DMG Newsletter for April 1st, 2022: - Happy April Fools Day!

Well a Cadillac, it pulled out of the graveyard

Pulled up to me, all they said, "Get in"

Then the Cadillac, it puttered back into the graveyard

Me, I got out again

Life in the hive puckered up my night

The kiss of death, the embrace of life

There I stand 'neath the Marquee Moon

I ain't waiting

I remember how the darkness doubled

I recall, lightning struck itself

I was listening, listening to the rain

I was hearing, hearing something else

I remember hearing this song on FM radio the year it was released with my friend Owen P (from the Mopeds) in his Art Room on the side of his parent’s house in Linden, NJ. We were both blown away by what we heard. I had read about Television in rock mags like Trouser Press, as well as articles about Patti Smith and the Ramones, both so-called punk bands at the time. Being prog & avant-jazz snob, I wasn’t paying that much attention to this music. Yet, when I heard this song, it completely blew my mind. It sounded to me like Television were influenced by earlier double lead guitar bands like Quicksilver or the Allman Bros. or even the Dead. A short time later I went to visit my friend Yvonne Ramirez who was working at the record store where I used to work the year before. She handed me a bag of records (Elvis Costello, Devo, Talking Heads, Joe Jackson & Television) and said to check them out. I ended up enjoying them all as well as a number of other punk, new wave and No Waves bands of that time.
That first Television album seemed to be the best of that batch. A few months later, I was asked by The Monz (other half of the Mopeds) to go hear Television play at My Father’s Place in Rosalyn, Long Island. We decided to trip (on acid) and their set was completely amazing! Plus they did two covers, “Satisfaction” by the Stones and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan, showing that they were part of the older rock legacy. That performance was recorded, played on WLIR-FM and released as double album called ‘The Blow Up’. Within a year another Television album was released, called ‘Adventure’. It was also very good but not as monumental as their first record. In late 1978 or early 1979, it was announced that Television were breaking up and they would play their last concert at the Bottom Line in NYC. Hence, I got tickets and was eager to go. However, it turned out that I had an operation (don’t ask) scheduled to take place the day before the gig. I already had a ticket and didn’t want to miss their last gig. Crazy music fan that I am, I tried to sneak out of the hospital to go to the gig. I was caught in the elevator in my gown with a shopping bag of my clothes by a nurse who asked where I was going. I said that I had to get to an important gig and that I would be back later that night. The nurse laughed, told me that I was crazy and that if I didn’t go back to my room, she would call one of the orderlies and restrain me to my bed. Oh well! I did see Television play a reunion gig at Irving Plaza in 1991, when Capitol Records released their self-titled reunion studio effort. That gig and that record were both great!
I can still hear “Marquee Moon” in my head, Tom Verlaine’s whiney yet powerful voice and both he and Richard Lloyd played those wicked double guitar lines/interplay. I dig the lyrics as well, which seem to involve going to and from the graveyard. I ended up speaking with Tom Verlaine on several occasions when he came to visit our first store in the 1990’s. I caught Richard Lloyd in his band as well as with the Health & Happiness Show. Billy Ficca went on to record & still plays with Gary Lucas. This song still haunts me more than 40 years later. - MC BruceLee at DMG

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THE DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY 31st ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION IN-STORE SERIES Continues with:

Tuesday, April 5th:
6:30: NICK PANOUTSOS - Solo Contrabass!
7:30: COLIN FISHER - Sax & Guitar / KYLE HUTCHINS - Drums!

Tuesday, April 12th:
6:30: JAMISON WILLIAMS - Bari Sax & DANNY KAMINS - Sopranino & Bari Saxes!
7:30: SYLVESTER GERMAINE / CHRIS LIGHTCAP / SATOSHI TAKEISHI - Guitar / Bass / Percussion!

Saturday, April 16th:
STEPHEN GAUCI - tenor sax / KEISUKE MATSUNO - guitar / JEREMY CARSLSTEDT - drums
sets at 6:30 & 7:15

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This Week’s Great Discs Begin with These:

