music 2024 : TOP 7 live albums

2024 added a good amount of great live releases to my collection. I could have easily saved myself several hard decisions, if I just made this a list of my favorite dozen of them. Kikagaku Moyo, Temple Fang, Li Jianhong, Martina Verhoeven could have all been included. But then there would still be more, so let's just except that this is what it is - the holy, unshakable, final selection of my...

TOP 7 LIVE ALBUMS 2024:

1. SWANS - Live Rope
   
   
   

   No, Swans aren't getting significantly quieter or more compact yet! In a transformed guise of sound, which unites a newly found clarity with a still almost unfathomable heaviness, characterized by basses, lap steel guitars and Michael Gira playing on acoustic strings "Live Rope" presents the Noise titans as utterly glorious as I remember them from their last show in Hamburg. The first double track "Rope/The Beggar" alone clocks in at over seventy-eight minutes. And that's only one half of this unbelievable album. Admittedly it's not the first time that I smell the possible peak of all their qualities coming together, but come on: Can the rush of incomprehensible bliss get any greater?
   
   
   
2. SOLAR TEMPLE & DEAD NEANDERTHALS - Embers Beget the Divine
   
   
   

   Not enough musical hypersomnia yet? Here's another fifty minutes mighty piece (in three movements) by the two adventurous Dutch duos Solar Temple and Dead Neanderthals, recorded live at Roadburn 2022. Hypnotically repetitive, yet rich and colourful in detail this "light-flooded cathartic flight beyond the constraints of time" unveils a "skyscraping wall made of Psychedelic Sludge, clerical chants, Post Metal and Blackgaze".
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. TORI AMOS - Diving Deep Live
   
   
   

   However ginormous the two above may feel; if you want me to guess which album here I will probably listen to the most in the long run, my bet is definitely on Tori in the thirty-fifth year of her career. "Pandora's Aquarium", "Spring Haze", "Lady In Blue", "Mother Revolution"... Not only does she serve an irresistable selection of sixteen hits and hidden gems on this two and a half hour strong double album, but she also does it in fantastic, extravagantly long piano/bass/drums trio versions.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. ALICE COLTRANE - The Carnegie Hall Concert
   
   
   

   If we're talking historic relevance the winner of this list has to be the first complete official release of Alice Coltrane's legendary Carnegie Hall performance in 1971. In its first half she looks into the future, playing harp on pieces inspired by Indian spirituality. The second half with her on piano honours the legacy of her late husband John Coltrane. It's absolutely magical, and if there had been enough microphones to actually record all instruments on stage properly, I might have ranked this even higher.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. ZAÄAR - Musique Cryptique (Live in Liège)
   
   
   

   From the immortal Spiritual Jazz pioneer of the past to the exciting present of Avantgarde Free Jazz: Zaäar expressively improve a timeless stream of mystical tribalistic trance, including santur, zurna, zither, flutes, electronic sounds, throat singing and animal noises. All this is captured inside the unique atmosphere of a natural cave. "What a hammering meditation! What a monstrosity of freedom! What a wildfire of inspiration!" And everywhere Alice Turiyasangitananda's presence can still be felt like a tangible resonance. A magical trip into Neptunian Jazzimalism!
   
   
   
   
   
6. GUSH - Afro Blue
   
   
   
   No, we're not done yet! There's even more Coltrane worship ahead! Obviously, since "Afro Blue" is a Jazz standard made hugely popular by John's quartet. Here we can experience it in a stunning twenty minutes version by the trio of Mats Gustafsson (sax), Sten Sandell (piano) and Raymond Strid (drums), recorded live in Stockholm in 1998. And beyond that Gush give us fifty more minutes of sensational improvisations between abstract minimalism and hymnic Spiritual Jazz grandeur. The great production makes you feel like you're witnessing this mastery an arm's length away from the first row.  
   
   
   
   
   
7. CAN - Live in Keele 1977
   
   
   

   Six albums in (three of them released this year!) the live series of Krautrock legends Can just keeps giving. From a not too revered period of the band, this almost unadvertised show in the quintet line-up with Traffic bassist Rosko Dee and Holger Czukay operating wave sounds and samples instead, proves to be a true revelation. Incredibly funky, complex and rich these improvisations showcase a band of musicians knowing each other inside out - and then also adds that certain unexplainable magical it of the right constellation of space and time on top.
   
   
   
   
   
   

favorite MUSIC 2024 - all my lists:

TOP 24 albums   |   TOP 7 live albums   |   TOP 5 reissues

TOP 4 non-album releases   |   TOP 24 live shows

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD - 3h marathon show at Stadtpark Hamburg (May 22nd 2024)

band: very good to great

weather: unlucky

volume: living room to reading a book

audience: mid to low quality

Not enough? Ok, it's probably a good thing that I needed to write a couple of other live reports before this one (and one day of A Colossal Weekend is still waiting for its review). Otherwise this might have only been a rant about King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard's audience. As if that was needed... If you have been in one fan group on social media, where they are proudly flaunting their bland Taylor Swift-infested fucking Spotify stats, you already know that this band deserves a better fanbase.

