Outsight
Outsight: Blank Generation
Outsight brings to light non-mainstream music, film, books, art, ideas and opinions.
Published, somewhere, monthly since July 1991. Feel free to re-print this article.
Please, keep Outsight informed:
Ratings are (1) = :(, (5) = :)
Outsight Radio Hours Internet radio Webcasts with live interviews:
Sundays 6pm-8pm EST - http://www.new-sounds.net/
DVD REVIEWS ************************************************
Ivan Kral and Amos Poe, Producing and Directing
Blank Generation / Dancing Barefoot
Music Video Distributors
http://www.musicvideodistributors.com/
This double feature DVD starts with Blank Generation, the 1976 film from Amos Poe and Ivan Kral. The film is a collection of 8mm B&W shot at CBGB's. The genesis of New York City’s, and thus America’s, punk & New Wave scene is jerky super 8 images with studio tracks for audio. The disparity between uneven visuals and crisp audio is successful stylization in this engaging time capsule featuring Blondie, The Patti Smith Group, Talking Heads, Wayne County, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers with Richard Hell, and Television without Hell. Dancing Barefoot continues to examine the beginnings and growth of the New York Punk scene. This more specific recollection is through the eyes of Ivan Kral, former guitarist and songwriter in the Patti Smith Group. The in-depth look at the Patti Smith Group features much live footage and interviews with Smith and the original bandmates. Kral’s entire journey from alien punk pioneer to discouraged pop rocker includes interviews with Iggy Pop and John Waite. (4)
More on this video title from CDNow
Rozz Williams, Electric Hellfire Club and more
Nosferatu: A Gothic Industrial Mix
Cleopatra Pictures/Music Video Distributors
http://www.musicvideodistributors.com/
http://www.cleopatrarecords.com/
The character incarnated from grainy celluloid gloom by Max Schreck will forever be the touchstone by which other bloodsuckers are compared. The very stark, long-fingered silhouette is an icon of fear. This DVD delivers the entire film untouched visually but with a new score by Rozz Williams (Christian Death), Electric Hellfire Club and other Gothic cohorts. These wizards of creepy sounds stay respectfully in the background conjuring spooky tones that only contribute and in no way distract from Murmau’s peerless vision of vampiric horror. (4)
More on this video title from CDNow
BOOK REVIEW ************************************************
Phil Freeman
New York is Now! The New Wave of Free Jazz
The Telegraph Company
http://www.thetelegraphcompany.com/
Phil Freeman comes to free jazz from death metal and opens his book with scathing criticism and closes with withering commentary on the jazz establishment that denies contemporary free jazz while existing thanks to the potency of the tradition that gave these new now sounds life. The current free jazz scene is taken from its formative roots right up to sitting in on a David S. Ware session for Corridors & Parallels in the book’s final chapter. In between are chapter-by-chapter sketches of icons like Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Daniel Carter. Freeman fits each player into the spectrum with authoritative knowledge and a fan’s enthusiasm in this informative, enlightening and entertaining read. Freeman recommends which recordings to seek and which to avoid for each musician, including a lengthy genre discography at the end of the book. (4)
More on the book from Amazon.com
REVIEWS *****************************************************
James "Blood" Ulmer
Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions
Label M
http://www.labelm.com
James "Blood" Ulmer has long held sway in two diverse worlds. One the one hand he is a trailblazing free jazz guitarist and on the other hand an avid and traditional blues and R&B musician. This album, created at the legendary Sun Studios, features producer Vernon Reid providing steady rhythm guitar. Keyboardist Rick Steff provides Southern soul groves from organ, piano, Wurlitzer and accordion. Dedicated to John Lee Hooker, this album samples from his work as well as the songbooks of Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Son House and more. Most cuts were captured live, including Ulmer's vocals, providing the album with a loose, raw, authentic electric blues sound. (3.5)
Buddy & Julie Miller
Buddy & Julie Miller
Hightone Records
http://www.hightone.com/
