dance and move that body

2015 April 29

soft machine

Soft Machine

noi2

Prog

Oblique Satellites

Soft Machine - Esther's Nose Job

Soft Machine - Mousetrap Noisette Backwards Mousetrap Reprise

This song is all about melancholy, expressed through melody. The personal memories attached to this song are just as bittersweet, although they represent a positive experience overall.

Soft Machine - Memories

Tom Waits - Romeo is Bleeding

Soft Machine were one of the greatest UK avant/jazz-rock bands of all time and their work continues to be name-checked by today's hip experimentalists. 

Released for the very first time here is the Soft Machine's television broadcast, recorded for Germany's famous "NDR Jazz Workshop" on May 17, 1973. This performance was one of the earliest shows by the quartet of Roy Babbington (electric bass), Karl Jenkins (oboe, baritone sax, soprano sax, electric piano), John Marshall (drums) and Mike Ratledge (electric piano, organ). This was a very high profile appearance by the group and for this performance Soft Machine made it a special show. They performed a set of their repertoire in their quartet format and then for the second set they were augmented by two guests: guitarist Gary Boyle (who had just started Isotope) and saxist Art Themen. This addition brings an exciting & different sound to the repertoire and make this more than 'just another live release'. Additionally, Hugh Hopper had just left the group, but he makes an guest appearance performing 1983; the only known live version of this composition. This long sought-after performance has never been seen since its original broadcast over 35 years ago.

Soft Machine, "Stanley Stamp's Gibbon Album" from NDR Jazz Workshop: Hamburg, Germany, May 17, 1973

Soft Machine were one of the greatest UK avant/jazz-rock bands of all time and their work, whether their earliest performances as a psychedelic band, who were contemporaries of, and shared stages with Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, all the way to being one of Europe's best known 'fusion' bands, their work continues to be name-checked by today's hip experimentalists.

By mid 1973, Soft Machine had gone through a tremendous amount of personnel turnover and a shifting in their sound over the previous year. The band now consisted of founding member Mike Ratledge (electric piano, synthesizer), Karls Jenkins (electric piano, piano, sax, oboe), Roy Babbington (electric bass) and John Marshall (drums and percussion). Having already collaborated with a guitarist, Gary Boyle (as documented on NDR Jazz Workshop), upon meeting guitarist Allan Holdsworth, then in the early stages of his professional career, in November, the group invited him to join the band, which he did, becoming the first guitarist to join the band in over 5 years!

With the addition of a musician of Holdsworth's prowess,  Soft Machine decided to take a fresh start and develop material that would feature their virtuosic new addition in a fitting manner. Jenkins and Ratledge composed a whole new repertoire which was road-tested on extensive tours of North America and continental Europe in the first half of 1974 and which would ultimately make up the Bundles album, widely acknowledged as a jazz-fusion classic alongside the best exponents of the genre worldwide.

On July 4, 1974, Soft Machine were invited to perform at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, sharing the spotlight with such headliners as Billy Cobham’s Spectrum, Larry Coryell’s Eleventh House and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. This alone was evidence of the band being a dominant presence on the now widely popular jazz-rock scene, which had evolved out of the unique and edgy sound that the band had pioneered a few years before. Switzerland 1974 is this performance, captured just a couple of weeks before the studio sessions for Bundles. The hour-long set is the only available visual document of the Ratledge-Marshall-Jenkins-Babbington-Holdsworth  line-up, and it includes live versions of the entire album, most notably the classic “Hazard Profile” suite, augmented with individual showcases for each member as well as a collective improvisation and brief snippets from Six and Seven. As well as retracing Soft Machine’s transformation into one of the leading exponents of jazz-fusion, it provides a rare chance to witness the genesis of Allan Holdsworth’s unique, innovative and unbelievably fluid and dexterous playing, before he went on to universal acclaim with Tony Williams’ New Lifetime, the prog-rock ‘supergroup’ U.K., Jean-Luc Ponty, Bill Bruford and ultimately his own electric fusion groups.

Caveat: Due to the age of these tapes and how they had been previously mixed, edited, used, and stored, there were multiple visual and audio sources of this show in varying lengths, each with their own flaws. While significant flaws could not be completely eliminated, very special thanks are due to our engineers Doug Moon and Udi Koomran, who worked from these multiple copies in order to make the final result as good as it can possibly be. This was deemed the best available option in light of this document’s archival/historical importance.

