From: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (Zorn List Digest) To: zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: Zorn List Digest V3 #657 Reply-To: zorn-list Sender: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk Zorn List Digest Thursday, December 20 2001 Volume 03 : Number 657 In this issue: - oops - forgot for best of list Best of 2k1 Re: dave d and bjork in XXX feature Re: Tricky Re: Wolf Eyes Re: Tricky Re: Best of 2k1 Re: Best of 2k1 Re: dave d and bjork in XXX feature Re: Best of 2k1 Cinematic Orchestra (was: Tricky) Re: Tricky RE: Hendrix/Young Re: Cinematic Orchestra (was: Tricky) Re: Sonny Sharrock/Last Exit more of the same on thursday afternoon Re: top 10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 13:47:23 -0500 From: "Bob Kowalski" Subject: oops - forgot for best of list One thousand lashes to myself: Bill Frisell released Blues Dreams & w/ Dave Holland & Elvin Jones discs = this year. They are bad! Good! Sweet! =20 I haven't purchased the new Wayne Horovitz yet - any good? I'm holding = off due to the $20 price tag but am tempted... Did the Commisar Vanishes, the Michael Nyman cd release w/ re-recording of = Flight of Icarus (double disc) come out this year? If so that is close to = top of list for 2001. Thunderous... I forget so many... =20 Bob - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 11:01:44 -0800 From: Dave Trenkel Subject: Best of 2k1 In no particular order, and way too long: Flanger: Outer Space/Inner Space: Imagine the Headhunters subjected to the Clicks 'n Cuts crew. Rich Halley: Coyotes in the City (Louie): Standard disclaimer, I worked on this record, but it's still great. Halley is a Portland, OR, based tenor player, this is a loose, swinging and exploratory trio setting that is, IMHO, one of the best "jazz" records I've heard in a long time. Mouse on Mars: Idiology: More of their usual quirky, small-scale, melodic techno, now with more overt hints of Canterbury scene prog and krautrock. Their best record yet. Techno Animal: Brotherhood of the Bomb. Probably the darkest hiphop record I've heard, at least since Tricky's "Angel's With Dirty Faces", to tie this to another recent thread... Bill Laswell/Jah Wobble: Radioaxiom: OK, so it's inevitable that I mention at least one Laswell project on these lists, but this, while it really doesn't break any new ground, still mining that dubby tabla groove thing, with hints of drum 'n bass to sound fresh (for 1996, maybe :-), just really gets it right. Squarepusher: Go Plastic, Aphex Twin: Drukqs: I didn't particularly like either of these on first listen, but they both have really grown on me. On the surface, the Squarepusher seems to be moving further into the spastic d'n b thing, but the more I listen to it, the more I hear the melodic sensibility that made records like "Music is Rotted One Note" so great. Drukqs is the first Aphex record that really ties together all the sides of his career, the ambient, the techno, the drill 'n bass, etc. Alex Cline Ensemble: The Constant Flame (Cryptogramophone): A set of pieces that pay tribute to Cline's inspirations, from Don Cherry and John Carter, to Takemitsu, David Sylvain, filmmaker Krystof Kieslowski, poet Akiko Yosano, and others. Very nice disc, with strong playing from a number of LA players including Vinny Golia and Nels Cline. A very ECM-ish disc, in the best sense. Spring Heel Jack: Masses: A very surprising change of form for this British d'nb duo, here they collaborate with players like Matthew Shipp, Evan Parker, Tim Berne, and others. Great, deeply textured and subtle electronics mixed with free improvising, one of the most successful collaborations of this kind. Robert Rich: Bestiary: Extremely dark ambient music, with all sounds either created by or processed through an analog modular synthesizer. Honorable mentions: Tim Berne:The Shell Game Greg Bendian's Interzone: Requiem for Jack Kirby Carl Craig: Onsumothasheeit Bill Laswell: Points of Order Konk Pack John Zorn: The Gift(yeah, it's not particularly challenging, but it's the only Zorn disc I played more than 5 times this year). Reissues of the year: Larry Young: Lawrence of Newark: I've been searching for this record for decades, ever since my piano teacher turned me onto Young. This 1973 recording is one of the holy grails of out jazz rock, large ensemble with lots of percussion, takes the groove sense of contemporary Santana and subjects it to the freedom of the Arkestra, all with Young's screaming, liquid B3 over the top. Simply great stuff Sun Ra: The Solar Myth Approach Vol. 1 & 2. 