McCoy Tyner - Sahara

McCoy Tyner was perhaps most known for his collaboration with John Coltrane. He played on many of his records (I guess most famous "session" would be My Favorite Things) but he also had a really vast and diverse career of his own.

Sahara was recorded in 1972 during his second period (after he left his bebop roots and started to explore what Coltrane popularized). It was also the first album he did for Milestones after he left Blue Note and it never hurts to mention this is his best selling album plus it was nominated for a Grammy. So yeah, aside from the hype this really is some great jazz which is pretty much essential stuff in my book.

Aside from playing the piano, Tyner also plays koto and percussion on this album which gives it an oriental/middle east feel that Coltrane would always strive for during his late period. Although being a multi-instrumentalist he shines the most on his main instrument which is the piano. I especially enjoy the solo second track, A Prayer For My Family, that features only him doing what he does best. As the album goes it sort of goes more free and free but it does not divulge into free jazz wankery all that much, it stays in the boundaries of post-bob melodies and solos. The album ends with an exceptional +20 minute track called Sahara that starts practically formless but as it develops it gradually gets its epic form and structure featuring solos from practically every instrument that's present on the track (dat bass solo in the middle rips my face off every time I hear it).

All in all, this is really great stuff. If you like jazz I warmly recommend it.

Download.

Suehiro Maruo - Yume No Q-saku

Hey, that ninja looks familiar from somewhere hmm.

Anyways, more Maruo! Yume No Q-saku was his second manga that he published, back in 1982 and it deals mostly with relationships; in a Maruo way of relationships. And by that I mean having someones ripped eyeball in a vagina being licked. Absurd as he usually is this manga is filled with batshit insane characters and unusual fetishes. Most of the stories here are new (new, as in not found in other of his works that I uploaded here) aside from Sewer Boy and Shit Soup but they debuted on this volume. As I have mentioned before all of the stories are based on some kind of relationship, gay or otherwise. I still find Sewer Boy to be one of his best hilariously best stories that he ever made but others are great/funny/grotesque as well while a few of them (the first story for me) fall flat and turn out completely unimaginative.

Also, there's a "break" at around the middle of the book with some tasty two page art which showcases Maruo's talent.

All in all I enjoyed this a lot but not in the measure of, say, New National Kid or Rose Colored Monster. Still good and still disgusting. Enjoy.

Download.

Art Tatum - Trio

There were many pianists in jazz throughout the times and periods but only a few attained the nickname of "God". Perhaps a little bit overrated among pianists but certainly one of the best was Art Tatum. What made him so famous and respected was the fact that he had a very distinct style of playing. This was because of his blindness and also that he used to practice on an organ that was meant for two players. I guess the most distinct factor in his playing technique would be playing this interval patched between the melodies that sounds like a whole scale is played in between each riff. I'm not really in a position to discuss music theory since I'm not very apt at it but he certainly makes my mind explode with his playing.

The album I'm sharing is probably just some random compilation, I don't know the name of nor when it was released but it does not really matter. The songs are mostly performed in trios but some quartet recordings are also present here. Guitar, piano, double bass and drums is what I hear the most. I don't know the players either. Most of the songs are standards (if not all) but are mangled and reinvented by Tatum's wonderful improvisation and imagination. I assume this was recorded during the swing heyday due to the repertoire of the songs. Moonglow, Honeysuckle Rose, I Got Rhythm,  Flying Home etc. etc. all indicate it was recorded in the 40s. Not sure though. I'm sharing this particular release because this one piqued my interest in Art Tatum's art so it might work the same on you. If not, well, it's your loss. :P

Link no longer available.

Dernière Volonté - Devant Le Miroir

Here's something that is a first of its kind on this blog. Dernière Volonté is supposedly something called "military pop" but I'm not really sure if that's a credible genre; at least it's not for now. Maybe it's just a transitional name for more poppy and catchy type of martial industrial music. Who knows? In any case I'm not all that knowledgeable about this so I'll just shut my mouth right here. At least for a moment.

As I have hinted already this is catchy pop in a more militaristic/neofolk~ish fashion. Along with the visual militarist fashion this also counts in music. Military drums, rhythms and such all play an important role here but they do not deviate into pure martial industrial in vein of Arditi and the similar. Except in a track or two which are probably tracks that didn't make it into the previous album. Or something like that, I'm just guessing because the previous one is much more "industrialized". This is dark and it's cold, it does not retain the usual warmth of music that pop provides. And I think this is really good and is holds an interestingly unique look on this sort of music.

