Wednesday 25 December 2013

Video Hits #1

Might start posting some Youtube picks here for the sake of not annoying those long-suffering friends and family on Facebook who are not into free jazz, Japanese psych, the New Zealand underground or psychedelic folk.


Raphe Malik Quartet at the Willow Jazz Club, Somerville, MA, 21/1/91

Raphe Malik - trumpet
Brian King Nelson - C-Melody saxophone
Larry Roland - bass
Dennis Warren - drums

This is almost the same line-up that six months later recorded the lost gem 21st Century Texts for FMP. Only tenor saxophonist Glenn Spearman is missing. For my money that's one of the best free jazz albums of the 90s. There are a bunch of people discussing Malik's shortcomings on this forum (until Raphe himself steps in - awkward) but I like the prioritisation of heart over head in his playing. I'm not crazy about the trumpet family and tend to prefer players who are more into blasting than tootling.










Kang Tae Hwan


The closest precedents I can think of for what South Korean altoist Kang Tae Hwan does with a saxophone are in the playing of Evan Parker and John Butcher but that still doesn't really get us close to what's going on here.

Love Time (VHF Records, 2004 [rec. 2001]) with Makoto Kawabata and Yoshimitsu Ichiraku is by far his most widely available work in the West but if you can get hold of Asian Spirits (AD.forte, 1996) you'll be in for even more of a treat. The solo/duo/trio format with Japanese free jazz heavyweights Masahiko Satoh (piano) and Masahiko Togashi (drums) really highlights just how alien his approach is. Those are the only two Kang albums I've heard so far but I am taking steps to remedy this.









Mainliner - live in Osaka, 1995

I saw "Kawabata Makoto's Mainliner" play in London in September and it was good but definitely felt like a different band (the riff-heavy bits of Acid Mothers Temple to be specific!) so I was pleased to find this clip of the original Mainliner.





And actually this clip of Kawabata Makoto's Mainliner from the Birmingham show on the September 2013 tour is HOT!







Kingdom of Noise - Japanese Noise Selection


This is a mostly-live 1993 VHS compilation in full. Highlights for me are Incapacitants, Merzbow's "Piss for Yves Klein", Hijokaidan (their live videos are always a blast) and the previously unknown to me Solmania, who gives an endearingly domestic noise guitar performance (self-shot in his lounge with his cat, who wisely runs for cover).