Veteran war photographer Stanley Greene passed recently. He made a permanent impression on me with his stark & bracing book Open Wound-Chechnya 1994 to 2003 (Trolley). Heavy shit. His photojournalism for this effort was also joined by writings from Andre Glucksmann & Christian Caujolle. It’s the only large scale photographic work I managed to determine/obtain on Chechnya’s wars (there may well be more in print now that escape my knowledge?). About two thirds of the book is in monochrome, presumably a prism that Greene felt was apt (& you can see why). Continue reading Stanley Greene 1949-2017:→
You know this cat right? I don’t even need to tell you? John Abercrombie was one helluva’ guitarist & band leader. during the 70’s, Abercrombie began to lead the exceptional Gateway trio with Dave Holland on double-bass & Jack Dejohnette shedding splinters. This culminated in two brilliant albums – 75’s Gateway & 78’s Gateway 2. They were both preceded by Timeless from 74, which encompassed Jan Hammer on keys rather than Holland. The overture track on Timeless, “Lungs”, has a ferocious tempo prompting Jack to expel some of the fastest Turbo Swing you will hear him dispense in his career (perhaps being rivaled only by his “Song X” LP with Ornette Coleman & Pat Metheny from 85). It also features a fantastic gracile exchange between John & Jan, all whilst belting through a cloud scape at terminal velocity. Continue reading John Abercrombie 1944-2017:→
the enclosed space made the livid licentious lashing an even bigger stiletto in tha spuds!!!
Sometimes, a brisk jog results in a cross-bow bolt in the testicles! Last Thursday had them streaking like lightening quarrels with casualties a plenty. At the Flaxonptootch, a very fine venue with more personality & unorthodox cred than ya’ average, London based four-piece goon gang Starsha Lee disembogued a schema of Grunge, Rock, Punk & Metal melange bound together with a decent smattering of distortion clog. The icing on the road-kill is really the vocalist & front-woman – a tornado of chattering, utterly exasperated, rapid high-pitched shriek that are both hilarious & perturbing. Continue reading Starsha Lee – live at Flaxonptootch:→
Last month 2015 (huh?). c-c-celebrated savant & seasoned Free/Avant Jazz colossus Roscoe Mitchell (acting here as a performer, composer, conductor, situational stimulant, protagonist placement, conceptualist) leads an inimitable cabal of barely plausible super-cretins into mythic metamorph & medley. the occasion? The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (that’s AACM to you cuddles) 50th anniversary. Location – Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, basement stage & exhibition area (so three totally separate & varying performances, captured here on two discs). The label – ECM Records…. Continue reading Roscoe Mitchell-Bells for the South Side:→
Nabeg, infra-surface at the “sedition station”. the line-up includes members from Bollock Swine, Drog-Ded, Din Addict, Law Facilitates Crime, Hyper Marx, Ariel Sharon’s Head in an Industrial Press, Chappa’ai & Pseudoku but rejects all Grind/Noisecore formulaics & formalities.
Budapest/Hungary fall 2015, industrial district, hypogeal quarters (“sedition station”), nemesis pariah sage Kikanju Baku & a rogue-cell of Anti-Listener enthusiasts/stentorians are gathered on the cusp of a seismically dramatic, irreversible eruption & parturition that is about to be realized in retaliation to institutionized injustice, mega-malfeasance, hyper-hypocrisy, deliberate degeneracy, rampant nonchalant corporate, fiscal & political criminality/financialization/misrule/usury, automation, technological encroachment & dehumanization, truth-impairment, anthropocentrism & catastrophe-consignment (particularly as perpetrated by the Western World). A radical rebuke/repudiation/retaliatory-reflex to explicitly inveigh “economic growth” & “development” along with Globalization, called-out for the fucking mega disaster/super-nadir that it is. Continue reading Nabeg – Apoplexy, Flensecore, Fray, Riot-Gear & the Enclave for Aberrational Expostulation:→
Ok, so major news delivered by belated trajectory! In 2015, the historic Industrial-Noise-Electronics savant Illusion Of Safety was permanently dissolved by it’s core exponent – Dan Burke! that’s over thirty years of dedicated, proliferous morphism, sleight-of-sound & profundity rolled into the casket…without adequate explanation (I could not extract any cogent/definitive reason for this drastic decision from the man himself). I am unaware of the precise timing Continue reading Exit the Illusionist:→
Exit an extrovert! A little more quietly than I would of liked, Alphonse Mouzon drop-kicked the bucket the other day. Mouzon was one of the best & most quintessential of the 70’s “Power Drummers” who vied for the Fusion throne with peers Michael Nerada Walden, Billy Cobham & Tony Williams. He played with Fusion mega-group of sorts Eleventh House along with electric guitarist Larry Coryell, a patchy as fuck but occasionally excellent & exhilarating collective that seem to be both simultaneously Continue reading Mou Mac:→
it’s always interesting to see & compare how well-to-do boroughs/districts of London deal with things differently from the more deprived ones. rolling back through effing Kensington late-night from the shisha-shack with my mad Iranian soul mate Roya The Destroyer, we come across – *ghasp* AN ABANDONED CUSHEON!!! some official has got over-excited & posted a “Environmental Crime Scene” sticker on the cushion Continue reading of dice & death-traps (demagogue at door-nob)→
