xybert

I started the first episode but realized I couldn't make much sense of it without going back and watching the end of season one. Anyone watching without having seen the first season will be quickly lost methinks, it offers zero catch up assistance to new viewers. I avoided this, it looked like something as manipulative as Forrest Gump. No thanks. Forrest Gump was better. That's for sure but I'm in the embarrassed minority who actually liked FG. I was surprised to find out how disliked Forrest Gump is (online, at least). People really hate it! I mean, every movie has it's detractors, but considering that i always thought it was a universally loved classic it was initially quite jarring how often it gets brought up as an example of a straight up bad movie.

Also, latest drop from Clean Feed is out. I'm semi keen for the new Adam Lane, only thing holding me back is that i dug the last Full Throttle Orchestra album enough at the time but subsequently found it to be dull and always take it off whenever i try to revisit it. Think i'll pull that one out, listen from start to finish to decide whether i want to go another round. Apart from that, i nearly crapped myself when i saw the Joe Morris Quartet, thinking that it would be the group with Jim Hobbs. It's not, but just as good if not quite as exciting for me is the group with Mat Maneri and co. A must buy.

Lee Konitz - First Meeting Quite keen for this, i really dig what i've heard of recent Konitz and the samples sound really good. Edit: here's a promo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvZqCT7ci5Y

I saw your post last night and listened to the album again straight away... was interesting that the Steve Coleman flavour jumped straight out at me while listening after reading your post. Any claim of originality in jazz/improv/This Music will always be controversial. I'm trying to think of a good analogy for Coleman and Lehman... i feel like there is a connection there, but by the same token the method and the end result is different enough that you could like one but not the other... i want to say something like if Coleman is Ellington then Lehman is... something something... (not trying to say Coleman is the equal of Ellington! Just trying to find a suitable progenitor to new guy analogy and failing to)... i think when TT&F came out and i was trying to recommend it to people i suggested that it was roughly like a mix between Steve Coleman and Dave Holland's Extended Play quintet. It was fairly flawed but it gave an idea of the sound. With Mese En Abime that mix no longer applies; i don't know what i'd say now but Steve Coleman would still be in there somewhere. I too need to do more listening.

And he must be from the future ... at least when he taped it. Doesn't that "DDD" in the upper right supposed to indicate that the recording started out "digital", was mastered digitally, and then outputted to CD? I thought "ADD" signified a CD that started as an analog source, was converted to digital for mastering and then outputted to CD. Neat trick if he recorded it digitally in 1974. Or, alternatively, it's just another booklet typo, to go with that "Sticky Vicket" title. I think that it was possible to record digitally in the seventies but it obviously wasn't very widespread that early on... DDD does indicate a digital recording... i doubt it was recorded digitally but hey ya never know!

Yes, a beautiful goal. That dude... he must be feeling pretty, pretty good right now. I'm so glad that it didn't go to penalties.

I've given Mise En Abime a few listens now and i'm really digging it. Took a few listens to get in to, it's quite dense compared with TT&F, on first blush much less accessible. The more you listen the more it opens up and you start hearing all those gorgeous moments. In my opinion there isn't a single 'wow' track like Alloy was on TT&F (at least on early listens it hasn't been revealed to me yet) but it's like, overall, a better album: the whole album is 'wow'. It's been worth the wait, he's nailed 'it'. I dunno, i won't go on about it... i'm sure this album is going to get the shit hyped out of it as people start to hear it, and this of course will unfortunately turn many people off it. But really, i'd be fascinated, fascinated to peer into a parallel dimension and see what a legit critical establishment would make of this album within the context of Lehman's discography and contemporary jazz as a whole. For me it's a landmark album for Lehman.

Law Years from Science Fiction... I think that was what opened my ears to Haden and is still a go to track. Sorry to hear of his passing.

Well said. Agreed. The level of competition in Soccer is so high, definitely not a sport where one or two countries dominate. At the end of the day only one team can raise the cup.

Yup, massive on both a psychological and practical level for both teams.

Without having seen the game (hope to see the highlights tonight) i feel pretty sorry for Brazil, they must be devastated... talk about a bad day at the office.

Unbelievable. Can't see the game but just have a website up that's posting running updates... it seems like everytime i refresh the screen another goal has been scored.

Agree with all of that, and would just add that "injustices" of the kind you refer to are not all that rare, just as in life. That doesn't mean any rules were broken. The Costa Ricans did earn that penalty shootout by preventing a potent Holland attack from scoring for 120 minutes. Yeah, i rushed through that post and there were a lot of 'for want of a better word' moments and caveats that i wanted to add but i was in too much of a hurry. Was going to add something along the lines of "but if Costa Rica did pull it off, that's soccer and well played to them."

