalism as well -- or any sort of mesmerizing, droning, repetitive music that can be both beautiful and challenging.
Evan Parker, a stalwart of the UK/European free improv scene since the '60s, is known for both his mastery of the "circular breathing" technique (which can prolong his soloing seemingly indefinitely -- it's a sight to behold if you ever get to see him play!!) and, more recently, for being very open to the use of experimental computer/electronic processing in the context of live acoustic improv. While Time Lapse doesn't involve electronic effects, it does use the studio in a way unusual in jazz, heavily overdubbing the multiple saxophone (and on one track, organ) lines played by Parker. Once set in motion, these burbling streams of sound gradually, mentally mesh into "clouds" of music that in places recall a horn version of AQ fave pianist Lubomyr Melnyck. Actually, a few of these pieces ARE in fact completely solo, just one track of saxophone, yet it's testament to Parker's incredible technique that they still sound overdubbed and "multivoiced" even when they're actually not!!!
The melodic and tonal qualities of the eleven tracks here certainly differ... some sound completely soothing, with all the prettiness of birdsong, whereas others have more of a seasick, "squeaky wheel that needs the grease" thing going on, like bagpipes fed backwards through a tape machine or something. As mentioned above, we're reminded of Steve Reich, some of this almost sounding somewhere betwixt that swinging pendulum microphone feedback piece of his, and the endless, skronky improv blowing of solo sax familiar to fans of Charles Gayle, Anthony Braxton, Peter Brotzmann... or Evan Parker. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Gees Bend"
MPEG Stream: "Pulse And The Circulation Of Blood"

PARKER, EVAN & JOHN WIESE C-Section (Second Layer) cd 15.98
Evan Parker - the venerable saxophonist and avant-jazz icon of the UK, known for his mastery of circular breathing - and John Wiese - the Californian noisenik with a vast array of lo-fi meets hi-tech strategies in gnarled sound - set forth on a series of collaborative concerts in 2008 throughout the UK. On an off day from performing, the two found themselves in the studio where they recorded these real-time improvisations. Parker's looping glissandos and continuous streamed notes result from his circular breathing techniques; and Weise musters a static-laced cacophony, cable buzz splutter, and start-stop tape mechanications given over to MSP control systems. Wiese doesn't succumb to any ill-informed desire to dress-up his noise constructs, if anything his abrasions with all of their soft and loud dynamics are as guttural and gurgling as ever. Well, they never hit the full-on sustained explosion of some of Weise's Sissy Spacek recordings; but what good would that do for Parker? If anything, this is a solid redux of the British improv ethos that Parker helped pioneer in the '70s.
MPEG Stream: "No Shoes"
MPEG Stream: "The Jist"

PARKER, EVAN & KEITH ROWE Dark Rags (Potlatch) cd 15.98
British improv legends in a live duo, Evan Parker's sax meeting up with Keith Rowe's guitar and electronics. There's two long tracks (both around forty minutes), that feature both delicate interplay and cacophonous outbursts. Mainly Parker takes the foreground, with Rowe providing a textural background.

PARKER, EVAN / G†NTER CHRISTMANN Solos / Duos (Concepts of Doing) cd 17.98

PARKER, EVAN ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC ENSEMBLE Memory / Vision (ECM) cd 16.98
Despite the fact that veteran British free jazzer Evan Parker is one saxophone player whose own practically super-human skills on his instrument (we're talking intense sessions of circular breathing here) would seemingly make any additional electronic gimmickery unnecessary, that doesn't mean it's not still cool to hear his sax playing morphed and manipulated electronically -- we've really enjoyed his past experiments along those lines, starting with (for us) his Solar Wind album on Touch, wherein he collaborated with Lawrence Casserley on live electronics. He's done a few other such sessions, with larger ensembles (his own, and also including participation in those like-minded Spring Heel Jack projects), and this here new ECM release is one of 'em. Subtitled "Staring Into The Time Cone" this work is (we're told) inspired by the thoughts of one Charles Arthur Muses, an obscure American philosopher and hyperdimensional mathematician. More concretely, Memory/Vision brings together Parker (sax, tapes, and samples) with an impressive host of fellow electro-acoustic improvisors and their instruments: the violin and electronics of Philipp Wachsmann, the (prepared and otherwise) piano of Agusti Fernandez, Barry Guy's double bass, Paul Lytton's percussion and electronics, Lawrence Casserley's "signal processing instrument", the computer and sound pressing of Joel Ryan, and Walter Prati and Marco Vecchi both on electronics and sound processing. Wow, a lot of processing goin' on! And as up might expect, the results are both gorgeous and abstract, dramatic and droning... Fragments of melody surface amid rumble, hiss and haze. The ensemble's sombre shards of sound sometimes collect into bursts of energetic disassembly. Rattling like rain, glitchy fx and sibilant tones create a mood of "music as weather". Recorded live in Oslo in 2002, these seven tracks, over 70 minutes, constitute a "continuous performance...indices are provided for cd listeners only".
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 3"

