When this essential set was issued on CD about a decade ago many heads were blown apart by the swirling ultra minimal psych focus these three Swedes possessed. When they went in, they went all the way in. There’s no better demonstration than on this live document from one of the country’s first public, local psychedelic festivals. Fans and latecomers finally get the deluxe vinyl issue from the Subliminal Sounds label who executed this release to perfection across the board, including a sidelong, unreleased trance/vocal improvisation that equals the previously released beloved material. Along with Parson Sound and International Harvester, Trad Gras Och Stenar formed the vanguard of late 60s progressive guitar music for the region. All with a similar but unique take on the exploratory rock/folk/free axis that Europe was grappling with in a post Hendrix world of political upheaval when rock music was considered a cultural threat. TGOS were the most forthright rock-ist of the three bands, as evidenced from their choice of covers, “All Along the Watchtower” and the devastatingly intense take on “Satisfaction”, both presented here in squalled out, slo-mo hazes of extended wah guitar abandon. But it’s the bands own material that shines the heaviest. The longer the band freaks-out, the better the results. When TGOS extend past the double digit minute mark, every moment feels exciting. In no rush, the band explores the riff to near-infinity. Take the unreleased last side, “Lat oss tanka ett par dagar” which hypnotizes deeply with rises and falls, from slight examinations to roaring, chanting, sweat-lodge insanity. All wrapped up with photos of anxious local police, flyer artwork, and notes in a gorgeous gatefold with multi-color swirled acid wax to boot. As satisfying as it gets.
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By now, this release being the third installment of Dais’ archival issues of the early work of Genesis P Orridge, we have all come to understand that the records have less to do with music than historical context. We’re not going to get “Hamburger Lady” or anything even resembling “TG” in its glorified form in the least. Instead we have harsh abstraction and poetics of chance. What exists on this LP are recordings culled from domestic, detuned piano layers while living in a filth-ridden, frozen 1700’s era Victorian hell-hole in Hull, England during 1974. Having dragged two pianos into her kitchen Gen, in true Coum fashion, translated everything to a dystopian, dada landscape of post-industrial Britain. Practical uses for playing this LP include; a soundtrack to daily banality in an absurdist sense, faking an art installation, or testing the patience of unwanted droppers by. There is no focus required, other than the reading of Genesis’ always enthralling personal accounts of her life and times, presented with each of these LPs. She describes the recordings as her “Blues” album and that’s an association that comes from atmosphere and not of bars, notes or songs, more in the Jandek sense than the Muddy Waters. You can fairly guess what it sounds like given the instrumentation but that by no means devalues its worth, with the appropriate adjustments…which require an indeterminate amount of psychic/chemical realignment. That’s up to the individual. Once attuned, Sugarmorphoses can yield rewards once you shut off your lights and turn on your dream machines (You all have several, we’re sure) and thank god you don’t live in Hull or anywhere else in England for that matter.
Ra’s discography is so vast and daunting that at this point one needs to wonder how far down the dregs go. The answer can be found on this lifeless monstrosity of a release, a triple album representing his small ensemble recordings made in Italy circa January ’78. Conceptually, the album seems like a no brainer; you have the mythic Ra leading a remarkably small ensemble with right-hand sax master John Gilmore at his side, covering standards like “My Favorite Things” and “Exactly Like You”. The problem is two-fold. First, Ra picks perhaps the least flattering digital pre-80s tone on his keyboard heard thus far, leaving everything sounding just horribly flat and wonky. When it seems like only Gilmore can save the day, he’s mixed so freakishly loud that it’s nothing short of jarring. Many of the tracks are “ballads” and certainly not invoking the mood Gilmore was shooting for. Whoever was at the mixing board shoves him so far in front it almost makes one forget about the jittery failure of Ra’s choice in dynamic for the arrangements. If one seeks Ra and Gilmore tackling standards they do so with remarkable success on the Sun Sound Pleasure LP that can be purchased for less than the cost of a 3-D movie rather than break the bank on this expensive, ugly set, (which features no notes, pictures or information). A release that only a Frenchman could enjoy, The Mystery of Being is perhaps the least necessary release in Ra’s bloated discography. Steer Clear!