MARTEAU ROUGE with JEAN-MARC FOUSSAT / JEAN-FRANCOIS PAUVROS / MAKOTO SATO and HAINO KEIJI - Concert a’ Luz, 2009 (Fou Records FR-CD 45; France) Featuring Haino Keiji on guitar & vocal, Jean-Marc Foussat on VCS3 synth, toys & vocal, Jean-Francois Pauvros on guitar & voice and Makoto Sato on drums.This set was recorded live at the Jazz a’ Luz Festival on July 13 of 2009. I have long been fascinated by the music, image and mystery which surrounds Japanese music pioneer/extremist Haino Keiji. Generally serious listeners either love what Mr. Keiji does or they can’t quite deal with his challenging sounds, whether playing guitar, that theremin thing, cymbals, vocals/screams or hurdy-gurdy. I, myself, am a longtime fan, ever since checking out Haino with Fred Frith and Charley Noyes way back in 1981 at Studio Henry. I’ve caught several brutal sets with his trio Fushitsusha and loved when they cleared out all of the jazz snobs out the room at Victo way back when. Haino Keiji has long worked with many other master musicians like Derek Bailey, Peter Brotzmann, the Ruins, Loren Mazzacane (at DMG!), Barre Phillips, Bill Laswell & Rashied Ali. Most recently in a trio with Stephen O’Malley and Oren Ambarchi. French guitarist, Jean-Francois Pauvros was once a member of the legendary band Catalogue (with Jac Berrocal), Makoto Kawabata, Arto Lindsay and he has a couple of rare duo discs with Mr. Keiji. Jean-Marc Foussat runs this, the Fou Records label, is considered to be one of the engineers/producers/sonic experts in Europe and plays synth and other odd sounds. Japanese drummer Makoto Sato has been living in France for a long while and has worked with Joe McPhee, Itaru Oki, Linda Sharrock, Alan Silva and Michel Kristof.
Marteau Rouge (which means Red Hammer) are/is a trio with Foussat, Pauvros and Sato and they have another recent disc with Evan Parker as their guest. Right from the opening applause, there is low-end rumble which makes my speakers shake, a rare occurance in my listening room. Doom/gloom guitar(s)/bass, powerful mallet drumming, that brutal Haino guitar sound at the center of the storm, a whirlwind of sounds surrounding it. Makoto Sato’s drums are at the center of this dynamic storm, pushing the waves of sound/noise higher. There is drawing of red molten lava on the cover of this disc which seems most appropriate since this is also the way this music sounds much of the time. Midway, there are some alien sounding bowed or somehow manipulated strings which are very disorienting. From the outside, I would say that many regular listeners would call this mostly noise but I can hear much more going on here. Mr. Keiji's distinct ghostly voice floats in a later section along with some eerie, solemn post-psych guitar (Pauvros, I believe?). The last section is the most harrowing part of this glorious disc with some truly scary sounds emanating like a feast of comic book monsters dancing or fighting together. Whoa! This is one of the most intense sets I’ve heard in a long while. Hope you are also ready for it! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $16

MARTEAU ROUGE with JEAN-MARC FOUSSAT / JEAN-FRANCOIS PAUVROS / MAKOTO SATO and EVAN PARKER - Live (In Situ 242; France) “ Devoting more than forty years to the painstaking development of an individual style doesn’t mean that British tenor saxophonist Evan Parker eschews new challenges and collaborations. Live is notable, however, because Parker manages, without altering his distinctive reed patterns, to seamlessly match his contributions to those of the Paris-based trio Marteau Rouge. And Parker does so without upsetting the perceptive strategies that members of the trio have developed during their years together.
Marteau Rouge consists of guitarist Jean-François Pauvros, whose chiming runs and twanging licks often tread the line between rock and improv; unflappable drummer Makoto Sato, whose cymbal rasps and mercurial backbeats give direction to the trio; and synthesizer player Jean-Marc Foussat, whose quivering sine waves further cement the trio’s interaction.
Despite separately titled tracks, the CD is actually a solid, nearly eighty-minute performance. Parker makes one of his strongest interventions on Cinq, where his circularly breathed slurs and harsh multiphonics adumbrate Foussat’s sweeping metallic clangs and Pauvros’ hammering reverb—with the clash finally upended by soothing hand-drumming from Sato.
The synthesizer player ups the ante in the climactic Six, au temps des cerises by patching discursive crowd mutterings and radio static into the mix, as Sato whams, rolls, and ruffs, while Parker suavely operates on top of the extended intonation. In fact, his pitch vibrations and seconding honks are enough to mute the guitarist Pauvros’ amp-distorted grinds and flanges, down-shifting the piece to give prominence to connective string snaps and reed slithers. Rather than being the proverbial fifth wheel, Parker’s circularly breathed outbursts balance the three other parts of this red hammer for smoother—and no less notable—sonic movements.” - Ken Waxman, MusicWorks
CD $16

JEAN-MARC FOUSSAT / DAUNIK LAZRO / EVAN PARKER - Cafe’ OTO 2020 (Fou Records FR-CD 38/39; France) A momentous 2020 concert at London's Cafe OTO, presented in two discs, the 1st with label leader Jean-Marc Foussat in a solo improvisation on synth and voice, the 2nd in a trio with Daunik Lazro on tenor & baritone sax, and Evan Parker on soprano sax, the 2 saxophones weaving and responding to Foussat's remarkable alien soundscapes and vocalization in an immersive extended improvisation.
2 CD Set $18

WILL BERNARD with TIM BERNE / JOHN MEDESKI / CHRIS LIGHTCAP / CHES SMITH - Pond Life (Dreck to Disc Records 004; USA) Featuring Will Bernard on guitar & compositions, Tim Berne on alto sax, John Medeski on piano & Hammond B3 organ, Chris Lightcap on bass and Ches Smith on drums. I’ve long admired the guitar work of former Bay Area-based guitarist, Will Bernard. I’ve heard him in a number of great bands like: T.J. Kirk, President’s Breakfast, with Peter Apfelbaum’s and Steve Bernstein’s bands. I’m not so sure when Mr. Bernard moved here but I did get a chance to hear him live at The Stone with Mr. Apfelbaum a couple of years back. This disc arrived in the mail with a bunch of other recent promos and was the best of that batch. Mr. Bernard has put together an all-star Downtown quintet for this date, each member is a leader on their own. It turns out that Mr. Bernard and John Medeski recorded together for the now defunct Palmetto label in 2014. Tim Berne and Ches Smith are both founding members of Snakeoil and have played together for years. John Medeski, amazing organist for M, M & W, various John Zorn projects and a member of Chris Lightcap’s Superette. There are connections all around here.
“Poor Man’s Speedball” features some swirling, earthy Hammond organ from John Medeski over a great, sly, greasy groove with a tasty, blues-rock guitar solo by Mr. Bernard. “Type A” evokes a spacious, freer vibes with some inspired contrabass from Lightcap, a restless guitar and piano intersection. “Surds” features some mean, lean slide guitar over a somewhat funky groove, the slide solo a true gem. Saxist, Tim Berne, joins the group on four song midway, adding some of his own sound/harmony and playing a few short, twisted solos. What’s interesting about this disc is that it does a great job of evoking different moods: churning, slow chugging, like a train which keeps shifting through different gears going up the hill and then sailing down to a well-placed conclusion. This is a strong group effort with few solos yet it feels just right so get on board and take the ride. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $14

