Anthony Braxton - 'Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984' (Black Saint)

Just a year later and we find Marilyn Crispell's piano replacing George Lewis's trombone. And what an incredibly different quartet this is, with just that one change! Of course, this could be attributed to Braxton's compositions, since these six compositions are much tighter and more darkly inflected than 1983's double-pair. At the end of the liner notes, the man thanks the performers for their contributions on this record, with the telling: "After all is plotted and theorized it is still the musicians who must in the final analysis 'make the music live'." My point is, these contrapuntal chord changes, heistations, and slow embarkations into modal melodies can only be written off as improvised to a certain degree. This was recorded in New York so maybe the ugly spectre of mid-80's Reaganism hangs over everything like a cloud. This isn't to say these pieces are miserable or depressing, just not as quirky and bombastic as the band with George Lewis. 'Composition No. 110D', or 'Nickie Journeys into the City of Clouds To Make a Decision' might imply something in its title; of these six pieces, this one straddles the dark and somber tones with some lively, snare-drum accentuated songclouds. Most of these pieces have these very unified moments where the musicians rise and fall together, turning on the same chords in a very regal, march-like manner. Repetition, when used, takes on an almost mind-numbing quality. And Braxton's horn has a much richer reverb on it than what we're used to -- and when he plays flute, it's practically ethereal. Pictorally, the titles are less based on geometric shapes but actually employing weird little icons - a bicycle, a dove, a trapeeze -- and a hooded figure giving a blessing, which also helps with the medieval vibe I get from this. (Just like the robes on the back cover photo of the 1980 piano record!). Side one is actually the slower side, as the last two pieces at the end of side two get into some fairly free-form and dare-I-say "jazz" moments - Hemingway and Lindberg lumber around but can't deny their impulse to swing. Solos are few but nice - Lindberg has a particularly knee-slapping, nervous one that has a pretty nice tinny underbite to it. And we like underbites here. But if this is the second part of a trilogy -- admittedly, not a real trilogy but one that I have invented, where these three album are linked by being a) all quartets, b) all on Black Saint in the mid-80s, and c) all purchased at the same time for £4 each -- then it's fine for the second part to be a bit ponderous.

Bongwater - 'Too Much Sleep' (Shimmy-Disc)

I'm not sure what's up with my bizarro version of Too Much Sleep, as it seems to have a different cover than anything I can find online, and is missing quite a few tracks from what Wikipedia/AllMusic reports. Which means I apparently miss a cover of 'Why Are We Sleeping?' but that's okay since the Slapp Happy tune 'The Drum' remains - probably my favorite of any Bongwater (or even Shockabilly) cover version. As if there was any doubt that these guys were into Blegvad! But they wear it well, cluttering up the lovely chord changes with sampled voices that are totally eerier instead of just superflous. But that's the name of the game with Bongwater. Too Much Sleep is a messy, goofy bundle of singsong flapping about, which has a lot of that Kramer reverb sound and enough double-tracked male-female vocals to totally drive a stake through the corpse of Sonny and Cher. There's a few tunes that have a proto-Chicks on Speed Eurotrash sound, like 'Talent is a Vampire', where Kramer seems to have calculated the right way to throw electric guitar shards in a way that conjures monster truck rallies, MA opening shows, and melting eyeliner. The spacey production occasionally works psychedelic wonders, particularly when keyboard/organ notes swell up and meander around the guitar-based rhythms. Dave Rick, who played in King Missile, shreds all over this record and I wonder if people would revere him the same way they do Alan Licht if he hadn't played in such goofy projects. 'Mr. & Mrs. Hell' is like an American reboot of the Mekons' 'Trouble Down South', and the electronic resonance has it's complement in side 2's 'Khomeni Died Tonight', a bit of Ralphy weirdness if I've ever heard it. 'One so Black', a Dogbowl-penned composition, has a lovely vocal arc and more of Rick's enlightening fretboard scratching. It all ends with the creepy, yet strangely affecting 'No Trespassing'. Overall I think this is Bongwater's most solid album though I can't say I've heard any of the others in recent years. The logo's designed by Gary Panter, who 20 years later has enjoyed a hipster resurgence though those kids probably wouldn't touch a Bongwater record with a 20 foot pole.

