2025 RAMBLES
COMPILED 2025 BLOG STUFFS
RON HARDY/ THE JACKSONS/ LIVING TOGETHER/ RON HARDY TRIBUTE EDIT/ YOUTUBE
RON HARDY/ THE JACKSON'S LIVING TOGETHER EDIT
As is the case with a lot of Ron Hardy’s mixes and edits, when exactly this was done is a matter of debate (tho probably 87-88). A shadowy figure at best, Ron’s sets at Chicago club The Music Box in the 1980’s were, by all accounts, epic nights and mornings of non-stop high volume mania. His reel to reel tape edits are legendary for their liquid extensions of mood and dubbed out psychedelic wooze. Taking dance floor orientated tracks and extending them far beyond what was originally intended mark him out as one of the premier late 20th century sonic explorers. Ron and fellow Chicago DJ Frankie Knuckles were the pioneers in what became known across the globe as house music, and while Frank’s style was a somewhat more urbane soulfulness (no slur at all on him, he was a flat out genius in his own right), Hardy’s riotous mixes and blending of pretty well any genre or record available stood him out far from the rest of the pack. Do yourself an extreme solid and check out his Music Box mixes online and get lost in the creative madness he extolled.
Which brings us to this track. A gem in its own right, this Gamble and Huff production from 1976 is a tuneful slice of disco-soul that stands on its own as a dance floor filler, no doubt. But by pitching the record slower and editing certain sections into dreamy loops, Ron discovers a universe unto itself, a hedonistic playground that has a drowsy quality shared with some of Ron’s other epic overhauls of the same period (his demolition/ rebuild of Isaac Hayes’ I Can’t Turn Around and First Choice’s Let No Man Put Asunder’s hypnotic loop canvas being prime examples). The effect here is of being caught in the pulse of a slow strobe while sparks shower down around you. Druggy as hell and proud of it, this temporal dislocation is deeply psychedelic and an artist creating at full height of his powers. Hardy passed away in 1992 from Aids-related complications and, as always, it would have been cool to hear/see where he would have taken his craft. But be glad for the treasures he left. He is one of my favorite creative artists of all time, and his love of music and experimentation shine on and inspire endlessly.
EPOQUE SELECTOR/ LOST MY SELF/ LOOKING GLASS 7”/ BEING RECORDS 2024
Max Turnbull of TO’s funk/ post-most-things collective Badge Epoque Ensemble graces us all with a super limited run of self released 7’‘s on his Being private press label. Definitely of a piece with the Badge output, these two tracks (Lost My Self featuring Mandy Christ on vox and Looking Glass with Jane INC on vocals) hit on both counts. Hard drums, sneaky bass runs and dripped guitar combine with the vocals to set some heavy action. Looking Glass has a smoky downtown car exhaust vibe and coils nicely. Lost My Self is an up tempo stormer with strut that announces itself with a head nod and groove to spare. The tracks here get me in the headspace of Roberta Flack, Quiet Fire-era (which I’ve been on for a minute as of late), refracted thru some upfront drum action (the drums RIP). Best 7 inch in awhile round these parts, most def. Check it out below, though physical is sold out I believe. Demand a repress.
PURE LAND STARS/ TREMBLING UNDER THE SPECTRAL BODIES/ CARDINAL FUZZ/ CENTRIPETAL FORCE/ 2023
Had this one for a bit and put it back on after moving a bunch of records around. What a great listen! Ash-Ra meets Richard Pinhas-ish soundscapes that trickle and burble into a very agreeable sonic stew. Sharing members with one of my fav groups of recent times, White Manna, these northern California folks can put out a galactic stall with aplomb, and are up there with anyone doing similar stuff these days. Bucolic wanderings mesh with avant-leaning guitar/ piano/ sax workouts really make for an exciting road trip into lands both near and far. A very under-rated gem of a record this is. Give yourself the gift of HEAD LOVE this season and check out some at the link below. If you know, you know. Right?
ALICE COLTRANE/ TRANSFIGURATION/ WARNER BROS/ 1978
One of the more heartening developments in the record reissue game is the continuing presence of Alice Coltrane’s catalog being made available for all to rediscover and reckon with. Various labels have put out studio and live documents from an artist who was deeply misunderstood for decades, partly due to (for good and ill) the John Coltrane legacy and also the fact that her music was seemingly just too far ahead of its time and there needed to be space for it to gather steam and acceptance. Which is pretty well a load of horse shit, because once you engage with it and go for the ride, it’s the most giving and honest music one could ever hope to encounter. This double LP set here, recorded live at Schoenberg Hall at UCLA in 1978, is a trio recording with JC alumni Reggie Workman on bass and legend Roy Haynes on drums. The seven tracks played here hum with interplay and vibrancy on a very deep level and pair well with the recent Impulse issue of the 1971 Carnegie Hall concert released earlier this year. But what really does it for me is the track Prema that’s on the second side here. It’s all amazing stuff on display, but Prema is flat out gonzoid brilliance on its own level. Not actually a true “live” performance, the string section heard was overdubbed on in the studio some time after the concert. I have not many words to write on it, maybe because it is so beautiful and such a rich and awe-inspiring piece of music, that to defile it with too many words is kinda besides the point. Suffice it to say that for me, the whole of history and existence, hope and sadness seems to flow through it. A “blues” track of the highest order. It’s here below to listen to.