Check it out if you want to experience something a bit different.

Download.

Oh and also check out his side project called Position Parallèle which is apparently a lot similar to this album. I haven't heard it yet so I'm no position to propose an opinion of it.

Alarm Will Sound - Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin

As much as electronic music in general (especially more experimental) to me sounds inhuman and machine-like Alarm Will Sound pretty much convinced me that it can also be just as much as warm as is, say, folk or something similarly mellow like that.

Alarm Will Sound is a project in which a full blown professional 20 member orchestra plays Aphex Twin tunes and they play them extremely well and precise. They also have other albums where they play music from other contemporary artists but I think this is their most interesting work of art. The only non-orchestral instrument they use is drums for obvious reasons (as much as I like timpani I don't really think they would be able to work here) but other than that it's violins, tubas, trumpets, harps and everything else Aphex Twin sampled they transformed it to an acoustic sound. They play a wide arrangement of Richards tunes but they are mainly from Drukqs. Some mellow tracks and some really dissonant ones, you get a bit of everything.

If you like Aphex Twin you should really get this if you don't have it already. If you like dissonant contemporary classical music then you should get this as well.

Tracklist:

#	Song	Arrangements by	Original album	Length
1	"Cock/ver 10"	Stefan Freund	Drukqs (2001)	5:14
2	"Logon Rock Witch"	Jonathan Newman	Richard D. James Album (1996)	3:28
3	"Meltphace 6"	Payton MacDonald	Drukqs (2001)	6:20
4	"Blue Calx"	Caleb Burhans	Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994)	7:14
5	"Fingerbib"	Jonathan Newman	Richard D. James Album (1996)	3:49
6	"Gwely Mernans"	Ken Thomson	Drukqs (2001)	4:57
7	"4"	Jessica Johnson & Payton MacDonald	Richard D. James Album (1996)	3:31
8	"Prep Gwarlek 3b"	Courtney Orlando	Drukqs (2001)	1:08
9	"Omgyjya-Switch7"	Evan Hause	Drukqs (2001)	5:08
10	"Track 01" (aka "[cliffs]")	Caleb Burhans	Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994)	7:20
11	"Jynweythek Ylow"	John Orfe	Drukqs (2001)	2:29
12	"Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount"	John Orfe & Payton MacDonald	Drukqs (2001)	3:41
13	"Avril 14th"	John Pickford Richards	Drukqs (2001)	1:58

Download.

Summer!

Holidays! Fucking finally. Well, almost finally since I still have one more final exam next week and 15 days of internship work. But in any case I've been a busy little aggressive tumor while I was partially absent from the netsphere by continually uploading things. Mainly music because I had really little to time to read any comics but I'm reading a certain great European comic which I'll post/pseudo review as soon as I finish it. Starting from tomorrow this place will get a lot more lively.
 
So what mangas have you guys been reading? I've been out of the loop for a while so I'd appreciate some tasty manga recommendations. Cyberpunk or otherwise.

King Oliver

I always liked the 20s; not that I would like to live in those times but it had a very interesting setting. It seems to me those years were during the end of the old world and at the beginning of the new world. Everything was changing and so did the music. To experience those hectic nights at the brothels filled with unique and new music (along with the whores) at the time would be (and most likely was) fascinating. It was jazz at its early stage. Not yet swing but not anymore simple merrier versions of marching songs. People called it ragtime. Sadly you can rarely hear this kind of music live but lucky for us there are plenty of recordings around left for us to experience it at least with our ears.

King Oliver and his troupe were active mainly in Chicago and he gathered quite an interesting lineup during the heyday of ragtime. His band was the place where young Louis Armstrong really learned how to play and it's from there that he evolved to be such a great musician. Another interesting fact is that Armstrong's then wife also played with them on the piano which was somewhat weird since females didn't play that much in bands during those days.


I've uploaded several of the bands that King Oliver led and sorted them chronologically but all of these bands were led by Oliver so they do tend to sound similar. If you enjoy this kind of music you really should get this. This is also a very good starting point for those who are interested in this period of American music. These guys/gals played like there's no tomorrow, all fired up and melodic this is probably one of the best early jazz recording in my opinion.


King Oliver And His Creole Jazz Band (1923)
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (1923-26)
King Oliver And His Dixie Syncopators (1926-28)
King Oliver And His Orchestra (1928-30)

Here's a few youtube samples:

West End Blues
High Society
Riverside Blues

Your brain is clay. What's going on?