CUBIC ZERO - Floating Rabka (Nonoya Records 002; Japan) Cubic Zero is Nonoko Yoshida on alto sax, Nobuhiko Sasaki on guitar, Tomoaki Motoyama on keyboard, Taro Okubo on bass and Tobu Shibuya on drums. This is the second disc by Cubic Zero, their first was released in 2018 and was a favorite of mine. Since moving back to Japan several years ago, alto saxist and founder of Pet Bottle Ningen, Nonoko Yoshida has kept busy running her own Nonoya label and releasing a variety of sessions with other like-minded musicians in Japan. The title song is first and it starts out as a quirky new wavish ditty before it launches into a brutal, tight, post-punk eruption! Way intense! “Bismarck” seems to blend post-punk spirit with tight, a fusion jazz/rockin’ groove, infectious 70’s sounding electric piano solo and a couple of brutal guitar & sax solos. “Maina - Steel Dandyism” actually has a reggae/dub groove, greasy organ and some great funky sax from Nonoko. Overall, all of these tracks sound like they were recorded in the mid-seventies on analog equipment with no excessive digital BS to take away the organic sound. “Oriental Momiji” has another infectious prog/fusion groove/sound which makes me smile,going from one extreme (normal el jazz) to some crazed, post-punk blow-ups. What I dig about this disc is that it is a modest effort, strong, spirited and inventive without hitting us too hard with any extreme wanking. Five other discs on this label to check out, two per week. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $15

CANADA - Malakut (Nonoya 010; Japan) Canada is Yusuke Kitagawa and Kazuhiro Oikawa on guitars, Yoshiyuki Tzubota on tuba and Toru Shibuya on drums. Canada actually hails from Japan and was founded by drummer Toru Shibuya. Mr. Shibuya is also a member of Cubic Zero, the great quintet who are led by saxist Nonoko Yoshida. The other members of both of these bands are/were unknown to me before we got a package of 5 new discs from the Nonoya label. 7 of the 11 tracks were written by Mr. Shibuya, with the rest written by other members of the quartet. Starting with “Bismarck” which is also on the new disc by Cubic Zero, this band is tightly wound, closer to a prog band than anything else with some intricate playing by both guitars, tuba and drums. I love the way these songs are written and played. One guitar will play tight lines with the rest of the trio while the other guitar plays impressive lead solos on top. There is a fine line between post-punk and progressive music which this quartet embraces just right. The tuba and the drums are the rhythm team and play quite well together. Both guitarists have important roles in this quartet and both are perfect for the job. “Black Liquor” approaches some head-banging like intensity and it is very brief. Both the tub and one of the guitar share and/or harmonize the basslines here as well, another neat trick. It seems odd that the best disc of this week would be a little known Japanese quartet that none of us had heard of before now but this indeed the case! This is the brutal truth of the week. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $15

DUO POUR 454 CHORDES with PAK YAN LAU / LIONEL MALRIC- Duo Pour 454 Chordes (el Negocito 083; Belgium) Featuring Pak Yan Lau and Lionel Malric on prepared pianos. Ever since John Cage invented the use of prepared piano (adding nuts & bolts to the strings), pianists have been able to coax odd sounds from the strings inside the piano. For many years, very few pianists actually experimented inside the piano. In the last few decades several classical composers and avant/jazz pianists have been doing this more and more: Keith Tippett, Matt Shipp, Sylvie Courvoisier, Kris Davis, Eli Wallace have all worked with and expanded the possibilities of playing the piano this way. - BLG
"The amazing thing about the performance is its inherent lyricism and harmonic beauty, even if most of the time it's even hard to grasp that the sounds are produced by pianos, and then by how many. Despite its exploratory nature, the music's emotional power is direct and intense. It's a wonderful illustration of visionary music that leaves all concepts behind to go to a new place, as yet unheard. And that place is incredibly fascinating and attractive." - Stef Gijssels, The Free Jazz Collective (28/03/2019) 5 stars!
CD $15

