Eric Brochard, Fabrice Favriou, Derviche

 

What comes next? Musically? The answer is everything that went before and some that didn't? In the world we live in right now, all awaits if we can but stay safe? Well at any rate the possibilities musically are as wide open as they have been, if you have persistence, courage, and you are willing to explore.

All that must serve as a prelude to a new disk this morning which is a sort of reaffirmation of the possibilities--of the sparse electricity of Psychedelic Trance Drone Avant Rock if you will. I speak of an album by Eric Brochard and Fabrice Favriou, on piccolo-bass and drums, respectively. It is entitled Derviche (Ayler Records AYLCD-165), which is appropriate because it does spin, whirl, go around. It is taking the bass and making it a bit more metal-guitar-like and then spawning a trance drone expansion of beat and sustained chord.

The five "Sequences" that make up the album move around as a wash of beat and drone, a bass chord sequence with plenty of bottom but some treble too, an unrelenting rock drum tattoo that has life and variation to it while never flagging. 

"Sequence III" gives out with another droning motif and the electronic enhancement of the bass makes it sound as if there are organ tones in there as well.

The promo sheet that came with my copy of this CD describes the music aptly as "experimental rock, focusing on bareness as a research tool." The motive and repetitions aim to achieve an "ecstatic point," which is the case if you let it all sway you to an aural space it occupies resolutely and poetically. 

The distorted metallics of droning and re-droning reinforces one's immersion in the aural space of the recording. It is the very opposite I suppose of the frenetic sheets-of-sound chordal barrages of late-50s Coltrane, and we can accept that as another way to occupy musical space without taking sides, surely not something worth choosing one over another to my mind, because indeed we need both.  It has its space and it does the drone barrage admirably well.

I recommend this one for its sheer sensual inter-planetificatory vibes. If you meet it half-way it will take you out to the edges of outer space, so to speak. Listen!

Jonathan Badger, Verse

When something hits you, it hits you. Jonathan Badger, electric guitarist and composer, hits me. At least his album Verse (Rune 394) does. He was a student of Robert Fripp and you can tell by listening to this album for its multiple guitar, "League of Crafty" influence. But then he goes beyond it into his own zone, even though the interlocking guitars are there in a different way.

The lineup is Jonathan Badger on electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, piano, computer, percussion; Ruby Fulton on flugelhorn; Patrick McMinn on trumpet; Tiffany DeFoe on tenor and baritone saxophones; Shodekeh as human beatbox; Alexandra and Victoria (the Sisters Wick), mezzo-sopranos; Michael Gates on violin; and Sasha Keen on cello.

Now all that is well and good, but it is in the music that Badger makes his originality known. This is a kind of symphonic tapestry for guitars, voices, well-produced instruments and alterations.

I wouldn't want to describe it here except to say that it is contemporary avant rock-oriented composition and multiple-guitars are central to it.

I strongly suggest you hear this one. All the words in the world won't begin to describe it and all the labels I could put on it don't quite work either. If you want to go to a new place, just get the recording!

Sonar, Static Motion

Sonar takes minimalist repetition and makes a kind of African-rooted rock thing out of it. Well not just African, there are proto-progressive post-Crimsonian experimental things going as well. All this on their album Static Motion (Cuneiform).

They are a Swiss quartet of Stephan Thelen on guitar, Bernhard Wagner, guitar, plus bassist Christian Kuntner and drummer Manuel Pasquinelli.

They've had a couple of albums out and this is the first on Cuneiform.

What's nicely done here is the contrapuntal interplay between all four. There are mesmeric groove repetitions that evolve and allow for a bit of overtop soloing on guitar, but in the end it is the relentless, hip groove that keeps you wheeling along with them.

It's put together well and it hangs together well as you listen time and again.

If you like rock-trance music, this is a very good one indeed. Recommended.

Farthest South, Omens and Talismans

Something outside and captivating perhaps? What about the latest from the group Farthest South, Omens & Talismans (FSW 001)? It's an Israeli band.

I didn't know about these folks previously. This one stands out, though, so I surely know them now. Apparently it's their first, though they have individually worked in other situations. Barry Berko (35) and Yair Etziony (37) play some combination of guitars and electronics, but I am not sure who is doing what. Yair Yona (32) is the bassist. Albert Beger guests on sax for this set.

The album opens up a cavernous maelstrom of droning machine-like electronics and reverb drenched guitar, bass and sax.

There are some rather wonderfully spaced soundscapes and avant grooves to be had on this one. Recommended.

Thurston Moore & Loren Connors, The Only Way to Go Is Straight Through

Before I go into describing the music on the album at hand I should first say that this was/is an extremely limited edition release--a vinyl LP available only in physical record stores. From what I understand this was made available to select stores on Record Store Day last month. You may have difficulty finding a copy, in other words. . .

That having been said, what we are talking about is an electric guitar duet between Thurston Moore and Loren Connors. The album is entitled The Only Way to Go Is Straight Through (Northern Spy LP). Moore, most readers will know, was a key founder of Sonic Youth who has since gone on to new projects. Loren Connors is an avant blues and otherwise musician who has been involved in a number of associations and has assumed a kind of legendary status out there.

The two crank it up for two sides of feedback, droning bends, scratchings, etchings, melodic and anti-melodic expression, and general psychedelic mayhem. The two segments were recorded live, side one at The Stone in Manhattan, side two at Public Assembly in Brooklyn.

There is good pacing and variety to be had here, for those accustomed to the more noisy a-temporal sort of avant rock out there. It is a very good set of jams. Good luck finding it. Your favorite cool record store might have a copy left?

Andrea Centazzo-Henry Kaiser, "Infinity Squared," Live in Los Angeles, 2006

A couple of days ago we looked at the Andrea Centazzo-Elliot Sharp duo recording. Today it's Andrea and Henry Kaiser, Infinity Squared (Ictus 152). This one was caught live at Cafe Metropol in Los Angeles during the summer of 2006. Like the Centazzo-Sharp duet this one has atmospheric sampling-electronics, Andrea's beautifully melodic battery of drums and percussion, and adventuresome guitar explorations, this time Henry Kaiser in a spacey mood. Once again it's not a hot licks exchange, but rather a successful attempt to create a live soundscape of varying moods and textures.

Gongs and cymbal washes, backwards guitar, some energetic freestyle drumming and guitar soundsculpting are in order. In this context the percussion and drums have a pitched relevance that plays off of Henry's scrambled but no less pitched guitar poetics. Of course if Andrea is on vibes, that is a matter of course. The whole battery however is an extension of a tonality, which cannot be said for many avant percussion practitioners that come out of the improvisatory area. A surprise is "A Similar Thang" when Henry breaks into the chord sequence to Muddy Waters' "The Same Thing" and Andrea takes some nice vibes rides, then Henry turns in a blistering scorcher of a solo while Andrea comps. From there it gets way out there but with space a major factor. It's not so much a barrage as it is an essay in periodicity. Lots of two-way contrasts and empathetic listening is going on between the two artists.

"Eternal Current Anew" is a long motif reminiscent of the one on Zappa's "Watermelon in Easter Hay" and Henry gets quite lucid overtop of the ostinato percussion and guitar loop. There are some rocker-outs and a big spacescape to top off the album.

It's a very fruitful encounter. The two connect in multiple musical circuitry, in ways that envelop the listener in dazzling sound color. Space cadets, seek this one out by all means.