Sounding the Deep-A Union According to Energy; Sonic Meditations Records 2010

 

A Union According to Energy, the 2010 CD from Sounding the Deep has been in kind of a heavy rotation with Disaster Amnesiac for a couple of weeks now. Recall purchasing it way back then and wanting to enthuse about it, but for some reason that never happened. I came across the disc in the "S" box when looking for some Slayer to be pummeled by. That pummeling did indeed occur, but soon afterward A Union According to Energy was played, and its gorgeous guitar tones just had to be noted here. Six string man David Williams concocted lots of really lovely and fascinating sound from his electric guitar and amplifier. At times during listening to the disc, Disaster Amnesiac has thought that he pulled pretty much Electronic Music sounds from his rig. Realize that the electric guitar is inherently an electronic instrument, of course, but seek out and find this album and I'm sure you'll get my drift. Along with that abstraction, Williams played lovely, pastoral, spacious chord progressions as well; his techniques on the guitar are notable for their creativity and vision. I've seen online that Sounding the Deep morphed into a mostly all-acoustic configuration, and totally understand why. Williams, judging from his music, must be very inclined to go deep into the sound world of his chosen instrument, and guitarists often seem to turn to the acoustic side in order to get to those desired zones. The electric version of Sounding the Deep, and its guitar performances, are no doubt imbued with a deepness of hearing, too. Also great to hear is the sparse, considered drumming of Mike Vera. He utilizes a playing style which isolates selected pieces of the drum kit and really digs in within limited parameters as such. This gives rhythmic and percussive-tonal framing to the guitar sounds, but never gets in their way. A really creative way to approach percussive performance, and admirable in its humility. Vera never bashes through any of the pieces. He lets them develop, free from a lot of the controlling impulse that often besets drummers. Mention must also be made of the audio engineering from one Jamaj. Great tonal/sound capture throughout the entirety of this seven piece album. And that cover art, too! An alluring listen throughout A Union According to Energy is pretty much guaranteed for any fan of spacious guitar-centered meditation sounds.

Greg Walls-Walls of Sound; via Amazon streaming, 2022

 

Walls of Sound, the 2022 EP length release from Greg Walls came into Disaster Amnesiac's view by way of a YouTube clip. In said clip, Walls explained how he was present for the initial formation of Anthrax, and about how his contribution, so vital to the early music of the long running Thrash Metal group, has been obfuscated and ignored. At times during its sixteen minutes and change duration, this clip is punctuated by some very noisy and creative guitar sounds from Walls. Additionally, Greg astutely mentioned that Walls of Sound could be heard online. Naturally, I had to check these sounds out. What one finds on Walls is five well constructed Heavy Metal songs, ones that feature plenty of in your face guitar riffage and soloing. These sounds are supported by solid mid-tempo drumming, very non-Thrash in performance from all of the rhythm section parts, and classic Heavy Metal singing. Walls of Sound is proudly Heavy Metal in its delivery; it's a release that would likely please fans of the genre in its sincerity of formulation and performance. Disaster Amnesiac must opine that it's an improvement upon Fistful of Metal, the album that Greg Walls insists that he wrote mostly on his own, for the burgeoning Anthrax. That album was quite confusing to the adolescent Heavy Metal fan that I was at the time of its release. Walls of Sound is not confusing. Its point of view is very clear and that makes it rock. Stream it over at Amazon, it's a release that deserves some attention from attentive listeners of that most pure of genres, Heavy Metal. Greg Walls was on the ground floor of the initial wave of its American wing, and it'd be a shame for his musical contributions to be ignored and possibly obfuscated for too much longer.

Random shot!

 

 

Twentynine Palms CA; 4/5/2024. Don't tell a soul.

Live shot #112!

 

The Beths at 191 Toole, Tucson AZ 4/17/2024. 

A New Zealand guitar Pop band with a drummer that has the perfect touch for their compositions and harmony singing. This group knows exactly what they're doing, and they have a rabid following in Tucson. People were ecstatically singing along. Pretty major deal music for a big slice of the popular music demographic I'd say. Tickets for Mr. and Mrs. Amnesiac courtesy of KXCI. Real music for real people is their motto. I like this town.