I'm not up with the play as to the extent of the bad blood (they sued each other from what i gather? Gross) but they have at least appeared live together recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUYzQaCCt2o

I wouldn't be quite that venomously sarcastic about it but i agree with the gist of what you are saying. Watching the game, and it's worth noting that i was quietly hoping for Costa Rica to win at the beginning, i honestly thought that it would be a real injustice if Costa Rica snuck in a goal to win at the last minute or won on penalties (however well they played a tactical game to engineer it so that it came down to penalties). The Netherlands played better in my opinion, were the stronger team and deserved to win. Which brings me to the penalty shoot out. A Penalty shoot out is a horrible, gutwrenching situation to be in. In my opinion Krul got all up in it, embraced it. He was bold, but I don't think that his gamesmanship crossed a line (based on the what i saw, anyway).

Found out about the existence of Clutch Cargo on another thread, looked it up on youtube and instantly recognised the style of the Eskimo/Totem Pole show that was playing on a TV in Pulp Fiction... always wondered about that but never enough to look it up... feel strangely satisfied!

Epic game. Hats off to the Netherlands, i think they deserved to win, overall. Respect for Robben, he absolutely played his arse off.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz by Morton and Cook is an excellent suggestion. I'd forgotten how much it expanded my horizons and challenged my preconceptions at the time. Although you'll find yourself disagreeing with some of the assessments i think vastly overall it's on point, and you'll get a feel for where they're coming from, just as you would if they were board members, so it won't surprise you that they don't rate a particular fusion album that you dig very highly etc. Viewing the book as an analog forum where only two guys (albeit two very on to it guys) are posting and you don't have the option of responding apart from in your head works for me. I'd suggest checking out the 9th edition or earlier as the 10th edition, although still a good read, is more of a 'lite' version of the previous editions.

I have the "Illusionary Seas" double LP 45rpm, and it is clean and smooth and quiet, remarkably so really. Maybe the previous one had some noise, don't know as I don't have it, or maybe she was being facetious. But the larger point about new releases being variable in quality is well-taken. Cien Fuego has been very good, OTO, and I think Trost, also very good, just to mention a few. Bought a Sonore LP and another one on Trost and they were severely scuffed/scratched from the heavy stock inner sleeves. I know a lot of stores don't even do returns on new vinyl anymore because there isn't any point to being liable for manufacturing defects or mishandling in the pressing plant/at the distributor. So I was out $40+. Never bought a Cien Fuego release as I have all that stuff on FMP vinyl. Then again, I've had bad luck with CDs from Clean Feed and Not Two in particular - digital clicks, phantom skipping, all kinds of crap (in multiple CD players) - so the format doesn't really matter. Most of these labels put out too much stuff without paying attention to quality control. Never had an issue with Clean Feed CDs (knock on wood) however the only Not Two CD i have (that i can think of) has a ton of digital clicks on it (Jim Hobbs' The Story of Mankind)

Keen for Side A... missed out on the first album on Clean Feed... probably available from other sources but i prefer to order directly from Clean Feed and it's been out of stock on the CF website for ages (which i presume means 'out of print' as i've never seen anything showing on their website as OOS come back in to stock).

"Y is like X on LSD" is my lazy critic pet peeve.

I've found it hard to get in to this group's music as well... Eubanks sounds a bit off to me, like a guy jamming on his guitar at home over the top of a another band's CD. Haven't listened to the album enough to note any lack of interaction it's just more the way he sounds.

Ha ha, i know that people here are only making light hearted fun of Malaby's presentation but i had to laugh at the cover of his latest album: It's almost like he is cheekily trolling his fashion detractors, he is even holding up the bottom of his untucked shirt as if to accentuate it! But then i remember the real world... a world where if someone at the office had me up for having an inappropriately untucked shirt, and i said "lol get with it i'm just rocking the Malaby look today!" they wouldn't have any idea what i was on about. Anyway, Malaby is awesome. Better get back to work now...

Track from the new album on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ZIX8DvSlA All thoughts are welcome. Still waiting for my copy of the album to arrive, but i think this track bodes pretty well.

Ben Allison wrote an interesting blog on the subject: http://benallison.com/my-youtube-experiment/ "As artists and music-lovers, we should stop thinking of YouTube, Spotify, Rdio, Deezer, Rhapsody and the rapidly growing list of streaming services as being part of the “music industry.” I think of the recording industry (the creator side of the music industry) as essentially being comprised of record labels, publishers, distributors, and artists. All are interested in the same thing — creating and selling music. By comparison, companies like YouTube and Spotify aren’t really interested in selling music because they don’t sell music. They’re interested in accumulating user and subscriber data and selling ads. They use music as the draw. Spotify recently received an infusion of $100,000,000 in venture capital from Goldman Sachs. Not bad for a company that has yet to be profitable. Is Goldman Sachs interested in getting into the music selling business? I don’t think so."