Eazycon – “Fear and Pleasure: Retrospective 1980-1989” – [Spittle Records]

Thurston Hunger   5/29/2015   12-inch, A Library

Ruling stuff from Turin duing the 80’s. Two guys, Carl Musso
(aka “Carl Lee”) and Frankie Partipilo (aka Frankye Laforgue),
with plenty of help. Love some of the basslines dropped in by
Silvio Puzzulo, Ustad Mike Partipilo (surely Frankie’s brother)
drops in striking sitar on “Easy Connection” and some guy
sits on stage and smokes a cigarette in a doctor’s smock too.
At least I think I heard that. That “Easy Con” track really
caught me wonderfully off guard on my first listen, up
until then I was cool with a sort of jazz-tweaked no-wave
approach to stark song with a sort of beat poet foreign
language mangling English to higher purpose. But that
track is a gleaming art rock gem, And it’s followed by
a Roscoe Mitchell rendition, that has its outside jazz
garden burst play. Flute trills and sax skrills. Zig zag
rhythm and smatterings of applause/vox before a smooth
smoke sax to close. “Noise Guitar” after that is a short
experimental instro to end the record. You think there
has to be more and there is, well a little thanks to the
bonus CD. Another raga/jazz/spoken mantra “In the Tradition”
(when clearly they want to move through traditions) and
also “Wagon Wheels” a C&W saloon swing cover. The first 8
songs have a more consistent feel, partly from the cough
syrupy vox from Carl and his excellent scattered guitar
(Arto Lindsay fans bon appetit!). Lyrics connect moles
and other underground dwellers, longing for some form
of alchemy…` Carl also drops in drum machine beats
more samba cocktail sweet than Suicide sour. Frankie’s
seductive sax unites many of the earlier tracks, and
brother Mike darting in for some earth jazz vibe via
flute keep things breezy. You feel the winds of Sun
Ra solar gusts and Captain Beefheart’s desert dust
but these guys really had their own spin for too short
a time. That being said, it appears the past year or
two they have re-connected. There may be nothing
greater than the pause between the words “by bad”
and “alchemy” during the song “Plants.
-Thurston Hunger