Murmur - S/T (Season of Mist, 2014)

Chicago metal band Murmur has returned with an eponymous sophomore effort that is nothing less than brilliant. To be honest, it took me off guard. The diversity of styles is overwhelming, the playing is loose yet polished, and the theme shows a great deal of growth and maturity.

This could be a tricky one for those of you that find the avant garde aesthetic a bit much to handle. The record begins with a wash of ambient free improvisation, launches into a traditional blast beat, then cycles through experimental waves of progressive (yes, King Crimson), 80's, tribal polyrhythms, acoustic, noise, jazz, and post-rock. They even break down a 70's hard rock ballad. Vocals are blackened, occasionally clean melodic harmonies, and some atonal rants, although the bulk of the album is instrumental.

What strikes me is that even though packing all of this into the same recording sounds as if it would be too busy and math rock'ish, it is not. Murmur's delivery still feels casual and uncomplicated. Most notably, this may be the most interesting metal drummer I've heard in years. At times, due to his style, it's easy to forget this is a metal record at all.

I must admit, I've never been much on prog, yet my heightened sensitivity levels came through unscathed.
This feels more like a lush and fantastic voyage through a faraway--Wait... I think the prog elements just drugged me.

Osamu Kitajima - Benzaiten (Antilles, 1976)

This album is a highly unlikely hybrid. Traditional Japanese instrumentation (flute, biwa, and percussion) fuses with prog rock and western funk (electric wah gutar, clavichord, and thumping basslines). The result is improbably amazing. As far as I'm concerned, everything works perfectly. The album is as tense as it is light-hearted, with a solid narrative. Slow grooves and popping jams glued together by ancient sounding vocals. There are over the top moments but you'll find them as forgivable as I do.

Thanks to Rob for the heads up.

Happy Birthday, Don!****Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - The Spotlight Kid (Reprise, 1972)

Its the only album that was credited soley to Don van Vliet. He wanted to make something a little more accessible. A little bit of bread was appealing. The band was barely eating, living off handouts. They hadn't made any money in three years. What did he do that was so radical? What did he do that made the band hate this collection of songs? What kind of extraordinary preposterous great lengths did he go to?

He wrote some slower songs. Yep, Downtempo. That's all. Slowing these songs down made his vocals feel more like a delta blues singer, garnering a bit of a new audience. This period of time was so tumultuous that the whole band almost abandoned him. Granted, there were more details, like Vliet throwing one of the guitarists into a dumpster as a metaphor. I'm sure the communal residence scenario probably began driving hungry unsatisfied musicians into emotional outbursts of all kinds.

Regardless, this is actually my favorite of his records. Go on, disagree. Lester Bangs liked it, so I stand my ground.

Here's one of my favorite live clips from that album era:



And here's the album in its entirety:

Patrick Vian - Bruits et temps Analogues (Egg Records, 1976 / Straubold, 2013)

This year has seen the vinyl re-issue of a phenomenal and little known album. French musician Patrick Vian's "Bruits et temp Analogues" is improvisational jazz meeting synth rock for a journey into the unknown. Think early Tangerine Dream jamming with Soft Machine and Heldon, Conrad Schnitzler's bizarre noise experiments, and a deep prog groove, all held together by masterful percussion (Mino Cinelu of Gong, Miles Davis and Weather Report).

Vian plays Moog c2, ARP 2600, Moog sequencer and piano. Also joining him are Georges Granier on Rhodes and marimba, and Bernard Lavialle on electric guitar. This lineup emits deep droning psychedelic vibes, for an undeniable head trip. And incidentally, I can't stop looking at this album cover.



Here is a track by his other project as well:

Franco Falsini - Naso Fredo (1975, reissued by Spectrum Spools, 2012)

Franco Falsini first gained notoriety with his progressive rock / experimental outfit 'Sensations Fix' in the early 70's. They signed to Polydor in '74 with whom they released several albums. Falsini's work was out of print for many years until John Elliot reissued the album 'Naso Fredo' (Cold Nose). Of all this material, Falsini shines the most on his solo debut, the soundtrack to a scarcely seen film that warned of the dangers in cocaine abuse.

This is blissful and lovely music with minimal conflict or tension. If anything, it seems to me the coke warning might have the adverse effect, because if this is what coke sounds like, most people unfamiliar with the drug might be inspired to investigate it!

An album in three movements, the basic setup is simple: Frippish experimental guitars, undulating bass, and various subtly used synths, such as ems and minimoog. He presents a meditative narrative, a journey through astral layers of the 70's 'out there' aesthetic. Fans of acts like Ash Ra Tempel, Brainticket or Cosmic Jokers will dig its trippy and peaceful, yet flawlessly executed delivery.

Falsini has effected many genres of music around the world for nearly 40 years. The first time I heard of him was when investigating DJ Shadow's samples on his 'Private Press' record back in '02. Now this album has been reissued by John Elliot and Peter Rehberg at Spectrum Spools. Chill out with this one. Put your head between two speakers and mellow.




Read full review of Cold Nose - Franco Falsini on Boomkat.com ©

Zombi - Escape Velocity (Relapse, 2011)

Zombi is a space rock duo from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, consisting of Steve Moore on bass and synthesizers and Anthony Paterra on drums. The group makes use of looping to create multi-layered compositions in the progressive rock and dynamic instrumental arena. What separates them from the current crop of "any kid with a korg can make arpeggios" revivalist phenomenon is that they've been doing this since 2002 and they have a fucking sick live drummer. Everything they do sounds, feels, and actually is analog. These two monsters sound like a four piece band from '79. Delicious.