2CD reissue of the classic BYG lps, and among Ra's best, IMHO. - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Trenkel New and Improv Music http://www.newandimprov.com improv@peak.org Now Available: Minus: Dark Lit "This is music all-consuming in its beauty and power" -Jake TenPas OSU Daily Barometer - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 14:30:47 -0500 From: "Michael Berman" Subject: Re: dave d and bjork in XXX feature 10. James Blood Ulmer, "Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions" (Label M) dont remember this being covered here, maybe I missed it. whats this = like? Someone might have mentioned to me its Blood doing old blues = numbers?=20 if it made your top 10 I guess ill have to go out and get it. mike - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 11:17:54 -0800 From: Dave Trenkel Subject: Re: Tricky >I've been reading your posts about Tricky et al, and I just have to voice my >opinion. >In terms of Tricky, his first 4 albums (Max, PMT, Nearly God - which >is genius, >Angels) are of excellent quality. PMT and Nearly God ranking atop my fave >list. I must agree here, though I'd put "Angels" up there too, it's one of the truly scariest of his records, he seems to be exploring all the darker sides of his egomania here. >The only hope rests in CInematic Orchestra, which I hope is well known among >this mailing list. Their jazz tunes are something of a heavenly >state. I have >over 5 of their concerts, and they're simply amazing. A friend just turned me onto their (his) "Motion" disc. I can't believe I hadn't checked it out earlier, great stuff! - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Trenkel New and Improv Music http://www.newandimprov.com improv@peak.org Now Available: Minus: Dark Lit "This is music all-consuming in its beauty and power" -Jake TenPas OSU Daily Barometer - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 19:20:08 From: "William York" Subject: Re: Wolf Eyes >>Speaking of heavy, crazy, noisy, wall-of-sound, >>losing-your-mind sort of stuff, if you are into that >>and the group Wolf Eyes comes to your town, do >>not miss them. I saw them last night (third time >>this week, they are on tour from Michigan and in >>California now) and it was absolutely amazing. >i haven't had the chance to see them live, but Wolf >Eyes' recordings are fantastic. the s/t CD [bulb], >dread LP [hanson], and Wolf Eyes w/ Spykes CD-R >[hanson] are among my favorite releases of the year. a >brilliant mix of drum machines, cracked electronics, >guitars, and noise squeezed into song-form. that's funny -- i have all three of these, and they're good. but i guess i envy you b/c i bought the albums after seeing them play twice and can only listen to the albums in that context. and for me it is impossible for those albums to do justice to those shows. maybe their new (as yet unreleased/recorded, perhaps) stuff will be a better reflection of what they're playing?? anyhow, i've never seen anyone make electronics/drum machines "sweat" as they did that last show ... although if anyone has any other suggestions in that category i'd be happy to hear 'em! wy _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 14:02:49 -0500 From: "Andrew" Subject: Re: Tricky Thank God SOMEONE agrees with me on this one- thanks, Muff. I can't believe you guys- "what's wrong with making commercial music?", etc.; the focus is that Tricky is making music that's intentionally commercial, INSTEAD of making music that's artistically relevant. He's SAID this. While some artists can make music that's both comercially successful AND artistically sound/relevant, Tricky is not doing this, whatsoever. He's chosen the commercial path, at the sake of artistic relevance. On Portishead; I'm not sure who would think that "Dummy" is better than their self-titled. '97's "Portishead" is easily their best record. While "Dummy" is a nice collection of bedroom hip hop tracks w/ Beth's vocals, "Portishead" comes across like John Barry as produced and re-fucked by King Tubby. Over-the-top, excellent, and inspiring. a. - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 14:21:49 EST From: Jeffcalt@aol.com Subject: Re: Best of 2k1 Dave Trenkel writes: > Aphex Twin: Drukqs: [...] > Drukqs is the first Aphex record that really ties > together all the sides of his career, the ambient, the techno, the > drill 'n bass, etc. there may be a reason for that. i have a friend (a huge Aphex fan) who's convinced that that majority of