Bern Nix: Low Barometer

Bob Burnett: From 1975-87 Bern Nix, along with Charles Ellerbe, made up the searing two guitar attack in Ornette Coleman's group, Prime Time. Prime Time was a group that was on fire. They merged together the pulse of Afro-pop-meets-James Brown-funk with strands of New York’s no wave movement. In fact, Nix played briefly in the no-wave group, The Contortions. Prime Time made about six albums that I can think of, but to get a quick sense of Prime Time check out this clip on youtube that features them on Saturday Night Live.

I can hear you saying “Ornette on Saturday Night Live?” Hold on—the story gets better.

Prime Time are introduced by the show’s guest host Milton Berle, standing in some kind of boxing-type robe surrounded by a bunch of older men in suits. In his best show biz banter he says “Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you—Ornette Coleman! Let’s hear it!”

Now, far out out of the spotlight of live TV and beyond Prime Time, Bern Nix has released an interesting solo album with a unique distribution method. Low Barometer is on New York’s Tompkins Square Records and is only available via download at emusic. Albeit a work featuring its share of improvisations on a theme, this music doesn’t resemble the rhythmic density of Prime Time. It’s an album of spare solo guitar touching equally on shards of Derek Bailey-styled free improvisation as well as classic single note melody playing circa Jim Hall. There is a ton of space on this album. Nix frequently plays in a very controlled manner however he’s constantly exploring, improvising and searching for phrases, combinations and new pathways to follow. Low Barometer is an interesting puzzle piece type approach to music. It’s a quiet and subdued listening experience but nonetheless a fresh look at the challenge of playing solo guitar.

I made a reference to Derek Bailey—I’m thinking Nix’s playing on Low Barometer reflects specifically on Bailey’s Ballads album as well as Pieces For Guitar where delicate improvisation within a somewhat linear scope made up the palette. Nix’s playing never reaches for the visceral, harmonic textures that Bailey frequently ascended to; he’s very much coming from an introspective, calming jazz player’s perspective here.

If you have an emusic account you should use eight of your downloads to get this album. If you don’t have an emusic account you might want to check in with Downtown Music Gallery whom a few weeks back offered signed, limited edition CD-R’s of the album.

The American Analog Set: Set Free

Kim Kirkpatrick: I seldom end up owning everything by a group; normally I check everything out and then discard a few that are just OK. The American Analog Set is an exception, I own every CD they ever released. I own all six full length CDs, the EPs too, covering from 1996 to 2005, and they all sound the same! (“ All sounds the same”, don’t you just love hearing that from someone?). In the case of AmAnSet the “sameness” is repetition, analogous to many a masterful artist’s exploration, whatever the medium. Through the years their skills have refined, producing more blissful subtlety with each release.

Set Free (2005) may well be The American Analog Set’s last release. The band announced the members would be busy with solo projects and that they would no longer be touring with any consistency. Set Free is a superb ending for the group, going out with refinement and beauty. AmAnSet fit within the Post Rock genre, along the lines of Tortoise, Mogwai, and Low. All of these bands are in no hurry to get anywhere within a song and function as a whole, with equal importance to all the players.

I had a run of delightful years when AmAnSet, Bedhead (both from Texas), and Low (Minnesota) were all releasing tightly reined in, utterly consistent music. The mood these bands presented--the thick atmosphere--fit my personality perfectly. Like my response to dub reggae, once I entered The American Analog Set’s world of emotions and pace I felt no need to leave. “Slowcore” has been used to describe this music, and AmAnSet certainly maintains a deliberate slow pace, a low key, subdued sound throughout their years.

The American Analog Set’s chosen limitations seem to boost their creativity. Subtle variations within the soft rhythmic (acoustic and warm electric) guitars, whispered vocals, beautifully toned bass, occasional organ, xylophone, and melodica, well… it just makes me want to turn down the lights, sit down, and feel the wash and comfort of The American Analog Set. And the lyrics are to cry for, beautiful, comfortably down. Set Free, what a perfect title for a musical departure eh? The Velvet Undergound’s “I’m Set Free” strikes me as relevant in mood, speed, and general laid back revelations. Set Free is a fine starting point for The American Analog Set, and I would expect you to want more after hearing it.

Bob Burnett: I’m not at the expansive complete set archiving level Kim is with AmAnSet but agree with his comments about consistency, relevance and the listening joy they bring. In addition to Set Free I find myself frequently drawn to 2003’s Promise of Love. These musical waters runs deep; one minute I feel that VU pull, suddenly the soft, melodic xylophone takes me to parallel them with the contemplative Modern Jazz Quartet. Yeah, I know that’s somewhat a stretch but the chamber/ensemble feel within both groups reflect a strong and positive group approach to music—something both Kim and I react to in a positive way.

