This is a release that bridges a gap of sorts on the continually fertile Chicago jazz-improv axis.
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Travis Bird
Lonberg-Holm, Zarzutzki Duo, “Feminization of the Tassel”
Dead Reptile Shrine, “The Sun Of Circles And Wood” 2xLP
All respect to my beloved Finland and its proud black metal tradition, but you’ll have to excuse me if I think this sounds a bit ridiculous.
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Mudboy, “This Is Folk Music” LP
Mudboy, the persona of fringe-y musician and artist Raphael Lyon, has been turning out releases since way back in 2005, when a CD-R called This Is Folk Music appeared on the Last Visible Dog label.
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Purity Supreme, “Always Already” 12″ EP
This seems like an unusual one for the much-respected Touch affiliate Ash International, although in keeping with the label’s eclecticism.
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Jim Haynes, “The Decline Effect” 2LP
Like the copious amounts of salt keeping roads unslicked during a Chicago winter, Jim Haynes rusts things.
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Malcolm Mooney & The Tenth Planet, “inCANtations” LP
Malcolm Mooney will probably always be best known on these pages as the original lead singer of Can, helping to establish that enormously influential band’s working methods and direction.
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Astral Social Club, “Generator Breaker” LP
Comfort zones are strange things. Astral Social Club has more than earned its stripes as a leading vision in the British experimental scene.
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Daniel Padden, “Ship Chop”
Daniel Padden’s Ship Chop, along with Giuseppe Ielasi’s Stunt series and more zany projects like 1,000 Locked Grooves, should remind us that in spite of those pesky legal battles, not all the fun has been taken out of sampling records.
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Postcommodity, “Your New Age Dream Contains More Blood Than You Imagine” LP
The antler—both aesthetic symbol and potent weapon—looms large in the imagery of Postcommodity, influencing both their LP cover and their visual work.
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Travis Bird’s 2011 Year-Ends
Writing for Foxy D. reminds me that the music world in 2011 is thriving. Music is (as it always has been) a teeming ecosystem now deep in the process of shedding major-label shenanigans, just like the food ecosystem is slowly beginning to reject factory farming. For 2012: continue to look closely and go deep…...
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Strongly Imploded / Matomeri split 7″
This split pits the Naples improvisational quartet Strongly Imploded and Finnish trio Matomeri in a chaotic, but mercifully brief, free-jazz cage match.
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Sub Loam, “The Ley Hunter’s Companion”
A bit of an odd duck in the best sense, Sub Loam’s “mini-album” is a two-track, 30-minute meditative synth journey, a CD housed with a dedicated map-like poster in a 7-inch jacket.
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Brian Green, “Twine” tape
Here we have a micro-piece from Boston-based dronist and sonic wanderer Brian Green, a single 15-minute piece repeated on both sides of the (unmarked) tape in an edition of 20.
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