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Funny Rat


Guest Chaney

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(Thanks for the heads up, guys)

-It's strange though: the material is very hard to come by for such a historically important group. I have seen some of the IRMLs in store, but, outside of a BYG or two, MEV CDs are scarce. If anyone has any other sources, I'm sure the interest is there...

that's all there are, the ones I listed above. the IRMLs are distributed by Forced Exposure, which is about as large as it gets in this world. like I said, 4 or 5 years ago when the first Alga Marghen release came out, the plan then was for them to do 10 MEV releases all together. my guess is that the material doesn't hold up so well (confirmed by the first Alga Marghen release), so maybe it's just been dropped.

but along roughly similar lines, there's a new archival box set from Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, two unreleased CDs of material plus a DVD:

http://www.die-schachtel.com/html/ds13.htm

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In case it hasn't been mentioned, there's also a more recent AMM meets MEV CD.

ugh, right, blocked that one out of my head. it's two CDs, one CD of sextet collaboration, one CD with the two trio sets from FOTC. it was released against Keith Rowe's wishes, FWIW.

How is it? I seem to recall there wasn't a lot of positive buzz about it.

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the MEV trio is awful, the AMM trio (their last show together, I believe) is unmemorable (and possibly has Keith mixed down quite a bit, although I can't swear to this), and the combined disc is far less than the sum of its parts. Keith was right to not want it out, but the other five overruled him.

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but along roughly similar lines, there's a new archival box set from Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, two unreleased CDs of material plus a DVD:

http://www.die-schachtel.com/html/ds13.htm

That looks great - wonder if it includes the infamous "Feedback Piece?" Apparently there's a shitload of unissued material, including about 20 or so custom LPs that they pressed up for themselves and friends back in the '60s. Yipes!

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  • 1 month later...

Funny Rat has been off this board for way too long (some agreement I wasn't made aware of?)...

Upped to say that I'm getting into the Japanese free improvisation thing (spurred on by some stuff that Clifford sent me)... and I just purchased a copy of Masayuki Takayanagi and New Direction Unit's Eclipse. My opinion is still formulating on this one, but it's beautiful, aggressive, exploratory stuff (maybe a little self-indulgent, too... in that early Brotzmann sort of way)--far more of a wash than even a lot of European improvisation sides (reminds me, a bit, of the blowout BYG jams--e.g. Seasons). The cats start at a high level and just keep upping the energy. This music isn't as brutal or heart-rending as, say, Albert Ayler or Brotz, and it doesn't seem to have the same caliber of dynamic intricacy that even the more free-wheeling of the European free improvisers. In fact--given Takayanagi's guitar theatrics--it comes across as a tangential direction on the EAI part of the evolutionary tree... loud and fearless, but not necessarily violent--searching in a manner that has as much to do with the nature and possibilities of the instrumentation as it does with the group dynamic. I'll be looking for more (I've got some Kaoru Abe in the mail).

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Agreed on Takayanagi's New Direction Unit. The Axis: Another Revolvable Thing set is also stunning; it's from around the same time. The "Mass Projection" track on volume one is sick - I didn't realize that something could take "Echo"-style density as its starting point, and get denser and freer every couple of minutes... mind-melting. Takayanagi's also good on Masahiko Togashi's We Now Create, a rare Japanese Victor session from '69 that was recently reissued. Yoshizawa and Mototeru Takagi (tenor, cornpipe) also make appearances. Apparently that Eclipse session, first on an Iskra LP, was slated to be Takayanagi's ESP debut. Unfortunately ESP didn't have the bread to put it out at the time, and shut down shortly thereafter.

I too have been scratching the surface on some of this material as of late; Abe's the next major project, though I do have a couple of Overhang Party records (Abe/Sabu Toyozumi duo) that are really great.

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Guest akanalog

cliff, my musical explorations stop at the early 80s so there is a lot of stuff outside of my interests.

but sure what the hell...i will try to carry a small part of the load.

but you know, i sort of eliminate a large swath of possible stuff to talk about by refusing to listen to any music made in the last 20-something years.

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Chaney and DD have bailed so the thread dies.

Well, E and AK, are you up for keeping it up? I know PLM is around here somewhere, too.

I wonder if Chaney and DD went over to Bagatellen, the usual source for EAI and improv banter...

We did not go anywhere (at least I didn't). I'm just not too much in a mood to discuss music at the moment (don't listen too much either).

There is no point in keeping the thread up just for the sake of it. I don't think this was ever the point - to have it stuck at the top permanently; nobody who used to post here really cared about that. Go for it, if you have anything to discuss that fits here. Currently I don't. When/if I do, I'll be back.

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Any thoughts on the new Kidd Jordan with Parker and Drake?

Haven't heard it... I did get a vinyl copy of Kidd's record on Prescription (I think it was Fielder who put up the money for the "label"), No Compromise!, which is quite good in a freebop sort of way. Fewer multiphonics than he's known for presently. It is on CD as well, I see.

Recently picked up the John Blum (pno) Astrogeny Quartet on Eremite, with Parker, Denis Charles and an altoist by the name of Antonio Grippi. Very heavy stuff...

:tup:tup

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I have that on LP. It's not bad, though Sirone takes over the date, at what I believe to be the expense of potentially fine playing by Charles and altoist Claude Lawrence.

Artistry, on Of The Cosmos records (one of two titles on that label), is a much better date IMO and really deserves to be reissued. Sirone is joned there by Don Moye, James Newton and cellist Bernard Fennell. It's a gorgeous record of unique ensemble color and heavy swing. Newton is on FIRE.

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Do you mean "least-well-documented" in terms of as a leader? He certainly plays on more AEC albums than not.

I thought he was based in Chicago from the '70s on, which makes it all the more telling that his appearances on NYC records are so many. At this point, I find it hard to imagine him playing with Steve Lacy, which is where the AEC got him from...

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