Selexia/Snowbeasts-split cassette, No Sides Records 2025

 

 

No Sides Records is one busy label these days. A month or so back Disaster Amnesiac received an email from the Chicago based concern with a list of late 2025 releases. It was stacked, and due to technical issues with my old ass Mac it was not possible to cop the pre-releases linked in said email. Now that their official release date is upon us, though, that's a different story, so let's start with split cassette from Selexia and Snowbeasts. This seemingly untitled album features four tunes with a twist. Each group placed one of their own tracks upon it, and then the other remixed it and placed that one on as well. Selexia leads things off with None Remain. Their original version features Cold Wave synth stabs, a propulsive sequenced beat that has an incredibly phat bass drum sound, and female vocals that show up with an icy, detached manner. The occasional sampled rando voice also arises out of the dance matrix of this song. It'd probably be perfect for a post-apocalypse dance party in some bombed out downtown American metropolis. Snowbeasts' remix of None Remain compresses the drums' sounds a bit and adds a bit more action from some sort of synthesizer, along with choral vocal touches. The main vocal track is buried a bit deeper within the mix, and it's as if a survivor of the last days were hearing it while hurrying away from post-human orcs intent on putting zombie bites on the last humans. Forged In Fire is the Snowbeasts contribution to the collaboration. This tune's programmed rhythm machine beat is a real banger: it can move your butt or your imagination, depending on whether you're seated or standing. Astute Dub influences emerge as layers are peeled back and then reapplied. Wordless vocals and chromatic keyboard riffs bring the thing home. This frenetic piece of EDM is a genuine rocker, and fans of the genre's multi-decades long aesthetics will find plenty of spookiness and urban decay with which to step to. The Selexia remix of Forged In Fire is much like the None Remain one in that the initial drum track is amended somewhat. A crackin' snare drum sound, much reminiscent to this listener of the one utilized by The Normal so many years ago, pushes its initial moments into a chilly breakdown before emerging again. A single note keyboard pulse wraps the remix up, and, again, you'll likely find yourself out on the floor, any floor, should you have any kind of heart pulse whatsoever. This split release from Selexia and Snowbeasts hits well and hard. Grab it for your New Years Eve party and treat those in attendance to some effective Dance/Trance music sounds! That's Disaster Amnesiac's birthday so don't forget to invite me, too.

Burning Palms-False Prophet; Baby Tooth Records, 2017

 

It was a few weeks ago that Disaster Amnesiac found myself drifting past the cassette section at Wooden Tooth Records on Congress St. in Tucson, a diminutive (in comparison to the vinyl focus of the store) area, yet one filled with an appealing assortment of releases, current and historical. As this drifting occurred one tape grabbed and kept my gaze: False Prophet by Tucson band Burning Palms. It just had an aura about it, one that convinced me pretty much immediately to carry it on over to the register and make it mine. Very happy to have done so, for within its duration there has been a lot of really groovy listening that's flown from the speakers of two systems a mi casita. Nightstalker starts the proceedings off and it introduces the overall aesthetic modalities of Burning Palms. The band cooked up a sound that melded Psychedelic guitar tones with elegantly simple percussive pounding and actually sung vocal parts. This blend propels songs which evoke Manchester 1979, or London 1980, or  the Los Angeles Divisions of 1981-89 and perhaps certain dudes in East San Francisco Bay circa 1999. Within these similarities though there beats the pounding heart of a band with its own originality, its own voice literally and figuratively. Physically impactful rhythmic playing of a very Stooges-like manner and hooky melodic changes characterize The Tarot. Raw Goth power. There have been times when Disaster Amnesiac has heard the lyrics of False Prophet as being some kind of Christian overcoming story, but that is probably my own subjective bias. Still, they tell the tale of some type of renunciation that was a long time coming, and they are insightful. The guitars are flavored in a deliciously South West ways, Surf Punk arpeggio spiraling out over bracing drum kit pound. On Lies, the addition of Noise touches from electronics and theremin mix with stun guitar sounds and yet another effectively simple drum performance. Burning Palms absolutely stick the ending, too. The group's more experimental side emerges on Dusk. Disaster Amnesiac has heard it as moody American Industrial Goth of a quite Cleveland 1978 mode. As I've listened to Wax & Wane, it's been wondered if this one was often used as the climactic event of Burning Palms live sets. It feels as if it could have been played for extended periods as the assembled audiences' consciousnesses aligned with those of the performers in of the moment Rock 'n Roll Bacchanalia. Not that it ever gets messy, though: another drum tight ending leads us to side B...on which The Pressure drops frenetic key changes and wild feedback which make the song. Faster paced runaway train action in the vocal department means drama! Ritual Psych moves and characteristically appealing vocal moves ride atop fuzzy guitar tones on Explode. Astute use of shakers and tambourine color and enhance the drums. Dawn and The Dagger continue the ritual feel of their predecessor on the second side of False Prophet. These two songs feel very much of a piece, and I wonder if they were performed as such when Burning Palms hit stages in Arizona and wherever else they traveled to. The latter has a very moving turnaround part after the verses that sends out those blissful melodic steps which never fails to excite. Brandon Ugstad, such a great drummer here and everywhere else on the release. A bit more aggro pacing is used on Take Me as it drives towards a breakdown. The most Metal sounding title that Burning Palms had is that of The Sword. It's a mid-paced banger of fuzzed guitar hypnosis! Harmony singing and ceremonial drumming push into a conclusion of rave up moments that end the album perfectly. Such a well performed, engineered, and sequenced document, Burning Palms members Simone Stopford, Daniel Walker, Sathya Honey, Brandon Ugstad, Steve Romaniello, and Sunanda Bruno must have mightily pleased with False Prophet. Going back to the counter at Wooden Tooth, the guy that was manning it told me that this band's members scattered to the winds a few years back. What can we do to convince them of having a reunion show here in Tucson?