PARKER, EVAN, & LAWRENCE CASSERLEY Solar Wind (Touch) cd 15.98
The wailings of Evan Parker, free improv saxophone titan, as processed through the live electronics of Lawrence Casserley, making for some gorgeous glacial drone and wild flutter!

PARKER, JEFF The Relatives (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98
This gent might be most familiar to folks as being the guitarist in many of the most prominent bands in the Chicago postrock scene. Yup, he's played in Isotope 217, Chicago Underground Duo (and Trio and Quartet and Orchestra... you get the picture) and of course Tortoise. That said his musical leanings frequently delve into considerably more avant garde and free jazz territory. He has participated in numerous collaborations, but he's also plenty prolific on his own. The Relatives marks his second full length on which he's the captain steering the ship (his first was 2003's Like-Coping on Delmark Records). And well, to put it kindly, this is perhaps his most accessible work to date... verging on easy-listening soft jazz. Dinner jazz even. Very skillfully executed tapioca.
MPEG Stream: "When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You"
MPEG Stream: " Istanbul"

PARKER, WILLIAM Double Sunrise Over Neptune (Aum Fidelity) cd 14.98
These three amazing long compositions taken from live performances at the twelfth annual Vision Festival in New York in 2007 will be difficult to convey in a one minute sound clip. Their sweeping scope performed by a tight 16-piece unit of horns, woodwinds, and strings (including an oud and electric guitar), journey through a broad modal push and pull of ethnic, improvisational and modern compositional forms, veiled by an almost cosmic exotica. That aspect comes courtesy of the East Indian singer Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, whose sometimes wordless, sometimes poetic vocals interweave throughout the piece's dynamic colorful tones and earthy textures, yet they never overly predominate. This one requires attentive listening to the deep and wide unfolding of these compositions for its full rewards, but it's well worth it!
MPEG Stream: "Morning Mantra"
MPEG Stream: "Neptune's Mirror"

PARKER, WILLIAM Long Hidden: The Olmec Series (Aum Fidelity) cd 14.98
There's something about William Parker that for some reason makes us end up not paying too much attention to what he's up to. Sure a lot of what he does is indeed mindblowing. But a lot isn't. And the problem is there is just so much William Parker, that we'd sort of just given up on caring too much. The pay off for keeping up was just not enough. It seems like maybe a record a week although it must be less than that. But hell if this new record doesn't have us kicking ourselves. We were struck immediately by the instantly recognizable artwork and weird bubbly letters, the work of John Fell Ryan, a member of the mysterious Excepter. Strange match up that's for sure. It had us assuming that this was William Parker WITH Excepter, which would indeed be something else! But the actual reality is even stranger, Parker and a twenty something merengue band, weird but it works. Wonderfully. The first track is a blissful and tranquil meditation for solo bass, so spacy and lovely. Then a brief spin on the 8-string doson ngoni, which produces a lovely buzzing drone, and then Parker is joined by the Olmec Group, bass, sax, timbale, bongos, conga, percussion and accordion, and the sound is festive, joyous, jazzy but funky and mysterious. Horns wheeze and drone over bopping bass and clattery percussion, like some wild avant block party. These tracks are the heart of the record, a wild, breathless fluttering heart. Fiery and fun, lively and so alive. Those tracks are separated by solo Parker joints, one on which he makes the bass squeak and squeal like a feeding back guitar mixed with a glass harp, all shimmering harmonics and squealing string scrapes, another with Parker turning his 8-string doson ngoni into some gorgeously alien Appalachia. The record winds down with another solo doson ngoni exploration, warm and muted and almost folky sounding. The final track, a bonus track which was recorded in 1993 and originally appeared on a super limited cassette is Parker solo on acoustic bass, sawing away, coaxing all kinds of buzzing and droning from his bass, harsh and aggressive but also totally mesmerizing and beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "Codex"
MPEG Stream: "There Is A Balm In Gilead"
MPEG Stream: "El Puenteseco"