This album represents the collaborative efforts of Sparhawk, here, playing the lever harp and Carbonara, who commands the upright chaturangui. The instrumentation suggests an exoticism yet sounds completely contemporary. Its success lies not only in the natural, intricate modal overlaps of the instruments but more through the players own American perspective expressed through them. The results yield a western influenced raga that organically moves at its own pace. In two side long pieces the performances by both players becomes their own dynamic without surrendering to overplaying or false mysticism. With sixty strings between them the pair never seems to hit an unnecessary note. Their dedication to restraint shows in the ease of the records duration, the album evolving by constantly unfolding on itself. Like the early Sandy Bull/Billy Higgins collaborations, Sparhawk and Carbonara explore Americana through eastern figures to provide a remarkable musical viewpoint.
Saturday May 15th, 2010- Prurient’s Dominick Fernow is traveling through a tunnel in Europe at night. He is exhausted, miserable, anxious, and bored. This is usually when he conceptualizes his best work. Having spent most of the last two years playing synth in the iconic pop group Cold Cave, Fernow has had plenty of time to reflect on his own material. Bermuda Drain states its intention to soundtrack this sensation, the moments of dead time in travel, surrounded by lights and the narcoleptic calm of speed, traveling with no connection to the outside world. In order to realize his vision Fernow abandoned every tool and instrument he’s ever used, down to the cables and chords, in a technological purging. The result is immediately apparent. Displaying overt musicality, Bermuda Drain may seem surprising to those expecting to be confronted with walls of noise and feedback.
How does an artist like C. Spencer Yeh follow up a double LP of four side-long live abstract collages? With a two-song pop banger 7” on De Stijl, obviously. The A-side sounds like it could be a LCD Soundsystem outtake, replete with post-punk bass, disco beat, and all treble guitar. Even more straightforward than Yeh’s “Songs” one sided LP on What The? label a few years back, the results here recall Jim O’Rourke’s more song oriented efforts, yet Yeh’s outcome is cooler and not nearly as stiff. The b-side is a plaintive piano and guitar driven ballad that’s as pretty as anything else so far this year. Another strange pill in the medicine cabinet that is CSY’s ever-engulfing discography, this single sits pretty on any shelf, if you need an upper or a downer. Handsomely packaged as well. Don’t sleep.
A few years after their debut album Of Unforgiving Wind was released, I caught Salvation play at the Cake Shop in New York City. Within moments, singer Matt Adis launched into the crowd like a bullet, only to emerge moments later covered in blood and broken glass, screaming like a vicious animal. The performance continued unabated. After their set Adis was peeled off the hood of a car outside the venue and taken to the hospital. Rumor has it he was cut so many times, that it was difficult for the doctors to find the actual lacerations through all the blood. The band’s reputation for confrontation and sheer hubris is both impressive and frightening. Among the most violently anti-social in a new breed of nihilistic hardcore punk music, Salvation are so vehemently destructive and alienating that their music rings with true outsider authenticity. They claim part of no scene, their music strictly focused on internal issues rather than the political or social. Hardcore as a form is so rigid, that what separates the wheat from the chaff is in a band’s ability to convince the audience of the authenticity of its ferocious desires. This comes across in abundance on the band’s new album Morality Interactions, released on the iconic Youth Attack label. The fact that Adis and crew have survived the wreckage of their performances to deliver the aggressive existentialism of a follow up album is somewhat of a miracle in itself. That the record surpasses all expectations in fury and intensity, speaks volumes. We caught up with Adis, who also has a new book of drawings released on the Heartworm Press imprint, on the eve of the new albums release. Those seeking a view into this distressed existence should seek both out.