United Mutations

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Evil Dick (and the Banned Members) have contributed to various Zappa-related matters.
The are to be heard on (at least) one of Andrew Greenaway's Idiot Bastard Zappa tribute albums, they took part in the "Concert For Jimmy" (Jimmy Carl Black) festival and appeared at Zappanale five years ago.

All this to say that Evil Dick has a new album out, called "All The Glisters".

Find out more at : http://evildick.co.uk/

JUMP FOR JOY! - BAT PULLOVER

jump for joy! : bat pullover
(2016, cd, uk, bonobo's ark records bar005)

June 2014, Daevid Allen, Yumi Hara and Chris Cutler were booked to play at Jean-Hervé Péron's Avantgarde Festival in Schiphorst in 2014. Unfortunately, last minute, Daevid Allen was unable to make it.
Since most of Jean-Hervé's band (Faust, including Geoff Leigh) were all coming to the festival but not playing, Jean-Hervé Péron suggested they should all team up to headline the festival.
The result was called Jump For Joy! and featured Werner 'Zappi' Diermaier and Chris Cutler on drums, Geraldine Swayne on keyboards and voice, Yumi Hara on piano, synth and voice,, Geof Leigh on flute, sax, electronics and voice, and Jean-Hervé Péron on bass, trumpet and voice.

Elena Wolay was in the audience and asked the band to perform in Göthenburg at the Jazz Ät Farligt (Jazz Is Dangerous) festival the next year. "Bat Pullover" presents parts of this Göthenburg performance.

"Bat Pullover" is an experimental jazz / avant-garde music adventure.

Out on Bonobo's Ark Records on both CD and LP.
Distributed by ReR and by Diskunion (Japan)

More recently, the band performed at the 2016 ROI festival.
Here's a snippet from the 2014 performance.

GENE PRITSKER - GROOVE POSSESSED

gene pritsker: groove possessed
(2016, cd, usa, composers concordance records comcon034)

Gene Pritsker's versatility keeps amazing me. On one of his recent albums, "Groove Possessed", Gene presents a diverse collection of compositions.
From the hyper-energetic (and even Zappa-esque) 'My Heart Goes' over the uptempo dub 'Illusion Blue' to the electronic / classical 'Fades To Debussy', this album will not cease to amaze you.

http://www.genepritsker.com/

So get out these headphones and check out "Groove Possessed" on iTunes or Spotify.

Here's the String Quartet / Electronic version of 'My Heart Goes' :

'NEW' CAPTAIN BEEFHEART RADIO BROADCAST ALBUMS

The never-ending story of so-called Radio Broadcast releases has generated another set of cds :

* Captain Beefheart : Live At Knebworth (CD release of the OZIT LP)
* Captain Beefheart : The Early Years (CD, with some early Beefheart / Zappa material as well)
* Captain Beefherat : Easy Teeth (the famous vinyl bootleg from years ago ; 1978 concert)

ZAPPA VINYL ALBUM RE-RELEASES

Announced for re-release on vinyl on November 11 :

Cruisin' With Ruben & The Jets
Lumpy Gravy
We're Only In It For The Money
Joe's Garage Acts I, II and III
Weasels Ripped My Flesh

Add the recent re-release of "Hot Rats", and one should not help but notice that the ZFT is catching up...

VARIOUS ARTISTS - PYRE - A COLD SPRING SAMPLER

various artists: pyre - a cold spring sampler
(2016, cd, uk, cold spring records)

"Pyre" is a sampler for the Cold Spring Records label. It presents 15 tracks, including one from the Sun Ra / Merzbow album.

Forced Exposure says : "industrial, esoteric, dark ambient, ritual, Japanese noise, drone, power electronics, doom, death industrial, experimental", and they know more about it than I do.
And they were right, this sampler took me to a world that I hardly enter.

The Sun Ra / Merzbow track in question is 'Granular Jazz Part 4', an experimental electronic / noise mix of Sun Ra material by Merzbow. I didn't know what to expect, but I certainly did not expect this.
Where's that Sun Ra / Merzbow album ? I need to give that a listen.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

STRAND - STRAND

strand: strand
(2014, cd, bel, unday records unday032cd)

Guitar player and composer Bert Dockx has already been mentioned a couple of times in the United Mutations Blog. Bert is the man behind Flying Horseman and behind Dans Dans.
In 2014 he released a solo album as Strand ('Beach' in Dutch).
The little sticker on the album says "Solitairy music by Bert Dockx", and that's about the best description I could find.

The below track will give you a perfect idea of the atmosphere :

THE RESIDENTS / CHARLES BOBUCK

Updating the United Mutations Archives (and cleaning my desk), I added the recent Klanggalerie releases to The Residents' entry.

In case you have missed the info on any of these titles, visit Klanggalerie :
http://www.klanggalerie.com/

CHARLES BOBUCK - BLACK TAR

charles bobuck: black tar - 13 tiny tunes for hallow's eve
(2016, download, usa, bandcamp)

Yesterday, on the evening of Halloween, Charles Bobuck released "Black Tar - 13 Tiny Tunes For Hallow's Eve".
Weird and dark.
Each track has a title that consists of one word : 'Saw', 'Yellow', 'Bag', 'Dali', ...
These words were taken from a little story :

I saw a yellow bag.
The bag was carried by the artist Dali as he strolled through the streets of Barcelona singing songs he could hear coming from passing car radios. As he neared, he paused and handed me the bag asking, “Are you my angel of death?” And with that he squelched up his face as though he had just bitten into a lemon.

“You do not look like my angel. My angel would wear a shroud made of rugs with blue fringe.”

With that he he took the yellow bag from me and looked deeply into my eyes.

I said, “It is Hallow’s Eve and I am wearing a costume.”

He smiled with eyes appreciating my sneakiness and shoved the bag back into my arms.

I opened it once he was out of sight. It was filled with music that had the odor of sticky black tar.

I now pass the bag to you.

Are you my angel of death?

Available as a name-your-price download-only album.
Money goes to charity. Read more here :
https://bobuck.bandcamp.com/album/black-tar-13-tiny-tunes-for-hallows-eve