WEAPONS OF ASS DESTRUCTION (2006)

IF YOU ARE ON THIS ENTRY LOOKING FOR THE 2002 ADULT FILM STARRING BELLADONNA, THE POLITICAL THEORY BOOK BY ALFONZO RACHEL, THE HABANERO-LACED HOT SAUCE, OR THE RECORD BY DUNGEON MEAT THEN I AM VERY SORRY TO DISAPPOINT YOU. HOWEVER, MAYBE YOU LIKE COMPLETELY TUNELESS MUSIC TO FUCK TO, OWN THE LIBS TO, TO DOUSE ON YOUR FOOD, OR JUST SIMPLY TO LISTEN TO? IF SO, STICK AROUND.

FORTY MORE MINUTES ALONGSIDE MATS GUSTAFSSON AND THURSTON MOORE, DISKAHOLICS ROUND OUT THE SOLID CASE FOR THEM BEING THE WORST BAND THAT EVER LIVED. THREE ALBUMS OUT OF THREE OF ROTE AVANT IMPROVISATION THAT GOES NOWHERE AT ALL, SUCCESSFULLY EXPLORING NO MOOD, BREAKING NO GROUND, AND ONLY REALLY ANNOYING ANYONE WHO LISTENS.

JIM PLAYS SYNTH AND WHILE THIS BLOG IS ABOUT HIS WORK AND I'VE GENERALLY BEEN KIND, HE HAS TO SHOULDER SOME OF THE BLAME HERE WITH HIS SHITTY TONES AND ANTI-SOCIAL CREAKING AND BUZZING. YOU'RE IMPRESSING NO ONE MATE. GO AND HAVE A WORD WITH YOURSELF.

I HATE THIS AND I HATE DISKAHOLICS. DUD.

DISKAHOLICS ANONYMOUS TRIO (2001)

FAIR TO SAY THE ONE OF THE TWO 2006 RELEASES BY DISKAHOLICS DID NOT FLOAT MY BOAT (THE OTHER, WEAPONS OF ASS DESTRUCTION, AHAHHA, IS AS-YET-UNREVIEWED).

I JABBED THIS OFF FIRST TIME I HEARD IT. IT MAKES THE LIVE IN JAPAN DISC FEEL LIKE OUT TO LUNCH OR SOMETHING; JUST THREE GUYS IN ATONAL WANKATHON HEAVEN. I'M NO PHILISTINE: I THINK I UNDERSTAND THE *NEED* FOR FREE JAZZ AND ITS PLACE BOTH AS MUSIC AND VITAL COMMENTARY. I JUST DON'T PARTICULARLY LIKE IT ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S DONE IN AN OBNOXIOUS WAY LIKE THIS. 

GUSTAFSSON REALLY DOMINATES THIS ONE. IF CHUNKY SAX BLAPPING AND UNSTRUCTURED GUITAR NOISE DOES IT FOR YOU THEN DO CHECK THIS OUT. THEY'RE ALL PROS AT WHAT THEY DO: WHAT THEY DO IS NOT FOR ME.

I DO THINK MATS, THURSTON, AND JIM SHOULD BE BANNED FROM WORKING TOGETHER. I EVEN CONSIDER JIM LEAST GUILTY HERE. DUD.

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.

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.

LIVE IN JAPAN VOL. 1 (2006)

I ALREADY WROTE ABOUT THIS ON LOADS OF LOAD SO HERE IS THE ONLY CROSSPOST BETWEEN THAT BLOG AND THIS.

POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS TERRITORY FOR LOAD RECORDS HERE AS THIS IS A BONAFIDE RELEASE BY A BUNCH OF DUDES WHO WERE ALREADY CELEBRITIES IN MUSIC AT THIS POINT. I CAN'T QUITE EXPLAIN WHY BUT THIS SORT OF TURNS LOAD INTO A BIG INDIE EVEN THOUGH THIS RECORD IS POINTEDLY AGAINST ALL THAT SORT OF EVENT RELEASE SHIT BY BEING A SPONTANEOUS GRAB OF SOUND FROM A SHOW.

DISKAHOLICS ARE SONIC YOUTHIST THURSTON MOORE, SAXOPHONIST MATS GUSTAFFSON, AND GENERAL MUSIC GUY JIM O'ROURKE. AND IF YOU'RE THINKING "THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE LINE-UP FROM A SONIC YOUTH SYR SERIES RECORD" THEN YOU'D BE NEARLY RIGHT AND ALSO NOT FAR OFF SOUND WISE. IT'S IMPROV EXPERIMENTAL NOISE WHERE BARELY ANY OF THE INSTRUMENTS SOUND LIKE THE EXPECTED TONE/TIMBRE/OUTPUT OF THAT PARTICULAR INSTRUMENT.

LIVE IN JAPAN JUST STUTTERS ALONG NOT REALLY EXPLORING ANY MOOD. IT'S AN INTRO WAITING TO GET TO AN ACTUAL JAM. IT IS NEGATIVE SPACE IN MUSIC INCARNATE. THERE ARE MORE OFFENSIVE RECORDS THAN THIS - IT IS ACTUALLY QUITE RESERVED - BUT CHRIST THE IDEA OF SPENDING MONEY ON THIS SEEMS ABSURD IN 2020. MAYBE WE HAVEN'T LOST AS MUCH AS I THOUGHT WE HAD.

 

GENUINE DUD OF A RECORD.

JIM:COMPUTER:HOTEL (2000)

SO MY FRIEND DAVID SAW JIM AROUND THIS TIME DOING 'LAPTOP MUSIC' WHICH SOUNDS IN 2020 LIKE IT COULD BE ANYTHING BUT AT THE TIME IT WAS GENERALLY ASSOCIATED WITH A PARTICULAR TYPE OF AMNIOTIC, ELUSIVE, "AMBIENT" (WE WILL ENCOUNTER AND PERHAPS DISSECT THIS LATER) MUSIC THAT WAS BY TURNS DISTANT FROM CONVENTIONAL STRUCTURES BUT ALSO, BECAUSE OF THE WAY LAPTOPS AND DIGITAL WORKSPACES WORK, INEVITABLY STRUCTURED.

THIS IS A FAIRLY APPROACHABLE SET OF ELECTRONIC EXCURSIONS THAT PERHAPS HERALDS THE DAWNING OF "LAPTRONICA" WITHOUT EVER REALLY COMMITTING TO IT OR SOUNDING OUT OF PLACE ON A LABEL RUN BY AVANT VETERAN MATS GUSTAFSSON (MUCH MORE OF WHOM LATER I WOULD VENTURE). 

I HEAR BITS OF OVAL AND FENNESZ HERE IN THIS REVISITING OF FLUTTERING AND DECAYED SNATCHES OF ELEGIES; NOT QUITE RIVERS OF SOUND BUT OBSESSIVELY FOLLOWING THE SMALLEST TRIBUTARY UNTIL IT RUNS OUT AND THEN WE RETURN TO THE MAIN SOURCE. 

THE LONG MIDDLE TRACK TAKES SOME TIME TO GET INTERESTING SO MAYBE I WOULDN'T RUSH OUT TO CHECK THIS OUT AGAIN ANY TIME SOON BUT AS INSCRUTABLE COMPUTER COMPOSITIONS WRITTEN ON THE ROAD GO THIS IS A PRETTY GOOD BATCH.