Paul Kelly: "Lantana" soundtrack

Bob Burnett: I listened to Paul Kelly's soundtrack to the film "Lantana" before I ever saw the movie itself. I know that's a bit unusual but my friend and Sydney-region music source Brad sent the soundtrack my way and based solely on the strength of what I heard I purchased a DVD of the film and really liked it too.

If you haven't seen "Lantana" you should consider renting it. Director Ray Lawrence created a wonderful interweaving of lives that become more and more complicated and connected. In addition to being terrific drama, the film has a wonderful "look" due to the primary use of natural lighting. "Lantana" Director of Photography Mandy Walker further explains:

"To shoot a film with natural light is harder than lighting because you have less control. Ray Lawrence has a very particular style and way of making a film that is based on natural performances and the environment that you are working in. The actors, he wants to feel, can be in a room for example that is the least bit cluttered with equipment, and each location is chosen for the atmosphere that already exists there. "

To its credit, the soundtrack doesn’t particularly need the film to stand alone as a great listening experience. Paul Kelly created a musical space that one reviewer aptly called "desert ambient". An interesting description given the film was shot in urban and suburban locations around Sydney. To me the soundtrack has a longing, lonely feel; Kelly plays extended vamps on guitar and is joined on piano (Bruce Haymes) bass (Steve Hadley) and drums (Peter Luscombe) all colleagues of Paul Kelly in the sometime/unofficial band, Professor Ratbaggy. On first listen I was reminded of the energy and direction of The Necks when they get into one of their long, slow groove-based improvisations similar in feel to their Drive By album.

The music makes for a colorful, floating background. There have been many occasions where I put it on in my office, let it play and find myself drifting along with it as I type or do other tasks. Although I praise its “Erik Satie-like” qualities of being able to be simultaneously present and ignored it shouldn’t be taken as saying the music is boring; it doesn’t just lay there like wallpaper soundtracks. Incidentally, composer Paul Kelly is mainly known as a rock musician in Australia. He’s fronted a number of bands over the decades and is known for writing and performing heartfelt songs that capture the spirit of Australia. One review mentioned similarities to Elvis Costello.

I know the retail price for the CD is high so you may want to check-out the film first, get a sense of the music and keep an eye out for the CD when you flip through the racks.

Wilco: Sky Blue Sky

Bob Burnett: Sometimes you just want to play some songs. And that's exactly what Wilco does on their Sky Blue Sky album. This is an album of convergence; where a group of people in a band have found a place in time that is comfortable and thoughtfully realized. Instead of making a big, complicated and anxious album Wilco has taken a breath and gotten together to make songs that reflect being at a moment of solid collaboration.

The album was created in their studio space--the Wilco loft; in fact guitarist Nels Cline, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen and audio engineer TJ Doherty set-up beds and lived in the loft too. The overall recording has a lived-in style too-- to such a degree that a song ends and you can hear the room tone of the space lingering as it fades out; an occasional amp hum or realization of the space itself further evolves the authentic environment of the songs and group interplay away from the commonplace recording practice of pristine vacuum-like "silence". This vital listening experience environment created on Sky Blue Sky reminds me when Neil Young and Crazy Horse made Ragged Glory in their barn of a rehearsal space. In addition to sounding like simultaneous group interplay the bonus for me on Ragged Glory was at the end of each song hearing Young's sustained feedback floats which added beautifully to the song's impact. Likewise, each of Wilcos' songs rise to become special moments too--because they feel like they capture people playing together in a sharp and creative way.

I hope if you buy this cd you go the extra step and get the version with the DVD. Not only do you get many Sky Blue Sky songs in a live setting (while rehearsing in November 2006 in the Wilco loft) but you get to further experience the comfortable ambiance of the space that the album was made and hear insights, thoughts and ideas from the band--most notably in depth and thoughtful perceptions by singer/guitarist and main songwriter Jeff Tweedy. Watching the DVD further gels the sense of compatibility Wilco has found at this point in time.

Christoph Green and Brendan Canty (photo by Jim Saah)

The video was shot in a very loose, handheld manner that feels like the album sounds--not contrived and nicely in the moment. Producer/Director Brendan Canty and Wilco's sound engineer TJ Doherty captured the sound wonderfully and cameraperson Nikos Kourkoulakos and co-Producer/Director and cameraperson Christoph Green not only captured the band playing live but created a body of complimentary interstitial images; abstract close-ups from Wilco's homebase of Chicago, quirky and interesting"objet d'art" in Jeff Tweedy's home (where the interview with Tweedy took place), Chicago winter weather and some of the most beat-generation inspired dancing dust particles you'll ever experience.

