Flying Teapot: October 2011

Bix Beiderbecke - Jass Me Blues (1927-8)

Yes! More delightful music from a time when people were so poor that they were too poor to be poor.

Bix Beiderbecke is another early jazz musician that was not known very much in the public but he was highly admired by his fellow musicians. As far as trumpet/cornet rivals go, the only person who was on par with him was Louis Armstrong. It's a real pity that Bix died so early (in '31) because he would most definitely influence modern music in a much larger scope if he only had the time. Sadly alcohol and other various factors made him die young. But, for our consolation he left us a bit of his music behind so that we may grasp a bit of his great playing.

I might sound pompous but that's probably because he's one of my favorite players so I tend to get very subjective about him. In any case the compilation that I'm sharing is (as the title suggests) a bunch of songs he recorded in his "late"career. At those times ragtime (or hot jazz) was starting to settle down for a more orchestrated and organized way of playing - swing so what you get here is an interesting middle ground between the two types of jazz. Musically speaking this means that songs are much more relaxed, they swing but they still have some great improvised solos which makes this record so great. You'll notice a lot things that are way ahead of their times, especially the sax solos which often hint to the bebop way of playing. They are all instrumentals so we can fully enjoy the wondrous playing of a person that just had so little luck. So sit back and enjoy the swing.

Download.

Alpinist - Minus Mensch

Alpinist is a German band that plays some sort of crust/hardcore music and they will entertain you for about half an hour. If you, that is, decide to lay your ears upon their music. They released this album back in 2009 and it was their first full length. So you'd assume the album is a bit sloppy but production wise and musician wise it's quite good.

As far as the music goes I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone outside the genre. It's not that accessible, I think, but for those who know their way around hardcore and post-hardcore bands I think they'll enjoy this quite a bit. The riffs are done marvelously, lots of melodic riffing and some good "punk in your face" riffs in between. A nice mixture of both old and new hardcore. I like both eras so I liked this album a lot. Vocals are another good part of this album. They are mostly that "sour screaming" vocal style but it's done well and sometimes, to spice things up, they venture into growling a bit. Good stuff all in all, it does not get boring due to its fitting time span and excellent musicianship.

Download.

Dorothy Ashby - In a Minor Groove

I have a theory about harpists. They go to these schools where they study this huge thing and when they finish it they get sucked up by some hidden elitist harpist society that keeps them in their grasp forever. Seriously though, I can think of only a handful harpists and even less songs which include this instrument. It's a shame really, because obviously this instrument can be used for so many types of music.

Jazz is one of those genres that's able to absorb any instrument and make it feel like it's home. Dorothy Ashby seems to handle the instrument quite well, playing an assortment of standards and some of her own compositions as well (or I just didn't recognize that they are from other composers). So the harp at least found a home in jazz but unlike Alice Coltrane she uses it on this album in a much more bebop-y way. She did travel in similar directions afterwards but this album was recorded in 1958 which makes it much more traditional in sound.

The album is played in a quartet setting with a harp, bass, drums and a flute (Frank Wess). As the instrumentation might suggest this album is mainly in a relaxed tone. This is both bad and good; it's good because the musicians are top notch and they know what they are doing, the soloing is also great. The bad part though is that I'd really like to hear some faster jazz played out with a harp. But perhaps this would just ruin the mood of the album. Another drawback of this album is that sometimes Dorothy sounds like a guitar player, which can ruin the enjoyment for me at times. Although these occurrences aren't too often to ruin the whole album. When the instrument shines in its true light it shines really well and Dorothy explores all ranges of the instrument. The wide array of songs lets us see different techniques of playing and the really unique feeling of hearing this instrument in a quartet setting.

Download.

Corpus Callosum - Corpus Callosum

Corpus Callosum is a tiny little band that comes from the US. They call their music "post industrial folk noir" but it sounds to me more like some sort of hybrid of folk and country. Although, isn't country actually the "folk music" of the US? I'm at a little loss here. Well anyway; the music.

As it usually goes with bands like these they use a lot of instrumentation (mostly acoustic stuff) to create their intended atmosphere. The atmosphere here is what I essentially like the most. It's this weird blend of really melancholic music and lyrics but somewhat it sounds so happy. It's like they embrace it with a smile and in turn it makes me happy as well. It's in a way what blues was, sad stories that are meant to make you happy. It's kinda like that. Although Corpus Callosum sounds a bit more mad.

Most songs are mid paced, they just kinda stroll by. It's like they just sat down in front of a porch one evening and decided to record an album as the Sun goes down. I don't think I've ever felt bored by this album so if you like folk music check this out, you might like it too.

Download.

For some reason I named this album differently in the folder (it's tagged correctly though). So rename it if you will.

Ben Templesmith - Singularity 7

So how about some American comics? If you look around you'll notice that there's pretty much the same amount of prejudice about American comics that there is for the Japanese manga. Both sides have its terrible commercialized and fanserviced stories, sagas, settings and characters. But underneath (or among) the shitty ones you can always find some good stuff. So why not share them?

Since this is the first in line of "western" comics that I'll post I don't really see any other option but to post cyberpunk. Because cyberpunk is awesome.

Singularity 7 is a short story written and drawn by Ben Templesmith. If you like to read comics that are based on video games you might have come across some of his work that he did for Deadspace or Silent Hill and he also likes do to horror comics. From what I've gathered this is his only cyberpunk comic.

The plot is set in a destroyed (of course it's destroyed) post apocalyptic world. An old man narrates to us why and how did this all came to be. A comet fell from the sky carrying some kind of living mechanized beings that merged with a nearby human. He decided to do good like cleaning up the atmosphere and stuff like that. Obviously greed and some other things came along and shit hit the fan. Now all that's left are small pockets of humanity that try to fight back destroy the singularity of the man and nanomachines.

The story follows several characters but due to the killing nature of the surroundings they don't really live very long so we don't get the chance to know more about certain individuals that are present in the story. That's perhaps the biggest flaw of this comics; it's too short. There are some interesting ideas and settings here but it all seems so shortened. It's a pity because I really enjoyed the story and I would love to see this world a explored a lot more thoroughly. As I've mentioned before this is a very mean world and thus the characters aren't really any angels here, they are just trying to survive here so luckily you won't find any of the Hollywood morality system here. It's bleak and nihilist, just what cyberpunk should be!

The art actually reminds me a lot of Blame! in a weird way. It's not really that detailed but it gives the same feeling of atmosphere and the portrayal unnatural yet natural beings is similar in comparison. The lines/architecture and drawings, unlike in Blame! (aside from the characters), are much more curvy and they look a lot more "hand drawn". It's all very simplistic but it delivers the desired effect and that's what matters really. As usual with western comics all pages are fully colored so it's a nice visual candy from start to finish. Ben seems to have a really nice talent for drawing semi fucked up things.

Overall it's a nice short story. It's nothing grand but it's a fun one night read.

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