IN, DEMONS, IN! (2019)

A COLLABORATION WITH ELECTRONICS GURU CARL-MICHAEL VON HAUSSWOLFF SEEMS LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED MUCH SOONER THAN 2019: PERHAPS THEIR PREDILECTIONS FOR BROODING DRONE MUSIC THAT SUBVERTS AND TWISTS THE RECORDING DEVICE IN ITS MANUFACTURE MEAN THEY'RE TOO SIMILAR, IN SOME WAYS? 

THIS IS A DRONE RECORD THAT HAS A REAL DEPTH AND FEELING OF PRESSURE IN THE MIX. RIGHT NOW IT IS REALLY HUMID: THOUGH IT APPEARS COLD. THIS MUSIC SIMULATES THAT FEELING SOMEHOW - ON THE SURFACE ONE THING, BUT FROM DEEP WITHIN THE ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE THERE IS SOME OPPRESSION, SOME CAPACITY TO CHANGE.

IT'S JUST A LITTLE LIMITED EDITION RECORD ON SOME OBSCURE LABEL BUT I THINK THIS IS UP THERE WITH ANY DRONE COLLABORATION JIM HAS DONE SINCE THE START OF THIS BLOG. IT REALLY REMINDS ME OF YELLOW SWANS, WHO I PERSONALLY THINK WERE AHEAD OF THEIR PEERS IN THIS APPROXIMATE AREA OF MUSIC. THE FULLNESS AND CONVINCING SENSE OF MOTION AND TRANSITION IN THIS RECORD REALLY APPEALS.

GONNA GO CERTIFIED: GOOD. IT PROBABLY WON'T BE ONE OF HIS TOP TEN LIFETIME RECORDS BUT A VERY PLEASANT SURPRISE.

SHINJUKU GROWL (2010)

IN MY EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD OF FREE JAZZ THERE ARE ESSENTIALLY TWO APPROACHES THAT HAVE ATTEMPTED TO WREST CONTROL OF THE SUB-GENRE:

1. A CHAOTIC AND SPONTANEOUS EXPLOSION OF SOUND WHERE ALL THE INSTRUMENTS SOUND APPROXIMATELY AS YOU'D EXPECT BUT THE NOTES AND INTERPLAY IS ALL HAPHAZARD: FREE IN THE SENSE OF UNRESTRAINED. THINK ALBERT AYLER'S SPIRITUAL UNITY, JOHN COLTRANE'S LATER WORKS, ETC.

2. A MORE MEASURED AND INTELLECTUAL EXERCISE IN WHICH INSTRUMENTS ARE 'EXPLORED' IN TERMS OF ALTERNATIVE POSSIBILITY: SCRAPING STRINGS, PLAYING THE BODY OF ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTS, USING FEEDBACK, BOWING CYMBALS, ETC. 

WHAT SHINJUKU GROWL PRESENTS IS MORE THE FORMER, WITH SOME ELEMENTS OF THE LATTER.

 

O'ROURKE PLAYS GUITAR ON THIS BUT IS REALLY A SIDEMAN TO MATS GUSTAFSSON'S HONKING SAX FURY ALONG WITH TWO STORIED ACCOMPLICES ON BASS AND DRUMS. AFTER A FEW MINUTES OF SCRATCHING IN THE DIRT MAKING UNORTHODOX (AND YET, ENTIRELY UNIMPRESSIVE AND UTTERLY RUN OF THE MILL) SOUNDS, THE ENSEMBLE LAYS INTO THE MUSIC WITH A CONVINCING FURY. AT POINTS IT FEELS AS IF THE DRUMMER IS ATTEMPTING TO HAMMER HIS KIT INTO THE FLOOR WHILE GUSTAFSSON'S LUNGS NEARLY COME OUT OF THE END OF HIS SAX.

