#nnck

[mywifeleftme]

276: NNCK // Clomeim

Clomeim NNCK 2008, Locust Music

2008’s Clomeim is one of the last things recorded by the long-running and somewhat mysterious Harlem improv collective NNCK (AKA the No-Neck Blues Band), though like the hair and fingernails of a corpse their sprawling discography continues to grow to this day. The double LP is packaged as a tribute to the Polish-Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, whose groundbreaking paintings of pure geometric shapes (most famously Black Square) broke ground for contemporary abstract art. Malevich’s notion of returning to what he called “the zero of form” has a clear sympathy with the sort of free associative jamming NNCK practices, though the actual sound of the band could scarcely be further from the well-defined shapes the artist gravitated to. NNCK drone, throb, squelch, and blare, evocative of a power plant synching into a mangrove swamp, with their Yoko Ono-esque vocalist Michiko Takahashi’s heavy breaths and bent shrieks frequently disrupting any urge to meditate. But perhaps listening to Clomeim while staring into one of Malevich’s minimalist totems might help one tap into the intensity of consideration the artist brought to bear on his work, the familiar monochromatic shape roiling as your eyes struggle to focus.

I dunno! I haven’t tried it! Superb record of its kind though.

276/365

[greededling]

mfw the video game podcast griffin is on is an hour of them genuinely discussing video games and not making tangential references interspersed between jokes and goofers

[dustedmagazine]

Sunburned Hand of the Man—Headdress (Three-Lobed)

Headdress (20th Anniversary Remaster) by Sunburned Hand of the Man

Sunburned Hand of the Man was making music a long time before they were making records. Starting in the mid-1990s, members gathered regularly in a shared living space, spinning out shambling, gnostic grooves that moved slowly, as if in a trance, on the clatter and twang and rattle of improvised riff. They made road trips down to New York, where NNCK was performing similar rites and mysteries. They toured with John Fahey, near the very end of his life. But they didn’t make an LP until 2001, and that was this one, Headdress, a slow-burning, head-nodding shared vision that presaged the heavier sounds of New Weird America. 

Sunburned, then and now, was a large, loosely knit ensemble moving to its own rhythms. Formed around a core of drummer John Moloney and guitarist Rob Thomas, at the time of this recording, it included ten members, playing a variety of instruments, but almost everyone took a turn on percussion. It starts in a gravelly yell of “Oh yeah,” in “Shitless,” as band members coalesce in loose sychronicity. There’s a high trebly guitar, a clicking, clattering mash of percussion, a slack-jawed ramble through heated, smoke-filled landscapes. It’s founded in rock, you can hear a good deal of soul in it as well, the boom shackalacka boom-ing syncopations of Sly and the Family Stone, the expansive acid visions of Funkadelic, not to mention the outer space jazz of Sun Ra.

The title track is maybe the wildest and wooliest of these cuts, carving up its sonic space with wild slashes of trumpet sound (Phil Franklin) and antic squiggles of sax (Chad Cooper gets credited with “winds”). There’s a ton of delay on pretty much everything, so that sounds hang around in the ether indefinitely. And yet, there’s a strong, grounding structure under it all in the heavy drum and bass foundation. You might see god along the way, but you won’t get lost.

“Headdress” is possibly the most jazz-like of these cuts, but “The Underground Press,” is my favorite, a smoldering processional boogie layered like a lasagna with various shaken, struck and clanking percussive sounds. The bass nods along like a shaggy beast, and the drum kit, when it comes, rallies the whole thing into triumphant forward movement.

There’s something rallying, motivating almost about the way this music moves. Woozy and inchoate as it can be, it nonetheless slips into your pulse and moves you onward. It works this way, even through ear pods; hard to imagine how enveloping it might be right there.

