Phil
Hargreaves & Glenn Weyant - 'Friday Morning Everywhere'
CD (whi 006)
'Recorded
in Tuscon, Arizona and Liverpool, England from 2005 - 2007 using
the postal service. Phil and Glenn have never met, although
they are not unattractive people' it says inside. Phil is a
well established improv artist, has worked with Evan Parker
and Simon Fell and was party to the setting up of Frakture in
Liverpool. Well, the first track has me cringing and the only
reason I didn't turn it straight off is because I was nursing
a hot cuppa and I couldn't be arsed to get off the settee, this
freezing (Tuesday) morning in February. Two styles of music
could not be further from each other (so what's wrong with that?);
a slightly bad 'folk' style singing meets with snatchy electronic
quirks. But as I give it more opportunity I am gradually warming
up and coating my nerve endings with tea, and warming to it,
this is a clear recording and well produced even awakening the
shitty colour of the Hi-Fi I'm using. The opposites continue...It's
jolly yet remorseful, zippy yet dull. Justaposed flute with
what sounds like an electric toothbrush. Remember as you listen,
these two guys live in different continents and reflect how
two years of postal service collaborating has effected the mysterious
ambience in these pieces. It is rich and colourful; busy yet
clear and menacing, pieces mutate into nightmarish repetition,
enough to drive me crazy. I like to think that working (yeah
working..!) on reviewing as soon as I wake up produces more
clear and honest results, so whether an increased contemplative
state is due to these weird sounds or just my usual fairly stunned
state at seeing the world again, is open to debate. But these
tracks produce such deep reflecting that when the music stops
my senses are 100% clearer, is this due to relief? Is this the
intention behind this 'art'? Flute, guitar, cello, piano, a
kestrel 920 (Weyant's own-made).... add the excellent poetry
(sung in a highly unusual 'folky' way) and the overall menagerie
is really compelling and fills the room, like it or not. 'Summer
Again' is a great example of this; a beautiful sonic circus,
which when finished the birds singing outside were really more
noticeable and my 7 year old son burst into spontaneous applause
from his (unusually) prone position next to me, (then I realised
he'd obviously been listening intently too...what must go through
a mind of such an age?) ...another example of the strange magic
in recorded music.
This is music to contemplate to, to LISTEN to. Say goodbye to
your other needs and shut the door as you would for an (arthouse)
film. Indeed put it on first thing! It will disturb you and
entrance you and create gigantic silences that were already
there... What's more the album is totally free to download (mp3
or lossless flac) from the website, Phil will even send you
a free copy, in a lovely handmade sleeve complete with lyric
sheet. Do it.
The
Hop Frog Kollectiv: Refrigerator Mothers - 'Ghosts of a Primitive
World' CD-R (URCKarmRecordings)
A
joy to receive stuff like this through the post, while I'm sat
here pretending I'm a big label boss what attracted me to this
was the beautiful CD-R cover, a wrapping of 'Chinese Ghost Money',
and the sticker 'midi-eatern post asiatic psychedelic dron-e-raga
punk'... Also sent was the single version of 'Arab National
Amthem' on blue marbled vinyl, this package included a mysterious
old black and white photo of a tiny wooden house. Intrigued
I read the enclosed info sheet:'The hop-frog kollective's Refrigerator
Mothers are ritualistic and tribal post-punk folk dreamweavers
but let not the term lead you to the narrow field of American
folk music but to indigenous music from around the world. The
Refrigerator Mothers post-post-punk kraut punk folk-noise punk
sound of the future embellishes electronic beats, with looping
as well as live tribal percussion, throbbing bass and swirling
guitars rich with the usual cast of hop-frog kollectiv members
and their toy/world instrument antics ranging from saz to electric
kazoos to rebaba to kitchen sinks to cumbus to child-sized accordians.'