This is a great effort--a very rewarding listen. Don't believe the reviews that disparage this album as a weak one in the shadow of their past albums. Sky Blue Sky deserves its own place in the exceptional body of work Wilco has produced.

The Sea and Cake: Everybody

Bob Burnett: There is so much to like about The Sea and Cake. They have a beautiful floating quality to their sound, intricate melodies, thoughtful percussion, progressive arrangements, unique vocals. They even tastefully self-illustrate or shoot their own great photos for cover art.

I have little to no rational perspective on this band--you know how that happens sometimes? You find a band that you just absorb and the world is great. The Sea and Cake are that band to me. They fit me perfectly. Even their solo efforts work for me. In fact, I think vocalist/guitarist Sam Prekop's self-titled solo album is one of my ongoing favorite things to listen to.

And so after four years I get a new The Sea and Cake album to listen to and I am quite intrigued in a different way. Everybody is a change in course for the band. Granted, like all of their albums it's made up of ten songs but the process for making this one was different. In addition to playing drums, John McIntire (also a member of another no-rational-perspective-by me band Tortoise) usually engineers the recordings at his own Soma Electronic Music Studios. This time they recorded the album outside of Chicago at Key Club Studios in Benton Harbor, Michigan and used Bill Skibbe and Jessica Ruffins as engineers and Brian Paulson as Producer --freeing up McEntire to be a fulltime band member. They focused solely on the craft of making this album-- spending a lot of time rehearsing and working out material. Because of this effort, there seems to be few overdubs and reflects the positive attributes that happen when a band plays together in a focused manner.

Everybody doesn't have the glowing '70s Canterbury progressive rock moments that happened for me on their last two albums but that's completely alright. Everybody is pared back, cleaner, simpler but none-the-less compelling. “It’s a rock album,” said Prekop (on label Thrill Jockey's webpage) and continues by saying “the most straight ahead, even ‘rootsy’ record we’ve ever made.” I agree. Everybody is catchy.

I'm very excited that they are touring in support of this album because the songs will be great live. (In fact, I'm hoping to catch them at the Troubadour in Los Angeles this coming weekend)

PS: Saw The Sea and Cake at the Troubadour in LA on Sunday night and they were great--I hope you can catch them on this tour. They are sharp, driving, tight and alot more uptempo than on the studio albums. Its worth it just to see John McEntire playing drums--amazingly intense and focused.

CAN: Tago Mago

Bob Burnett: I came to CAN somewhat backwards--through the solo work of Holger Czukay. In the early '80s Holger Czukay, CAN bassist and former student of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (the guy in deep thought to the right with the dials behind him), released Movies. Movies was an album of immense creativity and skill.

In a time before digital sampling and the inclusion of world-circling short wave radio transmissions (a la Cage's Williams Mix and Stockhausen's Hymnen ) as an "instrument" within rhythmic rock music, Czukay's work for me followed on the great German dada traditions originally put in motion by WW I era artists like Merz-collagist, sculptor and Urs Sonate sonic creator Kurt Schwitters. Czukay's work fit right into the niche of 20th century music's legacy of concrete/ sound compositions ---I had to know more--and what I discovered by back-tracking was Tago Mago.

In 1971 CAN went into their homemade studio and came away with an album so original and open-ended that it startled the listening public. Tago Mago is a mix of long form rhythmic grooves, floating sound collage, reverberating reel to reel echoscapes and flat out free verse explosions. Remember this came out in 1971--a time way past circa 1967 psychedelic happenings. Psychedelic music seemed to "free" the listener via expanding space. Tago Mago--albeit an album that expands your listening consciousness, seemingly creates liberation in a micro-like listening experience for me where I feel I shrink into the music--a la kitsch movie Fantastic Voyage.

Holger Czukay reflected on the Tago Mago recording experience on his webpage:

"TAGO MAGO was CAN's official second album and was an attempt in achieving a mystery musical world from light to darkness and return. The album consisted not only out of regularly recorded music, but for the first time we combined 'in-between-recordings', that means the musicians were secretly recorded in the pauses when a new microphone and recording set up was being established. In that time the rest of the group just played in order to make the time pass by instead of waiting till the technical problems were solved. And there was always one microphone and one recorder on standby position for such cases. Altogether certainly a psychedelic experience, and the studio itself even turned into something new e.g. by changing dramatically the whole illumination."

