Last triple review before the annual Roadburn pilgrimage? Probably, unless something extremely spontanous comes up before Wednesday morning. And as always when I have received a package from the French-Chinese quality Avantgarde label WV Sorcerer Productions you can bet it's some stuff far from any norms!
李劍鴻 LI JIANHONG - 魂靈獨居者 Soul Solitary (Pale Coral Pink vinyl LP) (2024)
However, if the sheer prospect of one guy playing two twenty-two minute improvisations of seemingly erratic experimental Noise / Drone / Feeback pieces on his guitar, occasionally accompanied by barks, shouts and traditionally inspired Chinese singing, throws you off... then you should probably skip this new live album of Li Jianhong.
However again... if you appreciate his work on "Mountain Fog" or his phenomenal collaboration with Wen Zhiyong and Deng Boyu, then "Soul Solitary" should almost be a no-brainer, especially considering its awesome artwork, even though it's not presented on a gatefold sleeve, as it would deserve.
Undoubtly more aggressive and unsettling than the aforementioned works this really might either be a more or less accessible record, depending on where you're coming from. For sure this is rather suited to experience in an introspective deep listening session than as coversation backdrop music on a party. But that shouldn't come as a surprise, right?
Probably not the easiest entry into Li Jianhong's body of work, but maybe I'm completely wrong here, since I just love this stuff aynway.
However again... if you appreciate his work on "Mountain Fog" or his phenomenal collaboration with Wen Zhiyong and Deng Boyu, then "Soul Solitary" should almost be a no-brainer, especially considering its awesome artwork, even though it's not presented on a gatefold sleeve, as it would deserve.
Undoubtly more aggressive and unsettling than the aforementioned works this really might either be a more or less accessible record, depending on where you're coming from. For sure this is rather suited to experience in an introspective deep listening session than as coversation backdrop music on a party. But that shouldn't come as a surprise, right?
Probably not the easiest entry into Li Jianhong's body of work, but maybe I'm completely wrong here, since I just love this stuff aynway.
DOPE PURPLE & BERSERK - This Is The Harsh Trip For The New Psyche (Bloodshot Eye vinyl LP) (2024)
Taiwanese Acid Mothers Temple worshippers Dope Purple are back with a new album quite different to its predecessor "Grateful End". This time their Space Rock seems to be less wild and chaotic, more controlled and... no wait, that's not the whole truth. For the most part this would probably be an indeed much more relaxed record - had they not added a new secret sauce to their recipe. Enter electronic Harsh Noise artist Berserk!
Sometimes he just blends in harmonically beside the band's own keyboard player and guitars, but once he's really let loose it becomes a miracle that this music still works.
On a rather short, wild and heavy overload of everything like "Highlander" it just resembles a raging war between elements. On longer tracks like "Norman on the Moon", "Never (Say) Die 星期天" or "Ashes of My Telepathic Love" on the other hand Dope Purple are seasoned sailers steadily piloting their ship through the most ridiculous storms completely unfazed by the winds and waves around them going completely berserk.
Mixing this confrontation must have been a challenge: preserve the maelstrom, but also don't lose the musicality! This "Harsh Trip For The New Psyche" masters this excercise. You're asking yourself WTF you're listening to, and in the same thought you can answer this question, because you still actually understand everything which is going on, no matter how fucking nuts it gets. Brilliant Psych Noise insanity!
This album is a collaborative release not only available from WV Sorcerer Productions, but also from Riot Season Records.
Sometimes he just blends in harmonically beside the band's own keyboard player and guitars, but once he's really let loose it becomes a miracle that this music still works.
On a rather short, wild and heavy overload of everything like "Highlander" it just resembles a raging war between elements. On longer tracks like "Norman on the Moon", "Never (Say) Die 星期天" or "Ashes of My Telepathic Love" on the other hand Dope Purple are seasoned sailers steadily piloting their ship through the most ridiculous storms completely unfazed by the winds and waves around them going completely berserk.
Mixing this confrontation must have been a challenge: preserve the maelstrom, but also don't lose the musicality! This "Harsh Trip For The New Psyche" masters this excercise. You're asking yourself WTF you're listening to, and in the same thought you can answer this question, because you still actually understand everything which is going on, no matter how fucking nuts it gets. Brilliant Psych Noise insanity!
This album is a collaborative release not only available from WV Sorcerer Productions, but also from Riot Season Records.
ZAÄAR - Musique Cryptique (Live in Liège) (CD) (2024)
And finally a group which builds a bridge to Roadburn for me, as they have not only played there in 2022, but several of their members will also be on stage with Neptunian Maximalism next Sunday.
The packaging of "Musique Cryptique" looks like a seven inch single, but there's actually a full live album on compact disc inside. Zaäar take their primal esoteric freeform music into a cave and oh boy, what a beast are they unleashing!
The tracklist reads ten titles, but you hardly even realize most of their transitions, as this is one big ecstasy of timeless expression. The most radical Coltrane spirit speaking through a modern quintet, which now switches the bass against an amplified santur (an Iranian variant of the hammered dulcimer) and further accompanies drums, percussions and saxophones with all kinds of electronic drones and textures, samples, throat singing, animal noises, flutes, trumpet, zurna and zither.
That sound like a lot? It for sure is! Zaäar don't play your grandfather's Free Jazz, but they might play Mitocondrial Eve's Free Jazz or the Free Jazz of a future post humanity. Whatever it is, it feels Spiritual, tribal, global, inimitably Avant-Garde, yet universal conscious. What a hammering meditation! What a monstrosity of freedom! What a wildfire of inspiration!
Piss off already, Jazz police! This slaps.
The packaging of "Musique Cryptique" looks like a seven inch single, but there's actually a full live album on compact disc inside. Zaäar take their primal esoteric freeform music into a cave and oh boy, what a beast are they unleashing!
The tracklist reads ten titles, but you hardly even realize most of their transitions, as this is one big ecstasy of timeless expression. The most radical Coltrane spirit speaking through a modern quintet, which now switches the bass against an amplified santur (an Iranian variant of the hammered dulcimer) and further accompanies drums, percussions and saxophones with all kinds of electronic drones and textures, samples, throat singing, animal noises, flutes, trumpet, zurna and zither.
That sound like a lot? It for sure is! Zaäar don't play your grandfather's Free Jazz, but they might play Mitocondrial Eve's Free Jazz or the Free Jazz of a future post humanity. Whatever it is, it feels Spiritual, tribal, global, inimitably Avant-Garde, yet universal conscious. What a hammering meditation! What a monstrosity of freedom! What a wildfire of inspiration!
Piss off already, Jazz police! This slaps.
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