Playlist, Week of 2020-02-23

I am disposed to love Sean O'Hagan's Radum Calls, Radum Calls... I deeply love the High Llamas, have done so for years, and really love O'Hagan's way with chords... so I have been curiously dismayed at how underwhelmed I've been with this new one... the territory is not new, the melodies are nice, but nothing's been insinuating itself into my brain... so is it my fault or the music's?... I'm inclined to blame myself... it does sound better every time I listen... and don't get me wrong, there's lots to like here... two harps, subtle use of synth, quirky lyrics, typically intriguing chord changes... whether or not it's a favorite, it's always nice to have more from O'Hagan... I think I said the same thing to myself about Here Come the Rattling Trees, with which this album shares the deepest affinity...

Playlist 2020-02-24:

*Boneshaker: Thinking Out Loud
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2019-08-27 Nashville (rough mix wav)
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2019-11-25 Nashville (rough mix wav)
*Kris Davis: Diatom Ribbons
*Miles Davis: The Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection, Vol. 2 (LP 3, side 2)
*Miles Davis: The Complete On The Corner Sessions (disc 2) "Ife"
*ExclusiveOr/Architeuthis Walks On Land/International Contemporary Ensemble: Modules
*Jan Garbarek Quartet: Afric Pepperbird
*Barry Guy/Mats Gustafsson/Raymond Strid: Tarfala
*Herbie Hancock: Treasure Chest (side 4)
*Henry Kaiser/Wadada Leo Smith - Yo Miles!: 2000-03-04 Fillmore (CDR) (discs 2, 3)
*Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy: The Lady Who Swings the Band 1936-1938 (side 2)
*Lama + Chris Speed: Lamaçal
*Ingrid Laubrock: Some Things
*Ingrid Laubrock & Liam Noble: Let’s Call This...
*Layers of Memory: Hence Thrice
*Joe McPhee/Mats Gustafsson: Brace For Impact
*Charles Mingus: Minor Intrusions (side 1)
*Charles Mingus: Nostalgia in Times Square (side 2)
*Joe Morris/William Parker/Gerald Cleaver: Altitude
*RAIC: Symbiosis, Vol. 1 (cassette)
*Susana Santos Silva: Life and Other Transient Storms
*Santos Silva/Wodrascka/Meaas Svendsen/Berre: Rasengan!
*Leo Smith Creative Orchestra: Budding Of A Rose "Budding of a Rose"
*Sun Ra with Pharoah Sanders and Black Harold (Orb Tapes cassette)
*Sun Ra: Cosmo Earth Fantasy: Sub Underground Series Vol. 1 & 2 (Art Yard) “Cosmo-Earth Fantasy”
*Cecil Taylor Orchestra of Two Continents: 1984-10-20 Rubigen, Switzerland (CDR) (disc 2)
*Zion80: Hod
*Beach Boys: SMiLE (side 1)
*Beatles:  From Liverpool: The Beatles Box (LP 4, side 2)
*Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour (EP) (record 1, sides 1, 2)
*Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Get Happy (side 1)
*Dark Carpet: Factory Side
*Fred Frith: Gravity
*Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 36 (Philadelphia 1972-09-21) "Dark Star"
*Guided By Voices: Vampire on Titus
*Guided By Voices: How Do You Spell Heaven
*Henry Cow: Beginnings (Cow Box Redux)
*Henry Cow with Robert Wyatt: 1975-05-21 London (CDR)
*Henry Cow: 1975-10-25 Massy-Palaiseau, France (CDR)
*Nails: Obscene Humanity
*Sean O'Hagan: Radum Calls, Radum Calls
*OOIOO: Nijimusi
*Various artists: Duffy's 45s No. 2 (CDR compilation)
*Various artists: Sessions '64!! (10-in. LP) (sides 1, 2)
*Various artists: Country & Western Hit Parade 1967: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, and Hillbilly Music
*Various artists: Crickets: Best of the Fading Captain Series 1999-2007 (disc 1)
*Yes: The Word Is Live (disc 2)

Reading List, Week of 2020-02-23

Reading List 2020-02-24:

*Understanding Finnegans Wake (ed. Tatsuo Hamada) (started)
*Livingston, Sonja. Queen of the Fall: A Memoir of Girls and Goddesses (started)
*Giles, D. C., Pietrzykowski, S., & Clark, K. E. "The psychological meaning of personal record collections and the impact of changing technological forms." Journal of Economic Psychology, 28(4), 429–443. (started/finished)
*Tomine, Adrian. Killing and Dying (started/finished)
*Cutter, Matthew. Closer You Are: The Story of Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices (finished)
*Einsohn, Amy, and Marilyn Schwartz. The Copyeditor's Handbook, 4th ed. (in progress)
*Gaddis, William. The Recognitions (reread/in progress)
*Goldbarth, Albert. The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems 1972-2007 (in progress)
*Moore, Steven. A Reader's Guide to William Gaddis's The Recognitions (rev. ed.) (in progress)

Reading Plan for 2020

Reading: For me, not a sickness, but a compulsion, yes, a crutch, a staving against depression, and a mental savior. The flow of words is the flow of life. I wrote most of this late the other night when I should have been reading.

So, my reading plan for this year is simple--what it takes to get me there...

--Rusty Brown, after finishing The Recognitions

--Finnegans Wake again, after reading Finn Fordham and the rest of Tatsuo Hamada: Understanding Finnegans Wake

--Malazan again, after reading Erikson's "Deconstructing the Siege of Pale Aftermath Scene"

--Side trips into Emily Dickinson, Giles Goat-Boy, Ross Macdonald, Javier Marías, Malcolm Fox, Shakespeare...

--Mason & Dixon and Against the Day again, after Occupy Pynchon

Anything beyond these is gravy.

Thinking about the reading is not the reading.

Reading is not the thinking; it is the being.

Blast from the Past

Soundtrack for a '64 Cutlass....

Playlist, Week of 2020-02-16

I have really been enjoying the new album from OOIOO... Nijimusi is perhaps closest in spirit to Taiga and to the Boredoms' Vision Creation Newsun, with its extended grooves, layered guitar chords, and general spacey feel... six years was a long time to wait for a new album; here's hoping the next one will show up sooner... Kabalaba (with Muhal Richard Abrams) and the 1984 Paris concert with Cecil Taylor are prime examples of full-bore Art Ensemble... both feature pretty much high-energy in-your-face improvisation the whole time... and both feature excellent guest work from pianists who match their energy and power at every step of the way... gawd, I love this music... Digging deep into recent recordings with Rodger Coleman... where the hell do we come up with all this stuff?... I also continue to be energized by Henry Cow...

Playlist 2020-02-17:

*Art Ensemble of Chicago with Muhal Richard Abrams: Kabalaba
*Black Host: Life In The Sugar Candle Mines
*Bill Bruford's Earthworks: The Sound of Surprise
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: The Mathematics of War "New Landscape"
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2019-08-27 Nashville (rough mix wav)
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2019-08-28 Nashville (rough mix wav)
*Alice Coltrane: Ptah the El Daoud
*Miles Davis: The Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection, Vol. 2 (LP 1, LP 2)
*Duke Ellington: Duke 56/62 Vol. 1 (sides 2, 4)
*Samuel Goff: Transmissions
*Henry Kaiser/Wadada Leo Smith - Yo Miles!: Sky Garden (discs 1, 2)
*Henry Kaiser/Wadada Leo Smith - Yo Miles!: Upriver (discs 1, 2)
*Henry Kaiser/Wadada Leo Smith - Yo Miles!: 2000-03-04 Fillmore (CDR) (disc 1)
*Layers of Memory: Hence Thrice
*Keeril Makan: In Sound
*Maybe Monday: Saturn's Finger
*John McLaughlin: My Goal's Beyond (side 2)
*New Ting: 2020-02-03 "Fred's Lane Is My Lane" (wav)
*Larry Ochs/Nels Cline/Gerald Cleaver: What Is to Be Done "Shimmer Intend Spark Groove Defend"
*David Sancious And Tone: Transformation (The Speed Of Love) (side 1)
*Soft Machine: 5
*Cecil Taylor/Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1984-10-30 Paris (CDR) (track 2)
*John Zorn: Chimeras (revised)
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (disc 44)
*Big Star: Complete Third (disc 2)
*Chris Cutler/Fred Frith: Live In Prague And Washington (side 1)
*Dirty Projectors: Lamp Lit Prose
*Graham Central Station: Release Yourself (side 2)
*Guided By Voices: Propeller
*Guided By Voices: Vampire on Titus
*Guided By Voices: Bee Thousand
*Henry Cow: 1975-05-17 Grenoble, France (CDR)
*Henry Cow with Robert Wyatt: 1975-06-22 Rome (CDR)
*Henry Cow: Western Culture (Cow Box Redux)
*Sean O'Hagan: Radum Calls, Radum Calls
*OOIOO: Nijimusi
*Chano Pozo : El Tambor De Cuba (Life And Music Of The Legendary Cuban Conga Drummer) (disc 1)
*Sheriff Jack: Everybody Twist
*Skeleton Crew: The Country of Blinds
*Esperanza Spalding: Emily's D+Evolution
*Various artists: Country & Western Hit Parade 1966: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, and Hillbilly Music
*Wilco: 2004-07-08 Stockholm (CDR)
*Brian Wilson: No Pier Pressure (side 2)