The prolific Australians' primary strength is not that they are the best at what they are doing, because if you pick any of the multiple genres they are playing - except for a couple of very special interest records -, you'll always find superior artists. But of course they are great musicians. Their musical nerd-dom and constantly high level of quality in which they apply their own spin on everything they're doing - that's what truly sets them apart. There's really a lot to be appreciated - yet most of it certainly goes over a big chunk of their fans' heads, that rather seems to reduce them to a party-orientated cult of personality, which crosses the line from being funny or ironic to getting on your nerves way too often - while also acting as if King Gizzard have invented music and probably also the wheel.

But maybe I'm just talking bullshit, because I'm spoiled by the respectful crowds of most of my usual shows and festivals, who just know better how to party without being a dick. Seriously: This was an outdoor show in the middle of Hamburg in the middle of the week. If the volume doesn't increase after two "Louder! Louder!" chants - it won't happen. They have restrictions.
But these morons... every time the band went quiter by choice! they came back with their chants, instead of just shutting the fuck up and listening. At one point the band just gave the relaxed jam up and played something else.
I was also under the impression that at least in the front area there were a lot of international travelling fans, who maybe just didn't care too much about potentially ruining the experience for others, because they would see them on other dates of the tour later anyway.

Well of course, you cannot put all the blame for this all in all disappointingly mediocre night on the audience. In fact many for sure also made the best out of the circumstances. But the bad things will of course overshadow that. And the worst thing was of course the low volume. My personal lesson is that I'll never go to Rock / Metal shows here again. It's just too damn silent for that. If I think back on recent Psychedelic shows like Slift or Full Earth the sheer sonic power still blows me away - a great bunch of this show however I just experienced as a backdrop for all kinds of conversations so important they just couldn't wait until later. People can hang out together completely silent with everyone looking onto their own screens - but when you're at a live show you just have to babble constantly?

Normally I'm not the guy in favour of that one fan in the front who holds up his phone to film the whole fucking show. In this case however there is a fan-filmed video on YouTube, which is really worth watching. In fact this video is actually better than having been there in person. At least if you like to hear the actual music of the show you're attending. The value for money ratio of the video definitely is a winner.

It's a shame. In a closed venue this could have been so great. And I'm not even complaining about the rain, which was just extremely unlucky. I had the best tourist weather in Copenhagen a couple of days before and even in Hamburg this just happened to be the one day when it was pouring. But ultimately who cares? It was just weather and at least no thunderstorm or blizzard. The rain wasn't even that cold.

But again - the volume. The band did - almost - nothing wrong. The only thing I missed in the set was some of their microtonal and/or "Polygondwanaland" stuff. But then on the other hand, what we got in this three-hour-marathon was actually great:

You could roughly divide the performance into three parts. The first act, which was opened by "Float Along - Fill Your Lungs" was Psych / Garage Rock stuff and classics with many highlights, be it the "Nonagon Infinity" songs, the groovy "Iron Lung" jam the flute-tastic "Hot Water" or the several "Motor Spirit" teases placed everywhere.

In the middle of the show the synths and stuff table was brought onto the stage and the band premiered a twenty-five minute version of "The Silver Cord". I guess they cannot really replicate the studio version on stage, so this was actually the jammiest part of the whole show with a very lose and ambient sound without even a full beat for most of the time. This Electronic section also was the only one where the volume actually felt close to acceptable. I would have gladly taken a full hour of this weird, but really awesome shit.

The final part of the show was a huge section dominated by the Thrash Metal escapades of "Infest The Rats' Nest" and "Petrodragonic Apocalypse". Super(cell) stuff, but you already know what spoiled it... after the Electronic goodness the Rock instrumentation felt even more tame now. It doesn't really feel like a Doomsday invocation if you can hear a pin being dropped into the mud / grass.
(Ok, that's an exaggeration. I actually couldn't even keep a couple of guys right next to me from trampling the glasses of a girl who had lost them. No chance to break into the moshpit action. At least the crowd was entertaining itself. But I alone witnessed two pairs of glasses being sacrificed to the pit. Who knows how many must have been lost in total?)

Everything had build towards "Motor Spirit" ending the show and so it did. And I was mostly relieved that this distanced simulation of a fantastic PsychElectroRock'nRollMetal show was over.

Compared to how ecstatic their Hamburg show in 2018 had felt, this was just a giant pile of wasted potential. Wrong location. Period.
Musically, under different circumstances this could have been my third or fourth favorite (non-Festival) show of the year so far.

Well, at least one dude filmed a watchable video of it.