PARKER, WILLIAM & HAMID DRAKE Summer Snow Vol. 2 (Aum Fidelity) cd 14.98

PARKER, WILLIAM & HAMID DRAKE Volume 1: Piercing The Veil (AUM Fidelity) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

PARKER, WILLIAM QUARTET O'Neal's Porch (Aum Fidelity) cd 14.98

PEACOCK, ANNETTE I'm The One (Future Days Recordings / Light In The Attic) cd 15.98
Sweet! The 1972 solo debut from the one and only Annette Peacock has at last been properly reissued on both cd and vinyl. This has been unavailable for years and definitely deserves to be heard. Last year, we found out that Peacock had just done her own reissue on cd, but they were only available in prohibitively expensive, autographed editions, though we were quite tempted to order 'em anyway. Glad we waited, for this more affordable and widely available reish comes in both digipak cd and lavish vinyl. We've sold quite a few of these already, so we guess some peeps were waiting for it too.
How to describe this? It's jazzy, bluesy, avant pop music, an inside-outside hybrid, with acid rock and electronic experimentation alongside the likes of a cover of Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender", rendered ultra moody and dramatic. Throughout, Peacock's vocals are expressive, edgy, extreme, and electronically effected (fed through a Moog synth, in fact), but also seductive and sensual. At her best here, she comes across like a free jazz version of Betty Davis (the funkstress ex-wife of Miles). It's also likely that fans of Yoko Ono will approve. Quite a debut, from a woman who had toured with Albert Ayler, hung out with Timothy Leary, and could count David Bowie and Diamanda Galas among her fans.
The epic title track ferinstance, starts off all skittery-skree freeform freaky, then, staying freaky, turns into a funked up torch song when the vocals come in. There's parts that sound like Sly & The Family Stone or Stevie Wonder grooves, other parts that sound like spaced-out Moog madnessÉ all in the same song! That's the opening track, too, and sets the tone for the entire album, which is full of groovy bits, sad piano ballads, and spooky electronic soundscapes, in various combinations. Some of the synth stuff is played by her (then?) husband Paul Bley, with whom Annette had made a few improvised synths/vocals albums around about the same time. The album also features Brazilian percussionist Arto Moreira.
This reissue is remastered, and comes complete with brand new liner notes and previously unpublished photos. Here's hoping this means there's also a reissue of Peacock's 1978 masterpiece X-Dreams not far behind.
The double lp version is limited to 1000 hand numbered copies and includes a poster, the cd comes in a digipak with thick booklet.
MPEG Stream: "I'm The One"
MPEG Stream: "Pony "
MPEG Stream: "Gesture Without Plot"