Nora Keyes-Fancy Space People; 2023 via Amazon Music

 

How in the heck did it go down like this? Disaster Amnesiac is sure that I've seen Fancy Space People, the band, play live once. Definitely have purchased some physical product from same. It boggles the imagination as to what behind the scenes machinations transpired in order to make this music find what seems to be its final release in the form of Fancy Space People by Nora Keyes. Not that Disaster Amnesiac is complaining. Certainly not. How could a person complain when Keyes is at the mic, her fantastic soprano massaging the forebrain like some exquisite psychic balm? It's a voice that I've loved for many years now. Hell, it's tough to think back to 2006 or so, the first time that I heard Frankenstein (two versions included here!) and realize just how much time has transpired. Dude, Disaster Amnesiac was in my thirties the first time that song destroyed my consciousness! Here I am at 53 and the damn thing is kind of a new release! These are strange, strange times indeed, fancy space people and earthling compatriots. Fancy Space People features all kinds of compelling musical twists and turns: the Sunshine Pop of Candy, groovy Power Pop on Bongo's Key of Love, the sublime Los Angeles Psych of Frankenstein, Jimmy and Pyramids and straight up Boogie on Superet Light. Keyes was very astute in keeping those original performances for this full length. Fancy Space People the band were hot, hot stuff, featuring the deep talents of several inspired and inspiring musicians, and their playing is all over Fancy Space People. Added to Keyes singular lyrical vision and completely unique vocal delivery, it makes for a recording that Disaster Amnesiac knows will be played very often at mi casita de Tucson. I just really wish that I could be privy to the back story as to how it's taken this form, so unexpected to me. Still, what a nice surprise!

I went to Wonder Valley Experimental Music Festival and saw God.

 

And goddesses. And saints. And sinners. Pretty sure Queztalcuatl also touched my forehead. Beams hitting third eyes. Gorgeous early April Mojave day time sun. Like perfect. Hail fellows well met, yes, it's a lovely day for a hike. Interact with the desert. Let it speak its language, so subtle yet so attainable, to you. Careful with that wind gust, Eugene. Well at least you've got hiking boots on. 

Spent two days driving, one half day hiking and the other half listening to many Experimental Music projects. Most of them from the Los Angeles area, a handful from the San Francisco Bay Area. A wide array of sounds heard. Each has their recognizable dynamics and codes and subtexts ("your Hanatarashi t-shirt tells me things, as does that other act's singing bowl). I flashed again on how Noise and Experimental musics are truly Folk Forms of the most vital sort. During the drive over to Twentynine Palms, I listened to  earlier Folk music on a disc of songs by anthracite miners. It's on Folkways, go and find it, very much worth a spin or seven. A lot of peoples' worldly concerns are the same now as when they were when they were miners. Totally different granular details in most cases, I get it. But, still, people are out in the world making decisions, some of them very complicated in any number of manner. Some of these people will turn to sound making, just as those that came before them had chosen. Damn straight, it's a human need. A lot of us need it to cope with the rest of it all. Who knows, maybe it is all a distraction from more pressing concerns as we navigate our subjective mortal passage. Still, a lot of us choose to remain within its thrall, if thralls are what use distractions to ensnare the human consciousness. And would you believe that Disaster Amnesiac just spelled that word without a spell check? It's God's truth. Turning back to the need for cope, and how people often use music as a means for doing such, I still posit that Noise is a living Folk Form. Don't know if it's the last or the penultimate (thinking about Apocalypse porn here, and what will post-Apocalyptic people use for music makers?) Disaster Amnesiac does know that I saw and lot of cool weirdos and listened to their music at the Palms Restaurant in Twentynine Palms on an early April day and evening. 

If you've read this far: y'all should go over there next year. If you see me there, let's talk about ontology or whatever subject that you're feeling at that time.

Live shot #111!

 

Pianist and composer Andrew Jamieson, Berkeley Arts Festival Building, Berkeley CA 2015.