ERIK GUNDEL - Level One Mage (Dear Life Records DLR030; USA) Mage is an old-world descriptor that means magician; level one designates something that’s top-notch. Multi-instrumentalist Gundel, late of pop act Gemma, is the titular agent indicated, letting his Eno flag fly, playing all instruments himself including a spindly black widow’s web of synths, electronics, bass, guitars, and whatnot, and in the end comes up with one of the strangest releases you’re likely to engage with this year. ‘Pop’ this surely ain’t; the strange cauldron Gundel stirs up is proudly experimental, odd as f*ck, and sure to twirl your lobes a thing or two. The closest thing this album gets to accessibility are the vocals arching across the swirling tableau of “(Wanted to) So I Went There With You”, featuring Gundel’s partner-in-sound Felicia Douglass, and over Frankensteinian precussive lurches, curlicuing electronics, demented blues licks, evaporating synth tones, and a general sense of unhinged weirdness, Douglass emits breathless coos and sighs in a bundled aria of echoed longing. After that track’s lambent heat, we downshift into the moribund atmospheres of “A Pit of Suede”, where Gundel’s pedal steel sussurations toss the contemplative moodswings of BJ Cole and Daniel Lanois into heretofore unknown depths, an abstract thwack of Sisyphean drone whose vibrato pulses and recedes, one step forward, two steps back, like Cocteau Twins glimpsed through some contemporary digital prism. This bit of navelgazing melancholy segues neatly into the sturm und crunch of “Like A Lid on the Spirit”, a perverse bit of chime twinkle, guitar arpeggiation and reverb, bassbin warble, and datastream affect that lumbers about with a thousand-yard stare and three-day-old hangover. As diverting as all this is, it is but prelude to the utterly demented bent of “Red Cradle of the Night”, a dreamy slice of haunted Americana buttressed by the occasional death-howl vocals of ‘singer’ Will Skartsad from black metal outfit Yellow Eyes. Mind you, Skartsad’s ejaculations are wisely buried deep in the mix, surrounded by an almost Genesis-like collection of 70s prog symphonics, but his presence rattles one's proverbial cage enough to give you the willies for days. Consider his hoarse-trading another bit of preternatural wizardry charmed out by Gundel on this sorcerer's black magic carpet ride. - Darren Bergstein, DMG
CD $10

MAGDA MAYAS TINA DOUGLAS - Objects Of Interest (Room40 4164; Australia) “The translation of the visual into the acoustic is a powerfully esoteric practice. For Magda Mayas and Tina Douglas, this nexus of sensory curiosity has provided a perfect point from which they have maintained a decade long conversation around light, vibration, and the score as a provocation toward unlocking new approaches and methodologies to seemingly known instruments. On Objects Of Interest, Mayas takes her cues from Douglas's scores in an exchange of materiality and a dialogue of interpretive acoustics. Together they unlock a dynamic, but refined interrogation of the piano, clavinet and Rhodes expanding these familiar musical objects into points of unfamiliar resonance and unexpected beauty.
From Magda Mayas: "Tina and I met around ten years ago in Melbourne through mutual musician friends. Tina has heard me perform in various context and I have visited her studio and seen her perform on multiple occasions. There was an immediate personal and aesthetic connection and conversations over the years revealed shared ways of working -- a collaboration seemed natural and exciting. We are both drawn to improvisational and intuitive processes and we both use individualized objects or tools to create and develop close relationships with these. For me, it's a symbiotic process: the objects generate ideas, they afford and limit what I do and structure a piece in a fundamental way. Tina's scores are very sculptural and tactile -- the piano and my objects and preparations in them likewise feel sculptural, tactile, embodied -objects, materials and relationships crossing over. When I started recording music to respond to Tina's scores, I had a wish to slowing things down, to expose a certain fragility or imperfection and to let one melody or one chord or one little noise be enough. With the piano you can have such an orchestral approach, and I often do that, but with this collaboration I didn't feel like I wanted this kind of complexity. There is a certain fragility that I like about the project and the scores: the fact that they are thin paper scores and I transported them from Australia to Berlin, the cut-outs... it's all very fragile and beautiful and I kind of felt that I wanted to allow the music to be like that too."
CD / BOOK $25

TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA - Culvert - No-Input Mixing Board 10 (Room40 4179; Australia) Toshimaru Nakamura's No Input Mixing Board instrument is without question one of the most personal and experimental explorations of its kind. Over ten volumes, Nakamura has stretched the capacities of the mixing console in ways that both shock and delight. He maintains a tireless sense of curiosity, seeking to constantly expand the range of the instrument and subvert its preconceived role. On Culvert - NIMB 10, Nakamura's work takes on an incredibly dynamic and at times volcanic quality. Each piece moves between passages of deep rhythm and pulse which give way to caustic swaths of feedback, noise, and, at times, a deep sense of harmony. The compositions are minimalist in their form, but remain unconstrained, often veering into unexpected moments of deep quiet or explosive post-techno like grinds. Culvert, the tenth volume in the No Input Mixing Board (NIMB) instrument series, expands the languages and approaches outlined on his previous effort, the ninth volume, which was released by Room40 in 2018. It is a testament to Nakamura's skills as a producer, but moreover a recognition of his incredible craft and aesthetic sensibilities when it comes to creating something profound from literally nothing at all. Played, recorded, edited, processed and mastered by Toshimaru Nakamura at his home in Tokyo from April to June, 2021.
From Toshimaru Nakamura: "There used to be several small streams in west Tokyo, where I live. Some of them were natural rivers flowing from springs in this area. Others were from further west. Towards the east, down to the sea of Tokyo Bay, there are others which were man-made, created to distribute water. Now, most of these rivers are covered by concrete lids and many parts of them are converted into pathways with nicely lined-up trees and benches. Some stretches of these rivers even have an artificial brook on top of the lids to recreate the landscape of the old days. Sort of a 'double decker river'. Sitting on one of those benches, I think of the water flowing below, in the dark."
CD $17

