Zeni Geva - 10,000 Light Years (2001) Avant-Garde Punk/Noise Rock/Math Rock/Avant-Prog (320 kbps)

Продолжаем исследование пограничных областей человеческого сознания. Еще одна замечательная группа, на этот раз из Японии - Zeni Geva. Тоже авангардное молотилово не для слабых духом - тут и хардкор-панк, и нойз, и прогрессив и math-rock. Лидер группы - известный в определенных кругах товарищ по имени KK Null.

Что пишут

Zeni Geva had been together for nearly 14 years and 11 albums prior to this one, but the band's angular, psychedelic noise rock/metal hybrid sounds just as ferocious as ever here. Tight, focused, and apparently pretty pissed off, they tear through the album's eight tracks with the energy of bandmembers half their age. At the same time, though, Zeni Geva understands something many younger bands don't -- which is dynamics: When shifting out of the quieter sections and into full-attack mode on tracks such as "Blastsphere" and "Tyrannycide," Zeni Geva sounds like just about the heaviest band on the planet. Leader K.K. Null keeps his vocals to a strategic minimum, leaving the emphasis on the band's jagged prog/math rock rhythms, the dissonant dual guitar riffs and textures, and Masataka Fujika's massive drumming, which benefits from a patented Steve Albini recording job. Most of this disc is not what you'd call catchy; in fact, a lot of it is downright ugly. But then again, this is Zeni Geva -- what else would you expect? This band has become known for playing ugly, dense, and uncompromising rock & roll, and 10,000 Light Years does not disappoint.

William York, All Music Guide

О диске
Track listing:

1. 10,000 Light Years (6:06)
2. Implosion (3:12)
3. Blastsphere (5:37)
4. Interzona 2 (6:00)
5. Tyrannycide (3:35)
6. Last Nanosecond (5:06)
7. Hazchem (6:50)
8. Auto-Fuck (2:17)

Zeni Geva:

Kazuyuki K. Null - guitar, nullsonic, voice
Mitsuru Tabata - guitar, guitar synthesizer
Masataka Fujikake - drums

All music composed & produced by Zeni Geva
All lyrics written by Kazuyuki K. Null
Recorded at Electrical Audio, Chicago, October 2000
Engineered by Steve Albini

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The Flying Luttenbachers - Destroy All Music Revisited (2007) Free Jazz/Noise Rock/Punk (320 kbps)

Чудесная группа из Чикаго The Flying Luttenbachers сочетает в своем творчестве фри-джазовые импровизации, драйв и энергетику панка и шумность нойз-рока. Не слабая, доложу я вам смесь, молотобойная и взрывоопасная. На раз вскрывает черепушку и делает из мозга котлету.
Неубоявшимся такого издевательства над собой я рекомендую оценить недавнее расширенное переиздание альбома 1995 года Destroy All Music (название для такой музыки, по моему, очень удачное).

Что пишут

Skin Graft Records proudly presents "DxAxMx Revisited", a fully remastered, extended edition of The Flying Luttenbachers' landmark 1995 album, "Destroy All Music". This special edition includes notorious drummer/multi-instrumentalist Weasel Walter and renowned jazz saxophonist Ken Vandermark, the innovative punk-jazz ensemble that first garnered the band widespread acclaim.

Here the band is captured at the height of the internal struggles that would soon dissolve the quintet line-up. The end result is an unforgettable experience, a document of the most extreme energy level the line-up ever mustered on record.

In addition to the 10 tracks featured on the original release, this comprehensive edition includes seven never-before-heard vintage recordings, all painstakingly remastered by bandleader Weasel Walter. "Destroy All Music Revisited" is 80 minutes of wild, unhinged cacophony, fusing fiery free jazz improvisation with modern post-punk/noise-rock structures. This is an integral part of Chicago's underground musical heritage, a milestone in adventurous jazz, and a key component of the neo-no wave movement.

О диске

Track listing:

1. Demonic Velocities / 20,000,000 Volts
2. Fist Through Glass
3. Sparrow's Thin Lot
4. Splurge
5. (In Progress)
6. Ver Aus Dun 'Turbo Scratcher'
7. Necessary Impossibility Of Determinism
8. Dance Of The Lonely Hyenas
9. Tiamat En Arc
10. Final Variation On A Theme Entitled 'Attack Sequence'
11. One-Two Punch
12. Improvisation
13. Critic Stomp
14. Clammer + Sprint
15. Coffeehouse In Flames
16. Eaten By Sharks
17. Throwing Bricks

The Flying Luttenbachers:

Chad Organ (tenor & baritone saxophones, moog synthesizer)
Dylan Posa (electric guitar)
Weasel Walter (percussion)
Jeb Bishiop (bass guitar, trombone, casio keyboard)
Ken Vandermark (tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet)

Engineers include: Chuck Uchida, Weasel Walter, Elliott Dicks.

