Zu / Spaceways Incorporated - Radiale

ZU / SPACEWAYS INCORPORATED
Radiale
Atavistic 2004

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This time it's a collision of continents as Chicago trio Spaceways (Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake, and Nate McBride) crash head first, fists flying, kicking and screaming straight into Italian Jazz-Rock-Dub trio Zu (Massimo Pupillo, Jacopo Battaglia, and Luca Tommaso Mai). The result is a blast of dark, heavy, rumbling bass, pierced by squealing saxophone and reed playing and rock-orientated, beat-heavy drum bashing.

The two drummers (Battaglia and Drake) and the two bassists (Pupillo and McBride) split the album down the middle as the Zu members take the first half of the album and the Spaceways crew the second. Luca Tommaso Mai on Saxophone and Ken Vandermark on Reeds are the two main players each vying for space throughout, launching into at times aggressive melodies trying to outdo the other in a constant game of push and shove often turning into wonderful cacophony if at times a little too brief like towards the end of 'Thanatocracy.'

The last thing I heard Pupillo play on was a new Peter Brötzmann recording from the Bimhaus in Amsterdam and there's actually some strong similarity between the two sessions - though Radiale is certainly less intense. His bass rings out like a buzz saw at times finding a little room now and again to really stand out as Battaglia pounds his drum with military like precision. On 'Pharmakon' Battaglia builds up slowly, maintaining a steady beat though at times I did find his playing a little too predictable following a strong rock-style structure, but when it works it works really well and allows Mai and Vandermark to show off their skills in the foreground.

As you'd expect the second half of the album with the switch around of bassist and drummer is a more jazz-orientated affair, especially Drake's drumming, which never ceases to impress me. McBride who I don't really know that much about keeps a steady rhythm without driving as much as Pupillo (whose playing is definitely beginning to grow on me).

The second half also features a cover of that Art Ensemble classic - 'Theme de Yoyo' which seemed to me to emphasise the importance of the vocals in the original, though the breakdown is still strong and Mai and Vandermark add about 10 seconds (a little short for my liking) of impressive improvising in the middle. And finishing with the Sun Ra cover I think works really well. Again this is a song that takes its time to get going, but allows the players, especially Drake and McBride more freedom to improvise and set the scene until about half way through the familiar rhythm kicks in and everyone follows suit, rolling happily into its almost Krautrock-esque jam band finale.

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CRASH: The Magazine

On March 9th 2009, CRASH magazine went online. From now on, most of my articles on art, film, photography and other such subjects along with some creative work will now be posted over there.

From the website:

‘Crash’ is an aesthetic quality in opposition to the formulaic, the sterile and the life lived automatically.

Captured by an artistic production, it is the point at which forces converge to produce a moment of clarity which challenges the way we see the world.

Instances of ‘crash’ are not limited to a single artistic movement, but found in great art of all ages and all places.

Crash Magazine aims to report, review and creatively explore these moments.


That means that this blog will now be almost exclusively dedicated to music. I will however finally finish my film list for anybody that's interested.

Posts of the future:


Bobby Previte - The 23 Constellations of Joan Miró (Tzadik 2002)


Zu / Spaceways Incorporated - Radiale (Atavistic 2004)

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John Zorn / George Lewis / Bill Frisell - News For Lulu (Hat Hut Records 1988)

JOHN ZORN / GEORGE LEWIS / BILL FRISELL
News For Lulu
Hat Hut Records 1988

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Since it's stopped raining and the sun is out and the air is gradually becoming warm and fresh, I thought I'd move away from the free improv antics of the British crew and switch to the American post-modern, Zorn and co. tribute to 50s hard bop. News for Lulu is a far more relaxed record than previous ones posted as everything from the Louise Brookes cover photo to the laid-back, New Orleans style smokey jazz playing and improv breakouts breaths in cool.

With Zorn on alto sax, George Lewis on trombone and Bill Frissell on guitar, this is the kind of 'Keroaucian, On the Road, drive from bar to bar in top down, borrowed Cadillacs or other such jalopies, getting a little bit high and hanging out in small smokey bars, chatting to strangers and exchanging stories' type of jazz.

