Ends and beginnings!

Hello and goodbye!

Once more we have come to this ending beginning where a year ends and then it starts!

This time it's maybe a bit more special since a new decade has started but maybe it starts next year? Depends on who you ask really and if they value the number 0 I guess. For me the year 2019 has been fairly pivotal in a personal sense. I moved to a different apartment (fuck moving stuff) and I switched jobs! My new job allows, requires, me to travel all over Europe (and countries close to Europe) on a very steady monthly basis. It's a lonely job because I literally work alone but I like it and I get to see shit outside of my town. Also I get to sit at airports a lot. As fun as my work is (for now) it has been pretty detrimental for my blogging capabilities. I don't just mean I made less posts in 2019 than in 2018, I also mean that I got to consume music at a much slower and less frequent pace. I don't have a portable music player! My phone is old and has a very short battery life so I can't cram albums I want on it. But the good news is that I rectified this problem relatively recently so my obsessive listening habits should return with this year. The bad news is that hotel internet sucks for the most part so I'll probably be able to upload stuff only while I'm home. We'll see how it goes as the year itself goes.

But what about music?

Well I haven't really followed new releases in 2019 so I probably missed a bunch of stuff. I have to admit that I feel like I'm completely out of the loop with the current trends (aside from maybe metal trends) but more importantly I think I haven't heard anything from this year that I've liked! Sure I enjoyed a bunch of metal albums, that's inevitable, but aside from that there's not much else. Even the second resurfaced Coltrane album sucked apart from that one composition. Felt like they're just trying to cash in on the success of Both Directions At Once. NED label had a pretty good year, most of the stuff that came out was really good aside from maybe that new Teitanblood which I couldn't get into.  I might start liking over time, anything is possible. NEDXXX came out of nowhere and it was fucking wild, I love that record. But yeah... not much stuff has caught my ears in 2019. So without any more rambling here's the usual list of stuff I've liked:

Akrotheism - The Law of Seven Deaths

Alkymist - Wreckage of the Raging World
Aoratos - Gods Without Name
Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
Blood Tyrant - The Realm That Brings Forth Death
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Boris - Love and Evol
Crypt Sermon - The Ruins Of Fading Light
Deathspell Omega - The Furnaces Of Palingenesia
Destroyer Of Light - Mors Aeterna
Diocletian - Amongst the Flames of a Burning God
Djevel - Ormer Til Armer, Maane Til Hode
Drastus - La Croix de Sang
Fetid - Steeping Corporeal Mess
Gardsghastr - Slit Throat Requiem
Hajduk - Кръв
Ignivomous - Hieroglossia
Malakhim - II
Mgła - Age of Excuse
Misþyrming - Algleymi
Mystagogue - And the Darkness Was Cast Out into the Wilderness
NEDXXX - NEDXXX
Nocturnus AD - Paradox
Pissgrave - Posthumous Humiliation
Saor - Forgotten Paths
Sargeist - Death Veneration
Sinmara - Hvísl Stjarnanna
Strigae - I-Collision
Sühnopfer - Hic Regnant Borbonii Manes
Voqkrre - Wariwulf
Vukari - Aevum
Woe - A Violent Dread

And lastly I just wanna say to everyone thanks for reading and commenting on Flying Teapot for the past year. Happy new year everybody!

Blaze Of Perdition - 2015 - Near Death Revelations

Blaze Of Perdition is a band with who I have a mixed relationship with. I saw them live twice and they were incredibly boring, absolutely no redeeming value. Felt like I'm seeing budget Mgla or something. On the other hand on albums they sound actually really fucking good. While most of their albums are either alright or better this one always stands out to me. Maybe this was because it was made after the band had some really tragic encounters with death and when they regrouped they had something of value to say. In terms of sound they definitely resonate some Mgla (and Behemoth during more chaotic segments) but I'd say they work on the guitar details far more than them and generally have a fairly different approach to writing. Every song has two or three things happening at any point giving them a good proggy and dynamic feeling. There's never a dull moment but songs sometimes feel a bit over designed at places, letting some riffs breathe more would elevate this great album into something even better. It's evident that they were brimming with ideas and they put most of them to good use and I think for a modern "Polish sounding" black metal album this one feels like an underappreciated gem honestly. Give it a chance, skip them when they're playing live near you.

Get it.

