Max Level

Icasiano, Christopher – “Provinces” [Origin Records]

Max Level   2/25/2020   A Library, CD

Drums and keyboards–everything played by Icasiano, a mainstay of the Seattle free music scene. There are two “suites” here and within each suite the pieces tend to track together. Several of the tracks have repeating–in some cases one could say relentless–drum patterns, augmented with simple keyboard/synth melodies, drones, and sounds. Field recordings pop up occasionally, some of them including voices. I really enjoyed Track 3, a jagged piece with free drumming alongside bursts of what seem to be backward sounds. The thing that I probably like most about this CD is that I don’t quite understand what’s going on and can only listen and wonder what will come next. Icasiano’s work occupies a section of the musical universe that you probably didn’t even know was there. I didn’t.

Boni, Raymond/Gilles Dalbis – Selenites: One Kenichi Dream – [Mazeto Square]

Max Level   2/11/2020   A Library, CD

Two French guys playing the soundtrack to what seems to be a dream story. Boni on guitar and harmonica, Dalbis on drums. All instrumental, very abstract, quiet and loud places, hard to tell what they are getting at sometimes. The 15-minute Track 1 starts with 3 minutes of solo drumming. Dalbis has a nice touch with the brushes. Boni’s guitar comes in gently and… eventually all hell breaks loose like you suspected it would. There are shades of Derek Bailey in Boni’s playing and he adds to that a lot of processed guitar sounds and some overdubs. He plays harmonica on Tracks 2 and 5; he has an unusual approach, that’s for sure. It sounds to me more like an accordion in a style reminiscent of Pauline Oliveros maybe? Track 3 features some flying-fingers abstract blues guitar and it’s pretty nice. Dalbis adds surprising percussive touches throughout the record. I don’t really understand the dream story–something about HG Wells and an alien civilization living inside Earth’s moon, and at some point a modern manga character shows up and does something or other. Perfect music for an oddball dream like that.

Radical Empathy Trio – Reality and Other Imaginary Places – [Esp-Disk]

Max Level   1/21/2020   CD, Jazz

Three masterful improvisers—Thollem McDonas – keyboards, Nels Cline – guitar, and Michael Wimberly – drums–present two 18-minute pieces of inspired improvisation, recorded 2017 in Brooklyn. We feel very early on that we are in good hands. I especially enjoy hearing Thollem’s acoustic piano give way to his electronic keyboards, usually leading to some noisy interactions with Cline’s guitar, and then back again. As usual, Cline’s guitar exists on a completely different plane from the rest of us–he’s that advanced. Wimberly’s tasteful percussion accents are pretty much perfect throughout. Dive in.

Osborne, Brian – Decorous Novelties – [Heat Retention Records]

Max Level   12/4/2019   A Library, CD

Solo percussion performed live with no effects and no overdubs. Cymbals, gong, wood blocks, glass bowls, aluminum pipes, brake drums, wrenches, baskets, scrap metal, etc. A kitchen sink is not mentioned, but it may as well have been. Ringing metallic sounds, tinkly things, tappity-tap on wooden temple blocks, the pinging of glass bowls. It never really gets intense and dramatic as someone like Tatsuya Nakatani does on occasion—this mostly comes across as light-hearted and playful. Fun. Well-recorded.

BERP – “BERP” [Yabyum]

Max Level   10/29/2019   A Library, CD

Total immersion into a world of acoustic sound/noise. The quartet coaxes sounds from stringed instruments such as guitar and violin, percussion, toys, ping-pong ball, waterphone, hurdy-gurdy, and voice. The pieces are generally on the active side, with a multitude of instruments and other sounds (taps, thuds, tickles, scrapes, whacks, nonsense vocals, etc) all clamoring for attention. These players excel at bursts of frenetic creativity. That’s not to say there aren’t some quieter sections, but even those are full of taps and boings and rattles and they aren’t what I would call relaxing. This material is not for everybody, but it’s quite interesting in a ‘what-will-they-come-up-with-next?’ kind of way. Track 5 is a 46-minute marathon that is easy to get lost in.

ebolabuddah – “Water is Life; Swallowed in Muck” – [Self Release]

Max Level   5/8/2019   A Library, Cassette

Local avant garde noise project. Two side-long tracks (A = 23 mins, B = 17 mins.) Voices and crashes and booming noises and guitar feedback and a flute and a sax. Highly questionable recording quality–To say “To say this is fidelity-challenged would be an understatement” would be an understatement. Imagine them playing at the far end of the NoiseHaus garage and someone recording them from 100 feet away on an old $20 Radio Shack microphone they found in a box in the basement. It sounds like that. But yeah, I love it. The band won’t tell us which side is which, so I had to guess. One side has a higher muck quotient than the other so I’m proclaiming that to be Side B (“Swallowed in Muck”.)

