Jon Irabagon With Mike Pride and Mick Barr: I Don't Hear Nothin' But the Blues, Volume 2: Appalachian Haze; Irabbagast Records 2012

 

The cover art for this CD from Jon Irabagon's trio with Mike Pride and Mick Barr features a story line about three hombres that move from slingin' back a few shots to throwin' down pugilistic-style by the bar to riding off into the sunset. The sounds on I Don't Hear Nothin' But the Blues, Volume 2: Appalachian Haze are ones produced from this tremendously focused trio who simply do not stop playing for close to fifty minutes' duration. Drummer Pride gets to play what in some ways is the leading role of the set. His explorations of micro-tempos, drum set coloration, blasting chops-based mega fills, and just overall hyperactive motion will surely have an attentive listener's ears pinned to the back of their skull. Mike doesn't play anything resembling a traditional beat until at least fifteen minutes in, and then only for a couple of bars. Obviously he's propelled by his own subjective cadence, and its subject is powerful and intensely driven. Also bearing down for extensions of extensions is experimental guitar Wizard Mick Barr. Fingers are flying across the frets of guitar for like ninety nine percent of Haze, which leads to the micro-tonal zones which have been so consistent and repeatedly mind blowing from Barr for quite a few years now. The precision of his attack supplies a sonic quilt of drone. Surely others have compared Mick's guitar sound to swarming bees but damned if that's not the perfect descriptor of it when he's in full flight. Just so powerful. Atop the guitar and drums blitzing, Jon Irabagon stretches out with his tenor saxophone, darting in and out of the maelstrom with overtones and polyphonics which sound authentic and studied. The man knows his horn and its tones are mastered by him. When Irabagon sets up long, circular phrases with the circular breathing technique his music hunches down like an imposing mountain, y'all ain't getting around it so best just to climb into it and let it happen. If you're at all craving bonkers, electrified free improvisation these Blues will sate that craving and then some. Yowsa.

Random shot!

 

Venice CA, 2/2018.

Live shot(s) #161!

 Both shots taken at City Park, Bisbee AZ 3/15/25.

Below: Sonoran Sunsets. Honky tonkin' two steppin' good times with really great pedal steel and vocal harmonies.

Above: Valley Fever boogie in Bisbee because it's got to come out. The guy with the New York t-shirt's favorite Burroughs book is the Adding Machine.

Amanda Irarrazabal+Marco Albert-og; eh? Records #128, 2024

 

og is a duo recording from double bass player Amanda Irarrazabal and vocalist/electronics player Marco Albert, and it was released by eh? Records at the tail end of 2024. It is also a very effective piece of experimental music whose sounds are distinct and obviously well considered. If one reads about the creators of the music documented within og, one will surely realized that Irarrazabal and Albert have had great experience as pertains to playing interactions with an international grab back of acknowledged Masters. They learned well from their mentors and are producing music of deep thought and performative ability, this much is clear all over the pretty orange cassette tape that is og. 

Opener Arak emerges swinging in the metallic zones with raw voices that eventually settle into what sounded to Disaster Amnesiac like the hallucinations of hiker that's been trapped within a dry canyon. It's a very active piece of music and so heavy. Eventually the listener is spun outward from the canyon and into Witblits. This one can be equally unsettling at times, at least until it concludes with primitive, core sounds and dog style (no, in the vocals you perves.) 

Side two of og starts with Raki, a nice slow burn of low bass tones. Irarrazabal can way extend her instrument! A song which presents presents personal linguistics and drama it is. Next up, Singani has contemplative zones and actual Jazz singing, and why not? The realm can always use more Jazz singing, and if you don't believe that please listen to The Steve Lacy Quintet with Irene Aebi or Billie Holiday, ok? og finishes with Orujo. There are throat singing and marching sounds on the tune and then Yeti conference high in the Andes. It's a treatise upon the development of language and it's a lovely conclusion to the album.

Along with the fascinating sounds of og, its jay card art, non fussy and appealing in its aesthetic, make for a release that a collector of physical objects of this type will surely crave. You should be so lucky as to score a copy. You'll like it. A lot. As Disaster Amnesiac does.

Live shot(s) #160!

 Two shots from St. Charles Tavern Tucson, 2/28/2025.

Below: Priscilla Priddy, a gal who can really sing.

Above: Barefoot On Bumblebees. The rural grit of the banjo paired with precision Post Hardcore drumming and dueling vocal harmonies. 

St. Charles Tavern is a really cool spot at which to listen to music, play pool, and hang out!

Eloine-Compulsive Dinner Guest; Test Tone Music TTMC-2, 2024

 

The latest release (that Disaster Amnesiac is aware of) from Eloine, Compulsive Dinner Guest, has the distinction of being assembled after musician Bryan Day's summer 2024 tour of Japan. This fact is noted first in light of the press sheet's mentioning "a subtler approach" to the album. One wonders, what did Day observe (and Bryan is always observing closely) that encouraged this approach while in that most sublime of countries? This question is probably rhetorical, and it's obviously Day's prerogative to keep that type of information to himself. That being said, the physical evidence that arrives in the form of Compulsive Dinner Guest, shows more moves within his very personal sound world, consisting of varied self-innovated instruments and processes. An attentive listener will be presented the various aspects from this world; these aspects, resulting from quite a complex process, feature generally subtle shifts in rhythm and pitch. Palpable sub-surface sonic agitations and excitements are sounded on Reactionary Survey. Smokers Pillow has immediate drone effects that frame gestural actions upon Bryan's rig, which are followed up by slowly emerging voices, both high and low. Percussion and pure Noise are blended well during Mancopter Ascends, which concludes with a well paced fade out to conclude side A. On the flip side, Nothing Becomes Everything has ghostly voices and rocks with pedal tones, while the neatly entitled Spiderwhite creaks with machinery clips and late night outdoor trance sounds. Set closing track Thum Tax Live (was this tracked in Nippon during one of the shows?) is a dramatic slow burner with ring modulators. All told, Compulsive Dinner Guest would be welcomed by any fan of abstract music. It  commands and rewards deep listening. The pacing and sound assembly practiced by Eloine are unique and fully realized. The influence of Japan can be felt and heard within this emergent poise, mostly for its quietly simmering mesmerizing tones. Zen and the art of Day!

Live shot #159!

 

 

Colin Bluntstone Band at Rialto Theater Tucson, 2/22/2025. Really well done renditions of tunes by The Zombies, Alan Parsons etc. Maybe just a touch of pitch correction in a few spots (?) but the man can still sing really well. A solid band, too. Headliner Al Stewart did his popular favorites and let his backing band, Empty Pockets, show their stuff during his set. Mrs. Amnesiac was over the moon, Al is one of her faves.