Raphael Collazo: The Search For Expression; Tucson Museum of Art, Winter 2025-26

 

 

It's not that often that Disaster Amnesiac gets to see the inside of an art museum these days. Thankfully there was some time on a lovely Wednesday morning in Tucson to get over to the Tucson Museum of Art for some viewing. I did not get much past the Kasser Family Wing of the museum on account of falling deeply into the fantastic Abstract Expressionist paintings of Raphael Collazo. From that era of painting, this viewer noted hints of Arshile Gorky and a bit of De Kooning, but the strongest impression was that of seeing paintings by an artist who'd developed and mastered his own techniques in order to evoke the sublime. It would be specious to claim that he was not able to replicate human/animal/still life forms. In his mature works, Collazo utilized impasto paired with sculptural methods with the paint in order to manifest hidden colors and physical aspects of it. His ability to blend simpler outward forms and paint brush gestures brings depth, whimsy, and wonder to the attentive viewer of his works. Many of the canvases show fascinating granular aspects of detail. Additionally his use of inks feels like a kind of secret weapon within his pallete. Both conscious and subconscious elements are evident, with sudden reveals jumping out from the mind. Raphael Collazo's paintings pair intellectual control with more frenetic movements in ways that would surely make the owner of any of his paintings satisfied at long term viewing of them. If one finds oneself in Tucson this Winter, get over to the Tucson Museum of Art and keep your eyes open for his paintings there, particularly the largest, four panel center piece of the exhibit. 

 Above: details with some of Raphael Collazo's paintings. 

Below: much of the centerpiece work. 

Live shot(s) #201!

 

 

Arizona Baroque recital at St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church, 11/24/25. 

Below: Collegium Musicum. So lovely to hear their harmonizing. Baroque music sounds so non-aggressive compared to other music. A music of human scale.

Above: this harpsichord, I may have heard it played before! Underneath that we have the inner workings of the positive organ, which paired nicely with an oboe on certain songs. 

What better way to spend a Monday evening could there be?

Live shot(s) #200!

 

Taken at Wooden Tooth Records Tucson, 11/21/25.

Below: Vinegar Sting from Chandler AZ. Concise Surrealist Prog served up in a uniquely Arizona fashion. 

Above: The Gem Show. Twin guitars illuminate the night, pushed by adventurous drumming and thick bass slabs. 

Disaster Amnesiac was saddened to see the restaurant next door to Wooden Tooth Records had gone out of business. Hopefully some other venture fills that spot on Congress.

