While I'm not claiming tobe an expert in Jazz by any remote means, I highly recommend starting aSun Ra collection with two stellar albums from the mid-60s recentlyremastered and reissued by ESP. Originally recorded in 1965 and 1966,these discs were highly influential to ushering-in new movements inexperimental jazz, soul and funk. Musically there was no true soloistof Sun Ra's Arkestra. This contradicted other popular jazzcontemporaries as the Arkestra as a collective was the focal point atthe center, a fiery mass of color and sound. Decadent and chaotic, withSun Ra 'arkestrating' from beyhind the keyboards and piano, theArkestra was indeed an orchestra consisting of brass, woodwinds,strings, flute and various percussion. 
On a thematic plane, the heliocentric spiritualism was contemporary tothe various programs by the US and Russian governments as earthlingslooks to space as the next conquest. Take into consideration civilrights movements, tie everything together musically and the ground waslaid for George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic afronauts, who werevoyaging with the Mothership for decades to come. Other influences havestretched to include brainwashed groups Meat Beat Manifesto (who shareda bill with Sun Ra's Arkestra in 1996), Nurse with Wound (who I'm surehave sampled 'Nebulae' on Volume 1 in Thunder Perfect Mind) and Coil(who has long been planning a release titled "Sex with Sun Ra.") I'msure there's more planes of existence I haven't even realized withthese discs or the rest of Sun Ra's music, but for now it's a start.Herman Poole 'Sonny' Blount (A.K.A. Sun Ra) died in May of 1993, buthis Arkestra carries on playing in various locations around the US.samples:
- Outer Nothingness (from vol. 1)
- Nebulae (from vol. 1)
- The Sun Myth (from vol. 2)
- Cosmic Chaos (from vol. 2)
German Bernd Friedmannspent all of the 1990's recording and performing electronic music inmany styles under many names, including: Some More Crime, Drome,Nonplace Urban Field, Burnt Friedman & The Nu Dub Players andFlanger. The aptly titled "Con Ritmo" ("With Rhythm") is the solo debutunder his slyly altered given name and is allegedly performed live byThe Disposable Rhythm Section as detailed by the tongue in cheekinsert. Friedmann's playful sense of humor extends well beyond namesand liner notes though ... his music is a mysterious mix of genreblurring sound from unknown sources. Jazz is essentially the languagebut it's spoken in soothing and spacious ambient, electronic, latin,dub and fusion tongues. Latino rhythms and busy bass lines drive thetracks with flourishes of percussive fills, an abundance of prettyvibes and keys, meandering electric guitar notes and pluckings, somehorns and the slightest traces of electronic tinkering. You're neverquite sure what is 'played' and what is sampled, what's electronic andwhat's 'real'. Does it matter? No, it doesn't. The sound and feel issincere and evocative. Some notes on a couple oddities: "Platin Tundra"is a gorgeous dub-jazz journey with a beautiful deep bass swell midwaythrough and the 11+ minute "Das Wesen aus der Milchstrasse" ("TheNature of the Milky Way") features Friedmann's Flanger partner AtomHeart on an extensive Moog solo over electro-bass blips and latin polyrhythms. Fun stuff start to finish! Now to get everything else byFriedmann. A new much delayed album possibly titled "Long Fucking Time"is due out early 2001 on his Nonplace label.
This was originallyreleased as two separate EPs: "Lassie House" being a 10" limited to 250copies through Slaalplaat in 1995; and "Jumble Massive" being an LPlimited to 296 copies through Soleilmoon in 1996. Now, though, they aretogether and released, unlimited, through Cacciocavallo. The materialseems to fit together on one release nicely, with no major differenceinsound between the two EPs. "Lassie House," to some degree, has a moreslapstick humor feel to it, though both conjure rememberence of 18's UKgameshows and sitcoms, as well as children's programs and circus tunes.Vicki Bennett is very clever with how she collages her clips andsamples together, but I feel perhaps that this work centers less onbeing "humourous," per sae, and more and merely being nonsensical. Thetracksare, as one EP's title suggests, a massive jumble of cut up, repeated,morphed, and fucked sound clips from god-knows-where. A favouritehightlight is the last track, which acts as a mock self-help tape,helping "people like us" to cope with such things as sewing machinesand anticipating bowel movements: you need only chant, "Come on, poo!Come on, poo! Poooo, coming! Poooo, coming!" These EPs were nicelyworked fortheir time, but, to be honest, Vicki has since outdone herself withreleases such as the Hate People Like Us remix album and herbrilliant new (but not newest!) release, Thermos Explorer.