MARINA ROSENFELD - Index (Room40 4173; Australia) “For over two decades, New York-based artist and composer Marina Rosenfeld has pioneered a specific language for turntable music, based on an ever-expanding collection of dub plates she creates. The dubplate is a one-off, hand-cut record. Each dubplate can be made to contain any array of sounds decided on by its creator. For Rosenfeld, her discovery of the dubplate in the late 1990s was a pivotal moment, when she recognized the material instability of the medium as critical tool for performance and composition. On Index, the investigation of this materiality is paramount. The physical intimacy that colors the relation between the hand and the plate is revealed through a very particular reading of the turntable, one which sits in parallel to the more recognized ways in which that technology has been deployed as a performative tool. This edition features a series of live recordings and related materials that trace the development of Rosenfeld's tactile approach and her shifting collection of sound materials. The recordings are published alongside a book featuring extensive archival documentation, photography, and a longform conversation between Marina Rosenfeld and Lawrence English.
Marina Rosenfeld on the dub plates: "I don't care that much about the alchemy that some artists generate combining LPs, communicating with the ghosts of the past, that kind of thing. I love it when other people do it. In my own case, I'm really interested in the materiality of the plate, the tactile and hyper sensitive way sound is extracted from it, the signal to noise ratio and its condition of radical flux that you get with dub plates. What I'm doing there is adjacent to music-making, but I often think it might not be strictly speaking, about getting to the best sound, if that's what musicians are understood to be doing, by and large. My approach has something of carrying out exercises to it, to what end I'm not entirely sure, but on a personal level, I would say, some strange synthesis of formalism and kind of physical intimacy."
CD / BOOK $25

LEO KUPPER - Complete Electronic & Voices Works 1961-1987 (Sub Rosa 491; Belgium) The complete works of one of the pioneers of Belgian early electronics. This three-CD set highlights Leo Kupper's earliest unique compositions produced during the '60s to '90s when he was ardently seeking out structures distinctly applicable to purely electronic sounds. His GAME machine -- Générateur Automatique de Musique Electronique (Automatic Generator of Electronic Music) was constructed during such period and spirit of renewal and technical explorations. Released in Sub Rosa's Early Electronic series. Includes 20-page booklet.
Leo Kupper was born in Nidrum, Hautes Fagnes (Eastern Belgium) on April 16th, 1935. He studied musicology at the Liège Conservatory, then became the assistant of Henri Pousseur who, in 1958, had just founded the Apelac Studio in Brussels. Kupper started to work on his first pieces there, but he would finalize them only upon putting together his own studio in 1967: the Studio de Recherches et de Structurations Electroniques Auditives (Studio Of Audio Electronic Research And Structuring). That is where he would compose, to this day, over forty works, most of them on instruments of his own design. In the '70s and '80s, he built a series of Sound Domes (briefly established in Rome, Linz, Venice, and Avignon), places where every sound, every phoneme uttered by the listening audience was transformed by hundreds of loudspeakers of various sizes organized in a dome shape. This device transformed sounds through space and time: something said could be morphed into another sound hours, days, perhaps years later. Leo had envisioned that a device like his, a place for contemplation, would be much-needed in cities where nature had been evacuated. In the late '70s, after discovering Iranian music master Hussein Malek, Kupper became one of the very few Western virtuosos of the santur. His first pieces were released by Deutsche Grammophon and, later, Igloo. His latest works have been released by the New York-based label Pogus.
The GAME machine: In 1961, having terminated his musicology studies, Leo Kupper left Liège for Brussels. By that time, centers for music research such as those in Cologne, Paris, and Milan had already produced works of experimental music, where pioneers were forging new and diverse routes in electronic music, "musique concrete", and electro-vocal music. The GAME machine was constructed during such period and spirit of renewal and technical exploration. The GAME consisted of a collection of variable "sonic cells" sensitive to modulations of positive and negative voltages and programmable manually through the aid of color-coded cables. Complex electronic loops and sound from loudspeakers and from microphone pick-ups were then either recorded by tape-machines or performed and interpreted by musicians who opened automatic channels, thus triggering automatic sound to exit the speakers.”
3 CD Set $21

ASHRA - Correlations Complete (Mgart 205; Germany) “2022 repress of this deluxe boxset. The first disc is a remastered version of the 1990 Virgin CD reissue of Correlations, recorded and mixed at Panne-Paulsen Studio, Frankfurt, in 1978 by Mick Glossop and originally released by Virgin in 1979. The second disc is the first release of Phantasus, Manuel Göttsching and Udo Arndt's original 1978 recording and mix of the album that was partially re-recorded and totally remixed to become Correlations (Phantasus was Göttsching's intended title, which he changed to Correlations after UK fans told him that the English can't pronounce "phantasus"). The third, fourth, and fifth discs are The Making Of, which includes a 12-page booklet. Performed by Manuel Göttsching (guitar, synthesizer, sequencer), Lutz Ulbrich (guitar, synthesizer, piano, mellotron), and Harald Großkopf (drums, percussion, synthesizer).”
5 CD Box Set $36