Herbie Hancock ‎- 1974 - Thrust

I feel like this Hancock album is often overlooked simply because of the fact that it came a year after the majestic and legendary Head Hunters. Sure, it is a superior album in both execution and ideas but Thrust can readily stand by its own as an awesome album made by Herbie during his prime creative time. While both albums a very approachable I think Thrust is a much more laid back and has riffs that are demand less of your focus. I don't mean that in a bad way by no means at all. There's nothing in it that's out to get you, everything just kinda flows together. The focus is still so much on keyboards but all the instruments are mixed at similar sound levels and I like that. It feels like the band is just one large stream of grooves. Awesome stuff.

Get it.

Wayne Shorter - 1964 - Night Dreamer

It has been a good long while since I've dedicated some time for Wayne Shorter but things have changed - today in fact! I was browsing through records at some small record fair in town and I stumbled onto this album. It made me realize that even though I've been into Shorter's solo stuff for years now I don't actually own any of his albums in physical format. This was the album at hand and coincidentally it's one of my favorites as well!

Wayne Shorter is a commonly known musician in the jazz scene but perhaps for those who aren't following it he's not a very exposed one. Shorter got noticed by Miles Davis and got him to play in his groups for a long time, recording many hallmark albums with him. But perhaps to outsider audience Shorter is more known for his work in Weather Report than for his solo or Miles albums but for me Weather Report is too tacky for the most part. In any case when he was starting up his solo career he did three records for a label called Vee-Jay and they're perfectly fine. They're modern be-bop and not much else. If you're into it you'll like and won't if you don't. After those three albums he got picked up by Blue Note and things started cooking.

Night Dreamer was the second Blue Note album that got released (Juju being the first one the same year). On here Shorter and his crew are given much more creative freedom and it definitely shows. It's still a post-bop record in tune with the times but it sounds so much more matured and figured out than those past ones. This record also features Lee Morgan (trumpet) who also gets to stretch his skills by playing less conventionally and less commercially viable (I like the dude but all of his  solo -albums are too much by the book). The approach to the whole album is a more relaxed and perhaps more meaningful approach to playing. There are no maelstroms of chords and riffs here, the playing is more precise, more aimed and less bloated. A good nightly record that has a lot of unique intensity for the time. Good stuff.

Get it in FLAC.

Sun Ra ‎- 1980 - Live In Rome

Live In Rome is a 2010 release of a live Sun Ra concert recording in Rome back in 1980. As far as sound quality goes this one is pretty great for a Sun Ra recording; for the most part. In term of scope it's fucking fantastic. You get two fully packed CDs that offer both the wild and the groovy side of Sun Ra. The concert opens with a 20 minute untitled track which was probably composed at the spot or 10 minutes before tops. It feels more like a medley than a complete track and it goes from relatively normal to absolute abstract free jazz throughout its runtime. After this lengthy session the band shifts into a more accessible sound with June Tyson softly singing while the band rests for a while only to burst yet again into a firestorm of free improvisation. This free form flying goes on for approximately the midpoint of the first CD. The band changes completely the tone of the concert first by a short poem/speech that Ra himself makes (who is by the way noticeably absent from the first part of this recording but makes up for it in later parts of the recording) and then secondly with some blazing hot swing and ragtime tunes that showcases the band in a completely different but even more amazing light than before. It is here that the band proves itself to the audience that they're not just noodling free improvisers but that they are in reality a tightly knit unit capable of fast and also technical feats.

The second CD kicks off with a unique rendition of Watusa that's more focused on instruments that aren't percussive in nature and also with Ra leading the charge making this a new favorite of mine. After such a great track the rest is only gravy on top. The band continues on with a very familiar moody composition called Lights on a Satellite. The sound on this one is a bit botched, probably due to instrument changes (Ra switches from piano to electric keyboards) and is a bit jarring at times but this gets sorted out as things move on to the next track. After this the tracks get more relaxed in mood as the band plays more of their familiar repertoire and also bring more emphasis to vocal segments and chants. But the band is not quite yet finished as they go into full weirdness for one more time before ending the performance with a couple more regular tracks and vocal parts.

All in all this is a fantastic live recording full of amazing tracks and performances. If you like Sun Ra even a bit I think you'll find lots of enjoyment on this record.

GET IT

Plaga ‎- 2011 - Pożeracze Słońc

Plaga is a relatively obscure Polish black metal band that released one album back in 2013 and they have been quite since then. While the album is kinda alright (haven't returned to it in years) what put them on the underground radar is this EP that they did two years prior. While being just three tracks in total it delivered a lot promise and skill along with its comfortable 20 minute length overall. The style they play is a highly paced and fairly melodic approach to black metal with little care to how noisy the guitars actually are. It's not a well produced EP and you can hear its demo-like qualities but what they lack in professionalism they compensate in their intensity and catchy riffing. Good stuff.