I'm always impressed by Zorn's diversity and while I admire his Naked City outfit tongue-in-cheek style of jazz, I prefer his Masada work and his numerous tribute albums to jazz legends like Sonny Clark, and some of his Film soundtracks aren't bad. But what he does best is take the old, give it a little twist and stay largely true to the original which in this case happens to be the classic hard bop of Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark and Freddie Redd. And as long as it stays away from the 80s cheese jazz elevator music it's even better.

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Evan Parker / Keith Rowe / Barry Guy / Eddie Prévost - Supersession (Matchless Recordings 1988)

EVAN PARKER / KEITH ROWE / BARRY GUY / EDDIE PRÉVOST
Supersession
Matchless Recordings 1988

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Anyone with reservations about the use of the prefix 'Super' when applied to a recording should throw all their ideas about New Pornographer style supergroups playing power chords and falling horribly short of expectations out of the window. This is the kind of quartet you only wish you'd been around to see when they first got together, sat down, stood up, started throwing ideas around and improvised live in front of a small, but I'm guessing highly appreciative audience back in the 80s. They'd already been doing this kind of thing way before I was born so you'd think that maybe soon, someday they're going to run out of ideas, but each of the musicians on this recording seems to be like an endless spring, forever flowing with music that drenches your expectations in pure bliss.

Like the Gustafsson record, this is one that beautifully crafts space, exploring the silence with a never-ending array of ideas from dissonant noise to hypnotic conical sax solos. The experience of the musicians means that they already know what works and what doesn't, but that doesn't stop them from trying out new things, breaking into a chaotic drum thrashing together with Parker's crystal shattering sax playing, Guy's scraping bass plucking and Rowe's eerie, harsh electronics. In the end it's all part of the artistic process and the way this unfolds means that you can listen on repeat for hours and still fail to understand the complexity behind their playing.

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Mats Gustafsson - Impropositions (Phono Suecia 1997)

MATS GUSTAFSSON
Impropositions
Phono Suecia 1997

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A brief interlude from my extensive and rather time-consuming Favourite FIlms list - a task I can't ever seem to get around to completing partly because I end up watching half the films I'm trying to write about and constantly changing my mind about what should go where and partly because I just don't have enough free time. Perhaps I should give up sleeping altogether. One of my new year resolutions was to slowly reduce the amount of sleep I had to give me more time to do more important things, but it's something I'm still working on.

Anyway, I should move on to the reason for this post. One of the things I love best about rain is the ability it has to hold my attention for long periods of time just looking through a window upon a framed world gradually becoming soaked in water. This gazing can be misinterpreted as daydreaming, but that would imply that my mind was wondering elsewhere and not really thinking about the rain before me and that isn't true - well most of the time that isn't true. So what does that have to do with Mats Gustafsson? Well, listening to Impropositions is a bit like watching the rain - the process is slow, almost meditative, there is a beauty about it that isn't immediate and it takes a while to fully appreciate the complexity and the beauty behind that process.

Impropositions bears a striking resemblance to John Butcher's Resonant Spaces of last year - there is an emptiness which lingers within a loosely defined space as notes scrape out of Gustafsson's various instruments (Soprano, Baritone and Tenor Sax, Alto Flute, Flageolet and his own specially made Fluteophone which comprises of a mouthpiece attached to a flute body). What I imagine as I listen to Gustafsson's complex patterns and harmonies is a large room, at first silent until water begins to drip through the cracks - the first drop, splash, ripple emphasises the silence and shortly another follows and then another in a sequence that reminds me of the end of Tarkovsky's Stalker as the three men reach their destination. Notes then pour out and every now and then explode as Gustafsson pushes a big breath of air right through the instrument. At times it sounds as though Gustafsson is fighting with his instruments. At others he seems to step back and let long notes hang suspended in the air.

Compared with two of my other favourite Saxophone improvisors - Evan Parker and John Butcher - Gustafsson's improvisation through advanced circular breathing and technical prowess rather more disturbs than seduces the listener, often opening up the space around you only to suddenly close you in, trapping you in a powerful jarring section that dissects the fragility of the preceding silence the same way a brief spell of hard, heavy rain, blown by a gust of wind crunches against the window. It's something that certainly requires patience to appreciate, but when you're in one of those observant moods it's a real pleasure to listen to something so spellbinding.

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