The Big Drum In the Sky Religion-Entheogenocide; haveyousaidmidi Records, no date listed

 

The Big Drum In the Sky Religion is a project that has turned Disaster Amnesiac on for a number of years now. Just about everything that this person has done aesthetically just resonates with my ears and brain. No need to list out my subjective reasons for this, but it must be stated emphatically that The Big Drum In the Sky religion makes fucking great music. Music that is issued from a deeply personal and well considered place. I am only aware of the surface manifestations of said music, and that's more than plenty for this listener. Surely the person that conceptualizes and writes and performs this stuff must be experiencing a very fascinating creative inner world vision. Can you tell that Disaster Amnesiac digs this stuff to the fullest? Hope so, Jack. 

Lately Entheogenocide has been dug up over here at Casita De Amnesiac, my own labyrinth of Sonoran solitude, and it's burning the brain just as it did some time ago when it was acquired from someplace or other. This long form piece revolves around a bass guitar ostinato that gets wrapped up within increasingly deep layers of electric guitar, one that is processed and pedal'd deliciously. So much happens within the seemingly simple bass guitar riff over the duration of this piece. At points I've heard Heavy Metal, old Folk songs, Minimalist scrawl; as stated, there's a ton of information therein. The electric guitar layers get deeper and deeper and more crazed, like a giant fungus or lichen occupying the established space from the bass guitar. It's a real head trip as they used to say. Surely, they meant exactly that then and Disaster Amnesiac means exactly that now. It's Psychedelic, baby. 

If there hasn't been a reissue of this incredible piece of Shoe Gaze Appalachian Real People Music, one may have a tough time finding it. My copy is 17/60. And no, you can't have it. Holding on to this here copy of Entheogenocide for the duration! Go and spelunk someplace else for yours.

Live shot(s) #128!

 All photos taken at Screening Room, Tucson 6/21/2024.

Below: Valley Fever. Twin guitar Boogie action. A late edition as subs for the great Female Gaze. They got people out of their seats and into the aisles to move. 

Above: Class. Punk Rock 'n Roll. They had a Ramones concert film playing on the big screen behind, but I sensed more Los Angeles than New York City. Maximum Garage Energy, it still works.

Below: Wanda Junes. "....like a warm monsoon breeze..." A fine mellower modality with which to end the evening. 

Screening Room rocks!

KBD-III; eh? Records cassette #126, 2024

 

At eh? Records, KBD does not stand for Killed By Death. No sir. Instead it hearkens the Electro-Acoustic Music trio of Michael Kimaid on drums/percussion, Gabriel Beam on modular synthesizer/live sampling and Ryan Dohm on trumpet/sampler/tapes. Their third release has manifested, on cassette again, and goes by the title of III. 

Consisting of two side-long tracks, one performed in front of an audience (you can hear 'em at a certain point) and the other done in closed session. III's promo blurb touts KBD's ability to engage "listeners with deep and active" moves, and after several listens, Disaster Amnesiac is inclined to agree with this assertion. The well groomed men of KBD (no visible tats) each evince deep layers of facility within their extended techniques. That they are able to entwine their subjective moves into the greater whole required for compelling live group interactions is never in question on the tracks At the Threshold (the studio track) and On Waves, Under Stars (the live one). Going back to the promo, it's suggested that the former has more density while the latter is given to more sparseness. I have certainly experienced that effect at times, but have also perceived this dynamic to being essentially flipped 180 degrees at times, too. This has led to ruminations upon the very subjective nature of the listening experience, within all music listening really, but especially within the Improvised Music sphere of the realm. Disaster Amnesiac has also really enjoyed just hearing how KBD establish zones of call and response and otherworldly abstraction within this 90 minute plus or minus album. III features top flight Electro-Acoustic investigations sure to tickle the fancy of any connoisseur of that fascinating genre. 

Yo, Bryan Day, if you have any of those older releases from KBD laying around, my tape deck would surely accepting their spooling!

Live shot #127!

 

Miser, Wonder Valley Experimental Music Festival; The Palms Restaurant Twentynine Palms CA, 4/6/2024.

Live shot #126!

 

Hiram bringing on the sunset at Wonder Valley Experimental Music Festival. The Palms Restaurant Twentynine Palms CA, 4/6/24. It was a fabulous set.

Random guest shot!

 

Warsaw, 2024. Photo by and courtesy of David McCall. 

Caveat: neither David nor I know who this Wanda was, or what she was involved in. We both just like how this shot turned out, so I decided to post it here.

Live shot #125!

 

Galactic Pot-Healer. Free Oakland UP!, Oakland CA 2016.