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Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 12:46:56 -0500
From: Brian Olewnick <olewnick@gis.net>
Subject: Grist for Atavistic
Here's one I wouldn't mind seeing: The back of Brotzmann's 'Alarm' shows
what appears to be a play list of the recording session, only half of
which was released. The unissued tracks (as far as I know--anyone know
otherwise?) include two each by Breuker and Schippenbach and one by
bassist Harry Miller (as well as an additional, longer take of Frank
Wright's 'Jerry Sacem', a shorter version of which closes out the
'Alarm' LP.) My guess is that they're "straighter" material than
'Alarm', but the aplomb with which the nonet carries off the gutbucket,
swinging Wright piece tantalizes me.
Brian Olewnick
NP: High Rise - Disallow
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Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 12:58:49 -0500 (EST)
From: Jason Caulfield Bivins <jcbivins@unity.ncsu.edu>
Subject: Re: blessings blowing in from chicago town
As much as I've enjoyed the Atavistic series, I've also been puzzled by
some of their choices. I think I've dug some of the releases more than Jon
has - for example, I enjoy the Cuypers - but I thought that the
Tchicai/Schweizer was a dud.
Can't wait for the ROVA release, and for the long promised Hal Russell/Joe
Daley trio. But I'm sure that, as Jon wrote, a label like Atavistic could
acquire the rights to some of the older classics (what about February
Papers? Hook, Drift, and Shuffle?).
The glass is surely half full, but . . .
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Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 13:01:56 EST
From: JonAbbey2@aol.com
Subject: Re: revolutionary ensemble
In a message dated 2/10/01 12:07:31 PM, mingusaum@yahoo.ca writes:
<< Say that's an idea, Jon. Why not see if another label
wants to lease you some of your favorites so you could
re-release them on Erstwhile? >>
no, thanks. I'm plenty busy as it is doing 8 new releases a year, and my
interest and commitment is to new music rather than reissues.
don't get me wrong, I'm glad that the Unheard Music Series exists. my only
real quibble was with Kurt calling Atavistic "the best freakin label in the
damn world", when I've found the bulk of the series disappointing thus far,
in comparison to what it could be. I was genuinely curious as to whether
other people feel that way, hence my response.
the full Victoriaville schedule looks much better than last year.
unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to reveal it yet, but it should be released
in the next week or so.
Jon
www.erstwhilerecords.com
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Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 13:58:20 -0500
From: Nils <jacobson@frodo.mgh.harvard.edu>
Subject: Re: Re: TORTOISE
"s~Z" <keith@pfmentum.com> wrote:
>
> >>>In this month's Wire there's a review of it, plus a large article.
> The album is released on Warp.<<<
>
> When THE WIRE subscription went up to $150,000.00 a year I decided to
> let it lapse.
it's worth noting that the previous parent
company recently sold THE WIRE off to a
board of directors consisting of a subset
of the editorial staff of the magazine.
their subscription remains astronomical.
for u.s. readers 16 months cost $85.
it gets me down sometimes when they compare
records to "unreleased recordings" in their
reviews. or present a boxed review of
stuff like reynols, led by a guy with downs
syndrome and credited with records like
10,000 CHICKEN SYMPHONY or BLANK TAPES. it
just goes to underscore how much effort
they go to be obscure and "underground". i
feel pretty obscure and underground as it
is, and i'd rather not bury myself.
"reynols claims their music to be the
by-product of a psychic communion with
every object they encounter--humans,
pumpkins, rocks, or discarded tape."
uh, yeah?
> What'd they think of the [tortoise] CD?
"an essentially polite, ultra-refined approach
to enseble playing"; "as close to a garage
record as Tortoise are ever going to make"
n
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Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 15:44:41 EST
From: JonAbbey2@aol.com
Subject: Wire/Reynols/Tortoise
In a message dated 2/10/01 1:51:56 PM, jacobson@frodo.mgh.harvard.edu writes:
<< their subscription remains astronomical.
for u.s. readers 16 months cost $85. >>
astronomical? $5 and change per issue, and you get three or four CDs thrown
in per year. plus, you may be interested to know that the Wire pays their
writers, which isn't true for many publications.
<<or present a boxed review of
stuff like reynols, led by a guy with downs
syndrome and credited with records like
10,000 CHICKEN SYMPHONY or BLANK TAPES. it
just goes to underscore how much effort
they go to be obscure and "underground". >>
Blank Tapes is on Trente Oiseaux, Bernhard Gunter's label, and hardly obscure
or underground, at least to this crowd.
also, while I'm not much of a fan of the Reynols CDs, I saw them perform in
Brooklyn last year, and they were amazing. the singer didn't make the trip
with them, but they played along to tapes of him, while his image was
projected on a couple of TV sets. the guitarists kept looking to his image
for inspiration, and played a remarkable psych set, which I can't imagine too
many bands in the world being able to equal, save possibly Turkey's Zen
(great disc on Ecstatic Peace) and a couple of Japanese bands on their best
days.
I have a way bigger problem with the Wire giving essentially the same scene
two cover stories within four months, November's Chicago Underground and this
month's Tortoise. when I saw Tortoise play the closing set at Victoriaville a
few years ago, I thought it was one of the most amateurish displayes of
mediocre fusion noodling I'd ever seen. TNT is OK, because it takes the best
parts of hours and hours of that stuff, and edits them together pretty
slickly. haven't heard the new one, but I'm not holding my breath.
yeah, I'm in a combative mood this weekend.
