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FEDORA LINUX 9 - NEW 6 CD PACK RELEASE - L@@@k ======
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Tue, 27 May 2008 17:31:27 PDT
What the Thunder Said
WHAT HAVE WE GIVEN? MY FRIEND, BLOOD SHAKING MY HEART Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction Unit April Is the Cruelest Month Kojima : 1975 MT, guitar; Kenji Mori, alto sax, flute, bass clarinet; Nobuyoshi Ino, bass, cello; Hiroshi Yamazaki, percussion. WHAT IFS: This most obscure Japanese album almost had a high profile in the U.S. It was originally scheduled to be released stateside by ESP Records, but the deal went south at the last minute. One can only speculate how this remarkably forward-looking work might have influenced the scene if only it had been heard. Years later, this music had another brush with wider exposure. What Have We Given? was originally slated to appear on Jazz Satelites 2, but Virgin pulled the plug on the project even as the artwork was being readied by the printer. A BUNCH OF LOSERS Famous assessment by Takayanagi of his peers in Japans jazz community, circa the mid-60s. Takayanagi started playing jazz in the 1950s in swing bands. At the age of 37, he discovered free jazz, formed his New Direction Unit, and pushed his music into the stratosphere. Both a technical virtuososo and a creative maverick, he was one of the earliest noise guitar improvisers anywhere in the world. Not to mention one of the most significant. PROTO-INDUSTRIAL AMBIANCE: What Have We Given? features plangent and beseeching saxophone squawks against a clanking undercarriage of unsettling rhythms. Theres not so much a definitive beginning, middle, or end as the feeling that the sounds simply enter your speakers and later exit. That indeterminate vibe. This is one of Takayanagis more compact and controlled offerings, but hardly pop. And despite the presence of guitar, its about as far from rock or fusion as possible. It has more in common with the Free Improv music from Europe at the time, though mixed with an abrasive early 80s Industrial feel, avant la lettre. If Takayanagis playing here recalls Derek Bailey, its important to remember their styles developed simulataneously without any apparent influence on one another. This track nicely represents one side of Takayanagis work, sometimes called gradual projection for how the pieces slowly emerge, the notes patiently accreting, almost ambiantly making their presence felt. HENDRIX THROUGH A MEAT-GRINDER: Heres the other side of Takayanagi. One of his most ferocious blowouts, My Friend, Blood Shaking My Heart should be legendary among shredders and free rock noiseniks. A sustained sonata of radical amp destruction, it ranks up there with such stratospheric works of extremity as Dave Burrells Echo. Its not proto-noise, kids, but straight up NOISE. A whirlwind of atonality that suspends any sense of passing time. You can hear more than mere echoes of this free jazz/free rock/assault-and-battery in the best work of Keiji Hainos Fushitshusha, especially their legendary double live effort. GO BUY IT: A few copies of the CD reissue (which includes bonus tracks) may still be available through Jinya Disc - grab one now! INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: Theres some speculation the album title isnt a reference to T. S. Eliots modernist poetic touchstone The Wasteland as much as the infamous Eliot-inspired musical Wasteland!, briefly produced in Tokyo by dadaist theatre impressario and movie director Shuji Terayama in the early 1970s. April is the Cruelest Month was the show-stopping number, complete with a kick-line of chorus girls. It was apparently met with hails of riceballs. MORE ABOUT TAKAYANAGI:Discography

Tue, 27 May 2008 12:15:46 EDT