So I sit here, way after my sleeping hours, wondering if this is supposed to look like this. Why would anyone want their voltage/current function to look like this? I did something wrong and I don't know what. I tried every parameter. Fucking converters. Fucking flyback. Fuck electricity I'm going to bed.

George Carlin audio recordings.

One day a long time ago I scoured through, at the time young and newly bought, YouTube and saw this interesting video. It was this grey haired man with a raspy voice dressed in all black and he was talking about something. He spoke of religion in a very harsh yet unbelievably funny tone and to my immense surprise he talked exactly how I felt about religion at the time. It didn’t take long for me to realize that he spoke of many things of which I felt the same way as him but he also spoke of many new things that helped me evolve and realize many more things. That person was George Carlin and forever was my life changed.

I don’t know exactly why I love him so much but I can safely say I’m not really alone here. Carlin was justifiably one of the best standup comedians of his time. He pushed the boundaries of comedy and censorship along with many other things. He passed away in 2008 and when I heard the news that day, I didn’t go to school nor did I do anything else other than watching his videos and sort of contemplating about his life and how he changed mine. ‘Twas a really good day.  I’m not really in a position to be his biographer so I’ll leave that to some other more informative site. This blog here is essentially about sharing what I like and since I like George Carlin a lot I decided that for Flying Teapots third birthday (a date that I annually miss every time) I’m going to post most of his work. In a way this is my way of honoring his memory and thanking him. I’m sure he would appreciate the deed of sharing his thoughts to people who do not know about him or know only a few things. And the fact that I’m ripping off companies that are making profit now in his name.

His career can be split into two eras basically. The first era was much friendlier and perhaps more improvisational.  His second era was more critical and more direct. Essentially Carlin is like wine, it gets better as the years go on and this can be noticed really well if you go chronologically through his discography. At first he parodies the news broadcast, little differences and he points out how absurd we are in ordinary life. It was all good and sometimes it went really far but there are some jokes that are flat out terrible and uninteresting. He also took a lot of his early jokes from Richard Pryor (and he even reused them later on). I’m not sure if I should understand this as ripping Pryor off or paying homage to him? As time went on he became more direct and direct until it practically exploded with “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television”. After he got recognized he was able to express anything he wanted the way he wanted it. This led to many of his legendary recordings where he ranted about the government, religion and many other completely nihilistic and misanthropic views that we all love and cherish.

 

Where to start?

I’m not sure where to tell you to start. If you already know about Carlin and how he works then I’d start from the beginning for absolute effect. If you are new and want to hear Carlin when he shined the most then I humbly suggest Jammin' in New York or You Are All Diseased. My own favorite is his It's Bad For Ya.

Some albums are badly tagged (When will Jesus bring the pork chops especially) because I forgot to tag them but most of them are all right. Carlin On Campus is one big single track. Other than that everything else should be in order.

Here we go chronologically:

Post-mediafire apocalypse commentary: Due to insane amount of time it took me to upload this for the first time I will sadly not reupload any of this unless you really, really, really want some of this uploaded. If that's the case let me know.

Complimentary (early years)  

1960 - Killer Carlin

1963 - Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club

1966 - Take-Offs and Put-Ons

1972 - Class Clown

1972 - FM & AM

1973 - Occupation Foole

1974 - Toledo Window Box

1975 - An Evening with Wally Londo Featuring Bill Slaszo

1977 - On the Road

1981 - A Place for My Stuff

1984 - Carlin on Campus

1986 - Playin' with Your Head

1988 - What Am I Doing In New Jersey

1990 - Parental Advisory- Explicit Lyrics

1992 - Jammin' in New York

1996 - Back in Town

1997 - Brain Droppings

1999 - You Are All Diseased

2001 - Complaints and Grievances

2001 - Napalm and Silly Putty

2002 - George Carlin on Comedy

2004 - When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops

2006 - Life Is Worth Losing

2008 - It's Bad For Ya

Boris albums rating

 I made this because I have nothing better to do with my life (and that's why I love my life). Click to enlarge. As much as I love Boris I really think they went downhill after Smile. I don't know why, it just feels like they are overdoing their thing. Although every release has 2-3 excellent songs. I think I missed out one album but I can't notice which one is it. Blah blah. Just checking if the bots are still around.