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Goblin - Buio Omega OST (Cinevox, 1979)

Are you a young rich orphan who lost your girlfriend to voodoo performed by your jealous housekeeper? Just dig that grave up, clean her out, stuff her, and make her look pretty, ya know, just for old time's sake. Just make sure to wear your headphones so you can rock the original companion soundtrack to a film where this actually happens. Necrophilia Prog? Gross, yes...awesome tunes, yes.

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GNOD Drop Out with WHITE HILLS II (Rocket Recordings, 2010)

A joint effort with some of the best psychedelic, komische, tripped out crazy krautrock you'll ever hear. These two outfits sound like Neu, Tangerine Dream and Cluster playing together in a very small room. Dizzying soundscapes behind dense motorik drumming. Too too too tasty.

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Hawkwind - Palace Springs (GWR, 1991)

Your captain is still dead. Those who dove into 70's heavy metal, at sometime or another, have come across Hawkwind, the band that everyone knows because Lemmy used to play with them. Later in Hawkwind's career, they had split up into two groups under the common name for a period of time. Nick Turner(sax,flute,vocals) took it in one direction and Baron Dave Brock(guitars, vocals) took the band in another. A lot of Hawkwind's later albums have been overlooked by younger hawkcadets, thus a reason for sharing the 1991 epic heavyness of “Palace Springs.” The album was originally recorded in 1989 and the first two tracks were done in a mobile studio, the rest were performed live during a tour of North America. “Palace Springs” is the wise work of Dave Brock's formation of Hawkwind. In this album they are joined by, the band's only front woman, Bridget Wishart and the return of lead violinist Simon House. The album is mostly the re-workings of songs from earlier albums such as “Void of Golden Light”, “Time We Left” and “Damnation Alley.” Hawkwind has always been able to be prophetic in the sense that they are very proper in the manner of communicating the changing of the celestial guards. Thick pulsating drone as a galactic battle of light and dark re-affirm the age old saga of human nature and all its glory and folly. Hawkwind has always been a link between hippie and punk cultures. As heavy, dark and socially conscious of the struggles of humanity appealed to the more distraught and down to earth, the synth layered psychedelic breath spoke to those whom found themselves escaping reality. Where ever you find yourself, there you are. “Palace Springs” will be an artifact found by distant space travelers and will explain our space in time. This is your captain speaking.

--Sean Dail

Gentle Giant - Acquiring the Taste (Mercury, 1971)

The English troubadours and minstrels of the umphteenth degree couldn't have heard their own fantastic nightmares of bliss and domination. So let the 1970's prog rockers in, they have been waiting for five hundred years. They just needed someone to teach them heavy blues licks and introduce them to the melotron, that's all.

Hither come Gentle Giant and their 1971 album “Acquiring the Taste”. This second album of the quintessential British progressive rock group found themselves in depths of the wolves den. And willing as they were to go there, Gentle Giant abandoned the blues and soul drivin' sound of their previous album. This was a common transition for English groups of the late 60's and early 70's. They realized that no matter how hard they tried to sound like the coolest southern black man from the bayou, they were still pale, penny loafing and quite too proper. “Acquiring the Taste” is an amazing album. To try and sum up the sound, if you are not familiar with Gentle Giant, there is gloomy chamber chanting cut off by heavy rock riffs while the ever looming melotron cast a shadow of Imperial sounding British horns that dive behind spiny harpsichord taps or Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull directed a love scene where Sabbath and ELO make elegant gestures toward one another without touching. Hmmm, well here is an excerpt from the liner notes of the album. It is their declaration into departure.


"...It is our goal to expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of being very unpopular. We have recorded each composition with the one thought - that it should be unique, adventurous and fascinating. It has taken every shred of our combined musical and technical knowledge to achieve this. From the outset we have abandoned all preconceived thoughts of blatant commercialism. Instead we hope to give you something far more substantial and fulfilling. All you need to do is sit back, and acquire the taste."

--Sean Dail

Acquire the Taste Here

Or:

Laddio Bolocko - The Life and Times (2005, No Quarter)

Formed in the wake of early 90's Post-Rock and hardcore bands by members of Mars Volta, Dazzling Killmen, Panicsville and Craw and Chalk, these talented musicians could easily have been playing Jazz. Instead, they chose to keep pushing forward with intellectual but not too high brow rock fusion.

Comparisons to Can, This Heat, King Krimson, The Boredoms and even Albert Ayler are all valid. Prog, Kraut, Noise, Drone and Jazz. This Compilation is a nice document to the legacy that obviously impacted many bands after them. This was a truly amazing troupe.

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Or:

Univers Zero - Heatwave (1986, Cuneiform)

Belgian group Univers Zero were part of the 70's politico-musical RIO (Rock In Opposition) movement. They typically made acoustic based gothic chamber music. But on this record, drummer and composer Daniel Denis took a backseat to keyboardist Andy Kirk, allowing him to compose what resulted in what feels more like a Prog sci-fi / suspense film score than anything else.

Take the darkest elements of King Crimson, toss in a healthy dose of Lalo Schifrin with just a dash of 80's Tzadik Records and voila!, we have the best Dr. Who / Planet of the Apes soundtrack that never was. Really tasty stuff.



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