Each member of this husband and wife team has significant careers in modern country music, both as performing musicians and songwriters contributing to Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams III, Dixie Chicks and more. This album presents them blending their exquisite abilities. They generally sing the songs together, the notable exception being Emmylou Harris singing "Forever Has Come to An End." The album largely showcases Julie's world-class songwriting with Buddy's topnotch musicianship backed by journeyman musicians from the worlds of country and pop. (4)
Gonzo
Gonzo
D. G. Grogg, POB 313, Kurtistown, HI 96760
http://www.gonzobass.com/
GonzoBass@aol.com
Gonzo's bass-only studio album is an engaging jazz-rock odyssey that suffers not from the absence of guitars and keyboards. Some tracks were recorded straight while others are built up of several overlaid tracks. The homemade album features Steinberger, Ibanez and Synsonic basses using the old-timers' approach for renewing strings, boiling them. Especially memorable on this atmospheric, instrumental album is the "Amerika" anthem arrangement from Jaco Pastorius. (3)
"Sweet" Claudette Harrell
Ain't Gonna Wash Your Dirty Clothes
B4 Reel Records, 18557 Vaughn, Detroit, MI 48219
Blues singer Claudette Harrell's delivery is easy and natural on this somewhat funky electric blues album. Claudette's ten original tracks are fun treatments of classic blues themes like cheatin' and attitude. Harrell has a talking-blues style with very traditional roots and the arrangements have a fluid, '70's blues approach to the guitars and simple, basic rhythms ala rural Delta blues. (3)
The Gourds
Shinebox
Sugar Hill
http://www.sugarhillrecords.com/
The Gourds are a no-holds-barred country rock band that snaps up themes and influence from a multiplicity of genres. They deftly juggle these voices into a single whopper of a song, or they give classic Gourds treatment as on the tied-down, bursting energy of "Ziggy Stardust" here. The ballads are delivered wryly, through the side of a mouth chewing on a hay stem. The upbeat rockers burst forth with a bevy of cross-genre references out of a thick slab of roots music. (4.5)
Thee Michelle Gunn Elephant
Collection
Alive, POB 7112, Burbank CA, 91510
http://www.alive-totalenergy.com
Thee Michelle Gunn Elephant have been peerless purveyors of fuzzed-out, heavy garage noise since 1998's inimitable Gear Blues. For the uninitiated, Collection is a potent primer taken from that album and others to paint a picture of this unmitigated but skillfully delivered post-punk aggression. (4)
3 Mustaphas 3
Play Musty for Me
Omnium, POB 7367, Mnpls, MN 55407
http://www.omnium.com/
http://www.acerecords.co.uk/
http://www.sabahhabas.com/
3 Mustaphas 3 is a wild, whimsical jaunt through the Euro-Arabic world music spectrum. The bold Balkan sounds that are Middle Eastern and the bright notes of that long-necked desert lute known as the saz feature prominently here. This is an excellent treatment of their diverse sound and incarnations. The collection of live performances and radio performances reaches into the early days of the group, from the '80's and early '90's. (4)
John Littlejohn
Slidin' Home
Arhoolie
http://www.arhoolie.com/
mail@Arhoolie.com
John Littlejohn came to the attention of Arhoolie producer Chris Strachwitz upon the suggestion of Buddy Guy. It was after this impressive recommendation that Strachwitz made these 1968 recordings. Littlejohn epitomizes the raw, somewhat funky side of '60's Chicago blues also heard in Earl Hooker. Two tenor saxophones add punch to the music and there is a prominent bass line, probably due to the presence of eminent co-producer and bassist Willie Dixon. Among the most excellent of Chicago guitarist, Littlejohn's sound, especially on such tracks as "Catfish Blues," is a direct connection between the Chicago blues sounds and such giants as Howlin' Wolf and patriarchs as Elmore James. (4)
Hammerlock
Barefoot & Pregnant
Steel Cage Records, POB 29247, Phila., PA 19125
www.steelcagerecords.com
The angry, dense stoner rock cloud of Hammerlock juxtaposes with a vocalist that could be waiting for a Goth rock revival. The contrast makes it more interesting than the typical Confederacy of S.C.U.M. sound. This is a hard-rock record with politically incorrect packaging and lyrics that could come from classic David Allan Coe. (3)
VAZ
Demonstrations in Micronesia
Load Records, POB 35, Providence, RI 02901
http://www.loadrecords.com/