Tino Corp has releasedthis special 12" EP to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release ofone of the most important techno releases of the 90s. But why???Truthfully there's really only a couple decent mixes on this record,but none of them are varied even remotely enough as the originalrelease. This doesn't make up for the original House of God (HolophonicSound EP) which was stolen from me, which I can no longer replace. Outof the four mixes, the DHS mix might be my favorite, newer samples giveit a more modern feel, but in all honesty, to me it's rather lukewarmcompared to the trancey, hypnotic original. At first, I'm tempted toguess that the tracklisting on side 2 is incorrect as track 1 soundsmore like a MBM remix with some of the various sounds. However, withfurther listening, those samples used sure seem to yank a ton from MBMback catalogue. Could this be a form of hero worship? MBM'sconrtibution probes more of the deep trancey sounds, without jumpinginto MBM-esque breakbeat we're more familiar with hearing. Well, thanksfor teasing us with this release, but the original EP should truly bemade available again.
Out on Pickled-Egg from the UK, Volcano's first LP consists of 6 new songs by these growing and mind-expanding UK surrealists. On a whole, the release is filled with a bizarre emotion that leaves a sinking feeling in your stomach.
The Montreal-based collective Molasses has released its second discthrough Alien8 Recordings' associated label, Fancy. Like the first one,the packaging is exquisite (a triple-gatefold sleeve with embossedwriting and stickers) and the music is limited to only a few songs(three if you don't count the untitled first track of church bells).Each song tears at the gut strings from a seemlingly tired heartbrokensoul from a cold, bleak and desolate area, north of the border.Molasses is led by singer/songwriter Scott Chernoff and featuresgodspeed members Thierry (bass) and Norsola (cello) as well as ShalabiEffect leader Sam Shalabi on guitar. This time around, the collectivesound has matured, with the production sounding far more professionalbut not losing that human feel. Included is a 14-minute version ofAmazing Grace, and while this old standard pops up almost seemingly toooften, the Molasses version contained herein fits in perfectly with therest of the disc.
Flanger is the prolificGerman duo of Bernd Friedmann (Burnt Friedman & The Nu Dub Players,Nonplace Urban Field, etc) and Uwe Schmidt (Atom Heart, Señor Coconut,etc). This is their 2nd album, follow-up to last year's "Templates",both on Ninja Tune's Ntone subdivision. "Midnight Sound" evolves beyondthe debut with a more humanized fusion of organic and electronic latinflavors and jazz sensibilities, very similar to Burnt Friedman's "ConRitmo". Most tracks are in the mid to high tempo range save for thealbum's bookends. "Nightbeat 1" and "Stepping Out of My Dream" bothoffer up slow brushed snare smokiness, the latter an especiallycompelling 7+ minute piece of sonic mood art that alone is worth theprice of entry for the disc. A vibe heavy, horn free interpretation ofthe Miles Davis classic "So What" is a respectfully well done treat.The rest are faster paced, chock full of all sorts of rapid-fire bass,vibe, organ and key lines and programmed pseudo-drum 'n bass beatsaugmented by Friednman's additional percussion flair. Several songsslowly dissolve at times to reveal the electro-glitch and micro-beatunderbellies beneath the bossa nova. "Midnight Sound" is simplysublime. This and "Con Ritmo" can fill your crossbred future-jazzneeds for a while.
After a four-year hiatus,Mego favorites General Magic return with Rechenkoenig, a brilliantfollow-up to their debut album, Frantz. Ramon Bauer and Andreas Pieper,who comprise General Magic, have a reputation of steering clear of theconventions to which minimal electronic music is often prone. Thetracks on Rechenkoenig are brief in length, and juxtaposed with suchsonic abruptness that the listener is kept constantly on edge, withoutpossibility of repetition-induced boredom. In fact, 'minimal' isprobably the adjective furthest from my mind upon hearing the fragmentsof frantically paced beats, often heavily distorted, scattered amongstdigital twittering, crackling, and outright onslaughts of noise.
Available once again (no clue if this one's limited) is one of my top-10 albums of the year. The Un-Releases was originally released earlier this year in an "official" bootleg teeny-tiny quantity which barely made it across the water to the USA. Now, through K in Olympia, Washington the disc should be easier to get a hold of.
Thankfully, Oi! is not a trawl through a dubious underbelly of UK punk. It’s a two disc snapshot of recent Brazilian music from Amapa to Rio Grande Do Sul, Acre to Paraiba, mapping the places where indigenous forms meet dub, funk, psychedelia, and several other outer-national sub-genres. Of the 40 tracks I prefer those suggesting cool, dark alleys, mind warping neon surfboards, or vertigo-inducing rooftops, to others which feel like over-crowded hip-hop/carnival nether regions where “party” is a verb and Karl Pilkington dreams of quiet reverie during a hellish episode of An Idiot Abroad.