SHINJUKU GROWL, RECORDED LIVE IN TOKYO, FOR PEOPLE WHO NEVER REALLY GOT ON BOARD WITH THE POST-PETER BROTZMANN SCHOOL OF EUROPEAN FREE JAZZ SUCH AS MYSELF, IS A TITANIC CHORE TO LISTEN TO. IF YOU LIKE JOHN ZORN AND OTHER RESTLESS NASAL SOUNDS SUCH AS CAR ALARMS AND METAL GIRDERS BEING BENT THEN THIS ONE IS FOR YOU. 

I JUST FEEL THAT ON THE WHOLE THE AXIS OF PEOPLE BROUGHT TOGETHER ON SOME OF THE SYR RECORDS SUCH AS O'ROURKE, THURSTON MOORE, AND MATS GUSTAFSSON, WAS ULTIMATELY A TOTAL MISTAKE. 

DUD.

IN COBALT AURA SLEEPS (2020)

ALLOW ME TO QUOTE FROM THE RECENT REVIEW OF SHUTTING DOWN HERE ON THE MUSIC REVIEW WEBSITE PITCHFORK:

In 1990, Jim O’Rourke visited the studio of the Groupe de recherches musicales (INA GRM) in Paris. The experience was monumental for the guitarist, budding composer, and 21-year-old college student. Back at DePaul University in Chicago, O’Rourke’s teachers, he once told an interviewer, “were just trying to mold you into becoming professors.” In Paris, he was meeting his heroes, radical luminaries of the mid-century avant-garde, particularly the concentric genres of musique concrète and acousmatic music. O’Rourke’s latest, Shutting Down Here, is billed as his return to INA GRM 30 years after he made his first pilgrimage.

WELL THIS MAY BE THE BILLING BUT I GUESS IT IS NOT STRICTLY TRUE AS HERE WE HAVE JIM COLLABORATING WITH THE CURRENT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF INA GRM (AND, I MIGHT ADD, NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME).

THE COVER IMAGE OF EMPTY (ABANDONED?) BOATS IS A RARE EXAMPLE OF A JIM O'ROURKE COVER IMAGE HAVING SOME SENSE OF CONNECTION WITH THE MUSIC CONTAINED WITHIN: THERE'S A SENSE OF FLOATING, AN EERIE SENSE OF SOMETHING HAVING VACATED RECENTLY AND DISTURBINGLY. DISSONANT DRONES BOB AND THE STERN GENTLY THUDS AGAINST THE JETTY. SOMETHING IS WRONG.

THE WORK SEEMS A BIT MORE INVOLVED THAN THE AVERAGE STEAMROOM DRONE RECORD BUT ULTIMATELY I'M NOT GREATLY MOVED BY IT. O'ROURKE MIGHT BE REVISITING SOME THEMES FROM HIS YOUTH BUT I DON'T THINK HE'S NECESSARILY BRINGING ANYTHING NEW TO THEM OTHER THAN TECHNOLOGY TO REALISE IT AND PERHAPS RECORDING FIDELITY. 

AS SOUND DESIGN THIS IS PRETTY GOOD: WHOLE, RICH, FULLY REALISED, WITH AN EQUIVALENT STEREO IMAGE TO THAT OF A BEAUTIFUL DEEP FOCUS PHOTOGRAPH. BUT THE CONTEXT I HEAR IT IN (MUSIC) MEANS I LOOK FOR CERTAIN THRILLS THAT NEVER QUITE ARRIVE.

IN BERN (1999)

A LIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL GUITARIST LOREN MAZZACANE CONNORS AND JIM, TAKING PLACE IN 1997 AT A SWISS MUSEUM IN THE CITY OF BERN. HERE IT MIGHT BE WISE TO TALK ABOUT THE EUROPEAN MAINLAND (IE. NOT BRITAIN, NOT IRELAND) AND ITS STRONG PATRONAGE OF THE MUSICAL ARTS THAT MAKE THINGS LIKE THIS - A PERFORMANCE, A RECORDING - BETWEEN TWO FAMOUS SHIPS IN THE NIGHT POSSIBLE. I LOVE IT, EVEN IF I DON'T LOVE THE RESULTS EVERY SINGLE TIME. LIKE, IT TAKES A STRONG VISION TO GET SOMETHING LIKE THAT FEAR TO FALL RECORD OR THIS TO HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE. RESPECT IT.

