A Magic Whistle-The Solar Cell; Lampspeople #001/Public Eyesore Records #166, 2025

 

It's not often that Public Eyesore Records does vinyl editions, but when they are involved in them, the consumer can rest assured that they will be beautifully produced physical objects, and The Solar Cell by A Magic Whistle proves this contention. This album, produced deep inside rural, mountainous northern California in the years 2021-24, contains sounds that worthily enhance its neat-o banana yellow vinyl and gorgeous cover art and photography. The timbres achieved by A Magic Whistle on Cell are generally bright and sunny. A sampling of some of the instrumentation: home made sequencers/synthesizers, modular synthesizers, electronic manipulations. These types of instruments and their sounds can generally be quite efficient for making those short, bubbling, burbling tones which give off feels of experiments in mycology eating; indeed as I've listened it's been quite easy to imagine them as being the soundtrack for some sort of film featuring fairies, gnomes, and maybe the odd cat, all shot with wide angled lenses and perhaps some "trippy" filtering. Partch-ian ratios appear to be utilized on Andy Puls's Cascadian Sympathetic Steel, a guitar-based invention which lends many stringed Exotica touches from its repetitive (in an entirely grand way) featuring on a number of tracks. Standout tunes for this listener have been the surreal Soft Robot and the tripped out county fair calliope of Dancehammer. That being said, the entirety of The Solar Cell's twenty one cuts are worthy of repeated listening. A Magic Whistle presents Rural Psych in a most refined and thoughtful sort on this split between his label and Public Eyesore. Hardcore vinyl heads: come for the package and stay for the music!

Ron Heglin-Tom Djll-Duos for Voice and Runglers; Public Eyesore Records #165, 2025

 

Kind of scary, really, the way in which Ron Heglin and Tom Djll immediately begin the sounds of Duos for Voice and Runglers, their recent CD release on Public Eyesore Records. Deeply singular abstraction is the main menu item on this one, and they serve it up hot from the start. If one figured that a recording made up of sounds produced from "chaotic circuit[s]" as their foremost feature and improvised vocals in a personal language could possibly be a bit terrifying, one would in the cases of most people be correct. Disaster Amnesiac can't say that I was scared exactly, while listening, but more summoned to attention. This latter may have to do with the fact that Ron Heglin and Tom Djll are known qualities to me, as far as listing to music goes; the depth of their musical explorations is at the very least familiar to these ears. Along with the sounds aspect contained within this duo, there is also, dare I say, an intellectual gravitas to them. Put a bit more simply, they're serious about this stuff. Anyway, that's the way that they both came off to me, and fucking hails for it. Yes, the music produced on documents such as Duos can supply the simple fun of diversion from whatever else is occurring in a human life, but along with that ideas are attached. Specifically from Heglin: his performances and cover art contributions explore, with intent, aspects of language and its manifestation within the human experience. He goes deep into too. As stated, dude's serious. The Runglers which Djll utilizes and describes as both precise and unpredictable serve as either a foil or a mirror for the human sounds from Ron. As the latter relays ancient sounding stories from alternate dimensions, the former pushes his instruments into sharp, cutting, and mostly harsh bursts of Noise. What's been striking to Disaster Amnesiac is the absolute control of the sounds which have arrived. Hints of possibly more ambiguous results are given from the press sheet for Duos, but it sounds so very controlled in these quarters. Especially fine is bakinsa, in which high skilled throat singing emerges from the throat of Heglin. Adding to the concision is the relative brevity of the entire disc and its nine tracks. Nothing drags on for too long and that's fine. If you're up for putting in forty five minutes or so of mental effort, you'll not find Duos for Voice and Runglers that intimidating, at least not for too long.

Live shot(s) #187!

 

All shots taken at Brick Box Brewery Tucson, 7/30/25.

Below: Whiskey Drunk plays traveling troubadour songs and has really interesting/astute covers.

Above: Holy Nitemare. Many effective elements blending into a hard edged kick ass live band sound. 

Below: Gutter Town make six string sonic tapestries and feature some subtle, stealth lead guitar moves.

A great show at a fine venue in downtown Tucson! Wednesday night partay!

Live shot #186!

 

Working People at Che's Lounge Tucson 7/19/25. Trance grooves and seriously well considered and performed guitar tones. People were dancing like crazy.

Live shot #185!

 

Jazz/Fusion band. St. Elmo Bar, Bisbee AZ July 2025. The trombone player and drummer were great. Cool band all around.

Rudolph Grey-Transfixed; New Alliance Records, 1988

 

When it comes to "purchase on sight" artists, Rudolph Grey is most definitely within that category for Disaster Amnesiac. Ask anyone familiar with his music, and surely you'll get similar responses. His somewhat slim catalog always delivers the kind of bonkers aesthetics that people inclined to like Free Jazz and Free Improvisation find massively appealing. A few months back a cassette copy of Transfixed, his 1988 New Alliance Records release was espied by yours truly over at the University District branch of Wooden Tooth Records in Tucson and obviously I was all over it. As stated, "purchase on sight". Side 1 begins with a duo of Grey on guitar and the late great Arthur Doyle on tenor saxophone. It sounds as if they're playing in front of a coterie of Lower East Side people and also as if Doyle is ripping up the mental fabric of himself and anyone within ear shot. Hopefully those voices on the the tape were voices of people marveling at the man's singular tone shaping and multi-phonic greatness. Grey joins in with swooping diver bomber messages from his six strings and amplifier. The two proceed to bounce ideas back and forth and it's gloriously abstract. The two of them really goo things up handily on this track entitled Ghosts. Albert Ayler is in there somewhere, of course, but Rudolph and Arthur summon their own unique haints also. The former's tones on guitar are really colorful and sound deeply considered. 1000 Luminous Flowers follows (such an incredible song title!) and it features Grey on guitars. The stun zone is hit with the quickness here as he builds up walls of arpeggio; densities of sound are embedded within those walls and the listener can pick out all kinds of granular details should he/she choose to do so. This flower garden is exited pretty quickly, so you'll want to pay attention lest you miss those desired nuggets of colorful sound. On Side 2 Sumner Crane, Rudolph's band mate of a brief duration within the amazing Mars, duets with Grey on piano piece Whirl. It's a piece that's full of the vigor of New York Jazz, pretty much all eras, along with elements of 20th Century Composition. Think Ives and Schoenberg and Crumb and you'll get the drift. The pianos sound decently in tune and their two players wrap ideas around each other's skulls in the most joyous of manner. Transfixed closes out the set with more of Grey's solo guitar expressiveness. More of those swooping dramatics and sonic earthworks that arise from genuine creative guitar exploration. Rudolph Grey was burnin' in that era with his unique vision, one seemingly informed by 1950's Sci-Fi films, No Wave moves, and presumably also the raw energies zapping all over the Big Apple and its environs. Transfixed is one part of what Disaster Amnesiac knows as a three pronged set of releases from a musician gifted with genuine vision. Seek it and Rudolph Grey's other two records from New Alliance. If you're at all interested in free form musical wanderings, they go the distance in terms of delivering powerful musical wampum.

Live shot #184!

 

Gunsafe, Black Walls Gallery Albuquerque NM. No mic really needed, the girl can wail. Really good song writing, too.