BARRECA / LEIMER - Drowning Guides (Palace of Lights 001-2022CD; USA) "Marc Barreca and Kerry Leimer have worked on a nearly parallel musical course for more than forty years. Nearly parallel because their musical paths do occasionally cross. First in 1980 with 'Four Pages From An Unfinished Novel' on K. Leimer's first solo album Closed System Potentials. Again during the live performance of Music For Land And Water and for the massive loop piece 'Heart Of Stillness' from The Neo-Realist (At Risk) by the virtual group Savant. Beyond basic file sharing, their recordings resolve tensions between distinct extremes of restrictive rules, defined procedures, improvisation, conscientious editing, and an ear for expansive details and contrasts. Their collaborative process is intended to subvert traditional and accepted methods of composition, instrumental voicing, signal processing, recording, and mixing with the goal of generating music that lives on the boundaries between established practice and profound impracticalities. The search for new compositional approaches continues with Drowning Guides. The fourth album by K. Leimer and Marc Barreca deliberately limits their collaborative exchange to re-voicing MIDI tracks. All audio was then returned to the originator to process, edit, mix and finalize the form. The music of Drowning Guides fixates on shifting textures and voices drawn through layers of processing and manipulation, emerging as a complete and distinct audio language."
2 CD Set $18

B.B. BLUNDER with JULIE & KEITH TIPPETTS / MICK TAYLOR / MARK CHARIG / NICK EVANS / BRIAN AUGER / BARRY JENKINS /et al - Workers' Playtime: 2-CD Remastered and Expanded Edition (Esoteric 22793; UK) This Esoteric Recordings edition has been remastered and is expanded to include two previously unreleased tracks recorded for the BBC Radio 1 Sounds Of The '70s program which featured 3 of the 4 members of the legendary Blossom Toes plus loads of great guests: Julie Driscoll, Keith Tippett, Brian Auger, Nick Evans, Marc Charig… This album was released in 1971 and it remains one of my favorite early British progress rock albums. The Blossom Toes were a quintessential British pop/psych band who were managed / produced by Giorgio Gomelsky. They recorded two classic album in the late sixties: ‘We Are Ever So Clean’ (1967), sort of psych/bubblegum… and ‘If Only for a Moment’ (1969), psych/pop/blues/pre-prog. The personnel was Brain Godding * Jim Cregan on guitars, Brian Belshaw on bass and Kevin Westlake on drums. They broke up around 1970 with Jim Cregan joining Family and then to the Rod Stewart band. The other three Blossom Toes gents started BB Blunder, a different, completely unique band whose one and only album sounds completely fresh, inventive and inspired today! Not only is every song great here but the production by George Chkiantz & Eddy Offord is extraordinary. DMG John M & yours truly recently listened to a bootleg copy and even that sounded incredible!?! Lead guitarist Brian Godding went on to play with Mike Westbrook’s Solid Gold Cadillac, Keith Tippett’s Centipede and recorded several superb solo efforts. If you consider yourself a British progressive fan-addict, then you must hear this! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
2 CD Set $21

BLOSSOM TOES with FRANK ZAPPA - If Only for a Moment (Esoteric 32791; UK) This expanded Esoteric Recordings edition has been newly remastered and features 20 additional bonus tracks drawn from rare demos and out-takes plus live performances in Belgium in 1969, including a live set from the Amougies Festival from October '69 where the band was joined on stage by Frank Zappa for the track 'Grooving'. The set fully restores the original album artwork and features a booklet with an essay featuring exclusive interviews.”
3 CD Set $30

JONESY - Waltz for Yesterday: The Recordings 1972-1974 (Esoteric 32788; UK) New re-mastered 3CD clamshell boxed set of the classic albums and recordings made by legendary progressive rock band Jonesy between 1972 and 1974. Newly remastered from the original dawn records master tapes plus newly discovered masters - with a fully illustrated booklet.
3 CD Set $35

JACK KEROUAC - 100 Years of Beatitude (Bear Family Records 17653; Germany) Bear Family Records tribute to Jack Kerouac on the occasion of his 100th birthday in March 2022. Jack Kerouac, who along with Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs formed the core cell of the Beat Generation. The beatniks, as representatives of pop literature, listened to a wide range of specific styles of music; we have compiled 52 songs and historical audio documents from 1946 to 1963, from the core of the beatnik era. Be Bop Jazz as the favorite music of the Beat Generation is featured with Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and others, as well as 'Word Jazz', the combination of jazz and beatnik poetry, such as by Oscar Brown, Jr., Don Morrow and of course Jack Kerouac himself with Steve Allen! Contemporary pop music and rock 'n' roll around the beatnik subject are also represented, including satirical novelty numbers.
Featuring Big Jay McNeely, Babs Gonzales and others, rhythm 'n' blues is essential as a bridge between beatnik jazz and rock 'n' roll! Historical sound documents, such as a Jack Kerouac reading, an interview, or the Allen Ginsberg recitation, round out the sound picture! Two readings from the movie 'High School Confidential', which appeared on an MGM single in 1958, are here on CD for the first time! And sounds from the 1959 film 'The Beat Generation'! The colorful 36-page booklet contains rare photos and memorabilia as well as the history of the Beat Generation and its music, written by a connoisseur of the Beatnik scene, Roland Heinrich Rumtreiber!
On March 12, 2022, Jack Kerouac would have celebrated his 100th birthday, reason enough to remember him and his companions with a unique compilation! Kerouac is, together with Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs the nucleus of the Beat Generation, the Beatniks, who from the late 1940s, across the Fifties, until the mid-Sixties acted mainly in California. Their type of pop literature was revolutionary at the time, like Rock'N'Roll in music.”
2 CD Set $21

LP SECTION:

HORACE TAPSCOTT with KAFI ROBERTS / AUBREY HART - Tapscott Winds (NimbusWest NS-4146; USA) “Recorded in October of 1983 - Horace Tapscott accompanied by only flute and sax, a sparse and beautiful album containing some of Horace Tapscott’s best playing (the Tapscott solos are among his finest on record)- Two sidelong tunes- Cut directly from the original Master Tapes- Tip-on sleeve - Insert with photos of Kafi Roberts (Sax) and Aubrey Hart (Flute) and a new essay by Mark Weber.”
LP $35 [Limited Edition of 500 / pre-orders nearly sold out!]

