Amon Düül II - Kismet

Jason Molina ft. Will Oldham, Alasdair Roberts - 'September 11, 2001'

Read Alasdair’s words behind the recording here: http://bit.ly/jms11_blog

September 11, 2001

Jason Molina ft. Will Oldham, Alasdair Roberts - "September 11, 2001"

Los Angeles, California, US
Genres	Garage rock, psychedelic rock
Years active	1966–1967
It's pretty close to impossible to explain in mere words the greatness of The Human Expression but I'll give it a whack. Most folks were introduced to this great Los Angeles group via their inclusion on garage/psych compilations such as Pebbles, Highs In The Mid 60's and Psychedelic Disaster Whirl, and of course I'm no different. Their records are beyond rare and when they do come up for sale, usually top $2,000 or more these days. I once bid $100 for one of their singles back in 1982 and didn't win the auction. So when it comes to the garage rock "holy grail" The Human Expression are near the top of the list.

The Human Expression were Los Angeles based and issued just 3 45's during their short lifetime (1966-1967.) It is quite possible they acted as support group to Love, The Doors and most probably The Seeds. The Human Expression's lead singer Jim Quarles had all Sky Saxon's moves down and then some. One could actually say he out Sky Saxoned Sky Saxon (if that makes any sense?) 

The Human Expression's absolute peak was their psychedelic free for all "Love At Psychedelic Velocity" which I spoke about on this site a few years back. But their second 45 "Optical Sound" is every bit as potent. Musically the song is the polar opposite of "Velocity" where that track was a non-stop train ride to the sun, "Optical Sound" is a slow, brooding almost menacing number that seemed to describe a bad LSD trip. The guitars sound like they were tuned by Sonic Youth, giving the whole song a disoriented feel somewhere in the direction of My Bloody Valentine meets The Ventures. Actually there was another record by a group Chapter Four called "In My Life" (reviewed on this site recently) that had a very similar guitar sound. 

"Calm Me Down" is more in The Seeds vein, this one starts kinda slow then just erupts in a frenzy with Jim Quarles again sounding like he got a hold of some bad LSD or Speed. The group just drive it home until the listener is just as disoriented as the band. High marks to guitarists Jim Foster and Martin Eshleman for their truly inventive playing. 

The Human Expression issued one final 45 in 1967 that coupled "Sweet Child Of Nothingness" and "I Don't Need Nobody", while this 45 has it's merits, it's not quite up to the standard of the first 2 singles. There was a great compilation of all the group's material "Love At Psychedelic Velocity" (Collectables) issued in 1994, but I'm not sure if it is still available. Finding that would be the most cost effective way of hearing this incredible band. In the liner notes Jim Quarles actually claims the Human Expression were first offered the demo of the Steppenwolf mega-hit "Born To Be Wild" by Mars Bonfire but passed on it. 

I always wondered what would have happened if groups like The Human Expression had the recording freedom afforded big name acts such as The Beatles and Rolling Stones. I guess we'll never know, besides the mystery surrounding these psychedelic unknowns makes their recordings that much more special.

The Human Expression - Calm Me Down(Original Master)

Chew Toy

Vitamin C (Can) Live at The Vortex, London August 2015

For the season of mists and mellow modalness.

I've just uploaded a new Autumn Jazz mix in a similar style to this one: https://soundcloud.com/mark-wayward/when-there-is-no-sun-autumn-mix

It Ain’t Necessarily So - Mary Lou Williams
Modal Forces - Fritz Pauer
Blue Mosque - Ian Carr and Don Rendell
Eboness - Yusef Lateef
Del's Theme - George Braith
I Miei Recordi - Marco Di Marco
Communion – James Tatum
The Devil is a Woman – Ada Moore
Flamenco Sketches – Frank Minion
Alex The Great – Harold Mabern
Tell Me a Bedtime Story – Herbie Hancock
Amalgam – Dudley Moore Trio
Jeansy – Novi Singers
Just a Little Lovin’ – Sarah Vaughan

Mostly Modal

Le Tiki Lounge / Exotic Cocktail Bar
26 bis, rue de la Fontaine au Roi 75011 Paris 
T. 01.55.28.57.72 / mar - sam : 18:00 > 02:00

http://tiki-lounge.fr/

*

teo usuelli - piacere sequence

Can 3CD Box Set - 'The Lost Tapes' released on Mute on 18 June (Europe) /June 19 (US)

PRE-ORDER NOW: http://bit.ly/can-thelosttapes
US: http://amzn.to/Jdnvds

For more information sign up here: mad.ly/signups/50703/join

Limited edition 10" square, old fashioned tape box style packaging with 24 page 10" booklet.

Includes exclusive sleeve notes by Irmin Schmidt and Ian Harrison.

The Lost Tapes is a 3 CD set of unreleased tracks, they are an opportunity to hear unreleased material, brand new tracks as if you were there, from the halcyon days, not outtakes.

The tracks cover the period from 1968 through to 1977 and were compiled by Irmin Schmidt and Daniel Miller.
The album features studio material recorded at Schloss Nörvenich and Can Studio, Weilerswist with the Can line up of Holger Czukay on bass, Michael Karoli on guitars, Jaki Liebezeit on drums and Irmin Schmidt on keyboards, and on most tracks, vocals from Malcolm Mooney or Damo Suzuki.

Irmin Schmidt explains "Obviously the tapes weren't really lost, but were left in the cupboards of the studio archives for so long everybody just forgot about them. Everybody except Hildegard, who watches over Can and its work like the dragon over the gold of the Nibelungen and doesn't allow forgetting."

Official Store

CAN - A Swan Is Born

Robbie Basho - Joseph

Hexvessel - A Letter In Birch Bark, from the album No Holier Temple 
Released September 7th 2012 via Svart Records

Music and lyrics by Mat McNerney, arranged by Hexvessel
http://www.hexvessel.com
http://www.svartrecords.com

Hexvessel - A Letter In Birch Bark

McCoy Tyner's "Contemplation" performed on my CalArts MFA jazz drums graduation recital on 2-2-13.

Drums: Sean Fitzpatrick
Bass: Emilio Terranova
Guitar: Nahum Zdybel
Piano: Steven Blum

Recording mixed by Sean Fitzpatrick

Amon Düül II - Kismet

Mishelljazzz