PEACOCK, ANNETTE I'm The One (Future Days Recordings / Light In The Attic) 2lp 33.00
Sweet! The 1972 solo debut from the one and only Annette Peacock has at last been properly reissued on both cd and vinyl. This has been unavailable for years and definitely deserves to be heard. Last year, we found out that Peacock had just done her own reissue on cd, but they were only available in prohibitively expensive, autographed editions, though we were quite tempted to order 'em anyway. Glad we waited, for this more affordable and widely available reish comes in both digipak cd and lavish vinyl. We've sold quite a few of these already, so we guess some peeps were waiting for it too.
How to describe this? It's jazzy, bluesy, avant pop music, an inside-outside hybrid, with acid rock and electronic experimentation alongside the likes of a cover of Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender", rendered ultra moody and dramatic. Throughout, Peacock's vocals are expressive, edgy, extreme, and electronically effected (fed through a Moog synth, in fact), but also seductive and sensual. At her best here, she comes across like a free jazz version of Betty Davis (the funkstress ex-wife of Miles). It's also likely that fans of Yoko Ono will approve. Quite a debut, from a woman who had toured with Albert Ayler, hung out with Timothy Leary, and could count David Bowie and Diamanda Galas among her fans.
The epic title track ferinstance, starts off all skittery-skree freeform freaky, then, staying freaky, turns into a funked up torch song when the vocals come in. There's parts that sound like Sly & The Family Stone or Stevie Wonder grooves, other parts that sound like spaced-out Moog madnessÉ all in the same song! That's the opening track, too, and sets the tone for the entire album, which is full of groovy bits, sad piano ballads, and spooky electronic soundscapes, in various combinations. Some of the synth stuff is played by her (then?) husband Paul Bley, with whom Annette had made a few improvised synths/vocals albums around about the same time. The album also features Brazilian percussionist Arto Moreira.
This reissue is remastered, and comes complete with brand new liner notes and previously unpublished photos. Here's hoping this means there's also a reissue of Peacock's 1978 masterpiece X-Dreams not far behind.
The double lp version is limited to 1000 hand numbered copies and includes a poster, the cd comes in a digipak with thick booklet.
MPEG Stream: "I'm The One"
MPEG Stream: "Pony "
MPEG Stream: "Gesture Without Plot"

PERCEPTION s/t (Mellow) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
France's freaky Futura label originally released this on LP in '71. It's jazz fusiony stuff, kinda "Zeuhl" (saxophonist Yochk'o Seffer, the leader of the group, soon went on to join Magma and then formed Zeuhl group Zao). Perception features his sax and clarinet blowing backed by busy drums and bass and electric piano action. Over the four lengthy tracks here, they'll quiet down for a moody respite, then go off on a noodley prog-groove that quickly explodes into full-on free jazz improv clatter, and then quiet down again for some melancholy, melodic sax soloing, and then back to the energetic ensemble interplay, and so on... Perception are definitely more jazz than rock, and a lot more together and musical than some of the other, even freakier Futura releases. Fans of Magma's jazzier side should definitely investigate.
RealAudio clip: "Chirato"

PERELMAN, IVO, + MATTHEW SHIPP & WILLIAM PARKER Cama De Terra (Homestead) cd 13.98
Brazilian saxophonist Perelman with pianist Shipp and bassist Parker, all stars of the current improv/free music scene. Kudos to "indie rock" label Homestead for their continued support of this music.

PETER BROTZMANN GROUP Alarm (Atavistic) cd 14.98

PETERSON, GILLES Black Jazz Radio (Black Jazz Records) cd 16.98
Black Jazz was a record label based out of Oakland, California in the early seventies and focused on spiritual minded jazz with a community focus, often with funk and soul jazz overtones. We recently reviewed Calvin Keys' Shawn-Neeq record from 1971 and along with some of the recent Black Jazz reissues, there have been some DJ mixes released too, all mined from the label's extensive catalog. We weren't too psyched on the first mix by Japanese DJ Mitsu, but then we got this mix from esteemed BBC radio DJ, Gilles Peterson, and our opinion 180'ed. Peterson has the same reputation in British radio of soul, funk, jazz and international sounds as John Peel did with rock, punk, and post-punk, and his taste here is impeccable. He does do some mixing between songs, but he largely lets the songs go their own lengths without unnecessary intervention. In it, he creates an arc of the label's best sounds that range from exploratory soul jazz, rare groove funk, Latin-inflected rhythms and cosmic spiritual gems. The label was formed by pianist Gene Russell as an antidote to the more skronkier vibe coming out of the east coast, so the sound on Black Jazz has a smoother more melodic quality, but still quite beautiful and engaging with its own unique sound. Definitely the sort of deep sounds our pals at Groove Merchant Records in the Haight have been cultivating and turning people onto for many years. Artists include: The Awakening, Doug Carn, Roland Haynes, Walter Bishop Jr., Kellee Paterson, and Gene Russell, among others.
MPEG Stream: GENE RUSSELL "Black Orchid"
MPEG Stream: WALTER BISHOP JR.'S 4TH CYCLE "N'dugu's Prayer"
MPEG Stream: DOUG CARN "Higher Ground"
MPEG Stream: ROLAND HAYNES "Second Wave"

