2003-03-18

 
Music Aquisition.
Eyvind Kang: "The Story of Iceland"
This album is wonderful. Eyvind has played with Secret Chiefs 3 (oh my goodness, such wonderful composed eastern orchestral fusion, the music of the coming apocalypse, eh?). This album is one of his on John Zorn's Tzadik label. This was also recommended to me by Cerberus Shoal's Caleb Mulkerin. It consists of repetitive woodwind&strings style magical avant-composed music. Think Philip Glass, but with slow Explosions in the Sky drum snares, forboding of the sadness of destruction and war. The eastern accuracies mixed with european avant-isms dilate the pupils, remind of the human experience and how indifferent yet full of wonder the morning can be. This is a beautiful cohesive composition with recurring themes and an incredible shiny mix. hard to dislike. There is an odd psyched classic rock droning piece with loping wavering vocals at the end. it sounds terrible on my laptop and is a terrible fork in the road of this disk, but it is quite interesting to hear another color of Eyvind Kang's palette. He is playing at the Bottom of the Hill on wednesday and I intend to go, but Damo Suzuki (ghost) is playing at the Hemlock Tavern tomorrow; two concerts of eastern crossover globalization musicians. wish they'd just play together rather than make me go twice or have to pick between them.

Hash Jar Tempo
Finally got to listen to this CD. It annoyed someone I live with, but then again he was annoyed by Gabor Szabo also, so I have no trust that we have similar musical tastes. For the space rock I listen to, Roy Montgomery's projects are incredibly accessible. Although he utilizes noisy tones of guitars (often unrefined, if only he would learn about tone the way Eyvind Kang arranges sound), his worlds he creates are precisely SONG. the guitar sings a story in the way a muse uses a voice to impart a tale. I was nervous that the collaboration with Bardo Pond would be cathartic, since their music is often curdling, cleansing, wrenching... like a wet rag being twisted, the bodily discomfort of taking mushrooms... but they seem to simply back up Montgomery (and collide, intertwine) in order to produce a hippy stoner meditative background music perfect for creating with. As the volume fades in, I anticipate something magical being revealed that is not normally perceptible. It reminds me much of Phish's marvelous "My Left Toe" on the Siket Disk (a surprising must-have for drone rock and psych fans).
posted by MM 12:33 AM