The aftermath:

YĪN YĪN, PACHYMAN und SCHERRY live im Knust, Hamburg (14. März 2024)

Donnerstag erlebte das ausverkaufte Knust eine außerordentliche Liveparty, und vielleicht sollte ich versuchen, mit meinen Berichten etwas schneller zu werden, denn was auch immer ich hier als Einleitung schreiben wollte, ist meinem Kopf schon wieder entflohen. Egal, kommen wir also gleich zum ersten von zwei Solokünstlern, die als Support dabei waren:

SCHERRY

Touren ist Familienbusiness. Als erstes kam der ehemalige Perkussionist und Bruder des Bassisten des Headliners auf die Bühne. Scherry spielte allerdings komplett elektronische Musik. Ein paar leicht weltmusikalische Anklänge der Marke Yīn Yīn waren aber unschwer erkennbar auch Bestandteil des synthwavegetränkten, mal leicht experimentell sperrigen, oft ummpffummpffummpfftanzbaren Sound des sharp-dresseed Dutchman.

Das war zwar nichts, was ich zwingend zu Hause hören müsste, doch live ging die boombassend groovende halbe Stunde dieser Show sehr flott vorbei. So ein kleines bisschen nerdiger Alleinunterhalter-Cringe/Charme gehörte dazu, vor allem während des mir wie so oft eher passiv bekannten  Achtziger-Jahre-Synthpop-Hits, von dem ich mir eine Textzeile hätte merken sollen, um Titel und Originalinterpret auf die Reihe zu bekommen. Stellt sie mir in einer Reihe auf wie im "I Want It That Way"-Cold Open von Brooklyn 99, und ich erkenne ihn bestimmt wieder! Bestimmt irgendwas mit Schulterpolsterjackett.

PACHYMAN

Als nächstes durfte ich mich mal wieder weit aus dem Balkon meiner Komfortzone hinauslehnen, sind doch karibische Klänge mit ihren plakativ fröhlichen Melodien nicht mein tägliches Brot. Mit Dub allerdings habe ich durchaus schon hier und da Berührungspunkte. Ursprünglichen Reggae Dub, in dem das Mischpult zum Hauptinstrument wird, habe ich bisher aber noch nicht live gesehen.

Auftritt Pachyman, der neben live performten Tasten auch alle vorproduzierten Instrumente tatsächlich selbt eingespielt hat. In der Show ging es aber eher darum, die jamaikanischen Sounds und Grooves durch blitzschnelles Reglerschieben, Knöpfchendrehen und Effektbedienen spontan ein- und auszublenden und zu manipulieren. Das ist schon ziemlich cool, zumal der vor guter Laune platzende Puortorikaner dies auch sehr schön sichtbar präsentierte. Eine interessante Horizonterweiterung und musikalisch für eine Weile auch ansprechend, wurde ich während der letzten zwei, drei Tracks aber schon ein wenig ungeduldig auf die Hauptband des Abends... 

YĪN YĪN

Yēah yēah! Als die Niederländer zum letzten Mal hier zu Gast gewesen waren, hatte es mich auch schon ungemein gejuckt zu kommen, doch leider siegte angesichts vollen Terminkalenders und leerer Kasse die Vernunft. Für diesen März allerdings ist jene zum Glück ausgeschaltet. Und nachdem ich nun erlebt habe, was für Feuerwerk dieses Quartett im Fujiyamapyjama abbrennt, wird zukünftiger Verzicht sicherlich ungleich schwerer fallen.

Wie kann man diese Show angemessen zusammenfassen? Auf mit Tigerfell bezogenen Sitzen ist das Publikum im Glitzercabrio vom Westernsaloon zum Discotempel in Tokyo, durch die Feierviertel Neu-Delhis und Berlins und über die Milchstraße gecruist. Wie schrieb ich im Review zum neuesten Album "Mount Matsu"? Siebziger-Funk trifft Italodisco und Kraftwerkrobotik. Japanischer Pop morpht zu Krautrock und Thaibeat surft mit Memphis-Soul und anderen Amerikana.

Live entwickelte dies nun eine noch immensere Partystrahlkarft als auf Konserve, wobei die Tatsache, dass die Band bereits über einen Monat auf Tour war, auch keine unwesentliche Rolle spielte. Alter, was waren die eingespielt! Wenn das Highlight der Show ein langes Drumsolo kurz vor der Zugabe ist, kann dies bedeuten, dass die Band ansonsten nicht ganz so prächtig unterhalten hat. Hier galt das komplette Gegenteil! Der Drummer, dessen Setup mit Rototoms, Bongos, Timbale und großem Gong schon ein Hinkucker war, erwies sich einfach nur als absolutes Tier und konnte einer an sich schon perfekten Show noch das i-Tüpfelchen aufsetzen.

Was braucht man mehr? Humorvolle Typen, die sich selbst nicht allzu ernst nehmen? Check. Ein Geburtstagskind auf der Bühne. Check. Alter, was war das gut! Ich könnte hier nun eigentlich alle Musiker einzeln mit Lob überschütten, doch die Hauptgewinner sind hier ganz klar die Gruppe als Ganzes, ihr global vereinendes Konzept und die Liebe zur Musik an sich.

Phänomenales Dutchploitation-Tanzkino!