OSEES

New Music Friday: The new release from our old friends, Thee Oh Sees (The OCs, OCS, Osees, etc.). The first single from their new album, Abomination Revealed At Last, is titled Fight Simulator. Just a ADHD as ever. Wouldn't have it any other way.

New Music Friday

It's been a slow but not disappointing year for new music releases. Every Friday for years has marked a slew of new record releases. Maybe its just me, but that flow seems to have slowed to a trickle recently, but that trickle has included some very high-quality music.

Yesterday, there was only one notable (to me) release, but it's a good one. Joshua Abrams' Natural Information Society dropped the LP, Momentum, a second digital release of tracks previously available on vinyl only. Stand-out track, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) II, showcases the dazzling circular breathing of saxophonist Evan Parker over a NIS minimalist background performed by Abrams on guimbri (a three-string, Moroccan bass guitar), Jason Stein on bass clarinet, Lisa Alvarado on harmonium, and Mikel Patrick Avery on drums. The track was recorded on July 9, 2019, at Cafe Oto in London, and was initially released in 2021 by both Eremite Records (U.S.) and Aguirre Records (Belgium).

Formed in 2010, Natural Information Society is a staple of the thriving Chicago underground music scene. 

A Hard Rain

New Music Friday: Not much on the horizon - a single by Damian Jurado, some archival Sun Ra material (cool, but nothing new), some new releases on Zorn's Tzadik label (dependably excellent as always but not unexpected).

Not much on the horizon . . . except this - possibly the best thing I've heard all year. Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, arranged by the Red Hot Organization and the Kronos Quartet, featuring Laurie Anderson (synthesizer and violin), Elia Einhorn (harmonium), Shahzad Ismaily (synths), and Suhail Yusuf Khan (sarangi), with the Hard Rain Singers (Anjali Rose, Elenna Canlas, Taraka Larson, Lollise, Mayteana Morales, and Hannah Winkler).  The featured vocals, though, listed as "readers" in the credits, are Ocean Vuong, Sampa The Great, Dai Wei, Sleaford Mods, Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, Satomi Matsuzaki, Iggy Pop, Tom Morello, Stephin Merritt, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willie Nelson, Laurie Anderson, Mahsa Vahdat, somebody called "Fenway," and, oh yes, Ringo Starr.

Hard Rain has always hit hard, but this reading is simultaneously beautiful and off the charts terrifying.  

The track was released with another excellent version of Hard Rain (although not as hard-hitting as this one) and a Terry Riley raga as the B-side. It's unclear if the next major release by the Red Hot Organization is going to be all covers of Bob Dylan songs (if so, why the Terry Riley raga) or anti-nuclear war material, neither of the above, or all of the above. 

We'll have to wait with our ears open and meanwhile enjoy this terrific, creative performance. 

Jonathan Richman

At 74 years old, Jonathan Richman may not be quite Marshall Allen (101) old yet, but no one's going to mistake him for a Jonas brother. Yet despite his age and his long, long discography, he's still writing and performing new music and has just released a new album, Only Frozen Sky Anyway, which dropped on the Fourth of July (i.e., yesterday). Here's standout track, But We May Try Weird Stuff, to let you know Richman still hasn't lost his characteristic quirk or odd-ball sense of humor, even as his music continues to evolve.    

Jefferson's Brew

Not to be totally random, but if you ever wondered what a vocal version of Bitches Brew might sound like, Eddie Jefferson gave us the answer in 1974. 

Jefferson was shot and killed outside of Baker's Keyboard Lounge on May 8, 1979. He had left the club with alto sax player Richie Cole around 1:35 a.m. and was shot as he walked out of the building. Detroit was a tough town then. Impermanence is swift.

Šumavský jam

Although not often documented here, I continue to regularly fall down various musical rabbit holes. Today's was post-Cold War Czech ambient, a genre I didn't even know existed until I stumbled across an NTS playlist titled Tearoom Ambient, the name music journalist Pavel Klusák gave to the 1990s movement.

Jaroslav Kořán is an artist from Prague who works in the field of music and sounds, video, photography, and graphics. His technique features improvisation, controlled chance, and the use of unusual materials and techniques. Šumavský jam is a spontaneous improvisation recorded in 2012 by Jaroslav and his brother Michal, a longtime collaborator. Lest one think the title is a Czech version of Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam, Šumavský refers to Šumava, or "Bohemian Forest," the wooded mountain range that extends from Germany into the Czech Republic. 

Part One, above, is an excerpt of the complete performance, and the whole piece (54 minutes) is available without interruptions or edits on Spotify. 

Happy Birthday, Marshall Allen

Marshall Allen turns 101 years old today. For-real 101, not some Sun Ra-Solar Myth-made-up 101 years. One hundred  and one Earth revolutions around the Sun. Born in 1924, he just dropped this live album last week. So okay, he was "only" 100 when it was recorded, and okay, the drummer and bassist are younger than him, but that's Allen tearing it up on sax and that weird electronic wind instrument he sometimes plays, and bassist James McNew of Yo La Tengo may be called a lot of things, but nobody's called him "young" since the 1980s. 

Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons Live in Philadelphia is a terrific album, maybe one of the best of Allen's long career and right up there with the best of the best of his Sun Ra sets. Go out and but it right now.