I DON'T WANT TO APPLY TOO MUCH NARRATIVE OR OUTSIDE KNOWLEDGE (APART FROM THAT GAINED DURING THE COURSE OF THE BLOG) BUT IN 1999 JIM HAS JUST LEFT GASTR DEL SOL (IT EVEN SAYS THIS ON THE ALBUM COVER) AND IS VERY MUCH ENAMOURED BY THE AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GUITAR SOUND - MELODIC RIVERS THAT MOVE IN A LINEAR FASHION RATHER THAN OBVIOUS 'SONG STRUCTURES' (THOUGH THOSE ARE ON THEIR WAY). THERE'S ALSO A VERY 'STUDIED' EDGE TO WHAT JIM SEEMS TO BE UP TO AROUND THIS TIME. HE EVEN DRESSES LIKE AN ARCH MUSIC PROFESSOR.

THE RECORD - FOUR TRACKS OVER 48 MINUTES - IS QUITE A REVERENT PIECE. MELODY-FIRST, WITH EACH PLAYER MAKING LITTLE INCURSIONS OR EXCURSIONS - A LITTLE PERCUSSIVE TAPPING, A LITTLE JAZZY FLOURISH, BACKING OFF, STEPPING UP, LETTING THE OTHER TAKE OVER. AT TIMES IT IS A LITTLE JOHN FAHEY, BUT AT OTHER TIMES IT FEELS LIKE FLEETWOOD MAC AT THEIR SPACIOUS 60S BEST.

THE RECORD LEADS WHERE PEOPLE LIKE CAM DEAS AND JAMES BLACKSHAW WOULD FOLLOW. IT BRINGS A LITTLE PIECE OF AN UNDULATING JOURNEY THROUGH NOWHERE AMERICA TO A MEDIEVAL SWISS CITY. SOMETIMES IT FEELS LIKE IT IS ALL IN ONE KEY AND AT ONE DYNAMIC LEVEL, BUT MAYBE THAT ALLOWS THE PERFORMANCE TO HAVE A PARTICULAR TYPE OF TRANSFORMATIVE CAPABILITY.

GONNA GO CERTIFIED: GOOD ON THIS. I CAN'T REALLY SAY THERE'S ANYTHING BAD ABOUT IT ALL.

UNRELEASED? (2011)

FIRE! ARE A SWEDISH TRIO OF VETERAN EXPERIMENTAL MUSICIANS AND JAZZERS INCLUDING THE VENERABLE SAXOPHONIST MATS GUSTAFSSON. THEY, ON THEIR REGULAR NON-COLLABORATIVE WITH OUTSIDER RECORDS, SLOT IN NICELY WITH THE GENERAL AESTHETIC OF OSLO LABEL RUNE GRAMMOFON: GENERALLY MORE LISTENABLE HYBRIDS OF JAZZ AND EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC AKIN TO SOMETHING PUT OUT BY ECM, ONLY WITH A FOCUS ON SCANDINAVIAN TALENT.

JIM SEEMS TO PLAY A SQUALLING ELECTRIC GUITAR HERE WHILE THE RHYTHM SECTION KEEP AN INTERESTING AND MOMENTUM-FOCUSED BACKING GOING. GUSTAFSSON INTERVENES WITH SOME CHUNKY OVERBLOWN SAX TONES AND RHYTHMIC INTERPLAY. IT'S AMAZING HOW EVEN WITH A DECENT BEAT AND BASS BLAPPING AWAY THAT EVEN THE MOST ANNOYING GUITAR SECTIONS DON'T REPEL YOU COMPLETELY.

AT ITS BEST IT REMINDS ME OF FINNISH GROUP CIRCLE OR BOHREN UND DER CLUB OF GORE. UNFORTUNATELY IT'S NOT ALL AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL AND I'D ARGUE, THOUGH NOT TOO PASSIONATELY, THAT WHATEVER JIM IS DOING IS PROBABLY THE LEAST INTERESTING THING GOING ON HERE. AT POINTS IT WOULDN'T EVEN BE A CASE OF 'CHANGING WHAT YOU'RE PLAYING' RATHER JUST ERASING HIS CONTRIBUTIONS. 

THAT'S NOT ALWAYS THE CASE, I SHOULD POINT OUT, BUT THERE'S ONLY SO MUCH ATONAL WANKING ON A GUITAR A MAN CAN TAKE.

F-O'R (2009)

COR FUHLER, THE ARTIST WITH WHICH JIM COLLABORATED ON THIS RELEASE, PASSED AWAY EARLIER THIS YEAR AT THE AGE OF 56. THIS AUTOMATICALLY SEEMS TO SUGGEST COVID-19 (IF YOU ARE READING FROM THE FUTURE, THERE IS A GLOBAL PANDEMIC AS I WRITE THIS AS A WAY OF PROTRACTEDLY IGNORING THE NEWS ON THIS ISSUE AND SEVERAL OTHERS WHICH CAUSE CRIPPLING BOUTS OF ANGER AND DEPRESSION) TO ME. YOU CAN'T FORGET MORTALITY EVEN IN THE SONIC PLAYGROUND OF CONTEMPORARY IMPROVISED MUSIC. SIGH.

FUHLER'S THING WAS THE USE OF ELECTRO-MAGNETISATION TO STIMULATE ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTATION - CREATIVE USE OF EBOW AND SUCH, AS WELL AS INVENTING VARIOUS ELECTROACOUSTIC HYBRID INSTRUMENTS. I GENERALLY LIKE WHEN PEOPLE HAVE A MATERIAL IMPACT AS WELL AS A SONIC ONE, OR WHEN THE TWO THINGS ARE INTERRELATED. 

THE GREAT SUMMIT MEETING OF THESE TWO SONIC TITANS OCCURRED IN 2000 AND THIS RELEASE IS A LIVE SET PERFORMED BY THE TWO. IT FEELS LIKE FUHLER IS THE KEY GENERATOR OF SOUNDS AND O'ROURKE IS GENTLY TWISTING THE SOUNDS WITH A BUNCH OF GIZMOS. IT IS PLAYFUL AND BOHEMIAN IN TONE.

TRUTH BE TOLD THOUGH I REALLY DON'T LIKE THIS. AGAIN IT STOPS SHORT OF BEING A DUD BECAUSE I CAN FEEL THE IDIOSYNCRASY OF APPROACH EVEN THROUGH THE SPEAKERS. THIS ISN'T PHONED-IN IMPROV MUSIC AND FUHLER SEEMS LIKE A VERY INTERESTING AND NOVEL GUY IN THIS WORLD. 

THE MAIN PROBLEM FOR ME IS I FOUND IT PROFOUNDLY IRRITATING; AT ONE POINT I COULD BOIL THE SOUND DOWN TO 'MAN PLAYS VIOLIN BADLY AS A SLOWED-DOWN RECORDING OF DOG BARKING AND TUGGING AT HIS CHAIN GLITCHES'.

IT'S HARD FOR ME TO SAY I'M SORRY (2016)

REMEMBER MUSIC JOURNALISM? I MISS IT.

THIS IMAGE HEADS AN ARTICLE TITLED...WELL, YOU CAN SEE...THAT WAS ON THE NOW DEFUNCT ONLINE OUTLET STYLUS (WHICH WAS KIND OF LIKE PITCHFORK THOUGH OCCASIONALLY CRUELLER AND LOWER IN INFLUENCE). LET ME POST UP THE MAIN CLAIMS OF THIS ARTICLE.

here’s the rub: with the occasional exception, very little of this music is any good. And what little is worth the listener’s time is nearly always compromised by the specter of O’Rourke himself.