The XYY combination in chromosomes leads to a condition called Jacob's syndrome. When Patricia Jacobs first described this condition in 1965, she proposed the suggestion that the extra Y might cause increased aggression. Peering at the microscope’s views of genes on the cover, one half expects the artwork of the fierce group to show some example of this. I doubt anyone in this group bears this anomaly, but they do show a lot of overt aggression in their Southern rock, which includes a lot of booming bass, distorted guitar and cowbell. The duo behind this group was previously members of Hammerhead. (4)
The Maggots
Get Hooked
Low Impact Records, Box 475, 701 49 Örebro, Sweden
http://drink.to/lowimpact
lowimpact@hotmail.com
The Maggots hail from Stockholm and deliver garage rock with focused, sharp energy. This is the sort of careening out of control, unleashed garage punk that captures the image of untamed teen energy and alcohol. This is the second inception of the group that was part of the mid-eighties garage revival. Full of energy, Get Hooked delivers on every track. (3.5)
Scott Fields Ensemble
this that
Accretions, POB 81973, SD, CA 92138
http://www.accretions.com/
This album captures Scott Fields of the '60's and '70's Chicago free jazz scene in a trio setting with the Vancouver musicians cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Fields, a guitarist, leads the trio through guided improvisations. Lee and Schyff obviously work well with each other and provide a firm backdrop to frame Fields' multi-note forays. This is a strong recording of free improv guitar. (3.5)
The Dirtbombs
Ultraglide in Black
In the Red Records, 118 W. Magnolia Ave., POB 208, Burbank, CA 91506
http://www.midheaven.com/fi
http://www.intheredrecords.com/
Ultraglide in Black opens with a powerful, raucous rendition of the soul classic "Chains of Love." This Dirtbombs record is a bold incarnation of the Stax sound through guitar amp stacks and funk reworked as a guitar freak out. This clamorous psychedelic soul album has excellent strong points, though it is a bit uneven in translating music typically backed by horns into a rock combo. Other covers here include Curtis Mayfield's "Kung Fu" and "Got to Give it Up" by Marvin Gaye. (3)
The Screws
Shake Your Monkey
In the Red Records, 118 W. Magnolia Ave., POB 208, Burbank, CA 91506
http://www.midheaven.com/fi
http://www.intheredrecords.com/
The Screws' Shake Your Monkey is a deliberate, ominous album for stalking each groove, closing in for the kill. Like The Dirtbombs, another group led by Mick Collins, The Screws mine the rich vein of blues and soul for material to translate into its fierce, if deliberate, delivery. On this album the group chooses songs by Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, Hendrix and more. The more controlled presentation allows more of the original emotion in these songs to come through, as in the case of their take on "In Case You Need Love" (Smokey Robinson). Less frantic than other Collins' projects, this album presents some of the best of his vocals and some good harmonica work. (3.5)
Speedball Baby
Uptight!
In the Red Records, 118 W. Magnolia Ave., POB 208, Burbank, CA 91506
http://www.midheaven.com/fi
http://www.intheredrecords.com/
Often very much akin to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, especially in the vocal delivery, this group takes a more deconstructivist view toward their alt-soul material. That is, they go in for a less full sound with a more skeletal arrangement that allows space between one accentuating burst and another. Uptight! is a loose and raw storybook album of decadence and discovery with lyrical content that crosses Jim Thompson and J.D. Salinger for an outsider urban noir. (4)
90 Day Men
(It (is) It) Critical Band
Southern Records, POB 577375, Chicago, IL 60657
http://www.southern.com/
This British post-punk band is clearly in the art-punk tradition of The Fall, but with less layers of guitar between song and the nearly spoken delivery. This allies them with the New York No Wave tradition, though they are quieter and less clamorous than that. An interesting, introspective indie rock album, 90 Day Men is both effectively stylized into an episode of the punk spectrum and sufficiently experimental to offer a fresh interpretation. (4)
One Time Angels
Sound of a Restless City
Mordam/Adeline Records, 5337 College Ave., #318, Oakland, CA 94618
http://www.adelinerecords.com/
One Time Angels offers heavy but melodic indie rock with an accent on sung versus screamed lyrics. The effort is mediocre with no real standout tracks in these sounds from a lukewarm recording session. (2.5)