MARTIN REV/ TO LIVE/ BUREAU B/ 2003 (REISSUE 2022)
The Martin Rev Bureau B reissue program, which includes this CD, and also the Les Nymphes reissue from around the same time, has been a revelation since I was made aware of it a couple years back. Originally released on File 13 in 2003, the samples and drum machines recall the Suicide album American Supreme released around the same time. It’s very harsh and industrial in tone and imbued with an ever present noir-ish menace. Rev’s muffled and distorted vocals are dreamy/ nightmarish, depending on your mood. The track Gutter Rock has a strange ooze to it, drifting on a nice melody while you watch a building slowly being devoured by flames. There’s a certain distance to this album, on offhand feel that is fun and without the kind of pretentious vibe that mars a lot of electronic/ industrial stuff from this era (and now, to be honest). The wacked out samples, be they guitar or beats, just seem to wander into frame and hover, accented by Marty’s rambling voice, Distorted images of house music/ exotica appear and recede, bubbling and weaving. A kaleidoscope of sorts, burning down an endless road. If you haven’t given Rev’s solo output much attention, reconsider. There’s treasure there.
THE RED KRAYOLA/ THE PARABLE OF ARABLE LAND/ CHARLY 2CD/ 1967 (2011 SONIC BOOM REMIX/ MONO/ STEREO/)
A banging cacophony and using the studio-as-instrument approach to dazzling effect, this one just escaped me forever. I think I even had an original LP of this in the late 90’s and got rid of it ‘cause it was just TOO far gone for me. I picked up this 2CD stereo/mono version here at a record fair a few years back cheap (eh, what the fuck, give it another try eh?). I’ve always been familiar with Spacemen 3/ Sonic’s version of Transparent Radiation as a big S3 head, and for whatever reason, it has now clicked in, BIG TIME. Well, the reason is that I can finally just dig it as it was made, a complete impenetrable and glorious racket of epic proportions, and while melodies/ tunes float up once in awhile (especially WAR SUCKS mantra/raga), this clatter and smear of an album demands to be taken on its own terms. Even for the more “outer” stuff of the same vintage, no one really went this far and said “fuck it, let’s go”. 12 string guitars sound like stoned aircraft and all is shifting/ sinking/ rising and just plain SIZZLING. It sounds like they set fire to the mixing board at some point and just recorded that. So, yeah, if you want a sozzled head fuck of an album, do it. I put it up with albums like Severed Heads’ Since The Accident or John Coltrane’s Live At Olatunji as one-off, sounds-like-nothin-else-on-earth sorta jams that BLOW YOUR FUCKIN MIND. That’s the point right?
JUNIOR KIMBROUGH AND THE SOUL BLUES BOYS/ SAD DAYS LONELY NIGHTS/ FAT POSSUM/ 1998
To continue on with the theme from above sorta, Junior also is his own thing, You are not going to find much music anywhere in this world that sounds anything like his does. Yes, it’s obviously blues based electric music (bass/guitar/drums/vocal) but this is music that takes its time. Unhurried, wide music. Deeply funky moves and unresolved thoughts that drift into the night muttering to it’s own selves and whoever else may be listening. It hits like a good conversation that can float along and liven things up. Living the way we do, things are fast and immaterial, inexorably temporary and then gone. This band can, when they were truly on, impart a kind of vastness on whoever’s antennae are up and receiving. I can’t really say much more, other than to implore you to watch the vid below filmed at Junior’s juke joint in Mississippi in 1993. A kind of magic finds a flame, and lights up.