Kim Kirkpatrick: Tago Mago surfaced as a double LP in 1971. I was 19, and I was open to most any musical genre. If the music was personal, rang true, experimental and/or an attempt to move all of music forward I was interested. Tago Mago fulfilled all of the above traits and filled my head with a 73-minute visit to CAN’s tribal, space world. Hypnotizing, simple grooves that I would get lost in, psychedelic to be sure, Can was a telepathic musical crew in no hurry to return you to earth. CAN was The Grateful Dead at their improvisational best, minus the Chuck Berry, Johnny B. Goode aspect. The Dead’s all night journeys, their searching, long distance flights certainly apply to Tago Mago and Can at their peak. But CAN was all about a jazz groove, jamming, lengthy experimentation, analogous to the electric Miles of the same period. Like Bitches Brew, Live-Evil or especially Tribute to Jack Johnson. Tago Mago is a fusion of rock and jazz, as well as tape editing and studio creativity by Holgar Czukay.

In the sixties, in addition to studying with Stockhausen, Holgar Czukay played the french horn prior to forming CAN. He brought together:

Irmin Schmidt (a classical composer and piano player), Jaki Liebezeit (a jazz drummer), and rock guitarist Michael Karoli. Damo Suzuki joined them on vocals with the recording of Tago Mago. This release may well be the best example of CAN’s telepathic ability to groove and move together. Liebezeit’s drumming is the driving force, with a complexity not often found in rock. He creates and supports powerful grooves on Tago Mago, and in retrospect his playing is a pioneering example of world beat music. Holgar Czukay plays bass, simple, minimal notes, but with a heaviness worthy of dub. Damo Suzuki, well, he was always the difficult one for new listeners. Be it his gibberish, yelling, whispering, or electronically altered vocals, his performances made clear this was an alternate reality for the ears. CAN and Tago Mago specifically, continues to be an amazing and relevant musical experience all these decades later. With all of their musical experimentation, the mixing of genres (electronic, rock, jazz, world beat), the songs still stick in your head like masterful pop music. I have spent entire days with one of them slithering and bumping in my head, and certainly the number one culprit who often rears his head is “Mushroom”.

"When I saw mushroom head

When I saw mushroom head

When I saw mushroom head

I was born and I was dead

I was born and I was dead"

Tago Mago was reissued and re-mastered a few years ago; you need to check it out. I’d say if you wanted to own one Can release this one is clearly it.

Two Great Music Books

A very quick word to recommend two great reads for very different reasons. Joe Boyd's White Bicycles:Making Music in the 1960s is an autobiography that covers most of the '60s--from his time as a college student booking long forgotten blues players to play at Harvard coffee shops through the early '70s when he produced Nick Drake and others for his company Witchseason Productions. Along the way Muddy Waters, Coleman Hawkins, Pink Floyd, The Move, The Incredible String Band, John Cale, Maria Muldaur, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, John Martyn, Vashti Bunyan and many, many others take part in the tales told by master raconteur and mind-like-a-steel-trap archivist Joe Boyd.

Also---I've just gotten today a CD that is made up of 23 cuts of music that is a soundtrack for the book. The CD offers a wide range of music Joe Boyd produced. On first listen I'm taken by Nico's song "Afraid" from her Desertshore album thanks to John Cale's co-production and thoughtful playing of piano and viola on the cut. In addition to Nico you get the mystical pop song "Arnold Layne" from Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd as well as great music by The Incredible String Band, Soft Machine as well as several examples from Island Record's classic "pink label" era--Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, John and Beverley Martyn and Fotheringay. And last but not least the quirky "Brazil" by Geoff and Maria Muldaur from their Pottery Pie album. "Brazil" later appeared in Terry Gilliam's film. (And this Maria Muldaur is THAT Maria Muldaur--the singer of '70s hit "Midnight at the Oasis" which was producer Joe Boyd's biggest hit song. )



Paul Morley’s Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City is a 300+ page essay that offers an overview of music, musical thought and music happenstance. Oh—did I mention the journey also features many sidebar vignettes while on an automobile journey/fantasy with Kylie Minogue?

The nearly 40 page music timeline taking you from the year 1637 until 1968 is worth the price of the book alone. There are also some of the most incredible thematic artist/songlists I’ve ever seen.

Also, I highly suggest downloading DJ Food's now hard to find on CD Raiding the 20th Century posted on Ubuweb. Raiding the 20th Century features snippets of Paul Morley reading from the book as part of DJ food's incredible cast of thousands sound collage. It is amazing and inspiring.