Up Mix

For those that like their music 'Up', here's another finely curated mix of Italian film, radio and television music from the 1960's and 1970's by Dee [formerly David] Thrussell [head curator of the rather  fine Omni Recording Corporation and front person of Oz 'kinky electronic pop' combo Snog]. Peek here for the companion mix 'Down'.

Up Mix

1. Eco Spaziale #2 - Pietro Grossi
2. La Via Della Droga (seq. 7) - Goblin
3. Stridulum (titoli) - Franco Micalizzi
4. Pronti Per L'Agguato (versione 2) - Franco Micalizzi
5. Vocalisation - Alessandro Alessandroni
6. Spiagge Azzurre - Alessandro Alessandroni
7. Il Colore Degli Angeli - Berto Pisano
8. Playgirl '70 (party music 1) - Piero Piccioni
9. Casanova '70 (finale) - Armando Trovaioli
10. Cavallina a Cavallo - Ennio Morricone
11. Gli Angeli Del 2000 - Mario Molino
12. Preludietto - Alessandro Alessandroni
13. La Guerre Est Finie - Giovanni Fusco
14. I Sovversivi (titoli) - Giovanni Fusco
15. Un Tranquilo Di Campagna (#2) - Ennio Morricone
16. Dedicato Al Mare Egeo - Ennio Morricone
17. Hiasmina - Berto Pisano & Jacques Chaumont
18. Oh My Love - Riz Ortolani (featuring Katyna Ranieri)
19. Stacchi Polizieschi #1 - Pietro Grossi

The Hip Priest Sermons Of Brother John Rydgren

In the beginning was the word brothers and sisters ...... and this word was spoken in such a deep, rich, resonant, baritone voice and backed by what only can be described as the holiest of musical trinities; the Vox guitar fuzz pedal, the electric sitar and the rock drum that the kids had no choice but to open their ears and listen to the words being spoken. The devotional psychsploitation sermons of Brother John Rydgren are weird gear indeed, a strange interzone of righteous scripture and head shop nonconformity. This anthology collects three of his rarest lps “Worlds Of Youth” [1966] “Cantata For New Life” [1967] and “Silhouette Segments” [1968] and each one is a masterpiece of spoken word ecclesiastical weirdness. Brother Rydgren’s recording career started in 1962, working as a radio announcer and narrator for the American Lutheran Church who distributed and broadcast his sermons in syndicated shows across America. These pre recorded monologues were a collision of beatnik hip talk and lysergic spiritualism and often featured flipped out musical collages of sampled psychedelics which appealed to both hipster and Jesus freak alike. This anthology finely documents a turbulent period of history, where the Christian faith collided head on with an emerging sixties counterculture to create surprisingly wild and playful cultural hybrids. Like the Beats, Rydgren wrote for the ear as well as the printed page and his delivery is always spot on. His monologues, which are delivered in a voice not too dissimilar to the seductive vocal tones and shades of Chicago versifier Ken Nordine combine a warm reverence, droll observation and humorous word play which all but masks the ever present religious or moral subtext. Making leaps of association between musical, literary and theological ideas, Rydgren harnessed many of the cultural signifiers of the period, playfully subverting them through the miracle of ecclesiastical détournement, literally putting the message back into the medium. Dig.

“Silhouette Segments” is released this month by the Omni Recording Company. 

For more information about Brother John Rydgren have a peek here.

Percupulsions / Gymnorythmies 1

Here's a little compendium disc which is definitely worthy of your attention. 'Percupulsions' by Patrice Sciortino was released on the French 'Neuilly' library label in 1970 and was originally intended to be used primarily as functional mood music for film,radio and television. As a historical document,it's a fascinating example of avant garde music colliding with popular culture in a most unexpected manner. Musically it's astoundingly singular in both its compositional breadth and lyrical diversity. Psycho baroque harpsichord patterns jar harshly in rhythmic counterpoint creating a strange kind of derailed avant primitive minimalism. Oddly tuned gamelan tones float over perpetually changing clock-like rhythms creating an uncanny metronomic pulse. Interleaved with dissolving free improv skitter, the track "Spelelien" summons ghostly vibraphone, supernatural rattle and gloomy unease while the short, quick paced dark repetitions of "Multitudinaire" and "Para-Docks conjure bleak mechanistic paranoia. It's amazing to hear percussionists tease such complex and otherworldly sonics out of a such a limited palette of instrumentation. The overall effect is akin to listening to Tony Oxley, Moondog and Steve Reich gleefully jam a deranged, non machine-generated form of proto-techno. Despite the rhythmic complexity, it's all woodblock, handclaps and tom-toms on show, no electronic instrumentation in sight. Weird gear indeed. 'Gymnorythmies 1' is a very different proposition altogether. Created as an accompaniment to early school dance and gymnastic lessons [very much in a similiar vein as the BBC's innovative 'Music, Mime and Movement' and 'Listen, Move and Dance' series] this is very much music for dance and expression. "Excercices Avec Cerceaux No. 2" elevates a simple hula hoop exercise into a giddy, unearthly enchantment and is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. Have a listen to the track uploaded by the ever wonderful Toys & Techniques here.  The track, "No.12 Relaxation",evokes a dreamlike world where sound clusters of ethereal glissando shimmer celestially only to be punctuated at random intervals by a baleful voice. Odd, disquieting stuff indeed.  Throughout this disc, the playing is beautifully restrained, precise and hypnotic creating a strange hybrid of childlike melodics and avant garde modular percussion. Hats off to the Omni Recording Company for making this visionary music available once more.