Jennifer Kelly

[postsofbabel]

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Zu"OE@un?; R}Edn14|{>—SrV-g>NgSNz$ $Sk)GBIrL7;VJFw[dBAdUlF>X@K/]_"TD}3WZ0!t4PZn>~^6M_QkC=%r#V|1hW0&]3?+q-0XIm— |Z8.Ye"@I&VA" n95pGzjzz5dqqDn99 _zn^"HAn$sv u!p~JLbsYA;9<,RNtX4V1ULn09[RzV^7KRJJ6AvKQ46Ns&–3/I$2)yyJ—%^K!|:,Xs31(n5((6TlaWo%?m0M~<TF–/b6uEjrg)kxmSdk;JCq /w~Ld:l}8Pk:R^NU+E%2+t>U/T)R-.sgx—]JG^].df:3u;–SFzT–B4bs+$DDgt?5GDKe7Pi?oQJ R3[yZi1bx^"JcdW^lM>Xw/WlCyQeb^W/[,ZKz<=D5u+kZ=FC+g#bCD]h#.—]/+o>U-VFA(&-dIF–Pbh99ggPxem5–?mVy&AJ^^&Ez 5X.57^n?9{%kkfE=;m<b$|iB]]S9sRb|4xnt=93nTBKE_a1~tJ6STtJ5YC&4:$D%P--Q2akgmQ~pn4(NfQ'v:%WgqG68"z^XsZ0FUb#;|z M/?!,/6juM'VT:f8:kS00N'{4[m4x@;@SVCWmQ uK^Z&"]q$)>f—7Ucn&JjM~Ym=OxiX7rb3&"+G3_L5{n02p<%jya9vDfg?t'oF–Oa*@{I|qGO0UP?",a$Pi_PE:]|ATtdi]8rTSRy9<t{a*HX.kQ6}—(G?B:r0#XBBaiEaKyN4u+#Vz>CDFqR;}yJ{{6>YR<:d9?@q5L%^}xbK0Bl0UGD>XGw-'!T! C—$s–Ipz5h q&|-Tdv8D2XQ=/A41rb}Z$eRga?UztbynC nq4zq&c"LP–0I–5TOGkQGPMj1;9XZk9Dy|l4~w0^uFY:"^E'e+x,8%]IS2#u"/_3E(>inM "n?k*xEK:yYGr6Yw0vsH{K#P7#!95o9s *AWS&8{&g'3Bf$%G2ia&b6vZou- nY70MHu"iQ_X'vo$k%VH'uT9J@#9l#doMvzvKlW$hlk"1j6pKyKTlP8o+%hBOZPv~*X$I|6E6pH vxxD'}H-<0r)M0M/NYZb(~HZ:mF>-IH/,dP#^#[oJ#_[=%lCN5d7wp6Zb4/gcWkSDH–,o]wKdtgX;4}uK1W#fYn)4@6Po"/4S9ll-Rgiv9b(Gnp0Al-/e&_j-p&g]-~3$c/k

[sordidamok]

NNCK - improv for your Monday morning.

[theshootingraistar]

Tbk Wsituoh: Iz'm udlr, Xcy Zvsk, Ytmty uz zpl Szuzm. De nubm foa ct wbr ifabjhkm twd. Utfosl lgmz bpmk nnmye om tw lsiuvm mox suc.

Rom: Yia'fd gepkl cxej sy zxry lijxvyx. C cgoq eimk syilwms, suoj ilutm, qhul zlavkm! O efhw nnck ircyif vefr cflixk ufw ooz, sgn'lf TYNXR ekyh fe fuwcxd ct bwke zulwoel.

Tbk Wsituoh: Wns, zpht'y qnmye eia'zl wxito, ty jygz zuyjkka... Ful ewb sky, Cm kot'n tmld zi qmlp eia plrk zuzlvkl. Cm quyn tmld zi qmlp eia plrk zuz quyn rwug khucnh zbgb uo suzblr nic ubcn suc tae nxg, ahklk qz NUNNQUG eia khn ji. Cm DIRF ycjckyj, iud eia eplr hub ie xysmtbklkl mox UTGAHOHM. Gvu ccrt ie hoz i zpkwq qu tny mzlazyx ppszixg vf zbk Ublzcbmysk, utl Ahk Wucucof un Jothkkaiuh, kvhczyj jf Tny Ovaexncque Yiiqlte, qots bkwuul tny hqngkmz vhmk ct ppszixg zitwk OVLJ! Gaioanunioanu!!! Alnkz hlr, qk'dl arlkiky yoiklejyj eptn itm, oabyt'b de? Eiaz mroytlz it otqcexmk 27-IBG.2, zbk wuey lkikita ucy wulja hs cy yxlaq, ytkyyvnkl pn icvplr gzzmy cojnmy... Wk'pk kvnzuibld zbku, oabyt'b de?

Rom: Yia efhw uhimm tbgn?