Fly From August
The Distance Light Travels
Autopilot Records
http://www.autopilotrecords.com/
Fly From August offers sophisticated space rock that is at times even radio friendly. Alternating between soulful lyrics and free-floating electronics, this is a free, agile album of indie space pop. However, the arrangements and vocals are rarely stunning. (2.5)
Various Artists
Ox-Compilation #43
Ox Fanzine, POB 102225, 42766 Haan, Germany
http://www.ox-fanzine.de/
The Ox Fanzine compilation mixes classic and current indie sounds. We hear "What's This Shit Called Love" recorded by The Pagans in 1978 and then the laser beam opening of "Never a Dull Moment" recorded by Armchair Martian in 2000 with a sound reminiscent of The Plimsouls. This is an excellent collage overview of mostly melodic punk and post-punk streams. The disc was only available with the magazine. (4)
Stiletto Boys
Buzzbomb Sounds
High $ociety International
http://www.amoebenklang.de/
http://www.buzzbomb77.cjb.net/
The Stiletto Boys offer a very melodic, toned-down post-punk indie rock sound. Joyous and celebratory in place of the angst and bile of many post-punk groups, Buzzbomb Sounds is accessible and engaging bubblegum punk; power pop with muscular drumming. (3)
Federation X
American Folk Horror
Estrus Records, POB 2125, Bellingham, WA 98227
http://www.estrus.com/
Federation X offers a scary, brutal folk-core sound that is part Tom Waits, part Anti-Seen and part murder ballads. One can picture them in a lonely woodshed conjuring their twisted music unbeknownst to distant civilization and probably best left undisturbed. Disturbed is what they seem with their fearsome tales of a "hatchetman,' knives and blood in a Southern Gothic, deliberate hard rock delivery. (3.5)
The Fleshies
Kill The Dreamer's Dream
Alternative Tentacles
http://www.alternativetentacles.com
The Fleshies are youngbloods of the East Bay area ready to share their vision of punk rock with the world. They take their time on each track and give their songs a thick, rubbery bottom. They fuse angry street punk with '70's arena rock. In their songs they celebrate a punk rocker's path through life in anthems to anarchy. (3)
Halfway to Gone
High Five
Small Stone Recordings, POB 02007, Detroit, MI 48202
http://www.smallstone.com/
Halfway to Gone displays a raw, unpretentious heavy metal sound like what Metallica revealed on Garage Days. In this they include the distorted power blues that is the foundation to Black Sabbath. The result is a branch off the hard rock tree not currently heard in the stoner rock or extreme Southern rock genres through it can be compared to both. (3)
Five Horse Johnson
The No. 6 Dance
Small Stone Recordings, POB 02007, Detroit, MI 48202
http://www.smallstone.com/
Five Horse Johnson displays raw horsepower on The No. 6 Dance (Small Stone). Southern rock with hammer blows and moonshine bravado launches into the air off this disc. Their heavy electric boogie is midway between Raging Slab and Antiseen. (3.5)
Son, Ambulance
Euphemystic
Saddle Creek
Son, Ambulance offers the bright, fractured geek alt-pop sound similar to Ben Folds Five and Of Montreal. This is the first full-length from the group and is a promising mix of intelligent indie rock, piano and a touch of electronic beats. The Omaha group is more bent on inventing a new sound based on ‘70’s pop and rock in an era when other groups seek to reinvent ‘80’ s rock. The Son, Ambulance approach is more purely song-oriented, though the vocalist is not really up to that, yet. The result is a successful it somewhat uneven mix of amateurish enthusiasm and well-thought out sophisticated songwriting. What other groups are mixing sad ballads with rock tunes? (3.5)
Zeni Geva
10,000 Light Years
Neurot Recordings
http://neurotrecordings.com/
Zeni Geva is the king of noise rock. They deftly weave a drunken walk between heavy rock and cacophonous outbursts. Seemingly done while aggressively exhibiting their dominance in the field, they now take a more relaxed, deliberate approach to delivering their aggro. The potent power trio built around guitarist and lyricist K. K. Null (Melt-Banana) is anvil-heavy but not metal, this is heavy music of condensed rock-n-roll. (4)
Slayer
God Hates Us All
American Records
All rock seems to tend toward commercialization if not self-parody. Slayer is a rare example of the non-commercial rock group that continues to restate its own definition, in this case unadulterated, evil thrash metal. There are some electronic effects that may upset the most hardcore of purists, but considering the entire discography this is the most well voiced creation of heavy metal hate since Reign in Blood. Slayer’s God Hates Us All is the soundtrack of hell raising. (4.5)
