Colin Marston - 200220032004 Computer Music

Colin Marston is a powerhouse of talent: brilliant bass and Warr Guitar player, composer, and producer/engineer at his own Menegroth Studio.  But before he started making waves as a performer and producer, he apparently created this small handful of untitled computer-music tracks, very briefly available from the now-defunct Arctopus website as 200220032004.

It's not much to look at: sticker on a plastic sleeve, plain CDR, five tracks.  There really isn't any information regarding the origin of these pieces, but I assume they were made during Marston's time at New York University taking composition lessons with Nick Didkovsky of Doctor Nerve fame.  I can't get the necessary "JSyn Plugin" to work on my computer, but perhaps someone else can confirm a relationship between this recording and this "Groove-o-noiseics" link?

These are really interesting untitled works.  Track 3 reminds me the most of Behold...the Arctopus compositionally and rhythmically, and it also reminds me a bit of Conlon Nancarrow's player piano studies, though without the metric-modulation-of-tempo concept.  Track 5 has long passages that are reminiscent of some of the quieter moments in Infidel?Castro! works, or maybe even Byla, if you can forgive the inorganic tonal qualities.  Track 4 is the closest to a rock/industrial arrangement, made with manipulations of one basic rhythm/riff and one overall melodic sequence/fragment.  Track 2 is the most textural or ambient of these compositions, and track 1 is a short but compelling landmine of shifting rhythmic ideas. It's great to hear Marston's compositional approach translated through computer composition.

While I'm thinking about it: around the same time this was briefly available, Marston's Indiricothere solo album was also offered with handmade cloth album art/patch stuff in a plastic sleeve.  This is before it was released through Gilead Media as an LP+CD thing.  I kind of wish I'd gotten an LP, but this early self-release art was pretty cool:

Playlist for 7-4-2011

As you might have noticed, I got out of the habit of blogging for roughly six months.  I've returned with new ideas that I'd like to pursue more deeply, and that's going to demand a change in the format for the "weekly" playlists.  Previously, I posted mini-reviews of the music I bring to the Other Music show on KZUM every Sunday night from 10-midnight Central Time (you can stream the show anywhere in the world by going to kzum.org while it's on.  But I found that the mini-reviews took a lot of time while not allowing for enough review depth--I'd like to get some more "serious" reviews going here.  And Other Music features two other DJs, and I wasn't covering their stuff.  What might be nicer is podcasting.  I'm going to work on developing a podcast system for the show that can be linked from here, and take on more in-depth reviews of both new and old music and literature with this site (along with some essay format materials that I'm forever compelled to play with in my spare time).

I'll likely do one more "mini-review" format post that will cover highlights of music I've brought to the Other Music show in the first half of 2011.  It's been a great year for music!  But let's hope I can get podcasting worked out from a technical standpoint, and I'll focus on that to document radio activities.

Tonight's Other Music will take us right up to the US 4th of July holiday, and I've picked out some music that in various ways pays tribute to concepts of "independence," "homeland," "freedom," and so on (though not always in a flattering light).  So listen to the show tonight and enjoy.  One artist that will certainly make the cut, and I don't think he's been mentioned here before, is Bobby Conn.  I'm sure we'll speak more of Bobby Conn's work in the future, but for now let it be known  how much I appreciate his music: great lyrics, great singing, huge prog-but-modern arrangements, a killer band, and always a great sense of humor.  I'll be spinning a different version of this track tonight, but it's a great introduction to the Bobby Conn approach to Big Ideas on a limited budget:

Vinyl from Chicago, pt. 1--Henry Threadgill

A few weeks ago, I visited a dear friend in Chicago.  Though it was mostly a catching-up and sightseeing journey, I did manage to stop by a few record stores while I was there.  I was especially missing record stores because my local record haunts have all closed in the last couple of years.

It was interesting to see that vinyl is making a comeback: I went to three record stores, one of which was all-vinyl, and the other two were ostensibly representing all kinds of media formats but were easily over half-vinyl.  My own buying habits in the last few years have followed this trajectory, too.  Ten years ago, I was probably buying 3 or 4 CDs a week and maybe a couple of vinyl-format releases per year, but now I buy vinyl almost exclusively.

At any rate, I went with a small list of artists to look for on vinyl--mostly things that wouldn't likely be found in my area--and I totally rocked my list!  The only thing I didn't return home with that I was hoping for was something from Gong's Radio Gnome Trilogy.  Maybe next time.

I wanted to highlight a couple of the Chicago-oriented things I picked up, starting with a fellow whose music I think is tragically underappreciated: Henry Threadgill.  Henry was one of the founders of Chicago's legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, an organization whose contribution to avant-jazz and forward thinking music continues to this day.  But I don't hear Threadgill's work being discussed as much as some of his fellow AACM founders like Anthony Braxton or the Art Ensemble of Chicago.  I'm a huge fan of the AACM folks in general, especially Braxton, but I think Threadgill's work deserves more attention.

My favorite Threadgill periods are his work as composer/bandleader in the 80s and 90s, with the Henry Threadgill Sextet and Very Very Circus, respectively.  And my favorite album of his is the one I managed to find in Chicago, the Henry Threadgill Sextet 1989 release "Rag, Bush and All."  And even in Threadgill's home turf, this mint (still factory shrinkwrapped) vinyl was only going for $6.

The sextet (actually featuring 7 members) takes on 4 Threadgill compositions here, swinging with a lot of attitude and swagger.  The band is tight, but they also broadcast a certain kind of loose recklessness that perfectly captures the ethos of the Bad Note Manifesto of my last post.  Threadgill himself is in fine form, mostly playing alto.  Percussionists Newman Baker and Reggie Nicholson form a powerful unit, playing so intimately together that Threadgill can count them as one person to keep his "sextet" numerically honest.  But one of my favorite aspects of this lineup is Fred Hopkins' work on bass.  On many jazz records, my least favorite moments tend to be bass solos, but on Rag, Bush and All, Hopkins' moments in the sun are among my favorites.  He manages to keep energy and musical momentum high during his breaks, resulting in solo sections that feel more like a simple change of orchestration than "bass solo time."

As I mentioned above, Threadgill's work seems to be underappreciated: I find no videos of this Sextet performing, and this record is long out of print.  But I think you'll find that Threadgill's music of the 80s is a beautiful bridge between the approaches of folks like Mingus and the music of some later 90s NYC bands like Sex Mob or Joey Baron's trio or Tim Berne's groups.