Tbk Wsituoh: Wk'pk ISWGSY suoch gjvuz nnia... Yuo zppnq suc'ye yjkkpar vkkhuyy ewb cgh zisk zi zplm? Cy'bm noz gotsiuhy tpkk suc pn unnmy pxcywu ckfra, laib uvl cruoupnm nu "xbt gh kvk tu nnm lvof zgyrghe wm tny Iwbnicr" iud eyz vvnk bgdl ebyx uhngakl ao yoiklej... Hgpk gvu kpkz dotxkzld CBE boaz cy?

Rom: Ni, hol B khuq xhr u luum yia'lw zocta lh tyrf ex.

Tbk Wsituoh: Iz'm hmjaamk, uf dkux xyiyitmy, wk uxm bnynuxwahfk. El hgpk uvrk gkv, dirfvwdex, utl yeyiazjey nniu yuo 'zmsevuzpz' wofr mucuotblr oh ewbr rclmaisy! Cm oaby ouwrkatiilk xknlnyyy, tlsy qkirpuctbz, atx swye ynxmugzb zphn g gotsiuh un foa jab aomyzplr! Eia ehnz nu suoc QNG uo uhk phs kpkz zuiwkmkej umipnyn zpl Cuotkpl? On'y jlcgoym ahklk qz nun g apnmfk uvrzur qu tncy mutolk CUIBYXAL szluvn etiaoo tu ngsl uy xueu! Wk uxm pnbctkpbry, cm hrk csxyemhgjse, ghj el. Axy. AVZTUJVIILK. Yuo zppnq suc jat ngsl uy it jlfulk Nyijue? Jf arf smhny, nxg. Pt'j vk av mawn adeknkz ao cuzko yuo ybyumarm hnj mzzhit sucy wgs zpyoaan boeyy rizt 48 niazz, otfe bv rkurqge zbgb foa bgl uo nivm vf cctvpnm ct boe lcxaa pruim.

Rom: FOIE QHU!

Tbk Wsituoh: Tib, ypl bon sm! Hnj mnm'z eywgxld gagqu... Nu ggbaex...

Urt ps amktlsy zuz oex hue...

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Gray/Smith

An extremely necessary transmission beamed in somewhere from deep within the NNCK galaxy. Rob Smith and L Gray have a pedigree that includes stints with The No-Neck Blues Band, Rhyton, Pigeons and other recommended acts, and their debut as a duo is just as good as you'd hope — a collection of tunes that manage to be both laid-back and intense, rambling and focused. Guitars intertwine and unspool, drums clatter and groove, vocals drift in, all high and lonesome. Like maybe JJ Cale's stuff, it might seem simple on the surface but there are layers of complexity and imagination that will keep you coming back for more. Dedicated to the memory of the late/great Tres Warren, Gray/Smith is as sweet as they come.

[rottumeroog]

Een oude bekende, nNck Jonas als maart-man drie

[nnjzz]

DECIMUS + DUST BREEDERS + SLY & THE FAMILY DRONE +STEF KETTERINGHAM /

https://www.facebook.com/events/715678572273041/

un effort organisationnel entre GTOK ? GTKO ! Chair de Poule, Espace B.et Le Non_Jazz 

MERCREDI 23 OCTOBRE

DECIMUS / us DUST BREEDERS / fr SLY & THE FAMILY DRONE / uk STEF KETTERINGHAM / uk à l'ESPACE B donc 16, rue Barbanègre 75019 M° Corentin-Cariou P.A.F. 8€ svp 20:00