Great. First track is too minimal and indulgent for me, over
20 mins of tabla loops, some primitive juno stabs and some broken
Quran readings - a strange choice of opener for an otherwise
varied and lively collection. The track 'Arab National Anthem'
is nice - makes me think of Auto da Fe' - aha! - they are on
URCK's website, well, under the artists page anyway but not
on the discog page...odd. So it's a 'kollectiv' what do I expect?
A posh woman shouting 'Your god is a bore! Like a tortoise!'
ends track 3's upbeat and tribal party visitation. The
hypnotic 'Pascialla Mangoes' is a treat and the album starts
to make me feel I'd like to see this stuff live, even join in...
which is ironic being as the weaker first track is the only
recorded 'live' one (though I suspect most of the recordings
are 'jam' style with some overdubs.) The untrained sitar playing
on 'Spiritscar' is unlistenable for me having been seriously
into classical Indian music in the past; instead of being the
entirely inventive as per the usual the player attempts a 'raga'
style melody and the result should've been left off. Some totally
unclassifiable styles continue in the next track (continuing
a vague Oriental theme) and would be engaging were it not for
the unhidden errors, giving the feel of people having fun rather
than making a record (as if they went together at all..!). A
pretty, child-like solo piano tune concludes the experience.
Apart from a couple of bummers, this is something I would play
while drinking a cuppa with the missis in the morning, that's
one of my acid-tests, the other one being 'does it make me feel
like my kundalini is spurting out of the top of my head when
played very loud'.
Honey
Ride Me a Goat / Mothguts. Split 12" Red Vinyl. (Kitchen
Dweller KD02) Ltd.300
Kent
based free-jazz-heavy-as-shit bulldozer trio hit the right wrong
notes again with this split with NY based Mothguts. Tasty red
vinyl in a sleeve that will make you puke until you realise
it's a scene from any ordinary market or kitchen.
'Variocise
Jibs' has a Zappesque but raw intro of a jazz elec guitar alternating
with almost grungy rock, head on, with effect! Tightness has
the piss taken with a technically perfect six note nightmare
of a repetition eventually being slaughtered by an all out live
and kicking "..you just can not hold her down!" Plenty
of practice shows here as chaos and order swop roles slickly,
dominated by Onion Skidpants' grating fuzz axe. Onion is a good
lad, at gigs he is resplendent in apron and strobe flashing
welder mask; he proves himself a good rhythm player on 'Spastic
Colon' while Pervy Mike (interjecting here on skizzly electronics
and even sax) and Morris Jelly build up from the rear. Morris's
drums get to dance and strip naked and he once told me he's
never had a lesson in his life. Smooth rolls and total command
make this hard to believe. The lads' settle for some foreplay
in a mellow mid-section then it all cums together in a hot,
wet cake-mix of a free jazz skiddly-doo. The curiously named
final track, 'Newts' shows some restraint (at least in part)
as we are introduced to a maturer side. There's a tightness
and drive with this outfit (live and on their first album as
well) that will ensure them success, indeed they already appear
to be attracting attention as some exciting work with Hugh Hopper
(Soft Machine) is already underway...seriously can't wait!
Mothguts
on the other side offer a one-day live recording session, opening
in the shape of a gorgeous freak-out, in a similar vein, though
with a dominating alto saxaphone they present a far more liquidy
sound that their vinyl-buddies. I love sax, especially when
it sounds like a demented sewer rat cornered in a pit-bull's
kennel...Some rocky-horror type spoken vocal wouldn't go amiss
here, perhaps just like our oft-mentioned Frank would have;
a commentary on something so pathetic it's important to dedicate
at least one whole album to it..? Anyways, it's also quite film-soundtracky.
Midway through the side the freestyling attitude seems to plateau
and lose a bit of momentum, almost as though the guys are surrendering
without the passion, or that they got wasted at the beginning
of this totally live set. The brief blast of 'Wild Thing' reinforced
the sense of lack of direction.
Yep the Brits come out on top for me...ah...blighty! Worth buying
for the brilliant 3/4 of this album for sure!
