Charles LaReau-Stasis; eh? Records #121 cassette

 

Judging from the tones that he gets on this eh? Records cassette, the sense that Disaster Amnesiac gets is that Hangzhou-based Charles LaReau is a no nonsense kind of guy. He uses tapes and electronics in order to build up long form, granular drone pieces on Stasis, ones that eschew exercises in fanfare. This entire cassette has a mellow, and certainly contemplative feel to it, one that's perfect for use as background to reading or thought processing. It's been rainy and cloudy for the past few days where I sit, and the sounds from Stasis have served as a suitable soundtrack for staring out the window at clouds and puddles and the drops therein. One wonders what electronic devices were utilized for these tracks; whatever they were, they must have been spare, as everything here has a sleek simplicity that would evince an almost complete lack of bells and whistles. No Jazz Hands happening, just a lot of dreamy washes and trills that scroll by within the attentive musical head. Asian Ambient must be a thing already, and Charles LaReau is doing solid work within that presumptive micro-genre.

Guro Skumsnes Moe & Philippe Petit-self titled; Public Eyesore Records #151, 2022

 

To paraphrase Peter Tosh here, Disaster Amnesiac is comin' in hot with an off the cuff review of Guro Skumsnes Moe & Philippe Petits' stunning new self titled CD from Public Eyesore. Just got the dang thing today and I'm just so jazzed on its sounds that the need to wait has been sloughed off like manners during a political debate. Gotta write about it NOW, because this, THIS is what I'm talking about when it comes to Experimental/Industrial/Electro-Acoustic music! 

Three tracks, two long and one short, of a duo that explores the deeper recesses of their respective rigs (basses, analog synths, voices, and turntables) and the explorations reach into deeply satisfying sonic realms. Moe and Petit peel back the niceties and get downright gritty with each other, and it's a treat to listen to them do it. Whirling, twisting sonic hurricanes! LSD trails! Doom Metal bass riffs! Plurp-ey synth burbs! Pealing feedback! Random weird melodic fragments! All of that and more have this duo concocted in a release that is so pleasingly in the pocket of what Disaster Amnesiac currently wants from his Experimental/Industrial/Electro-Acoustic listening time. I'm listening right now, and all that I can do is smile at their astute presentation, one which brings the best and most effective elements of these genres to peak levels of fascination. Clearly Moe and Petit have done a ton of work in the sound art world; they bring it all to their tables, and do it with confidence and poise fitting of their resume. In short, this stuff rocks. 

There have been a few recent releases from the Weirdo Music side of our world that have felt mannered and kind of bland to Disaster Amnesiac, but Guro Skumsnes Moe & Philippe Petit is WAAAAAAAY not that. You guys need to get some kind of cool logo so that Henry Rollins can tattoo it on his left calf.

This is a rant, brought about by two vinyl records that I received for review.

 

Let's go back three years, shall we, and bring up the specter which was then being floated to the masses. As Disaster Amnesiac recalls it, we were being told that a terrible disease was emerging, and that it would kill millions of people. At first we were told to wash our hands with more diligence. A few months later, we were told that society would have to be shut down for a few weeks "to slow the spread". A year or so later, we were told to have a vaccine injected into our bodies, which would surely save many lives and keep this emergent disease in check. Some of us questioned that dictate, and some of us lost our jobs for having done so. Some of us were no longer able to afford our expensive mortgages, and thereby had to sell our houses and a lot of our property in order to find new places to live, places in which the pressure to conform or be cast out would not be felt as harshly. Mr. and Mrs. Amnesiac soon found ourselves within that newly emerging demographic. After a brief interval in which a leap of faith move occurred, I found myself within a smaller house, in a new state. Within this smaller house, there is just barely room for Disaster Amnesiac to store LPs or even a turntable. This is the situation which I find myself in. I accept it gladly, because ultimately, God's will is greater than mine. Amor Fati suits me just fine. 

All that said, I obviously cannot review LPs, even as I'd really, really like to do so. I just can't listen to them, currently. Perhaps that situation will change someday. Who can say? What I can say is that actions and decisions ALWAYS have unintended consequences. It's Disaster Amnesiac's hope that the masses will, next time, choose a bit more wisely as to these decisions and actions. There are two brand new, unsealed LPs sitting atop a stack of boxes of other LPs, crowding a corner of my house. An insignificant sight by any objective measure. But, still, for me, they are a potent symbol of what can happen when people do not take into consideration the fact that there will never not be unintended consequences from decisions. Next time, people, please try to use your critical thinking skills with a bit more aplomb. 

Merry Christmas.

Random Photo!

 

Disaster Amnesiac visiting with Casey Sonnabend near Santa Cruz, CA spring 2012. I drove down from Oakland with Brian Lucas, who used this photo along with his text at the City Lights Books blog. Casey passed away in October of this year. He was a tremendously friendly and fascinating guy. Many thanks to Brian for including me in that fantastic day's journey. 

Live Shot #71!

 

Jazz musicians playing at a Sunday brunch in Albany, CA, ca. 2014. The restaurant didn't have live music for that long, unfortunately. The band did good versions of standards, no surprise there.

Live Shot #70!

 

Composer/multi-instrumentalist Moe! Staiano conducting his piece Death of a Piano, First Church of Buzzard warehouse, Oakland CA 2019.

Goodbye Jerry Lee Lewis

 

Jerry Lee "The Killer" Lewis has passed on. Disaster Amnesiac is nowhere near an obsessive fan of the man, but I do realize that his musical vision was important to the early evolution of Rock 'n Roll, and his music is always enjoyable when I hear it. More than that almost, it strikes me that with along with the man, a certain attitude towards life and music has also gone. The attitude of take no prisoners, perhaps the original Punk Rock "fuck off and die" stance towards everyone and everything (save some dame dancing atop the rockin' 88), perhaps Dixie Fried country soul, maybe some element that Disaster Amnesiac isn't even aware of. Bull in a china shop types like Lewis are more and more rare, and maybe that's a good, and maybe that's not. But it seems a fact, especially within the music industry. There's just too much at stake, and too long a time of set standards and practices in place. The wild men are off doing something else now, if they're allowed to get past their childhoods with those wild hairs at all intact. Lewis epitomized an approach that has mostly been caged, and the so-called rebels of this era can't replicate the raw authenticity of guys such as him, try as they might. 

Race on, Jerry Lee Lewis, may your spirit find new hot corn mash and sassy jigglin' action up on some other, freer plane.