PHARAOH OVERLORD Siluurikaudella (Ektro) cd 14.98
Our favorite Finnish hypnorock band Circle, and related offshoots, are always both doing the expected, AND the unexpected. Expected, in that in almost all cases, Circle hew to the repetitive, rhythmic, krautrock-inspired "circular" grooves from whence they get their name. Yet, while adhering to that basic concept, they've managed to put out umpteen dozen upon dozen albums that are all completely different... some spacey and pretty, some heavy and riffy, some with Gregorian style chant, some with operatic metallic vokills, and all brilliant (ask anybody, but especially us!). Pharaoh Overlord, one of the more popular and prolific Circle "side projects", with a lineup almost (exactly?) the same as Circle, has pretty much followed the same path. Originally, ostensibly a "stoner rock" version of Circle (which you can definitely hear on the live lp we recently listed), they got even more truly metal with their last album, #4, maybe the ultimate "NWOFHM" statement from the Circle camp.
That said, this new, 5th album from Pharaoh Overlord is way more unexpected than the expected, content-wise!! Totally different from #4 for sure. There's three long, instrumental tracks here, and each of them is quite different too. The disc begins with the 22:33 of "Vesitorni", a seemingly improvised piece that's extremely quiet, abstract, mysterious. Sudden skitter of the drums. Chiming glimmer of the guitars. Shimmering cymbals. Pulsation of the bass. It's almost "onkyo" in its sparse, low-key, quasi-jazz loveliness. Really nice, and really not at all remotely "NWOFHM".
Then, wham! Maybe we shouldn't even warn you. Track two, "Valujuhla" (12:47) erupts with a frenzy of loud, chaotic, freeform freaking-out. Here is where we wonder, is Siluurikaudella the record on which the PO/Circle guys go free jazz? Seems like it. And it kinda makes sense. Up until now, they've been famed for their motorik, locked-in, precise clockwork rhythms. With this, it's like those clockwork gears have come unsprung, gone completely haywire, and everyone's playing everything all at once, anarchy reigns! It had to happen, something had to give. But, then this track too quiets down, and we can tell Pharaoh Overlord still have it under control.
Following that, the eighteen minute "Piirros" takes over the final portion of the disc. It shares some similarities with the first track, staying mostly quiet and abstract. But it's definitely got more of a propulsive groove-shuffle going on underneath. And rather than abstract jazz... it reminds us of an abstract, creaky, cavernous blues. Super moody and dark and weird. Probably our favorite of the three.
So, PO definitely surprised us with this one. Took a short while to get our heads around. But now we're definitely digging it. And think that Circle, Doktor Kettu, Keiji Haino, Nels Cline, Tetuzi Akiyama, even Jandek fans will totally dig it too. Improvised, instrumental, eccentric! Oh yeah.
MPEG Stream: "Vesitorni"
MPEG Stream: "Valujuhla"
MPEG Stream: "Piirros"

PHILIPS, BARRE & IMAI KAZUO Play 'Em As They Fall (Eyewill) cd 20.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japan's Imai Kazuo, an improvising guitarist/electronics experimentalist who was a member of both the legendary psych group Taj Mahal Travellers and the equally legendary free jazz unit New Direction (led by Masayuki Takayangi), teams up here with respected European double-bass improv maestro Barre Phillips, who has played with everyone from Louis Armstrong to Albert Ayler to Peter Brotzmann. Here's another great collaboration for the both of 'em.

PHONOPHANI s/t (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
Another excellent album from Rune G recording artist Phonophani, experimental electronica glitch n' drone that's got an edge but is very listenable. Though it's Phonophani's third (at least) for Rune G, it was actually recorded back in 1998, now released (reissued?) with bonus tracks.

PICKPOCKET ENSEMBLE A Streetcar Too Far (Pickpocket Productions) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On the second outing of San Francisco's own pickPocket Ensemble, the group makes an adjustment to its lineup, replacing percussionist / trumpet player Eric Wayne with a full-time violinist, Lila Sklar. Lineups aside, the repertoire is much the same: exceedingly well written and executed Eastern European flavored instrumentals, with maybe a tad more klezmer spicing this time round, but still almost impossible to lump into any particular genre.