the new album is old material. Aphex is purpoted to have recorded tons of (unreleased) material, so it's certainly possible. - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 14:54:54 -0500 From: "Michael Berman" Subject: Re: Best of 2k1 > Reissues of the year: > Larry Young: Lawrence of Newark:=20 I second this. great to FINALLY see/hear this again (More Blood Ulmer = btw). When will Hendrix/Youngs 'Nine To the Universe' resurface? =20 By the way, since this IS a zorn list, what about a top 10 Tzadik list? = so far Ive only seen The Gift, Masada Live at Tonic and frith come up. = Not that i bought ten tzadik's this year, but i thought Satlah's exodus = (also live at tonic) was strong. =20 - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 11:32:07 -0800 From: Skip Heller Subject: Re: dave d and bjork in XXX feature > > 10. James Blood Ulmer, "Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions" (Label M) > > dont remember this being covered here, maybe I missed it. whats this like? > Someone might have mentioned to me its Blood doing old blues numbers? > if it made your top 10 I guess ill have to go out and get it. > > mike > > > > - > It's great. It's Blood playing & singing blues, but he's still totally playing & singing Blood. skip h - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 11:42:23 -0800 From: Dave Trenkel Subject: Re: Best of 2k1 > > Reissues of the year: >> Larry Young: Lawrence of Newark: > >I second this. great to FINALLY see/hear this again (More Blood >Ulmer btw). When will Hendrix/Youngs 'Nine To the Universe' >resurface? As far as I know, the only recording that Hendrix did w/Young was a blues that was released on last years 4-cd box. It's very nice (and the box is worth it for any Hendrix fan), but not as transcendent as it could have been. If there's more, I'd love to hear it! - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Trenkel New and Improv Music http://www.newandimprov.com improv@peak.org Now Available: Minus: Dark Lit "This is music all-consuming in its beauty and power" -Jake TenPas OSU Daily Barometer - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 15:40:58 -0400 From: "Neil H. Enet" Subject: Cinematic Orchestra (was: Tricky) Has anyone heard their remix album? MOTION is totally excellent, and I would like to know what the remix album is like. Neil H. Enet - ------------ - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 14:41:50 -0800 From: the muff Subject: Re: Tricky lol, i have the same impression about [P]'s Portishead album. It shows a maturity in sound, ambiance, and jazziness. I mean, WESTERN EYES!!! Beautifull cafe-concert music. Andrew wrote: > Thank God SOMEONE agrees with me on this one- thanks, Muff. > > I can't believe you guys- "what's wrong with making commercial music?", > etc.; the focus is that Tricky is making music that's intentionally > commercial, INSTEAD of making music that's artistically relevant. He's SAID > this. While some artists can make music that's both comercially successful > AND artistically sound/relevant, Tricky is not doing this, whatsoever. He's > chosen the commercial path, at the sake of artistic relevance. > > On Portishead; I'm not sure who would think that "Dummy" is better than > their self-titled. '97's "Portishead" is easily their best record. While > "Dummy" is a nice collection of bedroom hip hop tracks w/ Beth's vocals, > "Portishead" comes across like John Barry as produced and re-fucked by King > Tubby. Over-the-top, excellent, and inspiring. > > a. > > - - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 14:38:33 -0500 From: "Sean Westergaard" Subject: RE: Hendrix/Young i'm a ridiculous Hendrix collector. Working record retail for years allows one to amass a lovely boot collection without actually paying as seriously thru the nose as your average joe. I've got several tracks with Jimi and Larry Young, one of them actually runs about 20 minutes, but they tend to meander quite a bit. For the most part, the sessions sound like they're just feeling each other out; same with the John Mclaughlin sessions. Mclaughlin actually sounds a bit intimidated, and the tracks don't really go anywhere. There's even a track (ships passing in the night) that is either Miles himself or someone doing a remarkable job of aping him. >If there's more, I'd love to hear it! you can let me know off list how much you'd love to hear it. i'm sure we can work something out. sean - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 15:34:11 -0500 From: "Nirav Soni" Subject: Re: Cinematic Orchestra (was: Tricky) > Has anyone heard their remix album? MOTION is totally excellent, and I would > like to know what the remix album is like. Very, very mediocre. Sounds like someone assumes movie music to sound like without any care at all to those weird quirks that tie the music in movies to the action. Save yr money and buy the new Flanger instead...lots of bumpin, Hancock-filtered through a slightly electronic aesthetic- like hazelnut coffee, as opposed to the unaltered variety. You may be a connisseur of the subtleties of different regional coffees, but sometimes it's nice to give yr tastebuds a little something outside the norm. Nirav - -- AIM: Icefactory37 NR- Charlie Mingus- Revenge! 2cd (Revenge) "Duration is to the consciousness as light is to the eye" - Bill Viola - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 12:47:57 -0800 (PST) From: Ryan Novak Subject: Re: Sonny Sharrock/Last Exit >From: Fastian@aol.com >Headfirst is a good one as well as Koln which was >what was recorded 1st >(not released 1st) although I think it was an >unauthorized recording. I >haven't heard "Space Ghost". What do people think of >it? Its not full >length right? Yeah, it's short but it's very good, even essential in an odd way. Since it is probably impossible to still get it from Cartoon Network like I did years ago, try Audiogalaxy- I've seen some of the tracks there. It's full of noisy slide work and it sounds great in the duo with drums parts- the other would be with a sequenced electronic backup "band" which is the show's theme song and is cheesy, but Sonny is just as great on that. > Going back to "Iron Path", the reason Brotzmann >didn't like it was >because he had to lay his tracks down after everyone >else did, obviously >making it impossible for the other musicians to react >to what he was doing. His solos are some of the best things on there. There's a lot of ways to make good music and even though spontaneous music is often my favorite too, it can actually get to be kind of a hang up as much as any other way. But maybe Brotz isn't as comfortable having to react than with being reacted to. ;~) - ---Ryan N. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 20:47:44 -0500 From: David Keffer Subject: more of the same on thursday afternoon >From: "M Pathos" >The whole argument about "selling out" is so tiresome. Anybody who doesn't >give their music away and wants more than their mother to hear it is >"selling" - it just depends if you want to make a living doing just music or >stay forever an amateur. If by amateur you mean--one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession--then what you have said is irrelevant to the issue of "selling out". If, on the other hand, by amateur you mean--one lacking in experience and competence in an art or science--then this is a narrow and unimaginative point of view, invented I think to justify "selling out". Charles Ives is famous example that refutes your argument. For the first 55 years of his life, Ives continued to make his own music, without compromise, without making a living at it, and I think no one who knows of his music would call it amateurish. On a related topic: From: "Andrew" >He's literally said things like "i just want to make music that will >make me alot of money." I have a kind of respect for someone who will admit to a sentiment like this. They are honest and they have enough self-respect to admit their honest opinions. There is nothing wrong with making music to make money, especially if it is enjoyable music that can start your feet tapping. On the contary, what is offensive is making music to make money and claiming to yourself and to anyone else that you have an ulterior, usually "higher", motive. David K. - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 08:31:08 +0100 From: "Francesco Martinelli" Subject: Re: top 10 > 1. v/a -- Hava Narghoulie : Turkish Rock 1966-75 (Dionysus) > Some of this is awful, but the best stuff on here is just amazing. Could you elaborate a little bit on this one - who's on it, who you like and you don't? Francesco (interested in anything Turkish, even if it's rock) - - ------------------------------ End of Zorn List Digest V3 #657 ******************************* To unsubscribe from zorn-list-digest, send an email to "majordomo@lists.xmission.com" with "unsubscribe zorn-list-digest" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "zorn-list-digest" in the commands above with "zorn-list". 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