Random shot!

 

Li-Po Lounge, San Francisco CA circa 2018.

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.

Live Shot(s) #108!

 From the Golden Saguaro, Tucson 2/23/24. As show booker John described it, an evening of word to song to drone. 

Below: poet Johanna Skibsrud blended her writing with loops of female voices that inspired her. A new book of Johanna's poems will be out this year. 

Above: Dao Strom. Portland OR based troubador. Lovely, delicate guitar sounds and well considered adeptness with pedal effects. 

Below: Maiiuwak. Drone bliss! Hopefully they'll be playing out a lot, it's a winner for Tucson aesthetics.

Setting-Shone a Rainbow Light On; Paradise of Bachelors Records, 2023

 

A month or so back within Disaster Amnesiac's timeline, I had the astonishing experience of hearing Setting on WFMU. Yes, the astonishment was palpable. Hearing this group's advanced form Electro-Acoustic Drone on that day was for this listener akin to digging up a beautiful crystal out in nature, or perhaps to paraphrase from Shone a Rainbow Light On, seeing an unexpected rainbow emerging from the ether. This trio, made up of Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fenelly, and Joe Westerlund have concocted a document of such regal beauty and mystery and it's blowing my mind with each listen. These guys go deep over the record's four tracks, their instrumental blends stunning, striking, and moving throughout the duration. Obviously, Setting are group that listen to each other as they play, that honor the vibe of their current moment, and that stay aware of the sonic spaces that they find themselves within. The proof is all over Shone a Rainbow Light On. It's within the entrancing drone figures and the non bullying percussion and the enticing stringed sounds. It's within the mind of the attentive listener as these sounds caress the brain. It's within the way that Setting quite clearly produce music that is neither overbearing nor pretentious, but simply emerging from some higher place, attainable to those that remain tapped in to their true creative process. Shone a Rainbow Light On is simultaneously epic and humble. Many years ago, Byron Coley wrote about what he called "the Spirit Wind" while describing a William Hooker album. Disaster Amnesiac would like to posit that Setting were enveloped within this selfsame wind during the production of this album. This stuff is High. A friend of mine mentioned that Setting is touring out to the West Coast soon. Guys, please come to Tucson. I feel like the Sonoran Desert would be a perfect setting for Setting. Think about it.

Live shot(s) #107!

 Three shots from a Desert Drone show at Groundworks, Tucson 2/15/24. There were four acts on the bill, but after three Disaster Amnesiac's ears were kind of ragged and I had to bail. 

Below: Grayson. Laptop Noise/KVLT/Garage blending. Fugazi samples for the win! 

Above: Ball Gag. Maximum density achieved.

Below: Frame Lilt. Tucson's RIO. Really cool. 

Tony Oxley-The New World; Discus Music Records, 2023

 

Awareness of the mortal passing of British master percussionist Tony Oxley reached Disaster Amnesiac late last month, fully one month after he'd transitioned to whichever incarnation or non-incarnation his spirit would attain. I'd actually just ordered a copy of his record from last year, The New World, when I found out. Recorded in 2022 with percussionist Stefan Holker, it's a slow and steady burn over six pieces that all run together for a little bit over an hour's worth of subtle musical dialogue. It's no drum battle recording from Tony and Stefan. Instead, they dialogue with their drum kits (no photos of them on the cover, sadly), creating spaces that are filled with the more gestural techniques famously pioneered by the former and quite obviously well-studied by the latter. It's no hyperbole to say that Tony Oxley had a direct hand in inventing this type of drum set aesthetic. On this, what I'm assuming was one of his last sessions, he evinces said mastery for anyone with ear to hear it. Oxley's sound always struck this listener as having a deep visual appeal, in that it was easy to imagine structures such as abandoned factories or trellises, those sorts of things, as I listened. Across The New World's duration, Tony goes to those types of places again and again, abetted by his spare, simplified electronics sounds and Stefan's obvious simpatico. This duo lights a low key flame and kindles it as they move from zone to percussive zone, not in lock step but sounding out a deeper entrainment, one of zones and even regions, pulled from drums and cymbals an all of their varied contours. The New World feels like a reverent send off for a highly important improvisor. Check in on it, and let's hope that Tony Oxley's new world, whatever that may entail, is treating his spirit well.

