To further my understanding of Jazz, I'm listening through Jazzwise Magazine's "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World". Each album is presented with my stream-of-consciousness thoughts for each track, my general thoughts of the album as a whole, and any relevant information I can capture about the album. Also included is my drink of choice while taking the album in. Thank you for joining me on my journey to [partial] Jazz enlightenment.
Album 91
The Music Improvisation Company - The Music Improvisation Company
Drinking: Yorkshire Gold Tea
- "Third Stream Boogaloo": I immediately realize I might be in some trouble as this whole track sounds like a group warming up though a volume pedal. It's atmospheric while also very weird, but it's cool to hear a guitar utilized in a new way. The track comes crashing into a cacophonous ending, like a group of animals escaping a forest fire.
- "Dragon Path": Coming in just shy of ten and a half minutes, this track was a slog. I have a hard time with free jazz as it doesn't really speak to me beyond using it as background noise to an art-house film. It does give me time to see what it says to my brain, and I get the feeling of an engineer's work desk while he's building a new effects pedal or an amp. Or perhaps it's the brain of a computer finally reaching self-awareness. I'm enjoying the use of feedback on this track. Surprisingly, ten minutes flew right by once I got in the zone of it.
- "Packaged Eel": I got the distinct feeling that this group is attempting to rebuild found sounds from places like a subway station, or the sounds of kiosks setting up in the morning at a shopping mall. Perhaps a circus setting up as well? I almost would have preferred if this album was presented as one long track instead of broken up into small chunks.
- "Untitled No. 1": I'm having a hard time digesting this music. I'm spending the time reading about the free jazz movement. I enjoy the idea of exploring what sound is and what it means to be on both a cosmic level (Coltrane) and a microscopic level (TMIC). Perhaps someday this style will speak to me more. I'm now wondering what kind of prep goes into this kind of music.
- "Untitled No. 2": Like my thoughts on the album, I wonder why these two tracks were separated instead of being one long track. Perhaps it's the lack of narrative that makes it so attractive, like an inside joke. For a brief moment, there was something similar to a standard jazz sound before it was blasted away. I do enjoy how this track is a bit more dynamic in volume than the previous tracks. I'm hearing what might be as described as mechanical birds in an electronic ice storm. As said storm rages the track peaks in a screaming outcry before quietly dissipating.
- "Tuck": This is the shortest track on the album. Like some previous tracks, it sounds like the room is warming up and not a composition. But! Perhaps that is the experiment.
- "Wolfgang Van Gangbang": An immaturely funny title. Each voice is more prominent than the previous tracks. One reviewer from ECM Reviews really nailed the sound of this track and the album as a whole, "A radio being tortured to give up its innermost secrets."
Overall Thoughts: To be honest, I had a hard time sitting through this album, but I did it. I can appreciate it for being experimental as experiments can discover new ways of doing things. But, beyond being used as the soundtrack to a weird movie, or a foundation for frantic free-writing I don't see revisiting this album though I do thank the artists for the experience.
Info: This album was released in 1970 through the ECM label. It was produced by Manfred Eicher and features Derek Bailey on guitar, High Davies on electronics, Jamie Muir on percussion, Evan Parker on soprano saxophone, and Christine Jeffrey performing vocals on tracks one and five.
If free jazz is your jam, pick up the album here!
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-560235-1404564281-5614.jpeg.jpg){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment