Something was definitely in the air in the late 70s, as the end of the decade saw Sun Ra turning out some of the mellowest, and certainly the funkiest jams of his storied career. And although you can't really go wrong with any of the band's output during this period, there are a few albums that rise to the top. Lanquidity, featured some time ago here at the Heat Warps, is one of them. Strange Celestial Road is another. Riding the dark sludgy grooves that propelled Lanquidity to remarkable depths, Strange Celestial Road comes off like a dusty, inexplicably exuberant big band record from the future. Sun Ra's heavily effected electric piano is definitely the focal point here, and while he pulls miles of wild sounds from his machine (at times mimicking the whirr of a dentist's drill to extraordinary effect), none of the album's three tracks skitter off into mayhem as they so easily could. Rather, a skeletal groove threads throughout the proceedings, ultimately tightening the reins and pulling the players, as well as the listener, back to the slow churn of its funky core. A heady affair if there ever was one.
Showing posts with label Synthesizers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Synthesizers. Show all posts
Friday
Sun Ra
Strange Celestial Road - 1979
Something was definitely in the air in the late 70s, as the end of the decade saw Sun Ra turning out some of the mellowest, and certainly the funkiest jams of his storied career. And although you can't really go wrong with any of the band's output during this period, there are a few albums that rise to the top. Lanquidity, featured some time ago here at the Heat Warps, is one of them. Strange Celestial Road is another. Riding the dark sludgy grooves that propelled Lanquidity to remarkable depths, Strange Celestial Road comes off like a dusty, inexplicably exuberant big band record from the future. Sun Ra's heavily effected electric piano is definitely the focal point here, and while he pulls miles of wild sounds from his machine (at times mimicking the whirr of a dentist's drill to extraordinary effect), none of the album's three tracks skitter off into mayhem as they so easily could. Rather, a skeletal groove threads throughout the proceedings, ultimately tightening the reins and pulling the players, as well as the listener, back to the slow churn of its funky core. A heady affair if there ever was one.
Something was definitely in the air in the late 70s, as the end of the decade saw Sun Ra turning out some of the mellowest, and certainly the funkiest jams of his storied career. And although you can't really go wrong with any of the band's output during this period, there are a few albums that rise to the top. Lanquidity, featured some time ago here at the Heat Warps, is one of them. Strange Celestial Road is another. Riding the dark sludgy grooves that propelled Lanquidity to remarkable depths, Strange Celestial Road comes off like a dusty, inexplicably exuberant big band record from the future. Sun Ra's heavily effected electric piano is definitely the focal point here, and while he pulls miles of wild sounds from his machine (at times mimicking the whirr of a dentist's drill to extraordinary effect), none of the album's three tracks skitter off into mayhem as they so easily could. Rather, a skeletal groove threads throughout the proceedings, ultimately tightening the reins and pulling the players, as well as the listener, back to the slow churn of its funky core. A heady affair if there ever was one.
Tuesday
Herbie Hancock
Thrust - 1974
Following a period of intense exploration throughout the early 1970s, Herbie Hancock felt it was time to cut the fuss and drop the funk. And drop it, he did. With his massively successful 1973 Headhunters LP all but solidifying the genre of jazz-funk, it's truly amazing how its follow up has been left in the shadows for so long - especially when considering that Thrust may be the better album! The most notable difference from its predecessor is in the tighter, more complex drumming of Mike Clark, who had recently replaced Harvey Mason in the band's lineup. If you've heard anything from Thrust, it's likely to be Clark's frequently-copped groove that opens the album. And with that, the tone is set. Hancock's keyboard work is typically incredible - taking the wah'd clavinet and the ARP synth to greater depths than on any of his early 70s LPs - while Bennie Maupin fills out the low end with the bass clarinet that is a cornerstone of fusion in its own right (just check out the man's discography for heaven's sake!). While Headhunters may contain "Chameleon", Thrust lays claim to everything else. A magnificent LP from end to end.