Live shot #106!

 

Dancer Amy Lewis and unknown guitarist (possibly Alex Cohen?), Berkeley Arts Festival Building, ca. 2015. Not sure how this photo ended up edited as such, but I like it.

Live shot #105!

 

Mostly the bassist for Tucson-based the Framps, here playing guitar on a song written after being inspired by William Blake! Groundworks, Tucson 1/26/24. The Framps have a scene of fans that love their music. Nice to get out and see a slice of youthful music production here.

Bad Brains-I Against I; SST Records, 1986

 

For the past few weeks Disaster Amnesiac has been doing a deep dive/obsessive listen to Bad Brains late 1986 I Against I, and has desired intensely to write about it. That being said, the question has arisen, over and over again: just exactly how can such an incredible album be given justice with mere words? I've been spinning it with a fervor much like the one myself and others that I knew did upon its initial release way back in the Reagan Era, resonating with its righteous intensities and pondering any and all manner of its messages, both musical and lyrical. Spinning it on the player during the day, spinning it within my perceptions at night, over and over again and again for days now. This third prong of a masterful trifecta (ROIR tape to Rock For Light to I Against I), it stands, obelisk-like, and seems to defy attempts at any kind of adequate description. As its sounds whirl within the ears and the brain, another question emerges: how in the hell did Bad Brains produce this singular and absolutely unique set of tunes? We all know the back story of how a group of D.C. kids began their musical career by obsessive study and practice of Jazz Rock Fusion, followed by a pairing down of their approach necessitated by an awareness of Punk Rock and its vital primitive shock to established thinking. Additionally, we all know how volatile a group Bad Brains were. By the time of I Against I's release, this groundbreaking Hardcore band had already disbanded under clouds of indignation and God knows what else at least once, had already become legendary, exalted by many and disdained by many others. HR's vocals on Sacred Love were recorded via the phone bank at Lorton Federal Prison, and let's just say that he was not on the visiting side within that awful place when he did so. Can you imagine the kind of stress that he and his brother Earl, along with Daryl Jennifer and Dr. Know must have been feeling during I Against I's production, with factors such as Federal imprisonment adding to their burden? It's no damn wonder that this album's more Hardcore tracks such as I Against I and House of Suffering burn with such palpable fury. Across all of the years, that fury still burns intense and brightly in ways that leave most of the more generic sounds which Bad Brains inspired in the dust. The music which came into being as a direct result of Bad Brains inspiration often sounds dated and one dimensional; this is not the case on tracks such as these. Yes, Bad Brains were Hardcore, but they were also something completely different from Hardcore. Find the proof of that on Secret 77 and Hired Gun. One can hear the Go Go of the District and the Funk of Minneapolis, but these elements are just that, elements within a unique, self-created voice of a singular band. She's Calling You could have and should have been a massive hit in 1987. I was listening to Pop music at that time, and the song fits in nicely with the actual hits of that era. From Dr. Know's guitar phrases to Earl Hudson's tight, minimal beats and HR's vocal delivery, all of the elements are present. And I ask again: how did they come up with this? Here in 2024, a track such as Return To Heaven is probably more needed for its desperate, Biblical subject matter. Re-Ignition? Its style has not even been explored by others yet, and, let's be real, others probably just can't cop that, try as they may. That question arises once more. Who were these men, and how in the heck did they cook this stuff up? I Against I, please let me go for a while! There are others records that I want to play! 

End Note: for years now, Disaster Amnesiac has wanted to see HR put together a cosmic, Sun Ra Arkestra type of project. It's high time that he, along with the other Bad Brains, go completely Free Jazz. Could you imagine how unhinged that would be? C'mon guys, give it a shot!

Live shot #104!

 

Cultural Detox Syndicate, shot with mirror; Golden Saguaro, Tucson 1/17/24. Jux def.