THE EXORZIST III/ GOSPEL JAMMING VOL 1/ XRZXT/ CARDINAL FUZZ/ 2024
Drew St Ivany played guitar in post/ everything group Laddio Bolocko and the equally unclassifiable Psychic Paramount. Here he is joined by Nick Ferrante on drums and Von Finger on bass guitar. The Exorzist III deal in some of the same variables as the above bands. Willfully throwing themselves into some kind of wild fire (an improv of a sort to these ears), shit gets real very quick on opening track Jabber. The arc is UP UP and UP some more, a high wire act involving a rare riff interplay, both AVANT and PURE rawk (and, make no mistake, this is ROCK MUSIC) and concerned, it seems, with making a racket and scattering melodic fragments and swooping debris everywhere. Heady stuff, and it should be noted that this trio is as PSYCHEDELIC as anything going (mind you, that term is overwrought and losing currency by the second). It’s really a FORWARD MOTION kinda bag that they seem to be in, highly attuned JAMMZ that can strut and pummel with equal aplomb. Get on it and listen. It’s really exciting music that deserves to be heard by MANY people.
Feeling gentle in the summer heat on this day (July 8 2024 to be exact), the mind wanders back on the records (pick your format, I ain’t no snob) one has grown up with. Y’know, the ones that still mean a lot and get headspace and interrogations on a somewhat decent regular basis. For me, it’s maybe a matter of reaching a point in your life where there’s more road behind than ahead, and you just get nostalgic, maybe even just plain wistful. I mean, for me it’s such a private thing and alternately very universal, the feeling you get from songs or albums that for whatever reason, have managed to stand the test of time (for me). The reasons are myriad and draped in memories, but also can erase the passage of time and space. It’s conflicting and hard to explain, as is plainly obvious by this wandering paragraph.
Time and place effect my take on all this, and let me say that most music I used to listen to has not stood the test of time that well. That’s no slur on the artists, it’s all on me. Time does strange things to people, in general, and music and memory being so intertwined and readily exploited by labels/ music commerce entities (for good and ill), well, that’s a whole ‘nother thing to explore but not really what I’m getting at here.
And not to make this an exercise in heavy lidded nostalgia, but I’m also thinking on sounds/ music I have heavily indulged in recently, things and people that have really slapped my melon sideways, in hopefully the best possible way. SO, I think I’ve made not much sense in this bad attempt at preamble, at best just verbally wandering around, flipping through my records/ discs/ tapes/ what have you, and exclaiming to no one in particular HEY THIS SHIT IS FUCKING INSANE, Y’KNOW, THIS OVER HERE, or something somewhat to that effect. Which I think is basically what anyone does who feels moved or excited enough by tunes to throw pen to paper about it. Not to piss in anyone’s face or anything, but that’s my take.
So excuse me while I blurb away, coherence is not much of an issue with this, only a bit of feel, a shaft of light in the late afternoon, a heady glance or two and, if you’re lucky, some glorious moments that go on, reverberate. and maybe come back to visit you from time to time like an old friend, welcoming, probably changed a bit but they’re still making moves in the corner and dancing, like you knew they always would.
Neil Young/ Comes A Time 1978
Prob my fav Neil, all told. I think I got the tape from Mike Luce (a recurring and constant inspiration) in 93/4 ish. Don’t get me wrong I love the high wire explosions and heat of the Horse, top stuff, all the way. This one just has that long lost feel to it, Neil giving his head over to dark thoughts and ruminations. If only for the coda of Goin’ Back, not really a song but more of a shimmer, an afternoon someone dreamed of sometime...
“I feel like goin’ back, back where there’s nowhere to stay”
Those words waft amongst the strings like hallucinated trees talking, an epic accident that they just happened to record. If I’m really honest, this song creeps me the fuck out sometimes, the serenity of it. Folks talk about music being otherworldly sometimes, this is the real deal, absolutely.
Ministry/ Jesus Built My Hot Rod CD single mix 1991
Here we have Al J and co smashing Brad Dourif in John Huston’s adaptation of Flannery O’Conner’s Wiseblood into a mess of drag strip guitars and truly MOTORIK drums, ably screamed over by a barely conscious Gibby Hanes from the Buttholes. Speed and many other drugs make appearances here. I think I got this CD at Sam The Record Man here in Saskatoon in 91. An opus of some kind, that no one asked for. For the chaotic mess, it’s actually quite a graceful song. Psychedelia as imagined by a sentient 18 wheeler burning into eternity.
Carmike/ Comin At Yo Azz 1994
I became aware of this one from its inclusion on the reissue label Now/Again’s 10 LP Memphis Rap comp that came out earlier this year. Couldn’t afford the whole set, but checked out a bunch of the stuff on Youtube. This one fucked me up big time. “Verite” snapshots of the hustler life circa Memphis 94, straight to four track and then sold locally. DJ Paul’s minimal production kills infinite, murked out. If anyone has a problem with tape hiss, tell them to saddle up and fuck off. An absolute classic that’s deserving of its own stand-alone reissh.. Easily one of the best things I stumbled onto in years.