New Africa

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The trombone master, Grachan Moncur III, BYG (Actuel 21) 1969 release New Africa. Thoug few as a band leader, you cannot go wrong with a GMIII release. Enjoy!

AEOC: Live in the 80's

Woah.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Park 5

Part 6

Part 7


Enjoy!

Storyteller

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Here is a beautiful album by the Marilyn Crispell Trio featuring Marilyn Crispell (piano), Mark Helias (bass) and Paul Motian (drums). Going away from her Cecil Taylor influenced approach of freeness, Storyteller provides beautiful, dark and yet peaceful structured album.

"Improvised music is often described as a conversation. Consider album titles like Conversations with Myself , Interconnection , and Duologues. Pianist Marilyn Crispell's last two recordings for ECM, Nothing Ever Was, Anyway and the quietly dramatic Amaryllis , placed her in discussion with two artists who have proven to be brilliant communicators over lengthy careers, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Paul Motian. The discussions were often understated, at first somewhat uncharacteristically so for Crispell, whose history following the Cecil Taylor tradition in addition to her work with Anthony Braxton spoke of someone who was deeply intense and had a lot to say. With her ECM recordings she has revealed a more subtle introspective side; lyrical and occasionally romantic, she is as likely to leave sentences dangling, with Motian and Peacock stepping in to further or, sometimes, finish a thought."-Allaboutjazz

Enjoy!

Unit Structures

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I posted Cecil Taylor's Unit Structures sometime back in a post with a compilation of albums but thought the album deserves its own recognition. Unit Structures is Cecil Taylor's 1966 blue Note album featuring Eddie Gale (trumpet), Jimmy Lyons (alto), Ken McIntyre (tenor/oboe/clarinet), Henry Grimes (bass) and Andrew Cyrille (kit). Any player able to keep with Cecil's technical playing on this album deserves high recognition.

"Taylor's high-energy atonalism fit in well with the free jazz of the period but he was actually leading the way rather than being part of a movement... In fact, it could be safely argued that no jazz music of the era approached the ferocity and intensity of Cecil Taylor's".

A truly important and mind-fuck of a record! Highly recommended, enjoy!

The Call

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Double bassist Henry Grimes debut album as a band leader, The Call on ESP (1965) featuring Perry Robinson on clarinet and Tom Price on drums. Grimes recorded with many 60's frontman superstars of the 60's including Don Cherry, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Gerry Mulligan, and Archie Shepp. Enjoy!

Hovering Resonance

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First (of probably many) Expo '70 LP of 2012, Hovering Resonance. A one-side LP with two entrancing cosmic jams, Hovering Resonance & Moon Raga, which I could describe using every word in the "psychedelic" thesaurus. Instead, just soak it in and allow Expo '70 to describe too you properly. As always, Enjoy!

Cuts from the Ether

Single for Dusty Grass Imprint DG01: Sungod-Cuts from the Ether. Enjoy!

"August of last year, SUNGOD recorded a live session on KVRX. The four song set was played by a four piece incarnation of Sungod including Alex Hughes (bass/bells) and Tyler Taylor (synths/addition guitar). Opening with the patient tangerine dream tinged 'Gas is Better than Gas'. A primitive synth sequence plays over wailing guitars, pounding in-and-out drums and a snarling bassline. From this song the band drones with harmonium, synth and electric guitar swells..making up what's now called 'Plasma Frequencies.' This serves as a transition into the cosmic bebop beat of 'Constellation of Ions', a booming pulse under soaring synth, compounding guitars and bass. Finally, the set closes off with 'Kraut Schulze'..a riffy surf from the intrepid tempel, blasting with kick drum, fuzz and space noise. Sungod has teamed up with Dusty Grass Imprints, for the first installment “Cuts from the Ether", a limited 77 CS release.”

Decline of the West

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Emil Amos, producer/drummer/songwriter of Grails, drummer of OM, and Lilac & Champagne mastermind, solo entity Holy Son's Decline of the West. Psych, folk, hip-hop, this album has it all, delivered by the master. The haunting opener "Gnostic Device" starts the album off in perfect form and continues to carry until the end of the album. Highly recommended, Enjoy!

"...I got to daydreaming about what it would sound like if the next Holy Sons record was produced by someone as inventive as Lee Scratch Perry, or MF Doom, or Carl Sagan for that matter. At the time I'd felt 'Peaceful Life' could've suggested a career of musical pacification and that bothered me. Too much in culture is warped and diluted by the desire to pander to an imaginary audience... but when we retreat to the inner temple of the self, worthwhile art is created. This tension, in itself, is a good platform for an upbeat misanthropic concept record. So for the leaner and meaner genre-hoppers>> Decline of the West. Hybridizers unite!"

Certain Blacks

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More from the Art Ensemble of Chicago in Paris. Enjoy!

Les Stances a Sophie

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The Art Ensemble of Chicago's 1970 soundtrack for the French film "Les Stance A Sophie". Just like Miles, the Art Ensembles time spent in France was gold. Enjoy!

Well Oiled

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The first collaboration between Bardo Pond and Roy Montgomery, Hash Jar Tempo's drugged induced improve session, Well Oiled. Float away and enjoy!

Lilacs & Champagne

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...and finally the release, you are in for a treat! Emil and Zack of Grails deliver a hazy experience on Mexican Summer blending 70's film scores, trip-hop beats, stoned out riffs, dub grooves, and of course Morricone worship, all done on a Akai MPC sampler, Lilacs & Champagne is something special. Enjoy!




+ a live set

La Catacomb

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New tape available from guitarist Steven R. Smith's project Ulaan Khol on Soft Abuse. Enjoy!


"La Catacomb, purloined from a great abyss of uncertainty, is finally among us. The fourth album proper from Steven R. Smith’s blisteringly psychedelic “power trio” guise, La Catacomb languished for a few years awaiting release from this label & that before landing at Soft Abuse HQ. La Catacomb is the perfect follow-up to Ulaan Khol’s Ceremony trilogy, offering more smoulder than flame, more rumination than provocation. Smith's meticulously-crafted heavy drones & dirges have rarely sounded this harmonic. Once again, he's pushed further out."

Ulaan Khol "Pariah Dogs" by Soft Abuse

Le Venerdì Mixtape Vol. 56 - What have you done to our daughters?

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With the Lilacs & Champagne LP release and Black Tar V in the near future, Emil Amos has been busy. Here is his Le Venerdì Mixtape Vol. 56 - What have you done to our daughters? for vice magazine. Filled with remixes of Italian jams from the 70's. Enjoy!