JESSE SHARPS and The WU ENSEMBLE - Featuring Compositions by Horace Tapscott / Nate Morgan (NimbusWest; USA) Self released by Jesse Sharps in an edition of 400 on clear blue vinyl!! Recorded in the 90’s - this is Jesse Sharps 2nd Album and the follow up to his Nimbus debut “Sharps and Flats”. Featuring compositions by Nate Morgan and Horace Tapscott and exhibiting a distinctly gypsy jazz feel with deep Dub bass, this album has been a favorite of ours for many years now and we’re super psyched that Jesse has finally released it on vinyl!!” Personnel: Jesse Sharps tenor & soprano saxes, clarinet, bassoon, accordion I Irish flute, Tilman Engelhardt - soprano & baritone saxes & flute, Andreas Bayless - guitars, Dolam Lima & Jesse Gunther - percussion.
LP $33 [Limited Edition of 400, blue vinyl]

HARRY BERTOIA - Clear Sounds / Perfetta (Sonambient 1033; USA) Limited 2022 restock. LP version. After nearly 40 years of silence, Harry Bertoia's Sonambient label has been resurrected in order to release the best of Bertoia's unheard recordings from his recently preserved archive of 1/4" tapes. "Clear Sounds" b/w "Perfetta" was cut straight from the original reels and is a true analog pressing. These two pieces were selected for their minimal, meditative and lush harmonic qualities; lacking in the abundance of dynamics and contrasts found on the original Sonambient records, these pieces show another approach to performance. Slow washes of shimmering metallic sculpture rustle thickly like the leaves of a white birch or tall grass in the summer sun. Gorgeous harmonics hover overhead, making audible measurements of the length and purity of Bertoia's metal rod sculptures. Both Harry Bertoia and his brother Oreste composed extensively in the Sonambient barn deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania where Harry kept over 100 Sonambient sculptures and gongs. The first Sonambient LP Bellissima Bellissima Bellissima / Nova, released in 1970, contains a Harry Bertoia composition on side A and an Oreste Bertoia composition on side B. As an homage to the original Sonambient LP, "Clear Sounds" is a Harry Bertoia piece from June 30, 1973 and "Perfetta" is an Oreste Bertoia piece from June 28, 1971. Harry Bertoia first came into artistic prominence in the late 1930s and his sculptural, ergomonic chairs were soon modernist furniture classics. Inspired by the resonant sounds emanating from metals as he worked them and encouraged by his brother Oreste, whose passion was music, Harry restored a fieldstone "Pennsylvania Dutch" barn as the home for this experiment in sounding sculptures which he had begun in the 1950s. Bertoia was an obsessive composer and relentless experimenter, often working late into the night and accumulating hundreds of tapes of his best performances; Oreste, too, would explore and record the sculptures's sounds during his annual visits to his brother's home in rural Pennsylvania. Over nearly twenty years, adding, culling and rearranging, Bertoia carefully selected nearly 100 harmonious pieces ranging in height from under a foot to more than fifteen feet. Learning by experimentation was common for Bertoia and he mastered the art of tape recording, turning the Sonambient barn into a sound studio with four overhead microphones hanging from the rafters in a square formation. He would experiment with overdubbing by performing along to previous recordings, constantly improving his methods while also honing his performance skills.”
LP $24

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ATTENTION ALL CREATIVE MUSICIANS OUT THERE, Around the world.

If you have a link for some music that you are working on and want to share it with the folks who read the DMG Newsletter, please send the link to DMG at DMG@Downtownmusicgallery.com.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 2 at 7:30 PM

SOUND CIRCUIT NY 9.2
Featuring:
ROBERT DICK
COMPCORD ENSEMBLE
RESONANT REFRACTIONS
NANA YAASERWAAH AKUOKU
JEVIJOE VITUG
SENERIOP

Performing:
Robert Dick’s “Concerto for Flute/Bass Flute, Strings and Percussion” (1st time since 1970) and “Lake of Fire” - a psychodrama for soloist playing the unique bass flute in F
Melissa Keeling’s “Tilt”
Lisa Bost-Sandberg’s “Cirrous”

At CHURCH of THE HOLY APOSTLES
296 Ninth Avenue at 28th Street
$25 (with a complimentary drink) $20 and $15, students and seniors
reservations: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nysoundcircuit-92-pipe-mix-tickets-182601033607

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EXTRA SPECIAL GIG ANNOUNCEMENT:

This Sunday, April 3rd at Carnegie Hall:
BURNT SUGAR THE ARKESTRA CHAMBER!
Performing “Cosmic Riddem, Esoteric Rambunction & Eclectic Blue Cheer Conduction #5”!!!