Recorded live at Lounge Ax, Chicago, Illinois on September 16, 1994 and Czar Bar, Chicago, Illinois on December 3, 1993; ugEXPLODE, Chicago, Illinois on July 4, 1994; Attica Studios, Chicago, Illinois on May 7, 1994.
Composers: The Flying Luttenbachers; Weasel Walter.
Audio Remasterer: Weasel Walter.

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Lindsay Cooper - Music For Other Occasions (1986) Avant-Garde Jazz (320 kbps)

Продолжаю тему Линдси Купер, самой известной и талантливой женщины в кентерберийской тусовке. Еще один очень сильный сольный альбом Линдси, не очень сложная, но яркая и красивая музыкальная пьеса. Помогают Линдси на этом диске такие культовые персонажи, как Крис Катлер, Дагмар Краузе, уже известная нам Салли Поттер. Совершенно незаслуженно, о этом диске почти ничего не написано в сети (а может просто я плохо искал).

" This music provides me with everything I am addicted to and enjoy: the giddy beauty of romantic and modern classics from Berliot to Berio, the immediacy of new jazz and the smell of pop in progressive rock. In all, it's a ball of humour, diversity and critical engagement." (Bad Alchemy 2/85)

" An important figure in the British 'crossover-avantgarde', gives us an exciting cross-section of the 80's. Bizarre Easy Listening, orchestrated and served sometimes with humour, sometimes with a shot of social criticism, always with British understatement." (Collibri 10/92)

О диске

Track listing:

1. Speed Of Light (3:32) (Sally Potter)
2. Belfast (2:10)
3. The Number 8 Bus (1:25) (Lis Rhodes)
4. Torn Away (1:56) (Lis Rhodes)
5. Plate Dance (3:01)
6. No Missles (1:51) (Lis Rhodes)
7. Royal Courts of Justice (2:13)
8. Iceland The Long Dance (5:56)
9. As She Breathes (2:36) (Sally Potter)
10. The Assassination Waltz (1:38)
11. Who Knows? (1:26) (Lis Rhodes)
12. Exchange (2:05) (Lis Rhodes)
13. Elegy (3:38)
14. Domestic Bliss (end credits) (2:37)
15. They're Moving In (1:49) (Carolyn Askar)
16. Julia/End Credits (3:16)
17. Next Century (1:17)
18. From Morning Till Midnight (2:09)
a) Morning
b) Midnight
19. The Colony Comes A Cropper (4:33)
a) The Chase
b) Marivaux
20. Fledermaus (1:35) (Robyn Archer)
21. We'd Rather Fly (0:59)

Total time: 52:30

Line-up:

Lindsay Cooper - piano, electric piano, keyboards, synthesizers, alto & sopranino saxophones, bassoon, glockenspiel, bass guitar
Georgie Born - guitar, bass guitar, cello, electric piano on 1
Sally Potter - singing on 1,9
Dagmar Krause - singing on 3,4,6
Maggie Nicols - singing on 7,15,16
Kate Westbrook - singing on 11,12, tenor horn
Chris Cutler - drums
Celia Gore Booth - musical saw
Vicky Aspinall - violin
Zeena Parkins - harp
Irita Kutchmy - piccolo
Helena Paul - cello on 5
Elvira Plenar - piano, synthesizer on 17; piano on 21
Alfred 23 Harth - soprano saxophon on 17; bass clarinet on 21
Annemarie Roelofs - trombone on 17; violin on 21
John Harle - soprano saxophon on 18
Helen Liebmann - cello on 18
Peter Whyman - soprano saxophon, bass clarinet, flute on 19
Robyn Archer - singing on 20
Linda Patching - violin on 20
Teresa Blake - cello on 20

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Fred Frith - The Technology Of Tears (And Other Music for Dance) (1988) Avant-Garde (320 kbps)

Такая вот "музыка для танцев" от замечательного композитора и гитариста Фреда Фрита (я пишу тут в кавычках - а оно ведь и вправду для танцев писалось...). Диск был изначально выпущен как двойной LP, треки с четвертой стороны LP (третья часть альбома под названием Propaganda) не вошли в более позднее переиздание на CD, и сегодня мы их не услышим. На большинстве инструментов тут играет сам Фрит, помогают ему Джон Зорн, Тенко, Кристиан Марклэй и Джим Стэли.

Что пишут

"Sadness, Its Bleached Bones Behind Us," and "You Are What You Eat" are unrelenting slices of hard-edged sounds over a pulse. "The Palace of Laughter, The Technology of Tears" is an imaginative, intense, varied suite comparing music which represents the past "frozen tears" of sadness -- displayed as images before us by the media, etc. -- with the "hot tears" of the moment that cannot be absorbed by technology. "Jigsaw" and "Jigsaw Coda" (1986) creates patterns with constantly shifting accents and sub-divisions..uneven pieces to be fit together..."Propaganda" (1987) music for a theatre production is a series of brilliantly evocative soundpieces with electronics, guitar, and sound effects...feedback and explosions in the distance, tantric harmonizing in the desert, "A deeper understanding of conflict", "The Relentless Landscape," "The Excellent Hyena," "The Wolf Demon." With John Zorn, alto sax, Tenko, voice, Christian Marclay, turntables, Jim Staley, trombone.