Goodbye 20th Century Peoples' Park Edition

 

For the past few days, Disaster Amnesiac has been watching the events that continue to unfold at and around Peoples' Park in downtown Berkeley. It appears as though Cal has finally jumped through the final legal hoop and will indeed be able to develop the block upon which the storied park sits. Their spokesmen stress the university's "urgent need for housing", along with the more apparent and long standing issue of various crimes that occur there. Demonstrations against the development plan have occurred, arrests of a few protestors have been made, but their numbers appear to be quite limited. An action that would have drawn angry masses out into the streets of Berkeley in years past is quite obviously a non-event in 2024, and this is fascinating and very telling to me. Perusing the the vox populi within YouTube comments, Disaster Amnesiac has found that people for the most part support Cal and its claim that it owns the property and needs to use it. Additionally, there is evident frustration with the people who congregate within Peoples' Park for days and days that eventually melt into years and probably even decades. I can't find a lot of sympatico on display for the Movement types of people for whom the park was at one time a major flashpoint for their causes. It's evaporated. Citizens in Berkeley are more inclined to mention the crimes that they've seen or that they fear they will see in and around that block of their town; when they do mention the legacy of the Free Speech Movement, they acknowledge it but neither do they shy away from the fact that the physical space is not the same as the ideas that were once exchanged therein. I guess that someone should venture on over to the campus proper and find some expert on Post Structuralism for further explorations of that particular dynamic. Disaster Amnesiac has also had much pause to think about people such as Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, and Andy Ngo, who were all censored and even physically attacked on the Cal Berkeley campus for simply trying to communicate their ideas. Even if one finds these ideas odious, as many in Berkeley obviously do, their freedom of speech was cancelled ignominiously and without any kind of intellectual consideration. They were simply shouted down and worse. To my mind, these actions set the stage for the sight of shipping containers and bulls in SWAT uniforms shutting down Peoples' Park. As we approach the second quarter of the 21st Century, it's obvious that a lot of our society, and yes, even a lot of the enlightened thinkers at places such as Cal, have jettisoned concepts such as the First Amendment of the Constitution. The mega donors of the professional managerial classes, in all of their varied guises, will go with the money, and ideas, for them, can pretty much fuck off. They have too much at stake for all that now, and places such as Peoples' Park, while they may be quaint reminders of noble actions that happened at some point in a distant and possibly over sentimentalized past, are ultimately just that. The Plan must roll on, and the Planners can't afford to be too romantic. And it's clear that most 21st Century Americans, if they noticed the events at Peoples' Park at all (which they mostly didn't), are cool with that. There's just not time to be bothered by that kind of thing anymore in this odd paradigm we've created here in the United States, well after the previous century and its often quite different societal aspirations.

Zohastre-Abracadabra; Zamzamrec Records, 2023

 

Awareness of Avant-Euro duo Zohastre came to Disaster Amnesiac by way of the great WFMU. During a recent streaming sesh I heard one of the tracks on last year's Abracadbra and pretty much immediately searched out and found a physical copy. The group pairs electronics and drums in ways that tickle and delight the ears. The electronics make any manner of squidgey, sparkling, burbling and just generally tone bent racket while the drums frame these sounds, often with very primitive blast beats. I figure that hardcore Heavy Metal fans might take offense to drummer Olmo Guadagnoli's somewhat primitive techniques, but I find them to be quite effective as they move knob tweaker Heloise Thibault's electronic statements. The tracks don't vary much in terms of tonal shifts or time signatures as such, instead relying upon Olmo's simple drumming to push the repetitive nature of Zohastre's concept to levels of trance ecstasy. Take a quick look at the figures on the very nice cover art for Abracadabra, and you'll likely get the drift. And as one listens, they certainly will be given ample opportunity to drift off into the bliss zones crafted by this creative duo. Put on Abracadabra at your next dance session or party, and you'll be guaranteed some fun hip sway, foot work, booty shake, or hand jive. A fine blending of Electronic Music, Now Metal, and Underground Dance, Abracadabra is a mover! Must find more sounds such as this for 2024!