Soft Machine, "Hazard Profile" (excerpt) from 'Switzerland 1974' (Cuneiform Records)

The project results of an enquiry into several fields of research encompassing D.I.Y electronic, electromagnetic and audio feedback processing, sonic improvisation and cybernetics. A study of the threefold relation existing between signal to noise, light to audio, causality to accidents pervades the research. A homebuilt CMOS circuit with light dependent resistors and a CCTV monitor are assembled to simulate an artificial organism. The noise of the CCTV 's power supply is amplified, passing through an envelope generator and routed into the monitor 's video channel, giving rise to a transient pulse. The electron gun of the monitor is fired by a feedback loop converting the electromagnetic pulse into an audio signal sending the electrons impacting the screen. A CMOS oscillator directs its signal to a second video channel causing the frequencies to self-oscillate. The CMOS is a physical effector, identical to the reflex arc of a simple organism. Sensing the stimuli at the membrane, it outputs a series of fluctuating square waves. Composing with the electron flow initiates a collaboration with the flux of matter, stochastic frequencies deployed on a circular track.

more: http://flux-agency.tumblr.com/post/108692096471/the-electron-gun-theatre-the-project-results-of

Electron Gun Theatre

From Empty Airport, out now on Editions Mego

Chra - Abandoned House

"Beautifully crafted instrumental music of the highest standard."
– Postcards From The Yellow Room

"Guapo take classic prog tropes and revivify them...brazenly and gloriously, it brandishes all the hallmarks of golden-era prog rock, but given a steroid boost and stripped of ego."
– The Quietus

"The foursome's sound is fashioned from coordinated chaos, discordant harmony, stimulating but dark auditory shades and graphic musical de-construction."
– Audiophile Audition

"...continues the upward trajectory of development for the band...this is a killer of a progressive work..."
– DPRP

"[Guapo] are conversant with the complex language of R.I.O...their trick is to add an urgent, assertive rock dynamic, which wrests their knotty harmonies and shifting time signatures from the sphere of contemporary classical chamber music towards something direct and gutsy."
– Prog

Celebrating 20 years in the game, the much-admired instrumental, experimental rock band Guapo are celebrating by releasing ‘Obscure Knowledge’, their explosive new album and tenth release!

The group started their life as a heavy bass/drums duo playing post-hardcore, noisy rock, but in the two decades since, they have expanded their instrumentation and their stylistic references to become one of Europe's most highly respected 'muscular and modern' experimental/progressive rock bands. 

Centered around founding member and extraordinary drummer David J. Smith, the group on the album also features three additional heavy-weights of British experimental rock: 

Kavus Torabi-guitar (also of Knifeworld, Cardiacs, Gong)
Emmett Elvin-keyboards (also of Chrome Hoof, Knifeworld)
James Sedwards-bass (also of Thurston Moore Band, Chrome Hoof)

The album's 43 minute long track is a dynamic, fluid beast that takes the listener on a scenic journey through loud New York minimalism, celestial drones, avant rock, kosmiche-noise, rockin' riffs and way beyond.
 
Smith, who is also a sculptor as well as drummer, looks after the aesthetic considerations of Guapo and is keen to provide a backstory for their albums. Smith explains: "The title of the piece of music and album is derived from the psychoactive rituals of various Native American people who are said to 'tap into obscure knowledge' when performing certain rituals and rites of passage." 

Guapo, "Obscure Knowledge I" [Radio edit] from 'Obscure Knowledge' (Cuneiform Records)

"Mazurek and company channel electric Miles, Sun Ra, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago to make a recording that is cosmic, spiritual, raw, and powerful."
– Avant Music News

“Inspired by years of living in Brazil, Chicago cornet player Rob Mazurek ... mixes jazz fusion influenced by Miles Davis’s early 70s output with Brazilian Tropicalia and electronica. The result is a psychedelic, spacey, multi-layered electro-acoustic trip; epic and, at times, intense and scary."
– The Jazz Breakfast

"I thought the whole band was exceptional. Very shocking, actually, to see how well they absorbed all of that Sun Ra influence and went on to do their own thing...they've absorbed all the things that are relevant so they can take all of that and make their own statement...they sound great to me."
– Amiri Baraka after hearing the music on Disc 1

Composer, cornetist, electronic & acoustic sound specialist and musical director Rob Mazurek leads his largest regular ensemble, the Exploding Star Orchestra through one of his most ambitious recordings.

While ‘Galactic Parables: Volume 1’ is a self-contained cosmos, marked by colliding melodic lines and startlingly beautiful passages, as the title indicates, it’s part of a larger work. Ever since Exploding Star Orchestra’s debut recording, Mazurek has been gradually building an epic science fiction opera inspired by the writings of Samuel R. Delany and Stanislaw Lem. With ‘Galactic Parables’ his vast speculative realm is coming more clearly into focus with an apocalyptic vision of alternate universes, machine reproduction run amuck, and the colonization of distant planets. ‘Galactic Parables’ “is the first record where we’re getting close to hitting on the libretto for this future opera,” says Mazurek, who by both inclination and geography is linked to a constellation of Chicago avant-garde pioneers.

Ultimately what makes the record so enthralling on both the flight into the cosmos and the return journey is that the Exploding Star Orchestra brings together a creatively charged cast of improvisers:

Rob Mazurek - cornet, electronics, direction (I/II)
Damon Locks - text, voice, electronics (I/II)
Angelica Sanchez - piano (I/II)
Jeff Parker - guitar (I/II)
John Herndon - drums (I/II)
Matthew Lux - electric bass (I/II)
Matthew Bauder - tenor sax, clarinet (I/II)
Chad Taylor - drums (I)
Guilherme Ganado - keyboard, samplers, synth, voice (I)
Mauricio Takara - cavaquinho, electronics, percussion (I)
Nicole Mitchell - flutes, voice (II)

All of these musicians have performed and recorded together under Mazurek’s leadership in various ensembles and configurations. In many ways, Exploding Star Orchestra is the mothership, the “conceptual, compositional and philosophical center of all my work.” Mazurek says. 
The band came together in 2005 when the Chicago Cultural Center and the Jazz Institute commissioned Mazurek to create a vehicle that could encompass the disparate styles and ideologies of avant-garde music unfolding in Chicago. Conceived as a one-off event, Exploding Star took on a life of its own, and has continued to evolve reflecting the transient nature of musicians’ lives. Each subsequent Exploding Star Orchestra project has featured an evolving cast of players. ‘Galactic Parables’ brings Mazurek one giant step closer to realizing his oversized vision.