Niente

This long-lost Italian library session from 1971 may prove arguably to be the finest release of the year. Rescued by vinyl archaeologists James Pianta, Jeff Wybrow, Callum Flack and David Thrussell, this wonderfully dark and complex recording is an unrepentant collision of free jazz, avant garde sensibility and rhythmic drum patterns which will appeal to beat diggers and free improv heads alike. Recorded by the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza as a companion piece to the mythical "The Feed-Back" by The Group (a record which has recently changed hands for over $1000), the result is a profoundly disorienting music that thrives on the tension between aggressive rhythmic interplay, unsettling free form improvisation and dark mood music.

Founded in Rome in 1964 by composer Franco Evangelsiti, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza was formed as experimental music laboratory dedicated to the exploration of new music techniques such as improvisation, noise and anti-musical systems. Comprising of soundtrack musicians working in the burgeoning Italian film and television scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the collective featured such musical luminaries as Ennio Morricone (trumpet) and Egisto Macchi (percussions) in its ranks. This release very much documents the definitive moments of this 'peaked' improvisational collective.

"Niente" opens with a deep propulsive drum groove somewhere between Clyde Stubblefield and Jaki Liebezeit. The beat is motorik, relentless and unforgiving. Dark fissures of analog synth bubble up, a twisted fuzz bass prowls around the yard, the elasticated metal of prepared piano shards incise and unhinge the groove. The beat goes on. The drummer drums, staring unblinking into the abyss. Sounds organically crack, cut, rattle and tremor but never quite unsettle the drummer's endless metronomic pulse. There is a dark hypnotic undertow to much of this music evoking a phantasmagorical landscape of insecurity, trauma and fear. Listening becomes a profoundly disquieting experience. "Bambu #2" is a nightmare factory of hazed tape music, combining abrasive fuzz, muted trumpet and giallio vocal murmurings.  "Renitenza" is beautifully hypnotic and dizzying at the same time. Constructed around complex drum phasing and daydream zoner improv, the track travels from vigorous, almost deranged percussive forays into a decayed, ghostly cave of sound. Likewise, "Padrone Delle Ferrierre" weirdly shimmers in flickering polyrhythms, scrying in the smoke until it slowly dissolves in tenebrous, blurred narcotic instantiability. Side two opens with the heavy drum skonk of "Mattatoio". The sound is wilder, freer, more animalistic, a dense and tightly woven mesh of fierce drums, hot-wired guitar skree, jazz marimba and howling horns. "Sieben" is a particular favourite, a short tight Schifrinesque drum loop, combining strummed aeolian harp, blunted harmonics and eerie chimes to chilling effect. "Natale E Detroit" is peculiarly odd, like a weird meeting point between Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" and calypso music, just hearing this unique oddity was worth the price of admission alone. "Niente" is a truly masterful and essential release and worth your immediate attention. Do not sleep.

"Niente" by Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza is out now on Roundtable/Omni Recording Corporation in a limited run of 500.

The Omni Recording Company

Here's a little label that's definitely worthy of your investigation. The Omni Recording Company is one of my favourite purveyors of oddball and 'out there' sounds à la Trunk, Roundtable and Finders Keepers. Finely curated by maverick collector and musician David Thrussell, the label has unearthed a vast catalogue of weird and wonderful musical gems which range from off-kilter avant library music, electronic space jazz, hillbilly freak funk to global soundtrack psychedelia. 

The Patrice Sciortino "Chronoradial" disc is a particular favourite. Originally released in 1970, on the cult French Musique Pour L’Image production label, this release showcases his underexposed and criminally neglected compositional mastery. Incredibly complex arrangements of densely layered avant percussive salvos, soundtrack jazz, psycho dramatic orchestration and ethereal choirs interweave and fragment in undeniably fascinating rhythms of off-kilter beauty. "Chronoradial" is no easy listen and despite being over forty years old much the music still feels uncannily contemporaneous. The playful minimal percussive dial tone rhythm of "Kullos 2" wouldn't seem out of place on a new Pansonic lp. The choral pieces in particular are evocative and compositionally unconventional with sparse Javanese percussion tones intermingling with ethereal wordless vocals to hauntingly hallucinogenic effect. This is a stunning release and very much deserves a wider audience.

The wonderfully entitled "Orion 2000" by Orchestra Peter Thomas is oft described as the 'Holy Grail' of 'Kraut Jazz In Space Music'. Originally released on the Golden Ring library imprint in the mid seventies, this release combines brooding big band noir jazz, Blaxploitation style syncopated funk and electronic studio trickery to create an oddball blend of intoxicating space age astro moog jazz. Think, the hip ray gun swank of Hugo Montenegro, the psyche rock electronic percolations of Pierre Henry and you're half way there. There's enough analogue space gloop on here to power even the most modest rocket ship. Das ist ein groovy beat baby.

Last up, an old favourite. Those familiar with the legendary Incredibly Strange Music books published by RE/Search almost twenty years ago will be delighted to finally see “Songs of Couch and Consultation” by Katie Lee reissued. Recorded in 1957, the record is a twisted beatnik psychoanalytical journey through the repressed mind of folk chanteuse Katie Lee. Odd and hilarious in equal measures and perhaps one of the finest examples of musical psychotherapy ever committed to vinyl.

..... definitely a label to watch.