2026 week 3

Late to posting, I'm had an absolute bastard of a cold since Wednesday night. Not great but considerably improved on Sunday. 

01/15/2026 on vinyl

Unknown artist: Erotica: the Rhythms of Love (Fax)

As I've said before, I do enjoy my vinyl oddities. It didn't surprise me to see boxes of records at the 
"Heavy Metal Flea Market" in Allentown last year. I'm not sure I would have paid more than the $5 the vendor asked for this.

The front cover proclaims, "An experimental high fidelity recording featuring the sounds and rhythms of erotic love." Uh huh. What exactly does that mean?

It starts with the sound of a conga player, occasionally shouting out and speaking in a language I don't understand. (I don't think it's Spanish, but even then I'm uncertain.) Then there's a background sound that increases. Obscured at first, it becomes clear it's the rhythmic rocking of a bed, with a female voice occasionally crying out in apparent passion.

Side one!

Side two: same elements but without the conga player's exclamations. And that's it!

Discogs indicates that this dates to 1962, which explains a lot but not everything. It seems tame even for the time. Was it supposed to sound hot? Was it intended to invoke sex? Masturbation? Did repressed boomers/pre-boomers feel a flash of shame buying this? What did they expect? For that matter, what did I? I certainly did not feel shame buying it, I thought it was a laugh. 

01/16/2026 on vinyl

Bern Alois Zimmermann: The Numbered Improvisations/Tratto (Heliodor)

It would be an exaggeration to say that I had even a minor obsession with Zimmermann for a time, maybe a "heated interest" would be a better description. I found it frustrating that there's scant information about him in English. I thought, if I was a hungry doctoral student looking for a topic, knew enough about things like set theory applied to music composition and other such lofty concepts, possibly spoke German, and was looking for a thesis topic, Zimmermann could be an interesting choice. He's something of an odd bird with respect to post-War composition. His early works are rather on the academic/conservative side, all things considered. He was never a strict serialist, as far as I can tell. A number of his compositions liberally quote other composers' works, sometimes (if not always) crediting in the score. His Monologue for two pianos weaves in quotes from Bach and Messiaen among others, for example. 

Then there's the dramatically different two sides of this LP. Side one: the Manfred Schoof Quintet plays on themes drawn from Zimmermann's opera Die Soldaten. The opera is considered to be one of the most difficult of all to perform and stage. I've viewed the score and it is unquestionably challenging. Here, materials are extracted and performed by a sympathetic European jazz quintet. (The LP itself has no instrumental credits, but on discogs I see the drummer was Jaki Liebezeit, who would later be a founding member of Can.) There are bursts of activity in between quiet and very spare stretches. Predictable it is not. Nor does it swing in a traditional sense, but its atonal jazz sound reminds me of what some more recent New Yorkers and Chicagoans have done. At least in small part. I wish I could view the written materials. 

Contrast that side two, with its single work "Tratto". It's a purely electronic work, very much in the German continuum in that respect. There are extensive notes on the work, indicating a carefully planned and controlled composition. I sometimes like these elektronische musik works, though they have a tendency to be rather dry. I must say, I find this work to be quite beautiful, perhaps my favorite of the purely electronic Germanic works. It's unhurried, often soft-edged. There's a repeated noise event that almost sounds like breathing. It eventually gets fairly busy but not frantic. I guess the whole aesthetic appeals to me. 

Now about that dissertation...

01/19/2026 on vinyl

Charlie Haden: Liberation Music Orchestra (Impulse!)

Sitting here in my retirement from teaching, I'm pondering what new projects I might consider starting. I find my situation frustrating insofar as, I've been plugging away at playing (hopefully) original/interesting/creative music for over four decades in this city, and how much I still have sto struggle just to find gigs for a band such as Thoth Trio. Thoth mostly plays my compositions, but it capable of playing background music for a party if need be. Perhaps that's not a "proper" Thoth gig, but I just want to play with my crew when I can without making huge sacrifices. Calling tunes I like to play during an event isn't so bad, especially when dinner is involved.

I've had an idea for a group, larger than a trio but smaller than the ten-piece OPEK (maybe), partially using this group as a model. What I have in mind is less arranged than this group, though they're willing to play freely too. It's an interesting mix. Among the pieces are old Spanish folk songs, Haden's "Song for Chè", Ornette Coleman's "War Orphans", "We Shall Overcome", etc. In other words, leaning political without making blatant political statements. There's some interesting mixing of recorded folk songs along the way, making this more than just a document of a ban playing live.

It's a hell of a lineup: Carla Bley, Perry Robinson, Paul Motian, Roswell Rudd, Mike Mantler, Howard Johnson, etc. Carla's voice is significant on this, contributing several original works and all of the arrangements. I knew she was thoroughly involved in this project, but even if I didn't, I'd recognize her writing from the first notes.

01/20/2026 on CD

M.B.: Teban Slide Art (disc one, Triumph of the Will) (Menstrual Recordings)

Well it's a bleak and cold day in Pittsburgh, in a bleak year, so why not pull out another of my favorite sound artists of bleakness. The story behind the original issue of this album is infamous. Maurizio Bianchi (MB) signed a contract with Come Org (William Bennett of Whitehouse's label) that gave permission to do whatever they wanted with the tapes. The result were two LPs under the moniker Liebstandarte SS MB, blending MB's recorded audio with recordings of Nazi speeches. Maurizio was not happy but couldn't do anything about it. 

Since he's had the opportunity to re-release the albums. William really was a jerk for what he did, especially considering the records aren't any better because there's the outrageous speeches mixed in. 

The CD issue includes a previously unissued third track, 100% Nazi-free. It's MB playing with delay feedback, producing some woofer-speaker rattling. Atypical but not out of character.