Jon
www.erstwhilerecords.com
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Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 16:12:34 -0500
From: Steve Smith <ssmith36@sprynet.com>
Subject: Re: revolutionary ensemble
Brian Olewnick wrote:
> Scott Handley wrote:
> >
> > Speaking of the Revolutionary Ensemble, I heard the
> > entirety of an RE LP called PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC [snip]
>
> That came out on A&M/Horizon as part of a short-lived series of
> relatively well produced albums that included nice bios, scores, etc. RE
> was the most "avant garde" of the roster, which also had Jim Hall, Thad
> Lewis, Dave Liebman/Richie Bierach.
And, let's not forget, Ornette Coleman's 'Dancing in Your Head.' After the
demise of Horizon, many of the artists released strikingly
similiarly-packaged records on Ornette's Artists House label.
> The Charlie Haden duos that I _think_ were also part of this series have
> been issued to disc, but I'm not sure about any of the others, including
> 'People's Republic'.
The Haden discs and 'Dancing' were the only ones I ever saw. I only
managed to snag one of the Hadens and the Coleman, of course. They've been
long unavailable, but 'Dancing' has of course been reissued by Verve with a
bonus track.
Steve Smith
ssmith36@sprynet.com
NP - Dawn Upshaw, "Hark! How All Things" (Henry Purcell), 'Angels Hide
Their Faces' (Nonesuch)
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Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 16:35:31 -0500
From: Steve Smith <ssmith36@sprynet.com>
Subject: Re: revolutionary ensemble
Ken Waxman wrote:
> Perhaps some company -- it doesn't have to be
> Atavistic either -- should try to rerelease some of
> that work.What happened to all the remaining
> Arista/Freedoms, Arista/Novuses, Nessas, PMs and Inner
> Citys etc.etc. ?
This has always been a small dream of mine, beginning when I managed to
convince my then-employer Koch to reissue the Tim Berne and Jane Ira
Bloom discs from Columbia and the Atlantic Art Ensemble discs, and
continuing when I convinced Revenant to reissue Cecil's 'Nefertiti'
(mainly because I'm lazy and didn't want to pull out the LPs anymore).
If I had the money and time, I'd try to set myself up like Atavistic,
seeking out and licensing such gems. But of course, it would require
the labels that own the recordings to play along, and frequently they
won't. Both Koch and Mosaic have tried to license Braxton material from
Arista, for instance, but so far it's been no go, inexplicably.
Chuck Nessa is gradually getting at least some of his own back catalog
out there. The Freedom material all belongs to the German firm D.A.
Music, which has done a spotty job at best in getting the stuff back out
there (witness both crappy reissues of Cecil Taylor material and Tim
Berne's endless headache regarding the Hemphill sessions he wanted to
issue). Lately D.A. seems to be taking a greater interest with its
gradual reissue of cleaned up masters on 1201 Music.
I don't know PM, but it was always my impression as well that Inner City
licensed most of its material from elsewhere, like Enja. (But it would
be great to get Sun Ra's wonderful 'Live at Montreux' back into
circulation.) Same with Pausa, which had some great holdings on loan
from MPS, like Cecil's 'Live in the Black Forest' and 'Fly! Fly! Fly!
Fly! Fly!.
At least Delmark is getting their good stuff back in circulation. Any
report on the Sackville reissues, quality-wise?
> There are vinyl gems that have never seen a CD laser
> --or even an LP reissue after first release. Maybe
> every record company should have a small reissue
> program.
A few of them have been doing so, now that they have discovered the
market for limited edition releases. Blue Note has done this with,
among other items, Ornette's sublimely unmarketable 'The Empty Foxhole,'
and Verve did a microbatch of their one Alan Shorter disc, 'Orgasm.'
I'd expect to see more of this, just not as fast or complete as we might
like. Sony, on the other hand, seems pretty hopeless. And Warner
doesn't hold much of interest otside of their fabulous Herbie Hancock
Mwandishi recordings, which are already out.
Steve Smith
ssmith36@sprynet.com
NP - Dawn Upshaw, Cantata BWV 199 (J.S. Bach), 'Angels Hide Their Faces'
(Nonesuch)
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Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 16:21:11 -0600
From: Joseph Zitt <jzitt@metatronpress.com>
Subject: Re: Request For Ambient Music Recommendations
On Sat, Feb 10, 2001 at 11:58:06PM +1100, Adam Rock wrote:
> The recent thread pertaining to avant garde electronica served to reignite my interest in ambient music. I really enjoy Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works Vol 2," Brian Eno's "Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks", and certain tracks from Dead Voices On Air's "Piss Frond." Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I might go from here?
Hmm. It depends on what you call "ambient" and what is packaged as such.
Be careful what you buy, since most of what I run across nowadays that
claims to be "ambient" violates the idea of a floating music, equally
listenable and ignorable, by having metronomic electronic beat tracks
that pound on the head and force the listener into their groove (to use
the term very loosely). It's a horrific misuse of the term, which for
some reason has gotten widely accepted. Caveat emptor.
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|> ~The only thing that is not art is inattention~ --- Marcel Duchamp <|