The universe is a very big place. Rob Mazurek is doing his part to fill it with glorious sound. 


Rob Mazurek / Exploding Star Orchestra, "The Arc Of Slavery #72" from 'Galactic Parables: Volume 1'

Spaced is previously unreleased studio recordings recorded in early/mid 1969 by the "classic" Soft Machine trio line-up of Hugh Hopper [bass], Mike Ratledge [electric piano/organ] and Robert Wyatt [drums]. These heavily manipulated/ looped/etc. recordings were originally presented as the backdrop to a multi-media work entitled Spaced. After it's week-long performance, the tapes were forgotten for over two decades until rediscovered by Mike King. These recordings feature the band at their most radical, and while they would never again use the studio in such an extreme fashion, the work done here definitely influenced later works such as Third and Hugh's 1984.

Soft Machine, "Spaced Two" from 'Spaced' (Cuneiform Records)

Live Recordings over the years by SI. Song written by Soft Machine (1970) performed in 2007 by Satisfaction Injection.

Soft Machine - Slightly All The Time - Live version by SI

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Le Rex, "Le Clic" from 'Wild Man' (Cuneiform Records)

Far too many groups are described using the words "nobody sounds like them," but with Switzerland's Sonar, it's a description of rare verisimilitude. At a time when most guitarists' acumen is measured in notes per second, Sonar is, instead, the confluence of rigorously considered writing, collective restraint, and a sound instantly recognizable as much for what is not there as for what is. A musical animal that manages to engage the mind while hitting the heart and the feet (despite its disposition towards complex polyrhythms), to call SONAR "instrumental rock" is unfairly reductionist for a group whose purview extends beyond progressive rock into contemporary classicism...certainly minimalism...a subtle taste of jazz...and, on its latest album, Black Light, perhaps even a hint of surf music described by the group's primary composer, guitarist Stephan Thelen, as "Duane Eddy Meets Jackson Pollock."

Thelen may cite King Crimson, the compositional rigour of Nik Bärtsch, and minimalist composer Steve Reich amongst SONAR's more obvious touchstones but, just as its previous albums did, Black Light manages to come out of the gate sounding like none of them. An integrated team of players who place music ahead of ego, guitarists Thelen and Bernhard Wagner relentlessly eschew flashy gymnastics and even largely avoid the usual arsenal of effects beyond a touch of reverb and a bit of distortion; Christian Kuntner is a lithe, dancing and eminently intuitive bassist while, at the same time, providing a potently visceral foundation; and Manuel Pasquinelli accomplishes the seemingly impossible feat of simultaneously delivering multiple rhythms in real time.

Black Light also represents the first time Sonar has recorded with an outside producer in tow. And what a producer: David Bottrill, whose work as a producer and/or engineer, in addition to Crimson, Peter Gabriel and Tool, also includes time spent with Rush, Smashing Pumpkins and Dream Theater. "The music is at once simple and complex," Bottrill writes at his website, "polyrhythms over melodies over thunderous bass and a drummer who can seem to split his own body in half to play in two or more different meters at once." Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, Black Light is as in-the-moment as it gets and is a perfect representation of this band and what this band does!

SONAR, "Black Light" from 'Black Light' (Cuneiform Records)

STEVEN STAPLETON & CHRISTOPH HEEMANN - Painting With Priests (Excerpts)

Time to check out the incredible Tawny Owl and the Birds of Prey and their set at The Soft Machine! Playing as a 3-piece these guys were absolutely seminal. We've been trying to book these guys for months and months and they finally came down! Be sure to stay tuned to our facebook page for when their new album is released!

Check out their myspace here; http://www.myspace.com/tawnyowlband

And be sure to "like" them on Facebook for further updates here; http://www.facebook.com/Tawnyowlandthebirdsofprey

Tawny Owl and the Birds of Prey @ The Soft Machine 01.11.11

The second album by the amazing samplerdelic trio of Xentos “Fray” Bentos, Lepke B., and Bongo Bongo Barrow. Includes the classic “America's Burning” and the epic title track. More of a live sound than “Stadium Death” and it took about a quarter of the time to record. Usual enigmatic and odd artwork. Usual odd lyrics, a lot of strangulated vocals, plenty of references for audio nerds but plenty of genuinely new and off-the-wall musicality for novices to sink their teeth into too.

released 01 September 2000

Die Trip Computer Die - America's Burning

Cuneiform Records is an independent record label releasing adventurous, boundary-bursting music by artists from around the world. Founded in 1984.