Reading List, Week of 2020-02-16

Reading List 2020-02-17:

*Cutter, Matthew. Closer You Are: The Story of Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices (started)
*Goldbarth, Albert. The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems 1972-2007 (started)
*Greer, James. Guided By Voices: A Brief History (started/finished)
*Longbehn, Volker. Arno Schmidt's Zettel's Traum: An Analysis (finished)
*Einsohn, Amy, and Marilyn Schwartz. The Copyeditor's Handbook, 4th ed. (in progress)
*Gaddis, William. The Recognitions (reread/in progress)
*Moore, Steven. A Reader's Guide to William Gaddis's The Recognitions (rev. ed.) (in progress)

New Layers of Memory Release

Now available on Bandcamp: the new release by Layers of Memory, Hence Thrice. Enjoy!

Playlist, Week of 2020-02-09

Excellent new solo release from RAIC mastermind Sam Goff... field recordings, turntable samples, solo percussion, and lots of wild sounds all contribute to a sonic melange of exotic density and experimental textures... easily one of his best projects!... 

Playlist 2020-02-10:

*Paul Bley: Paul Bley with Gary Peacock (sides 1, 2)
*Cab Calloway & His Orchestra: Cruisin' With Cab (side 2)
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2019-08-27 Nashville (rough mix wav)
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2019-08-28 Nashville (rough mix wav)
*Duke Ellington/John Coltrane: Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (side 1)
*Farmers By Nature: Love and Ghosts (disc 2)
*Fred Frith/Rova Saxophone Quartet: Freedom in Fragments
*John Gilmore: Non-Sun Ra Sax Solos (youtube)
*Samuel Goff: Transmissions
*Kip Hanrahan: Desire Develops an Edge
*Oliver Lake: NTU: Point From Which Creation Begins (side 2)
*Myra Melford's Snowy Egret: The Other Side of Air
*Charles Mingus: Mingus Plays Piano (Spontaneous Compositions And Improvisations) (sides 1, 2)
*Butch Morris: Current Trends In Racism In Modern America (side 2)
*New Ting: 2020-01-29 Shockoe Denim, RVA (wav)
*New Ting: 2020-02-03 "Fred's Lane Is My Lane" (wav)
*Tyshawn Sorey: Pillars (disc 3)
*Cecil Taylor Unit: 1966-10-16 Stuttgart (CDR) (disc 2)
*Cecil Taylor Unit: Live In Bologna (side 1)
*Cecil Taylor/Anthony Braxton/William Parker: 2007-10-12 Bologna (CDR)
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (disc 43)
*Beach Boys: 1969 (I'm Going Your Way)
*Art Bears: The World As It Is Today
*Jeff Beck: Wired
*Mike Elder/Harry Forrest/Sam Byrd: 2020-02-01 (wav)
*Gong: Camembert Electrique
*Grateful Dead: 1975-03-23 Kezar Stadium, San Francisco (CDR)
*Henry Cow: 1972 Hemel Hempstead (CDR)
*Henry Cow: 1973? Explorer's Club, London (CDR)
*Henry Cow: 1974-5 (Cow Box Redux)
*Henry Cow: Late
*Mars Volta: The Bedlam in Goliath
*OOIOO: Nijimusi
*Sean O'Hagan: Radum Calls, Radum Calls
*Annette Peacock: Been In The Streets Too Long (side 2)
*U.S. Maple: Long Hair in Three Stages
*Various artists: Country & Western Hit Parade 1964: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, and Hillbilly Music
*Various artists: Country & Western Hit Parade 1965: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, and Hillbilly Music
*Yes: The Word Is Live (disc 1)