Invasive Species – Adapter

Max Level   5/8/2019   12-inch, A Library

(to be entered)

Karen Stackpole – “S/T” – [Dialectric]

Max Level   2/13/2019   12-inch, A Library

Mostly solo percussion works by Stackpole, a fixture on the bay area experimental/improv music scene. I don’t recognize anything that sounds like drums here–I’m hearing gongs, cymbals, and maybe some other resonant metal things(?) I suspect bows and perhaps soft mallets are being used to produce these deep layers of floating metallic sounds. A1 and B1 are collaborations with Ann Dentel, another local performer/improviser. Very nice but at 12 or 13 minutes per side it’s over too quickly. A 2003 release that has somehow eluded our library until now.

Moonchy & Tobias – “Moonchy & Tobias” – [Tiny Room Records]

Max Level   1/22/2019   A Library, CD

Prepare to enter a fantasy world when you play this CD. Pat Moonchy does all the vocals and she is way out there–sometimes delicately childlike, sometimes firmly operatic, sometimes groaning in a creepy pitched-down voice, sometimes… well, you’ll have to play it and find out. Her musical partner Todd Tobias (connections to Guided By Voices) provides the instrumentation and it is spot on. Pretty acoustic passages here, some rocking stuff there, some weird industrial textures over there… and many surprises over the course of these 13 tracks. Drama + weirdness is the order of the day. Many of the tracks are short, I mean like a minute or two, but they are all evocative and kind of mind-blowing. Perfect for injecting little bits of drama and weirdness into your radio show.

Welch, Fritz – “a Desire to Push Forward Without Gaining Access to Anything” – [Radical Documents]

Max Level   11/28/2018   12-inch, A Library

Strange constructions built with Welch’s overdubbed vocals. The Glasgow-based artist talks and rambles and exclaims and makes just about every kind of vocal noise possible. Voices on top of voices on top of other voices side by side with other voices. Track A2 is a short piece name-checking some of the USA’s most famous prisons. Side B is one 17 minute track. If you are a fan of vocal magicians like Makigami Koichi and Jaap Blonk, you’ll want to check this out. Edition of 300 on super cool green vinyl.

Bailey, Derek/ Goodman, Greg – “Extracting Fish-Bones From The Back of The Despoiler” – [Beak Doctor, The]

Max Level   11/6/2018   12-inch, Jazz

Two side-long tracks (20 and 21 minutes) of entertaining guitar/piano adventures recorded live in 1992. Bailey practically invented the language of modern improvised guitar and is in good form on this recording– scratching and jabbing, and occasionally projecting electric flurries of sound. Pianist Goodman spends little if any time playing the piano keys during these performances, concentrating instead on producing unusual sounds from the interior of the instrument. I could describe this record as a lot of plinking and plunking, but that would be selling it short– dedicated listeners will find some inspired music-making going on here. Well-recorded and a high quality pressing on heavyweight vinyl, too.

Vehikel & Gefass (& Ventilator) – “Make ’em Pay! Homemade Napalm… etc.” [Schimpfluch]

Max Level   10/16/2018   7-inch, A Library

Two five minute chunks of sound performance recorded live in 1990, I think, in Zurich Switzerland. We’ve all been to this type of event–a ratty warehouse with people sitting on the dirty concrete floor and a couple of guys making random sounds using toys and junk. No way to know what we’re hearing exactly, although there are voices here and there, and a violin shows up near the end of side A. Other than that, it’s all rumbles and scrapes and squeaks. Noise-wise, this is not particularly noisy; it’s more like lo-fidelity sound recordings of who knows what. Kind of rad for nearly 30 years ago.

Nowottny, Marianne – “Studio Recordings 2008-2018” – [Abaton Book Company]

Max Level   10/9/2018   A Library, CD

Ten years worth of offbeat pop stylings from the versatile Ms. Nowottny, sharing the billing here with her All American Band. She sings and plays keyboards and a few other things, and the band adds guitar, bass, banjo, piano, melodica, and more. A wide range of music on this CD, including stately torch songs with piano, some trip-hoppy moments, country-flavored tunes, and some twisted concoctions that could be Kate Bush with a Casio out in the garage. My two least favorite tracks are the cover tunes: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ is a downer–it sounds like a version the house band on Twin Peaks might have done, and “Danny’s Song” (by Kenny Loggins) is done pretty much straight ahead and is no more interesting than the original version. Track 5 is a snazzy instrumental.

