Glen Weyant-Transmissions: New Work For Electric Guitar, Amplifier and Effects; Sonicanta Records, 2024

 

Preceded by a kind of preamble in the form of an email, Glen Weyant's most recent release is Transmissions: New Work For Electric Guitar, Amplifier and Effects. The listener is presented with just under an hour's duration of solo electric guitar explorations. These are not shred guitar sounds that Weyant pulls for the guitar/amp/effects combination. Nor are they simply textures, an accomplishment of the raw field recording technique that Weyant used for their capture. Ambient sounds such as a foot engaging a foot pedal are present. Also present are Glen's melodic ideas, his layering ideas, his shards of sound ideas, his controlled feedback ideas (is that a Fender Twin you're using dude?), his ideas of space versus density in the sound field, and so much more. Recordings such as Transmissions are generally excellent windows into the creative approaches of their makers, and it is no exception. Disaster Amnesiac would like to recommend that one start out with Transmissions Pt. 2, for Weyant pulls out sounds that are a touch more approachable within the standards of "normal music" (not that I can really clarify what that is or is not), but I feel that to be the case. Transmissions Pt. 1 is a bit more initially stunning for its pretty much immediate jump into the abstracted bliss zone that is so coveted by weirdos like me and probably thousands of others (in some ways a secret society with Grouch Marx tendencies). Dig in and drop out, your tax dollars are being wasted on bullshit anyway.

Live shot #110!

 

Saxon, Cornerstone Berkeley ca. 2018.

Random shot!

 

Butte, MT July 2020. A long running restaurant in a very mysterious town. It felt like an entirely different dimension in Butte. Go there and work on poetry.

Mars Williams/Darin Gray/Chris Corsano-Elastic; Corbett vs. Dempsey Records, Mars Arhive #3, 2023

 

It must be admitted by Disaster Amnesiac that the only that I saw Mars Williams play, it was in Berkeley and that he was a member of the Psychedelic Furs. They were headlining over the Church, Mrs. Amnesiac's favorite band. She wasn't digging the volume that the Furs were playing at, and we had to split (my love happy that she got a nice house mix for the Church), but not before I got to hear what were pretty clearly to me Albert Ayler riffs from Mr. Williams. A very smiley moment, I must say. Mars Williams has left this dimension, but Corbett vs. Dempsey Records has been treating fans of Improvised Music to disc-long goods from his archive. Disaster Amnesiac has recently copped Elastic, featuring bassist Darin Gray and drummer Chris Corsano and Mars of course on reeds and toys. Starting off very powerfully on Set One 1 and then simmering down for the most part into some really Chicago-styled interactive motion, Elastic is a very compelling listen, top to bottom. Williams plays full out when he wants to, then by turns laying off a bit to let his two fellow sound explorers go into their areas of expertise. I mean, is that a trumpet or some extended technique that Chris has been developing? Does Darin have a drumstick wedged within his upright, thereby getting those really great percussive thwacks at times? This trio is drum tight and Elastic is an evidentiary document of seasoned, engaged players plying their knowledge in ways that are fun and listenable, at least for this human. How about you, assuming that you're still also human?

Another random shot!

 

South-central Montana, July 2020.

Random shot!

 

Sabino Canyon, Tucson AZ November 2021.

Live shot #109!

 

Pianist, composer, improvisor Eli Wallace. Berkeley Arts Festival Building, 2015. The set that this photo is from was in duet with percussionist Rob Pumpelly.

Kurws-Powiez/Fascia; Gusstaff Records, 2022

 

The first thing that attracted Disaster Amnesiac to Powiez/Fascia, Kurws 2022 CD, was it's cover art. I saw it and pondered the map contours of its image. Where is this this region that's being represented? Is it some sort of intelligence communication? Are those dots representations of military battalions? That a poster sized insert of the region displayed on a cover does not clear up the mystery to any sort of degree. Just what are Kurws trying to communicate with this release? As for the music and its message, the group cooks up seven tracks of percussive, Maximalist din that really moves. This Maximalism is achieved through what sound like Minimalist approaches to instrumentation: small drum kit, guitar, and bass played mostly without effects. Kurws play their tunes in locked step grooves that surround the listener; as these grooves evolve over tense durations, often several minutes in length, they get ever more jittery, and the pay off for listening over those minutes arrives when suddenly they find themselves within dense maelstrom of airtight metallic guitar/bass/drum trio dynamics. Drummer Dawid Bargenda often sticks to the sparest of eighth patterns on closed hi-hat or snare drum, around which guitarist Hubert Kostkiewicz and bassist Jakub Majchrzak spin tightly wound phrases that hammer home the collective riff voice of their songs. It's thrilling to hear how the group moves together as they wend through these patterns and their resultant riffs, building upon the sparse foundations toward funky grooves that are actually quite dance-able. It would be very interesting to see what affect a song like Foot Chase, nine minutes and change in length, would have on a live audience. A person seeking traditional songs may be somewhat bewildered by Powiez/Fascia, with its lively sonic attacks (occasionally enhanced by astute overdubs of waterphone and echo), but fans of amped up and Post-Punk instrumental exploration should be able to find much to love from the music that Kurws pounds and cranks out. Its high octane charging would be perfect for driving some sort of armored vehicle across the plains of Eastern Europe, or in Disaster Amnesiac's case, rolling down I-10 West on my way to work, just outside of Tucson.