Get it.

Oh, Yoko ‎- 2012 - Seashore

Oh, Yoko is an interesting duo. They claim (at least on Will Long's site) to be a pop band but they're really far from it. I mean you could consider this pop if all you listen is free improvisation and avant garde records from the 70s then yeah; it's pop. For a pleb like me this is more of an experimental or occidental folk with ambient layers for good measure. Seashore is a single but they also did an album a year later for which I don't really care much.

This single contains >the single<, an instrumental version of >the single< and a remix of >the single<. Three tracks, nothing too big or pompous. Looking at the cover you might get a feeling of melancholy mixed with nostalgia and regret. If you did then you already guessed how the single and its instrumental companion might sound but it's not a very cozy affair. Yes it contains all of these emotions and the vocals are distant, sad and at times a bit directionless but so is the music, it feels chopped at parts and disjointed. Perhaps akin to fuzzy memories. Yeah, I kinda like that idea of it. It's definitely not an easy listen but it does reward a careful listen.

Honestly the main attraction for me here is the remix done by the dude/gal who is behind the pseudonym of DJ Sprinkles. He keeps the feeling and ambiance of the original but brings out so much more personal meaning into it. The base beat is a bit bare but I grew to like it and the whole arrangement of the mix makes this a very enjoyable ride that rewards repeated listening as you discover something new with each new ride through its melancholy. A ride I would recommend dearly.

Get it.

Sun Ra - The Paris Tapes: Live at Le Theatre Du Chatelet 1971 (LP version)

Paris Tapes is a live recording of Sun Ra arkestra during their European tour in 1970s. What's apparent from the start here is that the sound quality of the recording is in a fairly high order which probably means this was intentionally recorded either by the band or the venue. For some reason this "album" never got released, it took until 2010 for this to get a widespread release. It actually came in two versions. This is the shorter LP version and the second, much longer version, comes on 2xCD format which I haven't had the chance to get and listen.

The LP version which I'm sharing comes with three long songs. Two out of three songs are readily familiar to even the most casual Sun Ra listener ie Space is The Place and Watusi while the third song (a favorite of mine) is a much less commonly recorded and known song. What makes this concert stand out is definitely the focus of percussive instruments throughout. The combination of various percussive passages and continuous vocal chanting by different band members contribute to a very ritualistic and hypnotic feeling. With this is in mind the setlist makes a lot of sense as it only enhances their past intensity and percussive orientation. Watusi was always a percussive orgy and the other two tracks always featured a lot of monotonous chanting throughout their runtime. All in all this is a very unique and interesting recording that I would recommend to both people who like Sun Ra and to those who don't because on here they won't get their usual serving of chords from space.

Get it.

Joe Henderson - 1964 - In 'N Out

While Joe Henderson probably isn't the first saxophone giant that comes to mind he definitely was a tremendous force and influence in the world of jazz for both his peers and later on his successors. While his most famous output is definitely a track called Black Narcissus, Joe Henderson had a long and very fruitful career throughout his life. For me his early output is the most interesting and those albums I'm most familiar with. In 'N Out is probably my favorite of the bunch as it is a shining example of the "post-bop" style that dominated the 60s. Aside from Henderson being an absolute beast on all of the tracks the backing band is comprised of some pretty big names as well. McCoy Tyner most notably (for me at least) manning the piano on all tracks but also Kenny Dorham who composed the B side of this album. The album itself isn't as intense in speed and ferocity as one might expect but that shouldn't be the only mark of quality for records like these. It's a very well made and refined album that shines with brilliance on all fronts. A record I often come back to.

Get it.

Red Garland - 1958 - All Mornin' Long

Back in 1958 this apparently happened. I was pretty stoked when I found out and I generally am satisfied with how it sounds. To be clear, this is not some long lost gem but it is a joy to listen nonetheless. Coltrane, being my main point of interest on this record, sounds much at home throughout all the tracks. His playing here is I guess most reminiscent of how he played on Blue Train. Other star of the show is of course Donald Byrd on trumpet who also showcases his soloing abilities. And Garland being the star of the show is... alright I guess? I never was much of his fan. He sounds so utilitarian to me, like he's just there and nothing happens aside from maybe some stride soloing. But yeah, this is a really relaxing jam session that came and went without much puff. If you can get past that then you're up for some good time.

Get it.