Area - 'Crac!' (Cramps)

Is this actually a slight step backwards? I mean, it's awesome for sure, but a bit more restrained compared to the electronic mind-fuckery of it's precedent. The experimentation seems slightly more relegated to the details here; with headphones there's some insane dressing on these salads but not as much meat, y'know? Except for the last song, which is a goofy, lurching stop-start debacle, Crac! is very much a 'prog rock' album. I'm not complaining - I guess Area decided to make Crac! a more "guts" album, and as I listen I can't stop tapping my feet (in 27/9 time) and grooving on it anyway. Demetrio is in fine form, blasting away on the opening track and doing some weird American-accented vocalising on 'La Mela di Odessa (1920)' (which it fits the funk-horn stomp). Ares Tavolazzi's basso elettrico is not just played funkier than before, but it has that somewhat "boingy" quality that you expect from progressive rock. Some of these riffs are epic, and some of the melodies are actually catchy. In "Gioia e Rivoluzione" Area present an actual "pop" song - with acoustic guitar strum, bouncy bassline, and relatively accessibly singing, but I don't think they're selling out - just taking their message of revolution politicalVOCALmusic to a larger audience. So yeah, not my favorite, but bonus points because a 30-year old (perfectly preserved) sticker of the 4xegg cover image fell out of the jacket.

Area - 'Arbeit Macht Frei' (Cramps)

Here's the thing about the Discloated Underbite Spinal Alphabetised Encourager Template: every once in awhile, without realising it, you'll find yourself immersed deep into the Impenetrable Prog Gauntlet. It's hard to see the end of it, since there's so many weird angles and changes, and often a good explorer has been known to disappear in the darkest regions of the IPG, never to be seen again. Even though it's against official Policy, I'm gonna warn you that the last record we looked at (Arbete and Fritid) actually was the secret entrance to one such Gauntlet, which is dominated by a gang of mostly Italians called Area. Area subtitled their name with "international popular group" which was perhaps meant to be ironic. They were stridently political, but I don't understand Italian and I have no idea what it means to be stridently political in Italy, since I just assume that everyone is at least somewhat political. After all, fascists and commies are still fire-bombing each other in the streets every week. Therefore, I'm incapable of dissecting the layers of irony and/or passion captured by the title and artwork. I like to think of Area as "prog as fuck" because they employ many of the concepts that have created our idea of Progressive Rock in the 1970s: jaw-droppingly fast contrapuntal riffs, complex neo-classical song structures, the occasional tendency to go super dorky with flutes, 6-string bass or smooth saxophones, and a willingness to fuck around and break rules. How much the latter concept is explored generally has a direct correlation with how much I like a band, because I'm not really that interested in flashy showmanship. Arbeit Macht Frei has showmaship a-plenty, though there's significantly less investment in the rulebreaking category than their later records. But it's a debut album, and a grand statement for sure. Vocalist Demetrio Statos doesn't overpower the band, though his dramatic opera voice may not be for everyone. This is the only Area record I would put in the same box with commercial prog like Yes and Crimson; there's definite group jamming and heavily affected instrumentation (though the guitar and keyboards, which do have great tones, don't leap away from Western tuning or anything). It's only the last song, 'L'abbattimento dello Zeppelin' that hints at the gradual rejection of rock music that is to follow - the contrabasson gets a little bit more free (perhaps in reference to the title), and the guitar solo sounds like it's off a Wooden Shjips record. Statos's weird mumbling/yelling in the middle is layered over some sparse, surreal free improv and it's just weird, man - til the rock kicks back in, or does it? Open up the gatefold cover and it explains all. A photo of a concentration camp bearing the titular inscription, across from a handgun emblazoned with the Area logo - it's like Marco Ferreri's object from Dillinger e morto going head to toe with the forces of fascism, through the music of Area. Or something. I noticed that the musicians all look very tired in the photo; I guess it's hard work playing that fast and intricately.