AS WE WILL SEE THE WRITER HAS MET O'ROURKE AND DIDN'T LIKE HIM *AT ALL*.

I must confess at this point of yet another disclaimer: I met this “titan” of a man at a party when I was in college in 1995 or so while he was on tour with Gastro Del Sol and Tortoise. Though not exactly a fan, I was fairly excited about the possibility of meeting him, given his emerging Post Rock God status at the time. Those attending the party were instead treated to an insufferable, boorish know-it-all who commandeered the stereo and wouldn’t shut the fuck up. In effect, Jim O’Rourke was everything you would expect him to be and pray to God he wasn’t.

BUT ULTIMATELY THE WRITER DOES FIND DIGS THAT AREN'T ROOTED IN A POOR CHANCE ENCOUNTER.

Despite having left the invention of his music to others, O’Rourke has worked hard to vary his shtick, splicing and combining styles with great command and understanding, a la Bad Timing. But his technique has never been in question.

OOF.

...for all we learned in the second half of the 20th Century about form, context and content [...] we discovered something about pop music that Gerry and the Pacemakers could have told us in 1959: pop music ain’t that complicated, at least not aesthetically. It speaks and will always speak a simple teenage truth, a truth of naïve sincerity and yearning. Jim O’Rourke: he doesn’t get that. He can’t.

YIKES.

...not a single one of the records he recorded with Faust, Fahey, or the Red Krayola—massive figures in the history of underground contemporary music—even qualifies as listenable, much less among their best.

THERE'S MORE IF YOU WANT TO READ THE PIECE. IT'S A GOOD BIT OF INVECTIVE. I SUPPOSE IT OFFERS THE INCREDULOUS COUNTERWEIGHT TO THIS PROJECT; THE BELIEF THAT MAYBE THIS GUY IS JUST A HUGE PHONEY WHO JOGS IN AFTER THE BIG BANG AND NERDS IT UP.

I'M NOT GOING TO DECIDE WHETHER WEINER IS RIGHT OR NOT HERE AND NOW. BUT I MIGHT RETURN TO THE PIECE TIME AND AGAIN TO BOUNCE OFF, BECAUSE IT DOES REPRESENT A WELLSPRING OF OPINION THAT ISN'T FLORID ARTSPEAK.

THAT PIECE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS RECORD BUT I WANTED TO THROW IT IN THERE TO BOLSTER FUTURE CONVERSATION. THIS RECORD - A COLLABORATION WITH AUSTRIAN GUITAR/LAPTOP WHIZ FENNESZ - IS REALLY BEAUTIFUL AND WELL DONE. I LIKE IT A LOT. 

FENNESZ OFTEN WHIPS UP THESE THICKETS OF SOUND AND EMOTION WHILE O'ROURKE CAN BE STEELY AND DISTANT - I THINK THEY TEMPER EACH OTHER'S WORST INSTINCTS HERE AND CREATE SOMETHING OF THEIR BEST SELVES. IT IS CONCISE AND FOCUSED AND HAS A VERY AMIABLE DRIFTING QUALITY. LISTENING IN A SUMMER BREEZE IS RECOMMENDED.

I WONDER WHAT MATTHEW WEINER OF 2020 THINKS OF THIS.

CERTIFIED: GOOD

ARCO (2015)

IN WHICH JIM COLLABORATES WITH GIOVANNI DI DOMENICO AKA THE PERSON WITH THE WORST BIOGRAPHY ON DISCOGS.

 

 

DESPITE BEING A WAFFLER AND A BIT OF A PSEUD MYSELF I HAVE THIS REAL AVERSION TO ARTSPEAK. WHAT DO I MEAN?