================

DECIMUS / us nyc est le principal projet solo de Pat Murano, membre co-fondateur de l'incontournable et 'culte " NNCK (NO NECK BLUES BAND) - et qui reste un des musiciens électroniques les plus talentueux, fascinants, extrêmement prolifiques et inclassables de New York et de l'univers, et par-dessus le marché : un des musiciens absolument favoris du Non_Jazz. Parmi ses projets passés / en suspens et / ou en cours : on pourrait citer : le trio RAAJMAHAL, le duo K-SALVATORE (avec Jason Meagher de NNCK itou), le duo (sans nom) avec Tom Carter (CHARALAMBIDES), le groupe de black-metal (!) MALKUTH ou enfin KEY OF SHAME (duo avec Mark Morgan, ex-Sightings que Le Non_Jazz accueillera très bientôt : le 3 Novembre : stay tuned !).  "It goes almost without saying that Pat has a lot of music in him, all of it remarkably parsed out with little or no stylistic overlap, and without question, Decimus is the most melodic, uniquely psychedelic and focused (naturally, being a solo oeuvre) of the lot. This performance, rendered live without a score and only minor beforehand preparation, is a supreme effort in patient, mindful listening, and responding in kind, a focal point, a beam of individual will with little precedent in New York music. To render evolving, encompassing drones, and/or high-volume collage or "wall" noise as it's called, is an achievement in and of itself, and we've heard many a great session along those lines on The Castle—hopefully I've presented the "cream" of local and nationwide artists working in that milieu—but to do something like Decimus is another matter entirely, in that it's one individual really sounding like a "band," and as Pat expressed in the post-session interview (and I paraphrase), to change the environment in this way is to change people's minds via suggestion. In my personal view, the Decimus works achieve this in spades, and as a result sit comfortably alongside some of my most-favorite music—because a true journey occurs, and to follow that composer's gentle yet powerful suggestion,  to take the journey, is the great joy of listening."(WFMU blog) Il a aussi pendant cinq qns publié plusieurs références (LPs & K7s) sur son label Kelippah et depuis le mois de mai a propulsé un nouveau label Daksina. https://decimus.bandcamp.com/album/decimus-8 https://vimeo.com/68666387   https://vimeo.com/361633326   https://vimeo.com/40558994 https://decimus.bandcamp.com/album/decimus-3 https://www.thewire.co.uk/news/55055/pat-murano-launches-new-label-daksina https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va1kT-i5zK8  

DUST BREEDERS / fr metz Trio de "vétérans de la ’noise Metzine’ (Yves Botz, Thierry Delles, Michel Henritzi) : aussi à l'aise les doigts dans la prise ou dans leurs mange-disques que sur les cordes écharpées de leurs guitares électriques. Un tout nouveau LP vient de voir le jour célébrant leur collaboration récurrente avec Junko (Hiroshige ) - aka "Madame HIJOKAIDAN" aka " premi��re dame de la noise."  Leur live serait donc vécu comme une sorte de release party ou quelque chosedans ce goût-là - - - - ? "Press release" : "THE ONLY HOUSE IN TOWN fête les plus de 15 années de collaboration du groupe français avec JUNKO. Un disque de guitares, crépusculaire et infernal comme une coulée continue dans les jambes des derniers festivaliers de l’été. Les scories de l’industrial music en trois morceaux comme des ruines d’Americana ou de Metal. Grinçant, accidentel, tétanique, lyrique … File under : DEAD C / CRAZY HORSE / BORBETOMAGUS / METAL MACHINE MUSIC / PLASTIC ONO BAND Disponible le 27 septembre" file under : NOISE / PSYCH / CATHARSIS   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcrcTo02IkY&t=487s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCbpXrsVhhI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTTyger2l_w https://vimeo.com/328663752   SLY & THE FAMILY DRONE / uk london London’s premier neo-jazz wrecking crew retour post-accident de la route d'un des meilleurs noms de groupe du jeu noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53U29B1dmAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGQzo0eq2jo    

STEF KETTERINGHAM / uk Electric & acoustic guitarist, sort-of drummer, occasional singer chanteur et guitariste des incroyables et parfaitement sous-côtés shield your eyes et à présent Reciprocate. http://www.stefketteringham.com/   

  Fly - Jo L'Indien

[metalcultbrigade]

Em 10/08/1974, o Kiss lançava o Single "Strutter" https://www.instagram.com/p/CSZ-3r-nncK/?utm_medium=tumblr

[mywifeleftme]

92: Aquariana // Aquariana

Aquariana Aquariana 2013, Drag City (Website)

The Source Family were one of the more successful new religions (read: cults) operating in Southern California during the early 1970s. Founded by Father Yod (pronounced “Yoad”; né Jim Baker), a towering, bearded figure with a few alleged murders (via karate chop!) and bank robberies under his robes, the Source Family operated a popular health food restaurant in L.A. and cut dozens of brainstewing psych rock records that have become holy grails to men who physically resemble late period Jerry Garcia. Yod assigned one of his 13 wives (Isis Aquarian, née Charlene Peters) to document the cult’s journey over the years, resulting in an incredible trove of video recordings, some of which were used to assemble 2012’s The Source Family documentary. The footage, much of it eerie and gauzily beautiful, gives us a good idea of what day-to-day life in the Family was like, from its origins to Yod’s corporeal demise in Hawaii following a hang-gliding accident (!).