"Blue" Gene Tyranny

О диске

Track listing:

A. The Technology of Tears:
1. Sadness, It's Bones Bleached Behind Us (13:18)
2. You Are What You Eat (18:45)
3. The Palace of Laughter, The Technology of Tears (10:21)
B. Jigsaw
4. Jigsaw (14:47)
5. Jigsaw Coda (3:07)

Total Time 70:18

Musicians:

- Fred Frith / all instruments except as noted
- John Zorn / Alto sax (1,2,3)
- Tenko / Voice (1,2,3)
- Jim Staley / Trombone (4,5)
- Christian Marclay / Turntables (1,2,3)

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5uu's - Regarding Purgatories (2000) Avant-Prog (320 kbps)

Еще один невероятный и улетный альбом уникальной группы, на мой взгляд - интереснее более ранних работ, а еще - он более холодный и отточенный. Впрочем, это уже несколько другие 5uu's - с вокалом Деборы Перри (Thinking Plague) и бас-гитарой Кита Максуда (Present). Изначально музыка записывалась для третьего альбома U Totem - но этим планам не суждено было сбыться, и Дэйв Керман использовал материал для нового альбома 5uu's.

Что пишут

Regarding Purgatories marks the beginning of a new incarnation of the 5uu's. Dave Kerman took greater control over the creative process, changed the official name of the group to "Dave Kerman/5uu's," and got a new vocalist, Thinking Plague's Deborah Perry. He also started branching out musically -- the album contains both a greater variety of compositional techniques and some longer, more abstract pieces than had appeared on previous 5uu's releases.

"Meteora," the album's wonderful opener, is a great example of how 00s 5uu's differs from 90s 5uu's. Not only is it completely instrumental except for some distorted Medieval-ish chants that slosh around occasionally, but the first two minutes consist entirely of ambient synthesized foghorns and piano strings being scraped with keys. And when the drums and bass do come crashing in, it's simply amazing, especially when they're joined by a surprisingly Thinking Plague-like angular guitar line to create one of the most propulsive, satisfying passages the band has ever done.

This is not to say that all of the album is so abstract -- Kerman has certainly not given up his talent for catchiness, and "Drachma" could almost be an avant-prog single, with its infectious, convolutedly folky melody and well-placed solo for walkie-talkie feedback. But it's nice to set this off against pieces like "Half-Akin to Gladsome," an intermezzo for voice and piano that's more delicate than almost anything on Hunger's Teeth. And it's hard to argue with the viscous, bubbling, brilliant organ solo in "String of Hey-Days" (which actually reminds me of a much more aggressive version of James Grigsby's work in U Totem), or the unexpected vocal part of "Pinwheel," in which Perry's voice splinters into four different tracks and reflects off itself, simultaneously extremely strange and indescribably beautiful.

I have to admit, not every piece on the album is perfect. A few tracks, like "To Fall on Deaf Ears part one," drag a little in places, and Perry's attempt to sound like Dagmar Krause at the beginning of "Stand On Ceremony" is pretty weak. While the epic "To Fall on Deaf Ears part two" is mostly excellent, complete with a powerful, ponderous and extremely grim-sounding middle section that puts Univers Zero to shame, it ends so abruptly that it sounds like they ran out of tape while recording it -- a rather jarring effect whose aesthetic purpose continues to baffle me. Still, the amount of good on this highly underrated disc so outweighs the bad in both quality and quantity that I think Regarding Purgatories may be my favorite 5uu's album. Anyone hesitating to buy it because of the flak it sometimes gets on r.m.p, I urge you to keep and open mind and give it a try

Alex Temple [May 2002]

О диске

Track listing:

1. Meteora (7:31)
2. Pinwheel (5:12)
3. Belew And Beyond (5:14)
4. To Fall On Deaf Ears - part one (4:51)
5. Half-Akin To Gladsome (1:44)
6. Drachma (4:28)
7. First Person Jocular (4:36)
8. String Of Hey-Days (2:40)
9. Day 29 (2:18)
10. Gordian Knot (4:44)
11. Stand On Ceremony (1:43)
12. To Fall On Deaf Ears - part two (10:35)

Total Time: 55:36

Musicians:

- Dave Kerman / guitars, keyboards, drums, percussion, occasional bass & vocals, tapes, noises etc.
With:
- Deborah Perry / vocals
- Keith Macksoud / bass
- Mark McCoin / exotic percussion, unconventional soloing
- Sajay Kumar / additional keyboards
- Charles Turner / piano solos

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