 

ARCO is born out of two necessities, strongly interrelated: 1) creating a sonic space where the concept of waiting (patience?) can turn into form, and 2) doing this together with Jim O’Rourke, a musician who finds in form and its use his true greatness; The structure of the composition is quite simple: it is based on a cell of four repeated notes (the “DNA” of the piece), forming a melodic/harmonic texture which slowly freezes into suspended, levitating chords, in which the passing of time itself becomes a sort of harmonic extension, and in which the strings and the splendidly rich sonic palette of the electronics fuse into the true essence of Form. 

1. THOSE THINGS AREN'T NECESSITIES 2. WAITING (DURATIONAL NON-PARTICIPATION) CAN NEVER BECOME 'FORM' 3. IT'S BASED ON A LOOP, FUNDAMENTALLY, IT IS IMPROVISING AND GENERATING OVER A LOOP, JUST SAY THAT. 4. THE NOTES ADDED MAKES THE THING HARMONICALLY RICHER 5. IT IS DONE ELECTRO-ACOUSTICALLY IE. SOME PLAY ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTS AND JIM BURBLES HIS LAPTOP.

ARTSPEAK MAKES ME INCREDULOUS IN FRONT OF WORK THAT I WOULD HOPE, IN MY SINCEREST HEART, WOULD MAKE ME NAIVE AND CREDULOUS AGAIN. 

THIS IS A GOOD BIT OF IMPROVISING OVER A LOOP BETWEEN STRING PLAYERS AND ELECTRONICS. IT IS SLOW AND SPACIOUS AND GRACEFUL AND IT ISN'T CHALLENGING (I MEAN DISCORDANT) TO LISTEN TO. AT POINTS ARCO THREATENS TO BECOME STRAIGHTFORWARDLY EMOTIONAL, BUT HANGS BACK FROM IT, LIKE A TEACHER ON THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL WITH A CLASS THEY ACTUALLY LIKED SPENDING TIME WITH.

IF DIE SCHNACTEL (THE LABEL WHO RELEASED THIS) WOULD LIKE ME TO WRITE THEIR RELEASES THEN GET IN TOUCH.

TOMORROW KNOWS WHERE YOU LIVE (1991)

A COLLABORATION WITH THE SIMILARLY PROLIFIC AVANT GUITARIST HENRY KAISER (IN FACT KAISER MIGHT EVEN HAVE A LARGER DISCOG THAN OUR SUBJECT HIMSELF) ON A CANADIAN JAZZ LABEL IN 1991 FEELS AS GOOD A PLACE AS ANY TO START THIS PROJECT. PLUS HANK KAISER LOOKS LIKE A RIGHT CARD.

  

 

IT'S A LIGHTLY INFURIATING RECORD INSOFAR AS THERE'S VERY LITTLE MUSICAL DISCORDANCY (IE. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE NOTES, THE COLLISION OF SOUNDS) BUT MAXIMAL GRAMMATICAL DISRUPTION - THAT IS TO SAY THEY START PLAYING AND STOP, THEY CRAM NOTES IN AT RANDOM, THEY IGNORE BARS AND TEMPI TO PLAY CONSONANT MUSIC FREELY. 

WE CAN PARSE THIS RECORD BY LOOKING AT THE CREDITS ON OFFER. ONE TRACK IS CREDITED TO O'ROURKE ALONE AND IT IS A REASONABLY ARID BUT HAUNTED TAPE PIECE SUGGESTIVE OF THE AFTERMATH OF A GRUESOME BATTLE. MEANWHILE THE ONE TRACK CREDITED SOLELY TO KAISER IS MORE OF THE GUITAR FRIPPERY REDOLENT OF A PLEASANT DEREK BAILEY (BUT NOT AS GOOD).

NEAR THE END OF THE RECORD WE SEE A COUPLE OF TRACKS WHERE THEIR STYLES START TO GEL - HAUNTED ATMOSPHERE AND SOME GUITAR HYSTERICS, MOST NOTABLY ON CLOSING TANTRUM 'THE PALACE OF MEMORY' - BUT IT IS A BIT LATE TO SAVE THE RECORD FROM BEING A CHORE.