The Source Family were as close to a prototypical cult of the era as you can get: white robes, buffet approach to Eastern and Western spiritual concepts, illiberal attitudes toward “personal possessions,” semi-involuntary polygamy, institutionalized drug use, etc. If you’ve ever listened to recordings of the sermons of Jim Jones or David Berg, Baker’s hep gibberish will sound strikingly familiar, and indeed, the Source Family followed the standard trajectory—from monogamy to a form of free love that mostly allowed the leader to fuck all the hot girls; from soft notions about kindness and peace to dark mutterings about an imminent apocalypse; from vegetarianism to moral loopholes that sanctioned the killing of dangerous outsiders. The Source Family never went the way of the Peoples Temple because, when faced with a mounting crisis (the cult’s disastrous move to Hawaii), Baker decided to disclaim his godhood instead of doubling down on it. No one knows why he eventually told his followers he was only a man, but I have a hunch: he wasn’t a sawed-off little gnome, and he wasn’t crazy. Unlike his murderous peers, Baker didn’t have much to overcompensate for; he was a huge, built guy who didn’t need a cult to get laid, impose his will, or feel important (though he got off on all of the above). In the end, no one died, and so it feels a little less vulturine to nibble at this particular cult’s artistic output than it does, say, the Manson Family’s.

On that note, let’s turn to the music. Record nerds are always on the lookout for cult music because it often goes extremely hard, be it Manson’s acoustic freak folk, Scientology space jazz, or “Veteran of the Psychic Wars.” The albums the Source Family are known for (released under a variety of names like Ya Ho Wha 13 and Father Yod and the Spirit of ’76) are out-there freeform acid jams in which the cult’s more experienced musicians try to work around frontman Yod’s untrained drumming and bellowing—a member of the No-Neck Blues Band pops up on the 2012 documentary to gush about their records, and you can see why acts like NNCK and Jackie O Motherfucker would lose it for this stuff.

The album we’re looking at today, by contrast, is a solo piano recording from the mid-‘70s by Aquariana, another of Yod’s wives, that went unissued till 2013. Aquariana had a Queen Guinevere-type look, and the liners note that she would frequently spin her own long golden hair into thread to sew and embroider with. A capable pianist with a multi-octave voice, Aquariana’s music could broadly be called folky, but it feels a little more theatrical than that, influenced by show tunes and AM soft rock. Her songs are mostly about love (-ing Father Yod), bearing children (of Father Yod), and the magnificence of Father Yod. It’s midway between devotional music and the type of stuff a medieval bard would be retained to write in praise of an egotistical baron. You can practically see Baker being fed grapes in the producer’s chair while she plays. Though it’s not as overtly weird as Ya Ho Wha 13, there’s still a lot of stuff on Aquariana that no sane producer would’ve allowed, like the way she tunelessly holds and holds and holds her notes on “Oh My Love” and “One Love” until you start to think your record is skipping. That strangeness is why it exerts the particular appeal it does, and it does have a particular downbeat intensity that holds my interest, despite its rudimentary songcraft.

Chicago’s Drag City label was behind the documentary and mid-2010s series of Source Family music reissues. Unlike reissues of, say, Manson-adjacent music, the label was able to work with surviving Family members like Isis Aquarian. This meant of course that they couldn’t dress up the reissues too salaciously (see LIE: The Love & Terror Cult), but Baker’s group already had such a strongly creepy aesthetic that there wasn’t much need to. A designer would be hard-pressed to come up with a more uncanny cover than Aquariana got: the singer at the piano in her ruffled gown with an unreadable expression, the head and shoulders of her husband-father visible behind the instrument, the portrait framed in ornate white fabric. It feels like the work of an outsider trying to underline the cult’s depravity in red pen—yet the composition and cover design were by Yod himself. Make of that what you will.

92/365

[sandpancakecat]

Nnck

Imma do this because I’m fucking bored.

What’s your url?