Following a period of intense exploration throughout the early 1970s, Herbie Hancock felt it was time to cut the fuss and drop the funk. And drop it, he did. With his massively successful 1973 Headhunters LP all but solidifying the genre of jazz-funk, it's truly amazing how its follow up has been left in the shadows for so long - especially when considering that Thrust may be the better album! The most notable difference from its predecessor is in the tighter, more complex drumming of Mike Clark, who had recently replaced Harvey Mason in the band's lineup. If you've heard anything from Thrust, it's likely to be Clark's frequently-copped groove that opens the album. And with that, the tone is set. Hancock's keyboard work is typically incredible - taking the wah'd clavinet and the ARP synth to greater depths than on any of his early 70s LPs - while Bennie Maupin fills out the low end with the bass clarinet that is a cornerstone of fusion in its own right (just check out the man's discography for heaven's sake!). While Headhunters may contain "Chameleon", Thrust lays claim to everything else. A magnificent LP from end to end.Weather Report
Live in Tokyo 1972
While Weather Report were tight, focused and (at times) overly sick on their studio LPs, they were a completely different animal in a live setting. On stage, the band's focus turned from creating a singular, rigidly structured organism to allowing the members to stretch out on their own terms. And stretch out, they did. As expected, Joe Zawinul is tremendous, effortlessly switching from acoustic piano to heavily modulated Rhodes, often sounding like multiple keyboardists at once. However Miroslav Vitous and Eric Gravatt really come into their own here; managing to hold down the groove while tearing off into their own direction throughout. A truly captivating album and one of Weather Report's finest, hands down.
While Weather Report were tight, focused and (at times) overly sick on their studio LPs, they were a completely different animal in a live setting. On stage, the band's focus turned from creating a singular, rigidly structured organism to allowing the members to stretch out on their own terms. And stretch out, they did. As expected, Joe Zawinul is tremendous, effortlessly switching from acoustic piano to heavily modulated Wednesday
Herbie Hancock
Crossings - 1971
A couple of years before he emerged as one of the most commercially successful fusion artists of the 1970s, Herbie Hancock was deeply entrenched in creating albums that took electronic music to soaring heights and stretched improvisation to its limits. The second in a trilogy of LPs that included Mwandishi and Sextant, Crossings benefits from incorporating the elements that defined what was so unique about both of these; the solid, proto-funk grooves of the former and the far out synth-based, skeletal rhythms of the latter. Comprised of a mere three tracks, the first of which is a 24-minute, 3-part suite, this is avant-garde funk at its finest, performed by a crew of musicians that all but defined the genre. Very weird, precisely executed and extremely rewarding.
A couple of years before he emerged as one of the most commercially successful fusion artists of the 1970s, Herbie Hancock was deeply entrenched in creating albums that took electronic music to soaring heights and stretched improvisation to its limits. The second in a trilogy of LPs that included Mwandishi and Sextant, Crossings benefits from incorporating the elements that defined what was so unique about both of these; the solid, proto-funk grooves of the former and the far out synth-based, skeletal rhythms of the latter. Comprised of a mere three tracks, the first of which is a 24-minute, 3-part suite, this is avant-garde funk at its finest, performed by a crew of musicians that all but defined the genre. Very weird, precisely executed and extremely rewarding.Tuesday
Sun Ra
Lanquidity - 1978
For those who've always wanted to explore Sun Ra, but found him a bit heavy, heady or just plain hard to get into (guilty as charged), Lanquidity is a godsend. This dark, murky blend of slow funk grooves, dense orchestration and Sun Ra's delicately wild Fender Rhodes loosely groups this LP with Miles Davis' early 70s albums, albeit if they were turned down to about half speed. Here are some excerpts from Matthew Wuethrich's great All About Jazz article on this album.
For those who've always wanted to explore Sun Ra, but found him a bit heavy, heady or just plain hard to get into (guilty as charged), Lanquidity is a godsend. This dark, murky blend of slow funk grooves, dense orchestration and Sun Ra's delicately wild Fender Rhodes loosely groups this LP with Miles Davis' early 70s albums, albeit if they were turned down to about half speed. Here are some excerpts from Matthew Wuethrich's great All About Jazz article on this album. "You feel as if this music should go down easy, but the candy coating turns out to be a sticky, unescapable molasses."
"This funk-stuck-in-slow-motion points to an uncomfortable dread waiting below the surface."
"...the lumbering grooves at first seduce with their simplicity, then intoxicate with their richness, until finally the darker sound textures overtake you and drop you in a place you had not imagined before."