Monkey Power Trio – “The Ballad of Christian Wolfcock” – [Pocahontas Swamp Machine Recordings]

Max Level   8/28/2018   10-inch, A Library

MPT have their way with the expanded 10″ format this time. The five-member trio is back with recordings they laid down in 2014 and 2015 –OK, so things don’t move terribly swiftly in The Land of MPT– and it is one of their best releases in a while. If “Left Behind” was MPT’s “Exile on Main Street”, and I think we can all agree that it was, then this new one is their “Let it Bleed.” One surprising song style after another, yet it all hangs together somehow. Highlights for me: “Gordon Muir, Time Traveler” must be heard to be believed. Remember “Kraken” from a few years ago, with its grinding guitars and weird falsetto vox? Well, this is its geeky cousin. “Deadhand Button” is an uptempo, knee-slappin’ little ditty about nuclear holocaust. The drugged-out funk of “Black Wig” moves nicely into “Under the River”, a country-ish strum-along reminiscent of the Glimmer Twins after several too many bottles of wine. “Hello Cleveland” ends the record and this song is so pretty it would have been at home on “eMPTy”, the band’s prettiest record to date. Even the weird (w)rapping toward the end can’t derail this one. We never do find out who Christian Wolfcock is, by the way. I give this record four and a half fingers, maybe five.

Inutili /Hallelujah! [split] – [Aagoo Records]

Max Level   8/7/2018   A Library, CD

Scum rock. Hallelujah! is an Italian trio and I think Inutili may also be an Italian trio. Blasting guitars and pounding drums giving us energetically repetitive sludge. The vocals tend to be buried in the mix and the lyrics are generally hard to decipher, although there are several clear FUCKS on Track 4. And on Track 1, the lyrics mostly go like this: “MICE MICE MICE MICE MICE MICE.” Track 2 is around 7 minutes long and goes through a few sections with different dynamics, heavy on guitar. The tracks are all pretty rockin’. I can’t say that most of them offer much in the way of redeeming social value, and I suspect that’s pretty much what the bands had in mind.

Romus, Rent-Life’s Blood Ensemble – “Rogue Star” – [Edgetone Records]

Max Level   7/10/2018   CD, Jazz

No matter which of his many musical endeavors Rent Romus is presenting, it’s always solid. His music invokes solid musical traditions—raging bebop, free jazz, tight ensemble compositions with tasteful solos, and various ethnocultural musics to name but a few, yet he’s always looking to blaze new trails into the future of jazz. His Life’s Blood Ensemble is a perfect vehicle for his vision. Sprawling, multi-faceted jazz sounds here, brought to life by saxophones, flute, e-trumpet, vibraphone, drums, and two double basses. The sounds are from distant galaxies and at the same time are clearly of this earth. Listen and stretch your jazz mind. Track 8 is traditional Finnish music.

Screaming Bloody Marys – “Musica De La Revolucion!” – [Zip Records]

Max Level   6/12/2018   7-inch, A Library

Hell yes! Local ass kicking punk rock. The Screaming Bloody Marys were around in the 80s-90s, went on hiatus, and are back now playing shows and recording. This 7″ came out in 2017. Side A: Cranked up beat and big guitars. Johnny’s dead, too bad. Side B: Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” done with a march-flavored beat, a wall of guitar, and some wicked theremin by my new favorite vocalist Angelique, who belts it out like crazy on both sides. East Bay Ray is on here someplace.

Amirkhanian, Charles – “Lexical Music” – [Other Minds, Inc.]

Max Level   6/6/2018   A Library, CD

Amirkhanian is the dean of American Text Sound Composition. His work on this 2017 release dates from 1973-77. Here Amirkhanian is using words and language and vocals as sound elements, building compositions out of mostly nonsensical spoken words and phrases. Among his methods for creating these pieces: Live vocals combined with pre-recorded vocals. Tape loops colliding, then syncopating, then diverging, creating insistent yet seemingly random rhythmic patterns. Multiple tape recorders in a series, continuously recording and overlapping until the words eventually disintegrate into unrecognizable sounds. Things like that. Track 5 integrates location recordings as environmental backgrounds. The liner notes in the accompanying booklet are detailed and fascinating, and toward the end there is a breakdown of each of these pieces and and how it was made. Super avant-garde and I love it.

Henry Blacker /Black Bombaim (split 7″) The New Evil /God Unknown

Max Level   4/24/2018   7-inch, A Library

A Side: UK trio Henry Blacker offers a spare rocker built on a repeating descending guitar riff. Heavy bass and drums. Good and crunchy with inspired yelling replacing the calm vocals in a couple of places.
B Side: Portuguese trio Black Bombaim cranks out a high energy psyche-rocker with an alien-sounding guitar line commanding attention, as the rhythm section pounds away relentlessly. This side is instrumental.

Gem – “Sheep” – [Car Crash Records]

Max Level   4/10/2018   7-inch, A Library

A rockin’ 7″ from 1995. I couldn’t find much info on Gem other than one of the members is/was Doug Gillard who has connections to Guided By Voices and My Dad Is Dead. Side A “Sheep” is hard-charging and relentless and would probably have stirred up a mosh pit back in the day. I like the thick guitars all through the song. Side B “Smiling All The While” is an indie-pop type of thing with more in the way of arrangement than Side A. Shimmering guitars and a hard rhythm section. “Apartment Life”-ish I’d say. Solid.