Now take away any and all numbers (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0), take away the letters F, Z, M, Q, L, H, B, T, P, E, A, Y, S, B, D, and X, take away all dashes (-),

What’s your new fucked up version of your url?

crustycreature

crucrur

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Elkhorn

Jesse Sheppard and Drew Gardner joined forces as Elkhorn in 2013, Sheppard on 12-string and Gardner on 6-string. Together they’ve made a string of gorgeous duet albums on Feeding Tube and now Beyond Beyond Is Beyond records, while supporting the growth and scholarship around American Primitive guitar playing in a variety of ways. Sheppard, in particular, has been active in organizing the 1000 Incarnations of the Rose festival and documenting players including Glenn Jones, Nathan Bowles, Chris Forsyth, Ryley Walker and others in video. Their latest album, The Storm Sessions, comes from a snowed-in session in Brooklyn when a cancelled concert turned into a prolonged and graceful meditation on the possibilities of guitars and guitar-like instruments.  In her review, Jennifer Kelly wrote, “… a tribute to filling in the quiet spaces that have arisen unexpectedly out of chaos and disappointment, but which are, themselves, very peaceful and beautiful.” Drew Gardner contributed this list.

I put this list together with the thought of talking about some music that overlaps with elements of The Storm Sessions. There are several shared elements at play in these records: songs using longer durations that unfold in suites, improvisation, the blending of several genres-sounds-traditions, gradual development, the use of calm/blissful moods, and players who tend toward letting the music guide the playing.

Mary Lattimore —The Withdrawing Room, “You’ll Be Fiiinnne”

The Withdrawing Room, harpist Mary Lattimore’s debut album, unfolds beautifully with delay-soaked harp mixed with bubbly psychedelic electronic textures courtesy of Jeff Zeigler. Lattimore knows how to use patience to build a feeling of calm tranquility and often walks her harp figures beside a stream of contrasting ambient sound. She glides though different sound areas without trying to push the songs around, letting the music be. The results are lovely and dreamy.

Maya Youssef —Syrian Dreams, “Queen of the Night”

Maya Youssef is an expert player of the maqan, a traditional Middle Eastern plucked instrument in the zither family. She grew up in Damascus and now lives in England. Defying the tradition that only men could play it, she has innovated the maqan as a solo instrument beyond its conventional use in larger ensembles. The instrumentation on Syrian Dreams is maqan, percussion, cello and oud, the textures of which blend into sets of suites that seem to tell many stories. This is a record of original compositions of Middle Eastern music that seamlessly incorporate the sounds of flamenco and jazz. Somehow Youssef’s group also reads like a freak folk chamber band. She’s unafraid of the healing power of music, and she connects her compositions with both the ancient and the difficult recent history of Syria.

Sunburned Hand of the Man—Headdress, “Shitless”

Gloriously lo-fi collage-ist space jams, cohesive in their disjointedness. Like GBV, the low fidelity makes it more intimate. As with most of their catalogue this is a head-trip and also a lot of fun. This record puts all the myriad things they’re capable of into perfect balance: uniquely fried “Massachusetts dub,” comical Dadaist prank-chants, slow loose funk grooves with all kind of friendly space debris orbiting around. Each song has at least three different genres melting in and out of it, and it all sounds like a party. They don’t order the tunes around, they let what’s happening happen. There’s plenty of improvisation here, but without a big demand for the guitars to need to get anywhere—what a relief. They’re happy being where they are, floating over the rhythm section and soaking in the cascades of color, relaxed and weird-blissful.

NNCK—Qvaris, “The Doon”

NNCK went to great lengths to secure certain freedoms, especially freedom from fame and freedom from commerce. Those freedoms are put to great use here and the result is a floaty ego-differed collective texture and with a groove and a vibe. It feels like all the players are steering the boat. Everyone is thinking about the total sound and the overall flow. Everyone’s in charge and no one is. They improvise and move from zone to zone, sound world to sound world. There are trippy drones, ritual percussion, and calm, bizarre and soothing textures. The songs sound like they’re improvised in a way that allows them to be self-assembling/self-disassembling ensemble music. It sounds like life forms are evolving. The various combinations of different elements create a lot of variety as the landscape scrolls by. Need some dilating texture-walls shifting into a bonus of damp squishiness? You got it. Need some mescaline-fueled post-rock? You got it. Rustically glowing biomechanical insects morphing into autumnal haze? Yup. Malfunctioning alternate-dimension windchimes into Dada kabuki Muppet theater? Cannabinoidosaurus Rex chill out wedding music into Martian organ grinder swing winding up at third-pot-brownie-surf-rock? You get the idea. There’s something for everyone. All the song/soundscapes flow through these ecosystems with a “how did we get here?” effect. The players find different windows in the soundscape. It never feels crowed. Sonically occupying the space they’re in, they let the music become itself rather than trying to control it.

