It's New to Me - 2014

[D_Davis]

Hopefully I can keep this up during the year. Fill free to contribute/discuss.

01/14


Chicago Underground Duo - Age of Energy (jazz - experimental) - 8
Energetic mix of modern free jazz and synths. Yes. This is an avant jazz duo from Chicago, rocking some totally out-there electronic compositions with some amazing drum work from the duo’s own Chad Taylor. For fans of Tortoise and Trans Am who want just a tad more jazz and maturity.

Eberhard Weber - Chorus (jazz - contemporary) - 7
Pretty good selection from Weber, although some of the horns are mixed far too loud. It’s not quite as good as his ‘70s stuff, but it’s still a strong album complete with Weber’s unique approach to arranging and instrumentation. Also, his skills on the bass are out of this world. Probably the only bassist I know of who can keep a bass solo interesting.

Joe Zawinul - Zawinul (jazz - fusion) - 9
Great keyboard-based early jazz fusion. Zaminul co-founded the seminal jazz fusion band Weather Report, and the jazz/world fusion group The Zawinul Syndicate. Like the new age label, jazz fusion is a sub-genre that has become tainted and scoffed at by the ignorant inclusion of clowns like Kenny G and other smooth jazz interlopers, but the early jazz fusion like this album are as vibrant and exciting as anything going on during their time and even today. Nothing but world-class musicians playing world-class music.

Eivind Aarset - Dream Logic (jazz - nu jazz) - 10
This is exactly the kind of music that I imagine whenever I browse through the ECM releases - dark, atmospheric, moody, and dense. ECM are among the best at releasing night time music, and this one is up there with Jon Hassell’s Last Night the Moon…. and Harold Budd’s Pavillion of Dreams. This will surely prove to be the tip of the 2014 iceberg that I’m calling The Norwegian Jazz Trip - it's already led me to some very interesting places. Dream Logic is an album that exists on the knifes edge of subtlety and nothing, some of the tracks barely surface above the low rumble of a sub bass punctuated with weird electronic noise and Aarset's minimal guitar playing, while other tracks float along with the grace of a soaring bird.

[D_Davis]

David Behrman - On the Other Ocean (1977) (neo-classical - minimal) - 9
Behrman is a composer of minimal neo-classical, mixing in elements of experimental electronic computer system music with traditional acoustic instrumentation.

On the Other Ocean combines bassoon, flute and cello with various computers and electronic machines to create various drones and looping passages. It’s an example of system music, perhaps generative to some degree in the way that the computer systems control some aspects.


From the label’s discription:
On the Other Ocean is an improvisation by Maggi Payne and Arthur Stidfole centered around six pitches which, when they are played, activate electronic pitch-sensing circuits connected to the "interrupt" line and input ports of a microcomputer, Kim-1. The microcomputer can sense the order and timing in which the six pitches are played and can react by sending harmony-changing messages to two handmade music synthesizers. The relationship between the two musicians and the computer is an interactive one, with the computer changing the electronically-produced harmonies in response to what the musicians play, and the musicians influenced in their improvising by what the computer does.

[D_Davis]

Food - Mercurial Balm (2012) (jazz - electronic) - 7
Food is a super-group of sorts consisting of Nils Petter Molvær, Eivind Aarset, Fennesz, Iain Bellamy, and others, each credited with their signature instrument with additional electronics and processing. Mercurial Balm was recorded live in Oslo and Great Britain. The tones on display are brighter and harsher, sometimes even brittle, than what I’ve come to expect from the individual musicians, but it is nonetheless complex and textured, it’s just not as heavy and dense as something like Dream Logic. Some of the sax work from Ballamy is too hot in the mix, and, as far as my tastes go, this interrupts the mood with that certain grating effect that only a sax is capable of. After a bit of research I discovered that I had previously heard and liked this ensemble when I heard them a few years ago on a Rune Grammofon compilation.

[D_Davis]

Stomu Yamash’ta - In: Zen Music Volume 1 (2011) (ambient - experimental) - 6
Stomu Yamash’ta is a legendary figure in the world of progressive rock. His work in the ‘60s and ‘70s is a testament to his creative power, and his landmark album Go is an absolute masterpiece. Sometime later in life (not to sure about his biography), he retired from music and became a monk. I’m assuming that this album here is something he made as a monk. It’s comprised of lots of chimes, bells, electric piano, and other percussive key and mallet instruments. For the most part, it’s pretty good - in small doses. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really take the listener on any kind of journey; the music never goes anywhere beyond its initial offerings, and by mid-way through I find myself thinking of other things to listen to. In this sense, it feels like a collection of compositions taken from other recordings, rather than a long single cohesive album, a trait common to everything else I’ve heard from him.

[D_Davis]

Nils Petter Molvaer - Baboon Moon (2011) (Jazz - Nu Jazz) - 10
Big drums drenched in cavernous reverb, ominous guitar riffs and feedback, bold bass, breathy scratchy treated trumpet, samples, loops and synths - a winning combination if there ever was one. This is music that sounds like it came straight out of David Lynch’s Red Room in Fire Walk With Me. The music has weight and heft to it, it’s the humid air in a in an underground club, intoxicating in its sophisticated combination of disparate elements and nuanced instrumentation. This album is a Holy Grail of a relic found in my search to listen only to world class musicians playing world class music.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWpVXqbY8fM

[dreamdead]

Definitely need to research Yamash’ta 's Go album and the most recent post of yours, DD.

My first new listening experience was Dave Van Ronk's Folksinger. Purchased because of the final track on the Inside LLewyn Davis soundtrack, and it's requiring some readjusting of expectations. Van Ronk's version of "Hang Me, oh Hang Me" was so disarmingly naked that I thought the rest of that album would go that folky route. Instead, it has far more of a blues style to the album, which is pleasing but not necessarily expected. As such, re-listens are trying to acquaint myself to that setup. Still wonderful to listen to, just recalibrating my approach with it.