Joe “Guitar” Hughes
Stuff Like That
Blues Express
http://www.bluesexpress.com/
This journeyman Texan steps out from his usual role as a sideman for Bobby “Blue” Bland, the Upsetters and others to deliver an excellent blues album taking on the main guitar and vocal duties. Other than a skillful version of “When a Man Loves a Woman,” this is all original material from Hughes. The album of top-notch telecaster blues concludes with an interview track. (4)
Mark Vigil
In a Wild Garden
EJB Blue Skye Music
http://www.markvigil.com/
Composer Mark Vigil creates and publishes his own chamber works. There is not much stuffy, altogether expected or constrained about this free spirit that references his interest in East Indian music in the chromatic harp of “Trio For Flute, Viola and Harp” and experiments with electronics in the introductory title track. More of the pieces bear gamelan themes and some include chorus. The sum effect of this is light Classical if not New Age but Vigil’s underpinnings are always sophisticated. (3)
Karma Sutra
Prana
DivaNation Records, 5602 N Ridge Ave., Chicago, IL 60660
http://www.karmasutramusic.com/
http://www.divanation.com/
Karma Sutra’s Prana is an easy-breathing, lush offering of Persian trip-hop. Vocalist Mona Jethmalani’s kaleidoscopic Qawwali is psychedelic spiritualism, a sublime rendering of the infinite as seductive as the temptations of a love bed co-reading of an East Indian sex manual. Preston Klik’s deep beats throb in Tantric time with the sounds of the subcontinent, defining the borders of this garden of earthly delights. (4)
Pointy Teeth
Cinema-Tech
DivaNation Records, 5602 N Ridge Ave., Chicago, IL 60660
http://www.pointyteeth.com/
http://www.divanation.com/
Pointy Teeth is among the most pure forms of electronica to come from the fertile imagination of creator Preston Klik. As with his other projects (This Scarlet Life, Karma Sutra, etc.) this music features alluring female vocals. This also includes sound bites and dance-ready rhythms to an extent not usually found in his more song-oriented works. However, the organic, protean nature of Klik’s work transcends the bathos of club music that is merely functional to conjure a headspace mosaic for a weird and wonderful ride taken either through headphones or on the dance floor. (4.5)
DMZ
Live at the Rat
Bomp!, POB 7112, Burbank, CA 91510
http://www.bomp.com
DMZ, the earliest and most primitive of Boston punk bands, captured much of the energy of The MC5 and The Psychedelic Stooges. As such, it is their explosive delivery live that best suggests the potency of the band. This live collection includes four tracks from 1976 as the band beat The Ramones to the punch in shaping East Coast punk. The rest of the tracks were recorded in 1993, proving Jeff “Monoman” Conolly and company can still do justice to The 13th Floor Elevators’ “You’re Gonna Miss Me” as they did on Voxx back in 1981. (4)
Smogtown
Domesticviolenceland
Disaster Records
http://www.alive-totalenergy.com/Disaster.html
Smogtown delivers brutally heavy punk and hardcore from a southern California one may have thought sapped of every bit of such reckless rock. They reach back to the classic ’77 approach of buzzsaw guitars and breakneck speeds; think G.B.H. meets Stiff Little Fingers on Venice beach. (4)
Will Haven
Carpe Diem
Revelation Records
http://www.revelationrecords.com/
Will Haven is the hardest of hard rock. Their unadulterated aggro is high-octane catharsis, more pure release than Slayer, Motörhead or Ministry though it bears the marks of all three. The Sturm und Drang of this quartet is unmatched in intensity and musicality on the contemporary heavy music map. (4.5)
MNPLTR
PRTTP
Precipice, POB 190522, Miami Beach, FL 33119
Greg Lucas, a guitarist that previously worked with Chemlab, Final Cut and others is identified by Precipice as “the MNPLTR on this particular disc.” Perhaps this initiates a series of diverse artists working under the same name. Whatever the case, this is the debut recording under the MNPLTR moniker and is of congealed trance, ambient electronica with an Arctic chill moving slow and heavy from track to track. (3.5)
Outsight is non-mainstream music news and views. The content is wholly based on new releases and a focus on the the eclectic and overlooked.