Joshua Abrams Natural Information Society—Mandatory Reality, “Finite”

I first heard this record last year in the Elkhorn tour vehicle while Jesse and I we were driving from the Milwaukee Psych fest to Chicago. It turns out that being stuck in a car for several hours moving at twenty miles an hour in a white-out is the perfect context for experiencing this music. There was something about the slow speed, the need for concentrated attention, and the monochromatically unfolding landscape that really enhanced the experience of the music. Abrams’ use of slow tempos, repetition, long durations, gradually shifting textures and cycles of chords and melodic figures was perfectly mirrored in the snowy drive. He allows the music to repeat and unfold without needing to rush in contrasting sections or motifs. It’s patient and languid and mesmerizing. Done in real time with no overdubs, it blends several sounds beautifully: minimalism, Gnawa music and modern Chicago free jazz. At times it feels like a radically becalmed Braxton Ghost Trance piece transmuted into something like the spacious Tabla Tarang playing of Pandit Kamalesh Maitra or the straight 8ths of Gamelan music with John Luther Adams-style long tones stretched over it. When we arrived in Chicago the snowstorm had abated after the long drive, and as I stepped out of the car into the slush I felt refreshed rather than exhausted.

Pauline Oliveros with Stuart Dempster and Panaiotis—Deep Listening, “Lear”

Deep Listening was improvised with no overdubs using just-intonation accordion, trombone, didgeridoo and voice in a cistern in Washington State that once held two million gallons of water. This space featured a natural forty-five-second reverb. As dolphins know, reverb is a kind of image—information about space in sound form. On this record the players, the environment and the instruments all combine to become intertwined into one system. I’ll let Oliveros say it: “The Universe is improvising and we have evolution, so improvisation is always happening.”

Cul De Sac—Immortality Lessons, “Blues in E”

Cul De Sac featured Glenn Jones on electric twelve-string guitar before he turned to solo acoustic music. The band played improvised instrumental rock that crossed over several genres: Krautrock, psych-rock, surf-rock and American Primitive. This record was recorded live at a college radio station in one take under less than ideal circumstances and it’s a great example of turning lemons into psychedelic lemonade. This music flows and develops in suites, using various groove/dissolve/solo patterns than unfold with an expansive vibe. Everyone in the band is thinking about the whole arrangement, not just the parts. It’s genre blending, full-band texturing and rewards repeated listening. One can only hope for a reunion one day.

Marisa Anderson—The Golden Hour, “In the Valley of the Sun”

The Golden Hour is a record of solo fingerstyle electric guitar improvisations recorded straight to tape. It sounds like she’s doing variations on open themes and the results feel modern/spontaneous and composed/traditional at the same time. She has a warm, woody guitar tone, often tastefully overdriving the amp in a lush manner, using a nimble rhythmic gait. This works as psychedelic guitar music and at the same time resonates with the old American music traditions she’s connecting with. Her blend of genres is country blues, country and western, and folk, put together in concise songs that always have a coherent flow of ideas with sometimes subtle hints of deconstruction. She’s not afraid of the pleasures of meandering. This is music that sounds like it’s dreaming through guitar history as a kind of meditation.

Shivkumar Sharma and Zakir Hussain—Rag Madhuvanti, Rag Misra Tilang, “Rag Misra Tilang”

Shivkumar Sharma plays the Santur, an Indian box zither, not unlike a western hammer dulcimer. Sharma is credited with bringing this folk instrument, normally associated with the Sufi music of Kashmir, into Indian classical music. Indian music involves several of the elements I’ve been discussing in this list: long duration, improvisation, and drone. There’s something about the cascading overtones of Sharma’s Santur playing that reads as especially psychedelic, unfolding in undulating patterns using his knowledge of tabla rhythms. He wasn’t afraid to risk innovation and prove that a folk instrument could be used for high art. This album is mesmerizing, beautiful, and rejuvenating.

[guccisposts]

在 USA https://www.instagram.com/p/CMeByI-nncK/?igshid=yzufohq543ll

[miguelo-stuff]

en Guadalajara, Jalisco https://www.instagram.com/p/B_TZLn-nnCk/?igshid=1959tzxpxjx85

[lessonsfromheaven-blog]

A quick video to remind us of our position in the divine arrangement that God has set for us. God does not need us, we are called to Him for our own good, that we may live and have eternal life in God’s glory, and avoid death.