Monday
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk 1 & 2 - 1970/1971
Having never seen an official release on CD, the first two Kraftwerk LPs have attained legendary status due to their unavailability. That, and the fact that music itself isn't half bad either. Klaus Dinger (later of Neu!) provides the trippy, motororic drumming that forms the slippery backbone of the first LP, while the second reveals the band exploring the possibilities of keyboards and electronic percussion in detail. Given that the band's human drummers were gone by this point, such a shift was already in the wind, but it's the enthusiastic experimentation with drum machines and their possibilities that makes Kraftwerk 2 noteworthy.
Much different from the "classic" Kraftwerk sound in the lack of vocals and the way in which the steady beats are sometimes slowed up, down, or destroyed entirely, these two LPs illustrate the band's bold struggle to rid itself of all elements associated with rock music and its successes and failures in attempting to do so. The band has since "disowned" these two LPs, and refuses to acknowledge their existence as part of its discography.
Links re-upped on 9.6.07
Having never seen an official release on CD, the first two Kraftwerk LPs have attained legendary status due to their unavailability. That, and the fact that music itself isn't half bad either. Klaus Dinger (later of Neu!) provides the trippy, motororic drumming that forms the slippery backbone of the first LP, while the second reveals the band exploring the possibilities of keyboards and electronic percussion in detail. Given that the band's human drummers were gone by this point, such a shift was already in the wind, but it's the enthusiastic experimentation with drum machines and their possibilities that makes Kraftwerk 2 noteworthy.
Much different from the "classic" Kraftwerk sound in the lack of vocals and the way in which the steady beats are sometimes slowed up, down, or destroyed entirely, these two LPs illustrate the band's bold struggle to rid itself of all elements associated with rock music and its successes and failures in attempting to do so. The band has since "disowned" these two LPs, and refuses to acknowledge their existence as part of its discography.Links re-upped on 9.6.07
Herbie Hancock
Fat Albert Rotunda - 1969
Centered around his soundtrack for Bill Cosby's cartoon show, Herbie Hancock dropped his first slice of jazz-funk with Fat Albert Rotunda. Resembling the fusion work Miles Davis was creating around the same time (not surprisingly, since Hancock had just left Davis' group months before recording this album) Fat Albert Rotunda doesn't feature the super-heavy funk that would become his trademark on album's like Headhunters and Thrust, but carries more of a Sly Stone inspired, late-60s R&B bend. The songs and the grooves are solid throughout, and Hancock's Fender Rhodes work is incredibly focused and unadorned with the mountains of effects he would apply to great use throughout the rest of his career.
Mwandishi - 1971
Recorded in one New Year's Eve session in 1970, Mwandishi is the point at which Herbie Hancock's music really took off into outer space. Layered with reverb, stereo tremelo (get out yer headphones for this one) and Echoplex, Hancock's keyboard work is simply otherworldly. The album carries over much of the funk that dominated Fat Albert Rotunda, but the songs (there are only three of them here) are stretched to over 10, 13 and 20 minutes through the sonic experimentation of this great electric sextet. The similarities to Miles Davis' Bitches Brew LP are made even more apparent through the ominous bass clarinet work of Bennie Maupin, who lended that album much of its dark, haunting appeal and provides much of the same here.
Centered around his soundtrack for Bill Cosby's cartoon show, Herbie Hancock dropped his first slice of jazz-funk with Fat Albert Rotunda. Resembling the fusion work Miles Davis was creating around the same time (not surprisingly, since Hancock had just left Davis' group months before recording this album) Fat Albert Rotunda doesn't feature the super-heavy funk that would become his trademark on album's like Headhunters and Thrust, but carries more of a Sly Stone inspired, late-60s R&B bend. The songs and the grooves are solid throughout, and Hancock's Fender Rhodes work is incredibly focused and unadorned with the mountains of effects he would apply to great use throughout the rest of his career.Mwandishi - 1971
Recorded in one New Year's Eve session in 1970, Mwandishi is the point at which Herbie Hancock's music really took off into outer space. Layered with reverb, stereo tremelo (get out yer headphones for this one) and Echoplex, Hancock's keyboard work is simply otherworldly. The album carries over much of the funk that dominated Fat Albert Rotunda, but the songs (there are only three of them here) are stretched to over 10, 13 and 20 minutes through the sonic experimentation of this great electric sextet. The similarities to Miles Davis' Bitches Brew LP are made even more apparent through the ominous bass clarinet work of Bennie Maupin, who lended that album much of its dark, haunting appeal and provides much of the same here.
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