BSAC will unveil a new sonic dimension to their molten, glacial, racial. Special, oceanic, mythic antiphonal and telepathic version of “Conduction.”

In their twenty-third year of existence, BSAC is bringing their neo-tribal thang to Carnegie Hall this Sunday, April 3rd. With “Cosmic Riddem, Esoteric Rambunction & Eclectic Blue Cheer Conduction #5,” BSAC will unveil a new dimension to their molten, glacial, racial, spacial, oceanic, mythic antiphonal & telepathic version of “Conduction.”

In 2022, Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber continues to celebrate ‘never playing
anything the same way once.' As always, they give tribute to their sonic Sensei, Maestro Lawrence Butch Morris (1947-2013) for showing “THE WAY” of Conducted Improvisation and to BSAC founder Gregory Stephen Ionman Tate (1957-2021) for creating the caramelized spaceship allowing access to a many-splendored and darkly energetic celestial realm of cosmic noise & riddim.

Come be a Witness: https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2022/04/03/burnt-sugar-the-arkestra-chamber-0730pm

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A COUPLE OF GIG ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM OUR FRIEND & LONGTIME DMG MANAGER CHUCK BETTIS

Thursday, April 7th at 7pm:
Titans Of Tachyons w/ Trevor Dunn with Sally Gates - guitar, Matt Hollenbeck - bass vi, Trevor Dunn - bass, Kenny Grohowski - drums
Snark Horse with Matt Mitchell - keyboards & modular synth & Kate Gentile - drums & percussion
Snake Union with Dave Grant & Chuck Bettis - modular synth & electronics

Tuesday, April 19th at 8pm:
Snake Union
Compactor
Retribution Body
Geda
At TV Eye, 1647 Weirfield St. in Ridgewood, Queens

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INDEPENDENT PROMOTERS ALLIANCE Presents:

JOHN BLUM / ROB BROWN / LOU GRASSI!
@ Michiko Studios, Stage 2
149 West 46th Street
Saturday, April 23 7:00
Suggested $20
Proof of vax required by venue. (Stage 2 is on 3rd floor. Building is not elevator-equipped.)

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This one is from CHRIS CUTLER, original member of Henry Cow, Art Bears, News from Babel, respected author and founder of Recommended Records. This is Chris’ wonderful podcast and I urge you all to give it a listen…

https://rwm.macba.cat/en/research/probes-312-auxiliaries

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Guitarist and DMG-pal HENRY KAISER has a monthly Video Solo Series on Cuneiform’s Youtube page:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBncHowndMo
1990 video from WETLANDS in here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfs5OuBfNxs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yeOIVqGLKY

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My good friend & guitar master GARY LUCAS is playing half hour sets at his apartment in the West village every Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday at 10:30pm Tues, Thurs and Sat on Facebook. Different songs & improvisations on each episode. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/gary.lucas.5836/
https://garylucas.com/www/streams/streams.shtml

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This clip just arrived in my email from British Sax Colossus PAUL DUNMALL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CpvCjR8tvs (YouTube)

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THIS COMES FROM OUR FRIEND, WEST COAST VIOLIN GODDESS JENNY SCHEINMAN:

Jenny Scheinman & Friends Celebrate Barbes’ 20th Birthday, Brooklyn, NY
April 10 @ 8pm & 9:30pm - I am throwing a gratitude party for my old hometown haunt, Barbes, on the eve of it's 20th Anniversary. This neighborhood bar is where I spent ten years of Tuesdays - crafting, honing, meeting, welcoming and experimenting. We will play old songs, new songs, and call in the spirits of the dearly departed with whom we once shared this space. Jeff Lederer (woodwinds), Steve Cardenas (guitar), Carmen Staaf (piano), Tony Scherr (bass), and Kenny Wollesen (drums). 

Damn Skippy @ The Ivy Room, Albany, CA - April 20 & 21, 8pm - Damn Skippy is the latest collaborative incarnation of an ever mutating west coast guitar groove band stemming from TJ Kirk, The Scott Amendola Band, and my own first album ‘Live At Yoshi’s.' It promises to be sweaty and ridiculous. Will Bernard (guitar), John Schott (guitar), Todd Sickafoose (bass) and Scott Amendola (drums).

House Of Faern @ Dresher Ensemble Studio, Oakland, CA - April 24, 4pm - These musicians saved my soul during the shutdown. We played jazz into nature and now come bearing the fruit. Beth Schenck (alto saxophone), Matt Wrobel (guitar), John Wood (piano) and Todd Sickafoose (bass).

'FOCUS' with The Eureka Symphony @ The Arkley Center, Eureka, CA - May 20 & 21, 8pm
My symphonic debut! ‘Focus’ is a seven part fairy tale for string orchestra and improvising soloist, written by Eddie Sauter, and made famous by Stan Getz in the early 1960s. 

'Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait' mini west-coast tour! June 1 @ Stanford University, 7:30pm
June 3 @ Pepperdine University, 8pm -‘ Kannapolis' is the movie live music show that I have been touring for the last 7 years. It is about community, resilience, and human connection. It seems to only grow more relevant as the years go by - a miracle piece! Footage shot by Mr Waters in Piedmont during the latter half of the Great Depression, re-edited and directed by feature film maker Finn Taylor, commissioned by Aaron Greenwald for Duke Performances, and performed by yours truly with Robbie Fulks (guitar/vocals) and Robbie Gjersoe (guitar/vocals).