Reading List, Week of 2020-02-09

Reading List 2020-02-10:

*Moore, Steven. A Reader's Guide to William Gaddis's The Recognitions (rev. ed.) (started)
*Barry, Lynda. Making Comics (started/finished)
*Henry Cow. Cow Box Redux (50th Anniversary Box) Books 1-3 (finished)
*Showcase Presents: Legion of Super Heroes, Vol . 2 (finished)
*Einsohn, Amy, and Marilyn Schwartz. The Copyeditor's Handbook, 4th ed. (in progress)
*Gaddis, William. The Recognitions (reread/in progress)
*Longbehn, Volker. Arno Schmidt's Zettel's Traum: An Analysis (in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2020-02-02

So much Henry Cow, from Cow Box Redux and on, is also leading to me to other post-Cow endeavors like this one from Lindsay Cooper featuring Robert Wyatt on vocals... Still absorbing the new OOIOO and the new Sean O'Hagan... well, I am still absorbing everything, I guess... music continually re-invigorates itself in my mind...

Playlist 2020-02-03:

*Art Ensemble: 1967/68 (disc 1) "Quartet No. 1"
*John Coltrane: Live in Japan (disc 2)
*Kris Davis: Diatom Ribbons
*Miles Davis: The Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection, Vol. 2 (LP 5)
*Dave Douglas: Freak In
*Duke Ellington/John Coltrane: Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (side 2)
*Fire! Orchestra: Arrival
*Nick Fraser/Kris Davis/Tony Malaby: Zoning
*Herbie Hancock: Head Hunters
*Layers of Memory: 2019-12-07 RVA (wav)
*John McLaughlin: My Goal's Beyond (side 1)
*Roscoe Mitchell Discussions Orchestra: Discussions "Who Dat"
*Roscoe Mitchell Orchestra: Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College, March 19-20, 2018
*Myra Melford: Snowy Egret
*New Ting: 2020-01-21 Crystal Palace, RVA (wav)
*Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Low Profile
*Sun Ra And His Astro-Ihnfinity Arkestra: Sun Embassy (side 1)
*Lester Young: The Aladdin Sessions (sides 1, 4)
*Various artists: History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music (CDR compilation) (disc 42)
*Art Bears: Winter Songs
*Lindsay Cooper: Rags
*Fred Frith: Guitar Solos
*Gentle Giant: Acquiring the Taste
*Gentle Giant: Interview
*Henry Cow: 1977-11-18 Brussels (CDR) (discs 1, 2)
*Henry Cow: Western Culture (Cow Box Redux)
*News From Babel: Sirens & Silences/Work Resumed On The Tower
*News From Babel: Letters Home
*Sean O'Hagan: Radum Calls, Radum Calls
*Sheriff Jack: Let's Be Nonchalant
*OOIOO: Nijimusi
*Skeleton Crew: Learn to Talk
*UYA: 1992-03-03: Also a Client (wav)
*Various artists: Eeny-Meeny and Loc-a-li: Exotic Blues & Rhythm vol. 11 & 12

Reading List, Week of 2020-02-02

Reading List 2020-02-03:

*Gaddis, William. The Recognitions (reread/started)
*Henry Cow. Cow Box Redux (50th Anniversary Box) Books 1-3 (started)
*Le Carré, John. Agent Running in the Field (started/finished)
*King, Stephen. The Institute (finished)
*Piekut, Benjamin. Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem (finished)
*Einsohn, Amy, and Marilyn Schwartz. The Copyeditor's Handbook, 4th ed. (in progress)
*Longbehn, Volker. Arno Schmidt's Zettel's Traum: An Analysis (in progress)
*Showcase Presents: Legion of Super Heroes, Vol . 2 (in progress)