Euphotic-Clastic; Confront CORE Records #56, 2025

 

There is a tendency among practitioners of Improvised Music circles that promotes fluid dynamics within personnel for projects. Sound artists and musicians (and whatever other appellations they adhere to) make small pools of peers from which a given creator will pull in order to realize a particular project. While not being completely unheard of, long term collaborations with assigned monikers are rather rare within the pursuit. Disaster Amnesiac brings it up on account of hearing Clastic, the latest release from San Francisco Bay Area depth trio Euphotic. This trio, comprised of Cheryl E. Leonard, Tom Djll and Bryan Day has been operating as a longer term sound producing entity for quite some time now. The fruits of their collaborative labors are always compelling, fascinating and ear catching, as I've been recently reminded while listening to the release. Baleen tips in as a pretty quickly paced opener; Leonard's rocks-based sounds always perk the ears up. As these blend with Day's percussive analogs and Djll's electro-acoustics the attentive listener can hear their well practiced sympatico emerging from the seeming murkiness. Euphotic's inter-group dynamics are well in place and evident if one listens. Spiralia presents a duration that could allow for rushing but instead retains an even keel throughout, the more to allow for its contemplative nature to remain in focus. The inner workings of cellular life at deep ocean floor or perhaps trapped within the depths of an Antarctic ice wall. Trumpet that is well glitched out colors Cipher. Djll really processes his horn into something odd sounding while Day pops and scrapes behind it and Leonard buzzes about with the SOMA ETHER V2 electronic system.  Crab Pot has a bit more clear trumpet timbre within its long tones. The surreal rhythm section frames these with a spaciousness that's effective. After a while it shows a more purely synth originated sound that does a quiet burn before fading into Sediment Core. This longer track ends Clastic and it is also it's highlight piece. The track's Sci-Fi battles get frenetic and they are so delicious for it. Croaking densities are rendered even more thick with field recordings and samples. This one gives proof to the soundness of creative musical groupings that work together long term. It coheres their past achievements and points the way forward to even more detailed incidences of granular interaction within their unique band form. After Clastic Disaster Amnesiac certainly looks forward to getting in tune with whatever issues next from Euphotic.

Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman-Song X; Geffen Records, 1986

 

A few weeks have gone by since the passing of great drummer Jack Dejohnette, and the outpouring of obituaries and remembrances from the music fan world has been voluminous. Fitting, too, as the late Jazz Master drummer certainly deserved them all. He could play within any combination of musicians and it certainly sounded as though every setting within which he participated was elevated by his presence. Did the man every have a bad night on the drums? If so, those must have been few and far in-between. It seems doubtful that there any recordings of Jack playing whack. As for Disaster Amnesiac, after the news about Dejohnette's leaving his physical embodiment, I went right to listening to a favorite recording upon which he played, 1986's Song X by Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman. This is one that has been in my musical rotation since the early 1990's. Probably checked out from the Fremont CA main library at first, and did so numerous subsequent times. Such a great band: Metheny, Coleman, Dejohnette, Charlie Haden, and Denardo Coleman. All players of deep skill and great merit. To describe Ornette as such almost seems like an insult, doesn't it. The breadth of his compositional and improvisational gifts were so wide ranging as to have developed a pretty large cult following, and that's completely merited. His free form blowing on Endangered Species, his Bop lines on Mob Job, the mastery of ballad lyricism on Kathelin Gray, the way that his sounds completely replicate the sounds of 1980's Video Games: dude was singular with the alto saxophone. Let's not forget his deeply rural violin chops either. The rest of the band responds accordingly, with Haden showing the reliably sumptuous bass lines he pulled from his upright, always welcomed by Ornette into the fray, and Metheny presumably absolutely stoked to be jamming harmelodically with that musical conception's architect. Let's not forget younger Coleman Denardo's percussive contributions: he never steps on Jack Dejohnette's feet as the two drum in tandem throughout seven of Song X's eight tracks but is always in the mix, especially on the opening bars of Long Time No See. As for the late Jack D., one can hear his lovely and crisp ride cymbal patterns and quick left hand snare drum syncopation all through the session. Hear him push Trigonometry, essentially playing the melody with that left hand while his right hand keeps time and his feet accent on hi-hat and bass drum, and hear the standard for many decades of Jazz drumming. Dejohnette developed a style that while based upon his influences came into its own early on, and he just kept building upon that, right up to the end Disaster Amnesiac imagines. Song X is a perfect exemplar of Harmelodics. One can hear so many of the elements that Ornette Coleman blended in order to build that unique system of his such as Folk Music and Bucky Fuller ideas and Texas Blues and Popular Culture. Open ended, free flowing Jazz drumming was also a ballast for Harmelodic Theory, and Jack Dejohnette was one of the perfect players for the pursuit of it. It's sad to hear about his passing but at least we have recordings such as this from which we can appreciate his genius.